Hellobee

I haven’t written an update on the kids since Charlie turned 4 (he’s 6 1/2 now), but maybe it’s because I would consider this age to be another “golden era” of parenting for me. We’ve been through all the big first milestones of early childhood (starting kindergarten and first grade, losing 6 teeth so far, learning to read & write), and while we still have our fair share of challenges, parenting has been pretty darn good lately. Here is what life is like with a 4 year old and 6 year old!

All his big adult teeth have grown in completely now!

S I B L I N G  R E L A T I O N S H I P

Since Olive turned 3, Charlie and Olive have only gotten closer. They are 22 months apart and while they’ve always gotten along well, 3 was the point at which Olive could really keep up with Charlie conversationally. He used to boss her around and she’d go along with it, but she soon found her voice! Since moving to the Philippines, where they are together 24/7, they are truly best friends. When they were younger they wanted us to play with them. Now they are happy in their own worlds, playing their own made up games, speaking their own language. The only challenge is it’s often hard to separate them at bedtime because they would rather stay up playing!

Charlie can be the bossy older sibling at times — he loves to “teach” Olive how to do things. But he is also fiercely protective of her as well. Olive can do almost anything with Charlie by her side. Sure they get into their fair share of squabbles, but their opposite personalities complement each other. I’m so glad they’ll have each other for the rest of their lives!

Olive is the Uno master. Never go to a restaurant without it!

I N D E P E N D E N C E

At 6 1/2 Charlie can cook scrambled eggs, pancakes, and make smoothies. He peels and cuts apples and pears. I can even sleep in and the kids will make themselves a bowl of cereal without waking me up. He takes showers by himself and brushes his teeth with his Sonicare (so that I know he has to brush for 2 minutes!). He is fearless and can ride rollercoasters, recently went on a zipline hundreds of feet in the air, and can snorkel like a fish. And now that he can read on his own, he easily spends hours by himself reading books.

Moving to the Philippines has greatly increased both kids’ independence overall. They have a lot more freedom to roam unsupervised here because there are no cars and there is a lot of open land. It’s very safe here so they can explore by themselves in a way they never could in Brooklyn. They have a ton of time to be bored since there isn’t very much to do here, and electricity regularly goes out as well. Having more independence, more downtime, more free play is one of the most important experiences they’ll have while living here because they’re things we’d never be able to give as much of in our former city lives.

T R A V E L

We’ve been traveling to the Philippines every year since Olive was 9 months old and Charlie was 2 1/2. It wasn’t always easy when they were young, but it was always worth it. They are now seasoned travelers and are old enough that I can travel long distances with them alone. 4 and 6 is a magical age where they no longer nap. They can walk long distances. They can carry their own bags onto planes (I always ended up carrying them when they were younger and often fell asleep). They can help you with the luggage (we had to carry tons of luggage from the international terminal to the domestic terminal when we flew back from Korea recently). They can keep themselves entertained with in flight movies, iPad, cards, drawing, and each other. The plane ride is now the easiest part of travel and I don’t stress about it at all! I’m still a big proponent of traveling even with very young children who won’t remember the trip, but it is crazy to think that Charlie and Olive are now at an age where they can remember the places we go to. The first year of Charlie’s life we didn’t travel anywhere. Now all I think about is all the places we will go to!

They have become animal lovers for life 

E D U C A T I O N

Kindergarten was a great year for Charlie. Because he had attended full-time public pre-k the year before, he had no problem adjusting to his new kindergarten class, even though he was the youngest and smallest with a December birthday. He had a strict but loving teacher that he adored. We left Brooklyn towards the beginning of first grade and now he is homeschooled by a teacher. Olive has never attended public school but is comfortable with the school setting having been in daycare and preschool before we moved to the Philippines. She’s 4 1/2 now and we’re working on sight words and reading. I’ll have more on what a typical homeschooling day looks like in an upcoming post soon!

P A R E N T H O O D

We have more time for ourselves now that the kids are older, more independent, and so close. But we took a step back from working as much when the kids were young, so we’re now we’re getting back into longer work days and new projects. While things do get easier as the kids get more independent, there are still challenges with each stage. For instance I get way more frustrated with kids who completely understand everything I’m saying and still don’t listen. I never really got mad at them when they were toddlers. But I love this age. They are still young enough to call me “mama”and want to snuggle everyday, but they’re increasingly independent and are able to go on so many fun adventures with us now. 4 and 6 are pretty sweet.