Crazy Kids

As my kids age, their personalities are so fun to watch. My kids especially seem to make a good team. Isabella is always the first to approach people. She'll walk through a store, library, gym, church, etc. waving and smiling at people, saying hello to friends and random strangers alike. If she has a coat or shoes on of which she's particularly fond, she'll approach anyone she sees and point these items out to them. In the case of shoes, she'll hold out one foot to them,"shoe!" she'll triumphantly declare (sometimes many times until they acknowledge her). Then she'll hold out the other foot, "Mehr Shoe!" (more shoe!) she'll proclaim, in her half German, half English combo. Benjamin, of course, acts completely uninterested the entire time. He would never have approached this stranger and still seems ambivalent at first. However, once the ice is broken and the stranger has proven a kind person, he'll jump right in, "I have shoes too!" or any other random comment he feels impressed to share, "I made a snow man and a snow dog in our back yard!" At this point I usually make some brief comment to release this poor unsuspecting stranger who would likely really like to get on with his/her shopping and we're on to the next person Isabella sees.

We went grocery shopping yesterday and spent some time in the toy department. Isabella approached no less than 7 people to show her the various balls, dolls, or other toys she found interesting. Each time Benjamin would wait to see their reaction and then join in. At one point his excitement to share resulted in a beach ball to the head of the innocent stranger who wasn't ready to "think fast." Such a funny team.

Isabella is also very quick to learn people's names and knows not only her own friends, but Benjamin's too. She can point to his class picture and name people in it. She knows the names of my friends as well. I went visiting teaching today and on the way there I said, "We're visiting Julie." I only said it once and yet 45 minutes later as we were leaving, Bella said, "Bye Julie!" Amazing. Benjamin on the other hand still thinks that my friend and her daughter are both named Annika because he has never picked up on what I call the mom. How different they are.

To lend credit to Benjamin, however, he's incredibly physical. He was invited as a guest of a friend to a toddler gymnastics class yesterday and after 10 minutes in class the teacher came up to me asking how old he is. When I told her, she said, "Well, then he isn't technically old enough for the next class, but if you'd like to register him for it, I would allow you in. He's by far ready for a more advanced class." Make a mother proud. :)


Here's a picture of the crazy pair and their friend Annika, who had an entire playground to enjoy but found the driveway up the street far more interesting. Nothing like a some puddles of slushy, dirty water and some sticks to make an afternoon enjoyable.