The {Middle} Child

"They were the best of times, they were the worst of times." This is how I feel about Mikaela, except it may actually be summed up as: It was the best of minutes, and it was the worst of minutes. You never really know when Mr. Hyde will emerge from Dr. Jekyll and turn the whole world upside down. Two-year-olds are like bipolars: one minute super happy and fun and so stinking cute, and the next minute some little monster you believe may have been spawned by Satan takes over.

Mikaela was infected with the terrible-twos syndrome about the time her younger brother made his debut - and with a vengeance. This syndrome peaked when the baby was about two months and has since leveled off. We are still experiencing quite high levels however, and do the best we can, attempting as best we can to avoid the temptation of sedation through drugs (although hot baths and long drives are never off limits).

Lately Miki has gotten quite professional at dictating what we should or shouldn't do or say. She loves to come up to you with a scowl on her face asking, "What are you doing?" She is also excellent at correcting improper usage. I asked her this morning "Are you my Miki-Me?" She replied, "No mom, I am just a child."

She has also developed some sweet catch phrases.  Upon seeing fellow Homo sapiens, she calls out the greeting, "Hello, humans!" She also says "Ahoy" in case we only speak Pirate. If I ask her where something is, she will always reply, "Right there, to the left."

Each morning after we drop off Libby at pre-k we go to the gym where Mikaela goes to "gym school". The daycare at the gym is great and the workers there are so nice. Mikaela especially loves Miss Wobbin (Robin). Whenever she isn't there she says "Whey Mz. Wobbin doe?" Ms. Robin has taught her several songs and sometimes gives Miki her favorite thing in life: gum.

Mika is definitely a Daddy's girl, through and through. Whenever he gets more than three feet away from her she says, "Where you going?" She has a really hard time when he goes to work, and most every morning will sit by the stairs and cry for him to come back. It's very sad and I'm a little bit worried about how she will handle things when Denver deploys. We're working on recording some books for her with his voice so he can still read her a story every night before she goes to bed. We're all going to miss Daddy.

In the end, the highs definitely outweigh the lows, and we love our little middle child so much. It is fun watching her grow and change and I'm sure one day I will look back at all this craziness and laugh. For now I sometimes sneak into her room at night and watch her sweet little angelic face deep in slumber, dreaming sweet little dreams. No matter how hard the day was, I always leave feeling so grateful and blessed to be her parent.

It's okay Daddy, I got this...

Five-year-olds are simply the best. They've moved beyond the temper tantrum throwing years and they're not quite prepubescent, so for the most part they carry on, relatively drama free, and lead happy little lives. We've been having a lot of fun with Libby lately because her personality is just really showing in all kinds of unexpected ways.

A few months ago she found out about an essay contest in which you could win a $25 gift card to Barnes and Noble. The assignment was to write about what you like about winter. She decided it was for the best to enter this contest. So we sat down one night and created an outline, then she dictated to me what she wanted to say, and then she copied them down herself word for word. She also created a few pictures to go with it. Here is what she wrote:


The Magic World of Winter - by Liberty Ayn


My favorite thing in winter is snow. I like to build snowmen with CeCe, my best friend. I like to throw snow balls with CeCe too. Sometimes when the snow falls and it's not enough , I like to catch it with my tongue. I like to make snow angels with CeCe and mine was Happy :-). These are my words about tasty magic snow.
 
A few weeks later we got the call; she won! We promptly went and collected her winnings and took part in a photo shoot (see above).  A few days later we went to Barnes and Noble and she picked out a few things she liked. She then went and purchased these items completely on her own (while I stood and watched from a distance with all the pride a mother can have). She had $2 left on the gift card, so we decided to go to the Starbucks inside B & N to get a raspberry steamer with the leftover money. We arrived just as Denver was ordering some coffee. We added her order to his, and the lady said "that will be $6." When Denver reached into his wallet to pull out his debit card, Libby very stealthily pushed her own card up on the counter and said, "Don't worry daddy, I got this." She was so proud. All in all, a great day and a very memorable experience.

Moving right along...

