Growing up so quickly

Bennett has discovered my blog and has loved reading it in the past few weeks. I have been astonished by a few things.

1. I used to write a lot. A lot! I recorded nearly everything in her first three years of life.

2. I remember very little of it. There are phrases that Will used to say and funny moments that I cannot remember at all. Bennett was reading them out loud to me and I was blown away. How could I have forgotten that? And then I was so grateful for the blog. I was thankful I had taken the time to write so much down.

3. I have hardly written anything about Lainey.

I know, I know...... third child. But I want to remember her funny phases as well. And as much as I think I am going to realize Bennett at (almost) 7 and Will at 5, I am realizing that I won't. So here is a massive catch up on all of the Webster kiddos.

I'll start with Lainey. Why should she always be last?

Lainey at 2 is hysterical. She just is. I didn't write too much about this, but she has always been my child with the strongest will. She gave up nursing one day and refused to ever go back. She would not cuddle. She would only let a few people hold her and would flat out turn her head and everyone else. She knows what she wants and isn't afraid to let you know it. In fact, she still has her paci. We took it

away for a week but she won out in the end. Hey, third child. You loosen up a bit. I fully realize that she won't go to Kindergarten with a paci so I am just going to relax a bit. Well, I hope she won't. With Lainey you never know.

But just in the past month she has really softened. She has become so much more compliant and easy going. I am still getting over the shock. Don't get me wrong, she still has moments, but she is actually getting a bit easier. She has gotten cuddlier and lets me actually rock and sing to her at night. Finally! She loves laying her head on my shoulder and patting my back when we hug.

She talks non stop and her favorite phrases are, "Hold me to you" "No, No, dat's Wainey's" "Meg Meg go way" and "I do it by myself." She loves telling knock knock jokes. Of course she can't really get to the punchline, but she laughs hysterically at herself and covers her mouth with her hands like she has just said the funniest thing in the world.

I have to say that she gets along amazingly well with Will and Bennett. If any of the three have conflict, it is definitely my older two. That can go at it like you wouldn't believe, but they are so gentle and kind with Lainey. You always worry about the third child being left out, but if anything, she has united us even more. We all delight in her and she keeps us laughing all day long.

Her favorite books are- Night Night Little Pookie, a Farm Book, Elmo's Boo Boo Book, Moo Baa La La La and anything with princesses on it. She loves to watch Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, Sesame Street, Baby Genius, Barney and Frozen.

We think she has a pretty good voice. She loves to sing. She knows all the words to "Let it Go" along with every other child in America, but it is so funny to hear this little 2 year old sing it. And she nails the big note to boot. She also seems to be athletic. She loves to play ball more than the other two did at this age and is always asking you to play catch with her.

She is our joy and delight.

On to Will. Oh my. This boy is unstoppable. He has a summer birthday so we have been debating

since he was born whether or not we would send him on to Kindergarten as a very young 5 or hold him back. We ended up sending him on because he was ready. There was no holding this kid back. But we sent him to a private Kindergarten to give him the option of then repeating at our local elementary school if we thought he needed it. We haven't quite made our final decision, but he is showing us once again that he is unstoppable.

He didn't read as early as Bennett, but once he caught on, he caught on quickly. He can read chapter books with the best of them. His math skills are through the roof. We will be working with Bennett on her math problems and Will will be watching TV in the other room and he will absentmindedly call out the answer. He can solve problems in his head so quickly. His teacher tells us that he is at the top of the class in math. Take that for being the youngest.

But he is also one of the kindest little boys I have ever met. When neighborhood kids come over to hang out, Will is the first one to offer them a snack and he will run and pour a drink for them. He will ask anyone if they want to play and he loves to find toys for them or set up board games.

He always wants to help people and constantly wants to give away his money to other people. He loves the Lord and asks questions about God non-stop. I don't think he has a mean bone in his body. He is just wide open and loves life and loves people to the fullest.

He is creative but he seems to be wired a bit more on the science and engineering side. He loves to build things and he asks me to write out math problems for him for fun. I may have written this
before but Will told me last year that sometimes he felt as if there was a string attached from his heart to my heart. And when we got too far away from each other, the string hurts him too much, but when we were back together his string felt all better. He absolutely astounds me.

I can't wait to see what God had in store for this extremely kind, sensitive, loving and smart boy.

And finally, there is my Bennett. Bennett is surprising me as she gets older. She much prefers to be alone with her family. Whereas Will would invite every kid in the neighborhood over every day, Bennett would rather have one close friend and that's it. Too much noise over-stimulates her and then she needs to retreat and read or listen to music.

But the creativity on this little girl is unparalleled. Sometimes when she is at school I just sit in her room and stare at her latest creations. She opened an American Girl flag company and drew American flags to accompany each American Girl doll. She wrote her own musical and had original songs and compositions. And then she got her fashion kit and designed the costumes. She is 6.

She loves art, music and ballet. She is an extremely artistic kid. She has shown some interest in softball and I would like for her to try swimming or volleyball, but so far she hasn't really wanted to play sports but will do anything that has an artistic bent. And she is extremely smart. We have known this since she was little, but she continues to do so well in school. She came in 3rd out of 92 in her first grade spelling bee, but we are mostly proud of how respectful she is to her teachers. She won a Star Student Award just last week for being kind and respectful.

And she needs me. A lot. When they were younger I always thought Will would be the one who needed me the most and that Bennett would be very independent and fearless. But as they are growing, I am beginning to think the opposite is true. Bennett constantly just wants to lay my by side. She wants me to have lunch with her every day. She runs out of the school and into my arms. If I am reading in bed, she grabs her book and reads hers next to me. She always wants to play with my hair or have special alone time with me. She will still hold my hand. Bennett isn't easy to get close to, but if she lets you in her inner circle, she is fiercely loyal and protective.

So, that's where we are now. I know this is more of a blog post for me to mark this particular stage in our lives, but that's what this blog is for. Our house is constantly loud. It is crazy. It can be overwhelming. It is definitely exhausting. But it is filled with love and the greatest joy of my life is the privilege of being a Mom to these three incredible people. It is an absolute delight to have a front row seat to their childhood.