Bode is 1, Geneva is 4 and 4 months.

I took Bode to his one year appointment today and it got me thinking about all the things I know about my kids that I think I'm never going to forget but I probably will.  So I'm going to try to write some of them down.

The week of his first birthday Bode started walking.  Just a few steps and just occasionally.  I was watching movies of Geneva at 11 months and she was already walking. I think Bode was so satisfied by crawling (and so good at it) that there has been no urgency with walking.  He's not saying much of anything either - just a bit of Dadadadada here and there, but part of me suspects that with such talkative other family members he just doesn't try to get a word edgewise.

Bode's primary interest in life is FOOD.  I'm pretty sure he eats more than Geneva does already and we spend a lot of time just feeding him.  I try to give him food he can pick up for himself so that I get a chance to eat also.  Also, if anyone else is eating, he wants some of it too.  He'll crawl up to people and pull himself up to standing and just look longingly at whatever they're eating.  This way he has gotten chocolate milkshake, pickles, hotdogs, etc.  It's fun to feed him because he'll just eat anything - just today he refused macaroni (too plain I think) while preferring pickles and black bean burgers.  He's not such a fan of spicy things or fizzy water though - seems to think these foods are trying to attack him and he puts his hand in his mouth to try to get them back out again.  Bode is also thirstier than Geneva ever was and it has taken us awhile to get trained that we need to have water on hand all the time for him.  Our relatives have warned us that he's going to be a teenager with a hollow leg and we better start saving now for the grocery bills.

Bode is a good sleeper - he sleeps 11-13 hours through the night most nights and also takes 2 1hr+ naps.  I do not remember Geneva ever being this good of a sleeper.  She has always seemed to need 2-3 hours less sleep per day than whatever the minimum recommendation for her age group is.  Back in October we tried sharing a room with Bode while we were in Bodega Bay for Jen's wedding and he slept (and therefore we slept) just awfully.  It was quite a bit better when we were in Idaho this past week.  We shared a room with him and all pretty much got our normal sleep although I think I slept more lightly with him in the room.  It's handy to be able to share a room in a pinch though.

Basically Bode is just a very sweet, mellow baby.  He's happy as long as he's eating or doing something active.  He seems to have recognized Chris as his dad before I remember Geneva ever doing so.  If Chris comes home from work and doesn't hug Bode, Bode will cry and try to follow him.  He seems to go greet other people pretty easily and not be overly attached to me, which is certainly handy, although there have been some signs recently that he's starting to be more attached.  For example when we were packing up the cabin in McCall to come back to Boise, Bode was freaking out whenever I set him down.  Once I put him in the baby backpack he was fine - we think he was worried about being left behind or something.

Geneva is something else.  We've been reading the Clementine books with her and one of the recent ones we read posited that every family has an "easy one" and a "hard one."  It's pretty clear to me which is which at the moment.  Having a new brother seems to have brought on a round of ugly tantrums but I've been using the techniques in the book "Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids" and it seems to have helped.  By reconnecting with her more, trying to not punish and not let her be alone with her emotions we have evened out the worst of it but there's still a lot of whining and crying.

Geneva the opposite of her brother in many ways.  She is a very picky eater and often we spend a lot of time trying to persuade her to eat something. Anything!  I'd just let her go hungry but of course that causes other problems (such as can't get her to go to sleep because she says she's starving. What are you going to do, force your kid to go to sleep with no dinner? I don't have the will to take that hard of a line).  She eats primarily the most plain, colorless foods you can think of.  Nothing with odd textures, nothing too speckled.  McDonalds chicken nuggets are her favorite (cringe).

Geneva also doesn't really like to sleep much.  She typically sleeps 10pm-7am with a 1 hour nap.  We still have to have a sleep clock for her because otherwise she would be up before 7am for sure.  Her favorite thing to do is play with what I've taken to calling the "disaster box."  Because about 5 minutes after I get it down for her the house is a disaster.  This is a box with scrap paper, scissors, crayons, markers, glue, tape, old catalogs, etc.  She loves to make collages and random other stuff - mostly starting by cutting up lots of paper.  It's the paper scraps that get all over the place.  Part of me wishes I could forbid it but it's so clearly her favorite activity that I just try to not get too worked up about the mess.  Geneva also really likes to play outside on the playground and ride on the tag-along bike.  It's often very difficult to get her out the door (she whines and cries that she doesn't want to put on clothes/leave the house/etc) but as soon as she's outside her whole attitude changes and now she's really reluctant to come in.

She's starting to be able to read a few words.  She might have a couple of sight words and she can sound out lots of other words (cat, dog, stuff like that) but in general she doesn't seem to understand why she would want to learn to read when so many other people are perfectly willing to read to her.

Geneva really loves all her grandparents - I'm sure at least in part because they spoil her by pulling her out of school for fun activities and buy her junk food.  What are grandparents for, after all?  She's not quite as great with our au pair Yenny.  She is impatient with their communication difficulties and seems inclined to forget her manners quite badly and want to leave Yenny out of family events or just plain be rude to her.  We always correct her but she's seldom penitent.  

I'm sure there's other qualities of the kids I'll think of to write about.  I'll just add them on as I think about them.

Hellyer 2013

Here I am doing my t-rex impression.