This week we celebrated Denver's 30th birthday. He is officially in a different decade than I am, and has forever left behind his roaring twenties. It's sort of strange getting older; I don't really feel any different than I did when I was twenty, but I can look in the mirror and see the aging that has taken place. It's as though part of me is on fast-forward while the other part is stuck on pause. A great friend of ours offered to watch all three of our children for us so we could go on an actual date - the first one since the baby. It was very nice to get some alone time, although for the most part we just sort of enjoyed the sound of silence. This is what bliss is post-children.

Our Anniversary is also coming up next month, so to celebrate I signed Denver and I up for a 5k and 10k race. (I will be doing the 5k in case there was any confusion...) This will be my first competitive race since track in middle school, so I am pretty excited. Of course my last race involved me tearing my ACL on the hurdles, so I am a little nervous, but I think it will turn out all right. If nothing else, I get a free t-shirt!

Libby started a children's theater class which is so perfectly up her alley. She informed me after class she no longer wants to be an artist when she grows up: she wants to be an actor. She's been playing the dramatic part well at school by bossing everyone around (including her teacher) and at home bursting into tears over the tiniest inconvenience (i.e. little sister in her personal space). I'm not so sure this is actually something we want to encourage... on the other hand if she does become rich and famous I can have her buy me a mansion on a tropical island here in a few years. What a dilemma...

Mikaela will be starting her first dance class soon and has been practicing a lot at home in Libby's old ballet leotard and slippers. It mostly involves her wiggling her shoulders up and down and making up songs. Today she was holding up her kitty cat pajama pants singing "cat, I'm a kitty cat, and I dance, dance, dance..." from the youtube video. I'm not sure where she gets all this hilarity from, but I enjoy watching her.

Baby Jefferson is getting to the flirty stage; lots of smiles, coos, and little songs. I love watching him looking up at me with his adoring little blue eyes. I wish babies would stay babies foreverrrrrrrrrrrr.

2011 is gonna be heaven (or hell)

Wow.

Almost a full year this time with no blog post.  Does anyone still check this blog? I thought it had been a few months or so, but last March! I say this all the time, but this year I will be better. You'll find out why soon.

First I've selected a few bests of 2010 pictures:

That pretty much sums it up. I'm not going to dwell on it - out with the old, in with the new kind of thing. 

We didn't end up going to Ft. Bragg, instead we are at Ft. Lewis, Washington. Our orders were changed a few weeks before the move which created a lot of havoc, but we made it.

The big news for this year... Denver is deploying to Afghanistan for 12 months. We're not sure when yet; it will be either April, May, or June. But we know for sure it's happening. We have about a million things to take care of between now and then and no time to do it. So, I'm procrastinating by blogging, hehehehehehehe. 

Remember last July when I blogged like 3 times? It's because Denver was gone, and when he's gone I have a lot of free time, which is why I think I will be a better blogger this year. I would rather he were just here taking up all my time, but at least we have modern technology. I'm happy I don't have to send him a telegram to communicate. Or go 6 months with no communication. He will (hopefully) have internet access so we should be able to keep in touch pretty well. I honestly miss the bootcamp days a little bit - the days of handwritten letters. Those were fun.

So it looks like the kids and I are headed back to home-sweet-home-Boise-Idaho.  I'm happy we'll be close to family, and beyond grateful to get out of the constant rain and lack of sunlight. I understand why the vampires all hang out in this state, there really is no sun.

Libby is in pre-kindergarten and starts real-kindergarten this next fall. We are trying to get her into an arts magnet school. It focuses on drama, music, and art, while still covering the basic math and science concepts. I think this is right up her ally, because she is just slightly dramatic and likes art a tiny little bit.

Mikaela has fully incorporated the terrible-two temperament. She can be the cutest little girl in the world, very loving, sweet, and cuddly, and two seconds later the demons come out and we are throwing holy water on the child. Is it possible for two-year-olds to be bi-polar?  Just asking.

And last but not least, we added #3 to our family on November 24, making us a party of five. It also ended our all-girl running streak, that's right, Denver got his son. Jefferson Dante Lee is now two months old and trying to catch up with his sisters, he's already at 14 pounds. He looks just like his Daddy, but he is a momma's boy. And I love my little man.

That's all for this Lee family for now.