First things second

It occurs to me that my entries may be more meaningful if I share something of my children's personalities. Their blooming little selves are too complex to be truly summed up in a paragraph or two, of course, but this is what stands out the most to me at this particular moment.

Luke (The Engineer and The Wise Old Sage)
Luke is most definitely his daddy's son. He has a natural instinct for seeing how things work, how they fit together and what the possibilities are. When he was ready to ride a two-wheeler, he asked his daddy for a wrench and took off his own training wheels with no discussion whatsoever. He also builds the most amazing creations from blocks, Legos and anything else we leave lying around.

Luke is also coming into his own in the role of big brother (thus The Wise Old Sage persona). He loves explaining the workings of the world to his young siblings. I especially love it when he does this while we're on the road, because then I can giggle in secret. Case in point: We were driving somewhere one day, and Anthony said something that was factually incorrect (I don't remember what, and it's not important, anyway). Luke quickly corrected him: "No, no, no, Anthony. You don't know. I know a lot of things because I've already been to 4K. Maybe when you grow up to be 5, you'll know a lot of things, too." Give him a few weeks of 5K and he's bound to be insufferable.

Anthony (The Newscaster)
Anthony will give a running commentary of who, what, when and where to just about anybody -- any time, any place, appropriate or not. It usually starts something like this (you have to say it really fast, no pauses or breathing allowed, with hands waving dramatically): "Hi my Anthony and this is my sister Ava and my friend (don't ask me to explain that one) Luke and this is Ava's baby Brand New Baby and this is my puppy Puppy and Luke has Ambulance Dog and Baby Jaguar but he didn't bring them. My 3 and Ava is 2 and Luke is 5 and we just started school and we go to a brand new school close to our house...

You get the picture. If he thinks it, he says it. Which is kind of nice in a way, because we don't have to try to guess what he's thinking like we do with Luke.

Ava (One of These Things Is Not Like the Others)
Ava is the only girl, the only blond, the only one who will eat whatever you set in front of her, etc. She's just different, bless her heart -- wonderful and amazing, but different from her brothers. And they're starting to take notice. When Luke is at school, she and Anthony are inseparable, but when Luke's home, Anthony's testosterone takes over, and he joins Luke in tormenting her. Their favorite game right now is to see how many times they can send her running to me for denial or reassurance. It usually goes something like this:

Ava: "Mommy, my a bad guy?"
Me: "No, Ava, you're definitely not a bad guy."

A few minutes later...

Ava: "Mommy, my doody?"
Me: "No, Ava, you're not doody."

And then...

Ava: "Mommy, my a loser?" (Well, it actually sounds more like "woozoh".)
Me: "No, Ava, you're not at all a woozoh, er, loser."

This cost the boys their TV privileges yesterday, so hopefully they'll find TV more compelling than pestering Ava. For a few days, anyway.

It's also obvious that she's very comfortable with "boy toys". While she does love her baby, she also loves cars, trucks and trains. It's funny to witness such an angelic-looking little girl looking at things through boys' eyes. For instance, she has these very girly pjs -- pink with a pattern of clotheslines full of clothes. She calls them her train car jammies. Really. She thinks the clotheslines are train tracks and the clothes are train cars. Poor kid -- she'll either be a very confused little girl or one tough cookie (that which does not kill you makes you stronger).

So now you know the cast of characters. Stay tuned for more episodes!