Sunday, March 9, 2014

Harrison and Brooks Update

It's been hard keeping track of my blog lately. Juggling kids, their school, their activities, my activities, and Robert's busy work schedule, and a jam packed art show season has given me little time to sit down and write about my beautiful and spunky children. But I am ready now to dedicate some writing to them. Obviously, time flies. And if I don't put it onto my blog, I'm afraid I will forget all the hilarious and adventurous things they do. I can't believe how much they have already changed in the last year since we moved to Naples and it's time to give an update. I'll start with Brooks this time.

What a crazy ball of energy this girl is. She just might be the biggest force there ever was to mess with. For such a petite girl, she packs a pretty big punch and you do not want to stand in her way when she gets her mind set. Brooks has mastered how to use her cuteness and sweet talk to get people to entertain her requests. She is incredibly sociable and has manged to acquire tons of friends with her engaging personality and a lot of humor. She is a total goofball and I think she has learned a lot of this from watching her brother. It is so funny to watch her interacting with her friends from school. She is embraced with hugs and smiles from her schoolmates each day so I know she has a fun day in store every time I drop her off. On the flip side of all this is her disregard for what people think of her. She marches to the beat of her own drum and if she wants to rock a ski cap in the 90 degree weather, you can bet she will be wearing it most of the day, or at least until she gets bored with it. After that she will color herself in marker and tell you it's make up.

I can't really tell you what she is into these days because it is all over the map. She loves her dolls but I think she likes Harrison's action figures even more. She loves to color and paint and I am proud that she gets this from me but a little concerned that she sees almost anything as a blank canvas, wether it is a couch, wall, bed sheet, or the occasional coloring book itself. And I believe her most favorite thing of all is to sing, dance and tumble around. She has her own sense of style in clothing attire so I'm sure you can imagine her dancing is along the same lines. I would have to call it a combination of something you might see in Vegas showgirl act and something she has improvised from her Saturday ballet class. She can usually manage to throw in a somersault to every dance routine. 

She will keep you laughing with her quirky imagination and off the wall comments and she will drive you insane with her persistence in getting exactly what she wants. But most of the time, she is completely adorable and my absolute favorite thing is how much she loves to cuddle, hug, and give kisses. She says I Love You all the time and I want to take it all in because I know it wont last forever.

And the H Man. Such a curious, determined, and funny little man. He wants to know the mechanics of how the world works and to be able to do it all himself. He is constantly asking to help as long as it is of interest to him. And if it isn't, forget about it, he can not fake interest in something that doesn't tempt his curiosity.  And his stubbornness is more than apparent when he is asked to do something that he is not interested in, like getting dressed after a bath or putting on shoes.  But ask him to get involved in something he loves to do and you've never seen someone move that fast. 

He is a very kind hearted boy and very concerned with other people's feelings.  I find it very easy to rationalize with him when I ask him how he would feel if the situation was turned around whenever he says something that might hurt another person's feelings.  Children are notorious for not being discriminative which is so refreshing but on top of that, I have never even noticed Harrison being judgemental towards any piers or strangers for the way they looked or acted. He is only curious. Like he was a few weeks ago when my parents took him to the Botanical Gardens and he asked a guy with a prosthetic leg if he was a bionic robot. Luckily, adults can usually identify the innocence in a question like that.

 Harrison is a friend to everyone and I absolutely love that about him. But this too does have flip side because unlike Brooks who doesn't seem to care what people think, Harrison has a sensitive side and does not like disappointment or rejection. I would have to say that his stubbornness and his sensitivity towards disappointment are his 2 biggest weaknesses right now. We will continue to work on this with him because it does present itself as a challenge when trying to get Harrison to do school work. Robert and I have made the decision to give him an extra year of kindergsrten so he can work on these challenges in a smaller and more accommodating environment. He is extremely bright and able to do all the work so I think it will only be an advantage to him in the long run.

His sports skills remain the same. He is pretty much awesome at everthing he tries. He and his sister are both fearless which can be great and terrifying at the same time. They can take on challenges that most kids their age are not willing to do. And sometimes, for good reason. But I do love their ability to get out there and try things without hesitation.    Robert and I are doing our best to teach them how to do things safely because they are unstoppable once they have their mind set.  And between their fearlessness and their coordination skills, I know they will be great athletes at whatever sport they chose.

They are such fun children and are keeping us on our toes ALL THE TIME.  There is so much more to write about both of them but nothing would get documented if I tried to remember everything.  Sometimes pictures are better than words so the next few posts will elaborate on their cute, outgoing personalities thru tons of pictures that I have been lacking on in the last few weeks.   

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