Of all the kids, Journey has loved having a new baby the most. For the first four or five months, she would fight me over who would hold him more. Like, literally, try to pull him from my arms if I wouldn't hand him over and wanted to snuggle him myself. She just couldn't get enough of him!
She is such a little mommy. Totally loving and protective. She can make him laugh and smile way more than any of the rest of the family can (including me, sniff!).
I've also seen such growth in her relationship with Willow over the past year. It makes me so happy to see them playing nicely, and actually having fun together. This has definitely not been something that has just evolved or happened on its own. Journey has a very independent personality. She is completely happy playing on her own in her own play world. In fact, every afternoon while Willow and Teague nap, she has her quiet time downstairs where she listens to Bible tapes and plays. Occasionally, I will go downstairs to clean up or do laundry. It really bugs her if she feels like I'm hanging around too long. She will stop her play and wait till I leave. If I don't leave quick enough, she will say, "Mom, when are you leaving??" haha
Willow has her own, shall we say, slightly challenging personality. Definitely the strongest personality of the kids. She is funny and witty. She is loving and silly. She loves to cuddle and is very affectionate. She tells me all the time that "Mommy, you the best mommy in da whole world!" She has the craziest sense of smell I've ever known someone to have. She is fearless. Completely fearless. A couple months ago, (at 2 1/2) she decided to try out Journey's bike, jumped on and figured out the pedals. Now it does have training wheels, but it's completely different and much bigger than her little trike. She took it to the top of our driveway (which is sloped), got on and pedaled it as fast as she could, then stuck her legs out and rode it down till she hit our car at the end of the hill. Yep, she hadn't though about figuring out the brakes!
Aaaand she's moody and fiercely stubborn. Dear Lord, she's stubborn. When she's in a good mood, life is great. When she's not, well, it's incredibly frustrating. When she is in one of her "moods", there is nothing, nothing we can do to pull her out of it before she wants to. Spanking, moving her to the bathroom or her room, taking privileges, nothing works until she chooses to let go of her bad mood. It's very frustrating because the worst fits show up most often at bedtime....when we are tired and ready for quiet and to be done for the night.
Before we moved, each of the kids had their own rooms, so bedtime was never really an issue. We would just shut each of their doors and let them talk themselves to sleep. Now Journey and Willow share a room, bedtime has been an issue almost every night. They talk to each other, Willow will get out of bed, run around the room, jump on her bed or change clothes. When we go in to put a stop and hand out some discipline, it all goes downhill from there. About a month after we moved, I realized that their closet was big enough for Willow's small mattress. That has become her "bedroom" more often than not since then! Not perfect, but it's a good consequence, and helps Journey to be able to tune her out and go to sleep.
So anyways, back to Journey and Willow developing a friendship.... Their favorite play right now is Mama and Baby. Journey is the Mama and Willow is the Baby. In the "baby" mode, Willow likes Journey to baby her and tell her what to do (perfect!). They also have fun dressing up and pushing their babies or animals around in their strollers.
All dressed up for the wedding :)
I really feel glad that I didn't put Journey in preschool. I think that just the sheer amount of time they have together everyday has lead them to developing a friendship, not to mention the "guidance" (and lots of it!) from Mommy in learning to treat and talk to each other nicely.
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