That One Time...

Addison, in her remarkable little brain, has this skill for remembering everyone’s ages. I regularly am able to ask her how old grandparents or aunts are because I forgot or just for my own amusement. Today though, she was playing on her tablet and looking at the calendar. Suddenly, she starts clicking on days to add family birthdays. I was shocked. I knew she knew and remembered ages without issue, but birthdays too? Had to be a fluke, right? She is six. Just turned six. I asked her, “You know when Devon’s birthday is?” She quickly replied yes. Then she proceeds to put in my birthday, Aiden’s, and her dad’s. In complete disbelief, I ask, “Do you really know everyone’s birthday?” “Uh, yeah,” she says, like I shouldn’t doubt her knowledge, and clearly I shouldn’t have. The only household birthday she didn’t know and couldn’t spell without help was Ethan!

Yesterday, Felicity was definitely acting her age. She would not listen and was being really mean. I was nursing and limited on what I could keep her from doing in the other areas of the house with the baby attached. He is VERY easily distracted these days too, so I was (no judgment!) trying to parent from the couch. This was not successful, so I asked Aiden to bring her to sit in a chair in the living room with me for a little break from her reign of terror harassing her older siblings. Felicity was not happy about this and proceeded to screech her lungs out in discontent. This obviously got Ethan’s attention. This baby starts smiling while looking at Felicity throw her tantrum, then he erupts into this full belly baby laugh watching her scream. He was not concerned or upset by the noises she was making, I was, he was AMUSED! Felicity was not. Seeing him laugh at her though sped that tantrum right along. I doubt it would have played out positively for anyone else if they had laughed at her in that moment, but she sure loves her baby brother.

I am going to get this story as closely quoted as I can. I wrote it down as soon as it happened so it was fresh and accurate. We were sitting at the dinner table discussing the best and worst parts of our day. Aiden was itching to go first and said this, “My worst part of the day was that band practice got cancelled. I don’t know if I want to be honest about the best part though.” George said that he of course should tell us the real best part of his day, so Aiden continued. “I was in Civics class and the girl I like sits in front of me. She usually just reaches around and grabs her backpack when she needs something and doesn’t turn around. But, today she turned and looked at me then grabbed her stuff! And I only saw it because I have a side eye!” And he pointed to the side of his head. The best part of his whole day was his crush simply looking at him! It was the best part of my day to see him light up like that.

Devon is by far our least social. He always has been. However on the day that the family was called in to visit with my grandmother who was placed on Hospice, he came too. Now, my grandmother is known for intentionally trying to make people as uncomfortable as humanly possible, and she OFTEN succeeds. That being said, we are huge advocates of our children setting their own physical boundaries with people and we support that. Devon does not enjoy physical touch as a general rule. Grandma though when he arrives lights up and says "Come here and sit on Gigi's lap my handsome grandson!" I immediately tell him that he does not have to. She says he does and I reiterate that he does not need to do that. To everyone's shock he leans in to hug her and SITS DOWN! Not awkwardly, not embarrassed, just complacent, AND he let me get a picture...with a smile. I am still not convinced they did not plan this ahead of time for shock value.

Ethan is exclusively breastfed. He is starting to try some purees, but mostly nurses. This has become tricky though because he wants to watch everything around him all the time, especially his siblings. That being said, I am nursing in the living room and Felicity comes and stands in front of me. She starts telling me something and Ethan of course tries to roll off of me to see her and smile, so she starts talking to him instead. I tell her that he needs to eat, please go play, and she looks right into my eyes and says matter of factly, “Ethan’s not eatin.” She says this so matter of factly and with the cutest little twang. She then repeats herself and goes to trying to tickle him. Realizing that she is in fact right and I can not regain his attention, I quietly put my breast away and sit him up to play with her more effectively. He finished eating when she got bored playing with him.​​​​​​

We are sitting at the dining room table having dinner. George is holding Ethan, and he says to the baby, “See that Ethan? That’s why your mama won’t be at your graduation.” He is gesturing to the excess salt on my plate. 🤦‍♀️