Turning Two . . . and Three

How is it that the last two month of pregnancy seem to drag on forever, but the first two years after they are born seem to fly by?  I will never understand that, but I know I am always left wishing that I had taken more pictures, more videos, written down more details, blogged more.  Oh well, I guess we don't enjoy life any less, but taking that time to reflect on the details of day-to-day life somehow just seems to let you savor it a little more.

As the youngest of five, Eliana has grown up really fast.  She is very independent, and don't ever try to tell the youngest from a large family they can't do something.  You will get a lot of lip and a lot of attitude.  She has plenty of that.  James and I always comment how she and Darwin are so similar in their personalities.  I don't think it's an accident because when you are the youngest in a large family, you have to fight for every bit of your independence.  In many ways, that's a great thing, but in some ways, it's not so great..

Whenever we are at a restaurant, we are never quite sure how far away we are from our next screaming protest.  That's how Eliana tells us she does or doesn't want something.  We continue to insist that she not scream for things she wants, but her brothers and sisters keep reinforcing the opposite at home.  At home, she learns that the louder and faster she screams, the sooner she gets what she wants.  We haven't been very successful at unlearning lessons learned at home. 

We are still working on the anger management with Darwin.  He still thinks if he wants to get his way with his brothers or sisters, the best way to do that is to just hit somebody.  Again, they keep reinforcing that because as soon as they realize he is going to hit them, they get out of his way.  He's a pretty scary little guy when he's angry.  I'm sure it's frustrating when your whole life you've had not 1 or 2 people trying to tell you what to do, rather 5 or 6 people doing that.  I guess I kind of understand their frustration, but it doesn't make it any easier to work through this issue as a parent.

Bedtime also continues to be a bit of a struggle.  Eliana has been less than willing to wean, but she has just recently started coming around about sleeping in her bed all night.  I know a lot of parents would just put the kid in the crib and be done with it, but I'm okay with co-sleeping.  We've done that with all of our kids, and they are able to go to bed on their own without any major issues.  At this point, I try to just cherish it.

Portion above was originally drafted in July 2013 but I'm publishing it now with some 2015 updates.

It's been now more than a year and a half since I started drafting this post, and it really just reinforces my original point that time passes so quickly when you have little kids.  We've not only celebrated Eli's 2nd birthday but her 3rd birthday also.  If you can't tell, her dad takes WAY better pictures than I do thankfully.

This year my "little one", as she likes to call herself, is turning four.  She is sassy and loud as ever, and it's still hard to believe she's "the baby".  We affectionately like to call her our "frat brother" because she's crass and uninhibited.  For a while, she was punctuating her sentences with fart noises and shouting fake expletives at others for no reason.  In short, we're having a great time raising our little lady.  She's coming up on four, and I can only imagine what our future holds.  We are lucky to have you, Eli!