clinton allen buhs

It’s Christmas day, and all family visits are over until this weekend. Evan’s asleep in his room, and Adrien just awoke crabby from a nap downstairs. I tried to put them both in their room, but they were chatting and squealing happily at each other and wouldn’t sleep. They both needed it, though. I put her in the high-chair, but she threw her milk on the floor and wouldn’t eat a snack. She’s lying on our bed with Jolene, watching the Ralphie Christmas movie marathon.

Adrien’s splitting her travel about fifty-fifty between crawling and walking. She’s been a much stronger crawler than Evan was, and maybe that’s delayed her walking. Still, she does well when she wants to. She claps and squeals with pride when she stands in the middle of the room, which she’s done well since before she actually took steps. I thought that was remarkable for its backwardness. I’ve always thought toddlers walk before they can stand from a crawl. She must have good balance.

She’s talking in her own language quite a bit, too. Here little tongue darts out every so often when she’s really got something to say. It’s incredibly endearing, and I want to squeeze her tightly with adoration whoever she does it. She’s such a pretty little doll. Today she wore Evan’s brown jacket with the cream-colored lining, jeans, her little white and pink shoes and a big, soft, pink stocking hat. Precious!

Evan’s made more of his monumental strides. He shows a better grasp of grammar than half the adults I know, both by following our example and formulating his own structure. I don’t have a strong frame of reference for language development in young children, but I have a good feeling he’s way ahead of the curve. I’m ridiculously proud. Brains aren’t everything (or even most of it), but he has that and a great personality, too.

He’s recently switched from his usual, soft and sweet “yep” and “nope” to “mm-hmm” and “hmm-mm”. The affirmative seems to come out “hmm-hmm”, though. It’s adorable. He’ll still give an assertive “Yes!” or “Umm, no!” when asked a question he feels strongly about, but it’s almost always the other non-words. He’s so reflective of us that I’m again reminded of our important roles in his upbringing. I hope I’m not screwing it up. I want him to have every opportunity for success and happiness, with no emotional baggage by from. I wish that for both of them.

I’ve had to swat Evan’s butt quite a few times lately. He’s too energetic to take naps most days, and he won’t stay in bed. I’m not sure what’s in his head, but he can’t seem to remember for five minutes that getting out means a smacked bottom. Where do I go from there? He has to understand that there are rules, but he seems to want to make his own. He’s even caught on to using potty as a stall tactic. I can’t deny him a trip to the bathroom and risk an accident with my name on it. I promised him he wouldn’t get spanked if he had to go potty. I’ve created my own Catch-22.