The Wilkins Family: A Typical Day

We stayed home today. I got a lot of little things done around the house (no one will notice but me), and the kids did a lot of playing. Liberty was happy to declare it "pajama day" at the dinner table as she noticed most of us were still in our pj's (with the exception of Hadley in her ballerina outfit, as usual).

Liberty today:

She loves "crafting" and doing "projects." I've heard her numerous times lately telling people how crafty she is. And, she usually adds that her mom is crafty too. She is always coloring, cutting, gluing, and creating all kinds of things. For the past month or so she has been making lots of snowflakes, and often times there is a lot of evidence of that around here. For Christmas she made each of her cousins a card of some sort, and really enjoyed deciding which card was for each cousin, and making sure everyone received theirs. She is always so proud of her creations. She often needs a purpose for each creation, so she'll ask whose birthday is coming up or what holiday it is. Today, she started on her Valentines. She is so creative, an amazing artist, and colors quite well! Her signature for most of her projects is writing and "L" for Liberty and the first letter of whomever she is making the creation for. My favorite is when she makes something for "the whole family" and she writes, "LTKHB" on it. Today she asked me, "Mom, what does Lindsay start with?" I said, "I bet you know, what does it sound like at the beginning?" And she said, "Mom, just tell me. I don't want to mess around like that." She seriously comes up with the funniest things to say. Another funny thing she does is if I'm next to her while she's coloring something she'll ask something like, "Mom, what color should I color her dress?" And I'll answer with something like, "How about red?" And often she'll respond with, "No, I think I'll do pink." It's hilarious! She always asks my opinion, but hardly ever goes with it. Too funny! Liberty is a big sweetheart, and love having her around. Lately, she has been Bowen's entertainer when I need a few minutes to do something and he needs some attention. She will do all kinds of silly and cute things, and Bowen just laughs uncontrollably. She really is a lot of help! She is also very helpful and sweet with Hadley. Hadley has learned that she can ask Liberty to help her with something if I'm not available. Liberty is still our little "snuggle-bug" and takes every chance she gets to snuggle. Today I was sitting at the computer and she climbed up behind me on the chair, put her arms around me, and told me she loved me. Gotta love that girl!

Hadley today:

Hadley is our little "rina," aka ballerina. Over the past month or so, she somehow decided to be obsessed with ballerinas. She takes it pretty seriously, too! Anytime we are home, including while she is asleep, she is wearing her "rina" outfit. She now has 3-4 outfits that she rotates, and 3 pairs of ballet shoes to rotate. If the shoes fall off while she's sleeping, she cries, and I have to get up in the middle of the night and help her find it and put it back on. When she dances, she takes it very seriously, and does a really good job imitating other ballerinas she sees on movies. My favorite is when she makes her own music, singing "ah, ahhhh, ahhh," in her high-pitched singing voice. Her other big thing right now are little step-stools. We have two at our house, and my parents have one at their house. She will take a stool anywhere and everywhere around the house! A couple of times I've caught her trying to stack them on top of each other so she can get up even higher! Scary! When we were in Mesa for Christmas, she followed Grandma Jan around the house with her stool so she could be in the middle of everything. Anytime I am cooking, making lunch, bathing Bowen, etc. she grabs her stool and is right there! Often, she'll have her stool in her hands where I'm standing and say, "Excuse me," because I am in her way. Lately she has been using her stool to turn the light switches off and on. That sure is fun! Hadley has been talking a lot more recently, and using more consecutive words to communicate, which has been nice. Sometimes we struggle communicating because she knows what she wants, but I can't quite understand her. Luckily, usually she can show me what she wants. Like at about 2:00 this morning when she was asking for "Minnie Mouse drinky," I wasn't quite on top of my game, but she was able to direct me to my purse where it was sitting. A few weeks ago we had a babysitter and they were watching a movie, and before we left, I heard Hadley saying to the babysitter, "Da-dye" over and over. I immediately knew it meant, "Bad guy," but I'm sure no one is going to guess that is what a 2-year-old is trying to say. Responding, "oh, yeah," to Hadley when you don't know what she's saying doesn't usually cut it. You have to repeat what she is saying. That poor babysitter! Hadley is also super cute with Bowen. She has been referring to him as "Duddy" (Buddy) the last few days, which is really cute. She likes to bend down to his level and talk baby talk to him. She also likes to give him his toys. Today I was making dinner when he was awake in his bed after a nap, so I told Hadley to go in and talk to him. When I got in there to get him out of his crib, he had a crib full of his toys, courtesy of Hadley. Hadley tries really hard to please us, and despite being a little "spunky" sometimes, she is a real sweetheart.

Bowen today:

We seriously love our little "Bo-Bo!" Aside from not being a great sleeper lately, he sure is a joy to have in our family! His darling dimples in his cheeks and huge smile are the best. And his leg rolls are to die for! He got a walker for Christmas, and has enjoyed playing in it. He can barely reach the ground, and has only figured out how to move backwards very slowly. But, the girls love to give him rides around the house! We have been feeding him rice cereal a little bit recently, and he doesn't love it. He often gags on it, or shivers as it goes down his throat. When we were visiting Mesa, Grandma Jan was trying to feed him some, and he gagged on it and projected it at her. I guess we were spoiled with the girls, who were great solid food eaters from day 1. Today we tried feeding him peas. He didn't spit it out, but he just lets it sit in his mouth, so half of it makes it down his throat, and the other half just slowly seeps out of his mouth. The girls enjoyed watching him eat. Liberty tried to make him open his mouth and Hadley liked to ask, "Mummy? Mummy?" (yummy) in her little munchkin voice. I can't emphasize enough how much his sisters love him! The day after Bowen turned 6 months old, I noticed his bottom two teeth coming through. He is constantly feeling them with his tongue and wants to chew on anything he can. He is also super close to being able to sit on his own. He can sit on his own for a period of time, but eventually falls over. He always wants to be a part of the action. Lately, he gets very distracted - usually by Liberty and Hadley – while he's trying to nurse, and can't decide between eating or watching his sisters. We love having this baby boy in our family, and can't believe he is six months old already!

Liberty and Hadley wanted to wear their new robes they got for Christmas after their baths tonight.

As I was taking their pictures I said, "Say, cheese!" as usual. This time Liberty said, "I want to say 'robe' instead." So I told her she could, and of course Hadley wanted a try at it too. I thought these "say robe" pictures were hilarious!