KIWI update

Miss Kira is such an active child! She is just soooo strong and soooo active and we're always asking her "what planet are you from?" She was running on the couch today and then diving down onto the pillows and then getting up and taking bites from the back of the couch cushins and then diving into the pillows on the other side and rolling around like crazy today. It's insane. She is so physical. Fearless and strong and physical! She dances and sings and is just full of MOVEMENT. It's interesting to see who is in that little body of hers. Sometimes I think her body is just too small for her BEING. She screams and shouts and yells almost for the pleasure of doing it. She's just a wild little child. Yet she can calm herself too and snuggle in as soon as she decides to stick her thumb in her mouth and soothe herself. My job is pretty much to keep her safe and contained and just let her do her thing...to encompass her while making sure she has an outlet for all this energy.

Will was so much more sensitive than Kira. I can't remember if I wrote about this already but Will was kicking this blow up toy across the living room the other day. I (good mom that I am) decided to show him just exactly where the sweet spot was and explained how if he kicked it lower it would actually fly farther and higher. Well - that worked a little too well and the thing went flying across the living room and crashed into our framed photos on the fireplace which then all fell down and landed on - Kira - who was looking UP to see the crash!

I immediately jumped into action not knowing if my child just got stabbed in the eyeball by the sharp corner of a wooden picture frame and as I swooped over to her...she screamed - like in ANGER (not fear...not sadness) - she was mad - and she HIT at her face over and over as if to get the pain off of her. It was such a forceful reaction! It was so interesting to see. She was fine - thank goodness! But her reaction was so her - so intense and forceful and strong. She was MAD and scared - not sad and scared - about the whole incident.

Anyway. She's also developing like crazy lately. Let's see...she is 14 months old and she is communicating so much lately. She's started saying "BYE BYE" when she waves instead of "baa baa" and she says "HOT" and "UP" instead of grunting and pointing "uh uh uh"...she says "UP" and "OFF" and such. She'll grab at her jacket and try to put on her shoes if she wants to go outside. She cries like crazy if she doesn't get what she wants. She's very persistent. I say, "No shoes, No outside" and she cries so hard and keeps asking over and over and over and over. I didn't feel William's "terrible two's" were bad. I'm thinking hers might be. If she doesn't want to go into her carseat...I have to pretty much restrain her and hold her down to buckle her in while she arches her back and squirms and resists.

Which makes me think about time outs. Will STAYS in time out. After the initial "who is the boss" adjustment period - with some holding him in the chair when he wanted to get out - he learned who was the boss and to this day will STAY in time out when I put him in the chair. It amazes me. I even used to "put him in timeout" when he was already strapped into his carseat. So really nothing would change. He was in his carseat. I'd be driving. Then he'd go slightly insane for awhile and eventually do something that warranted a time out and I'd tell him he was "in time out" even though nothing actually changed. I was still driving. He was still in his carseat. But now he was being punished and he'd cry and be sad about how he was in time out. I'm not so sure those things will work for Kira. I just can't see her personality doing time out in the say way Will does it. We'll see how it goes. At least I have a couple of years left before we have to deal with that.

I realize that's a strange note to end on - but that's all I've got. The crazies are in bed.

Oh wait - Will showed me his 1st grade room today. He also showed me where his old desk was (way in the back corner of the room as far away from the teacher's desk as you can get) and he showed me where his NEW desk is (right up in the front of the room as close to the teacher's desk as you can get). I have to say - I'm not surprised. I think that must have happened around the time when he stopped talking about loving school and started talking about hating school. He'll come home and talk about how it "was a hard school day" and the stuff she's making them learn is so "hard". Poor thing. I don't like that he dislikes school and thinks learning is hard. I sometimes wish we'd started him in Kindergarten this year instead of last year. He is one of the smallest and youngest in his class. I was always one of the youngest in my grades too. I turned out fine. I'm sure he'll be fine. He's a smart kid and he's so social and he gets good grades when he focuses. He gives up easily though on his homework. Sometimes he says to himself, "I can do it, I can do it" and chants this thing to himself that his teacher taught them because she doesn't want to hear them (him?) saying, "it's too hard...i can't do it..." We'll see how this year goes. He seems to be hanging in there. I just think we need a better way to educate our children.

School shouldn't be torture for bright loving happy kids like Will.