Aimee Grace

Aimee (17 months) has made a huge jump in the past 2 weeks in what she is able to communicate to us. She repeats everything she hears, everything that Kaitlyn and Andrew say she is trying to say as well. And even though none of the words are exactly right, she can make some form of the sound of the ABCs, Jesus loves me (the whole song), and she can count 1-10. Again, it is not exactly intelligible, but you can tell what she is trying to say. The counting thing really caught me off guard the other night when she did it all by herself, unprovoked, and I could understand what she was doing.
The difference between kids is amazing. Aimee seems to be taking after Andrew who very early picked up on repeating exactly what was said, learned songs like the ABCs very early, and copied everything he could. Kaitlyn on the other hand marches to the beat of her own drum. She has no desire to copy what someone else has said or done...she wants to make her own and do it herself. She still struggles with the ABC song and counting past 10, but she makes up the greatest songs ever, full of her own rhythms and words. Rather than doing the prescribed hand motions to the school songs we are learning this year, she only wants to freestyle dance with her own motions and beat. This can be frustrating at times when I'm actually trying to teach her something, but it's something I don't want to squelch in her because it's beautiful...her dances and songs are precious and always entertaining :-)
Having all 3 at home this year has been fun, sweet, and challenging. I'm trying to enjoy it as best as i can because I don't know what next year will bring for us with kindergarten. Lots has been stirring in us lately and I'm excited to see how all the pieces will fit together.

I love kaitlyn and aimee doing ring-around-the-rosies in this video (it also demonstrates the difference between boys and girls)

and love that "woody" is Kaitlyn's sweet baby in this one :-)