One of the various pieces of Kid Infrastructure around the house is a vertical ruler mounted on one wall in Olive's room. Every so often, she'll request to be measured, stand with her back against the ruler, and we'll mark a new line on it. Very standard stuff.

What isn't standard, at this point, is to see her shoot up two centimeters in two weeks. She's either still in, or has just completed, a huge growth spurt, and it's manifesting in more ways than the physical. She recently wants to exert a level of control on her own life, which is all to the good; she also wants to exert some control over the rest of the family, which is less so.¹

Other than the sudden impression that all her clothes are getting a little short, she's doing very well for a very-nearly-five-year-old. She's spending a lot of time making art and asking to be read to, and she's recognize that her present inability to read is a serious limitation for her. Her biggest change recently is behavioral: for the last two weeks or so, she's been waking up before the alarm every morning and getting herself ready for the day, entirely independently. Getting her off to Kita in the morning has never been easier! No idea what triggered this behavior, but we're definitely encouraging it.

Pumpkin, for his part, has gone fully mobile. He still stays close to the ground and army-crawls instead of using any higher posture, but he can scuttle around quite astonishingly quickly with this method. This has on the one hand significantly improved his mood: with mobility, it's much less frustrating for him to play, because he can chase down anything that catches his interest. On the other hand, it's introduced some new frustrations: he's aware, now, that everyone else in the household moves around faster and with less expenditure of effort than he does, and he hates that he can't do what we all do.

We could be misdiagnosing some of his frustration; another easy hypothesis is that more teeth are growing. The counterpoint there is that we can't feel them; he seems to have two fully-developed lower incisors, and soft gums otherwise. Whether it's due to teeth or crawling, he does often seem frustrated these days. Ultimately it will be fine, but for now we're just trying to help him to endure it.