Myles and Sydney

Myles will be 4 at the end of this month and any traces of baby in him are gone. He has turned into a sweet, strong-willed yet easygoing little boy. He finished his first year of official preschool and loved riding the bus each day. He is well liked by his teachers, therapists, and classmates. He didn't quite make the progress we were hoping for, but we're making some changes to his schooling for the fall in an attempt to help him be more successful. He can be very defiant, which is extremely frustrating, although I am glad he sticks up for himself. He works hard when he wants to, and shuts down when he doesn't.

Myles is making steady developmental gains, and excels in anything physical. He loves to go to the park where climbing is his favorite thing. Gilby is really excited to see Myles' natural ability and enjoyment in climbing as this is a passion of his that has been on the back burner since having kids. Hopefully he'll be back at it soon with Myles by his side. Myles also recently learned to jump, which we have been working on for almost 2 years. He is now jumping off everything! The couch, beds, chairs, on trampolines, into the pool, just up and down on the ground...anywhere he can! It's probably a bit dangerous, especially when his little sister follows suit, but seeing the joy and pride he has in new skills makes it hard to put limitations on him.

Myles still struggles with speech, and his progress is slow, especially compared to how fast he picks other skills up. We work weekly with the speech therapist that he has had since he was one-year-old and just this summer we have seen some big gains. Things that others probably wouldn't even notice, but huge stuff for us.

Myles is a busy kid who refuses to nap for me even when he's exhausted. We can struggle with communication and both end up frustrated. He needs constant supervision as he is still pretty unpredictable in his behavior and awareness of safety, which wears me out by the end of the day. But he is a gentle and protective big brother, sweet snuggler, gives full body hugs, and works so hard to accomplish even the simplest of skills. We love our Myles-Man and wouldn't change who he is for the world.

Sydney will be 2 in a few short weeks and truly is growing up so fast. She is talking like crazy and repeats almost everything we say. My favorite is when we tell her something and she repeats the last few words back to us in the form of a question, which is pretty much always. She asks "Why?" many, many times a day and has been for months. We answer her question, which then she follows up with, "Why?" She can count to ten, which often comes out 1,2,3,4,3,6,7,8,9,7. She's also working on her colors, shapes, and letters. Sydney sings/hums a lot, especially in her car seat, or when she's about to fall asleep. The words to her songs are usually family members "Daaadddddyy, Myyyyllles, Mooommmmyy, Naaammmaa, Daaammmpaa" in a sing-songy voice. The other day I heard her saying to one of her babies, "One more cookie, no, no, no, one cookie," after we had told her the night before she could only have one cookie. She truly is a sweet little girl...

But, there is another side to Sydney. The persistent, fiery, bossy side. Around new people she is shy and not many get to see how strong her personality truly is. I love that she is confident and hope to continue to foster that as she grows older, but as someone recently said to me, "Now that's a girl who knows her mind, which is really good. I can see where it would be tough during the twos though." Ha! She's not quite two and it is already proving to be tough at times. There are certain things I want to give her decision making over and don't so much care about, like the fact that she refuses to wear anything in her hair, and won't ever let me put it up, or her preferences about which clothes and shoes she wears. But other things we sometimes struggle over, like bedtime is at 7:30, not 10:30. 

Sydney adores her big brother and they for the most part play really well together. They love to chase each other around the house, jump on the beds, wrestle around on the floor, and work together well. We have a mini trampoline that they take turns on, Sydney of course deciding whose turn it is. She will declare, "Me turn!" and Myles will sit and wait until she says, "Myles turn!" They look after each other and it fills my heart with joy to see such a strong foundation built in what will hopefully be a lifelong friendship.