Wrestling with creativity

Charlie has taken up dancing. Last week I heard the patter of tiny feet in the living room, as I was cleaning up the kitchen, and when I looked in he was dancing across the floor, swirling around and grinning. He's also even more into music in general - his new favourite thing is to take two maracas and drum anything he can find. He still sings scales to me, hitting the same notes every time. He is very resourceful - he hasn't quite got the pointing thing himself yet but one song I sing to him says 'point to the ceiling, point to the floor' - he comes over and moves my hand to point at the right place. Lateral thinker! I'm taking them all to music class on Friday and I hope he's going to love it.

Beth has taken up singing so she should love the class too. You can recognise some of the songs - the hand movements do help. It's super cute but impossible to film as she stops as soon as you turn the lens towards her. All three are enjoying drawing but Beth has a little game she only plays with mummy. If I draw a picture on the magnetic drawing board she will take the stylus, scribble all over my picture then look at me very solemnly and say 'Oh no!' She's been doing great with the whole walking and listening to mummy thing - she walks through the park right next to the buggy with no reins and stops whenever I say. The boys are a lot more random but we are working on that.

Lex loves drawing. He takes it very seriously and is very deliberate with his stylus. He's also the first to be speaking in sentences - his favourites being 'it's a ball!' And 'it's a cow!' Occasionally we get 'where's it gone?' generally because he has thrown either the ball or the toy cow! He's always the first to run at me, arms up when I get home, and loves being tickled. I know when he particularly loves a song I'm singing or a book I've read as he claps at the end. It's just like being famous but without the media intrusion. 

I read somewhere that about 18 months kids start realising they are an individual and start asserting their independence. Ours have been to a certain extent but lately especially the boys have changed. They have started fighting for attention, toys, food, whatever - wrestling each other. They have also started playing peepo all over the house. This evening Lex popped up over the side of the bath causing huge giggles in Charlie and Beth, who were in the bath. So I think they have all realised they are individual people so the sharing quotient might go down a bit but the playing should go up.

They are very much toddlers now and have left babyhood behind. It's lovely to hear them speak, to understand more easily what they want and to have jokes with them. When I get home from work I get out of the car and they all jump on the sofa to watch me through the window. I see their three smiling faces lit up in our warm house, and Matt behind them and think 'wow, I'm so lucky.'