Here is a quick silly video of Eve. She
likes to pull on this hat and bounce around the house in a
horsey-riding fashion saying “donka, donka, donka.” I have no
idea what any of it means, but I’ve been trying to capture it
on video. You can see it for a brief second at the beginning of
the video and a little bit again towards the end. In between
it’s pure Eve silliness.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0nCwilLagM]
Eve knows her right from left (no idea how she
learned that, perhaps Lex taught her), and lots of colors and
she can count to 12 and recognizes some of the numbers, she
knows the ABC song and recognizes most of the letters. She
knows most of her body parts, lots of songs, makes up her own
songs, and plays very silly games. She can even hold a crayon
properly and draw circles that mostly resemble circles. :) The
girl is smart!! She also hasn’t had a PT accident in many days
and we’ve even ventured out with no diaper the past three days!
Yesterday and the day before were playdates so I was brave,
figuring that if she had an accident in the car (thick towel in
the car seat!) I could change her and clean her up at the
friend’s house. Of course all of the houses had potty seats
and, of course, she refuses to use a potty seat, insisting on
using the toilet and only the toilet. I can’t really complain
about that. Tonight we did some errands, picked up Alan, and
visited a super cool new aquatic center (swimming pool, water
slides!, fitness center, etc.) She used the bathroom at one
store and then again when we got home. I asked her about a
thousand times and we went to the bathroom at every store, just
in case, but she was fine. The past few days she has also been
waking up from naps with a dry diaper, so I’m contemplating
trying naps with underwear. We’ll see how that goes!
And mom, yes, the hair is growing in. Not
exactly long, flowing locks, but it’s getting there. We did
haircuts last weekend for Alan and Lex (I botched Lex’s hair!!)
and Eve got mad because I wouldn’t give her a haircut too. Lex
said, “Eve, you don’t have any hair!” :)
The other day Lex was reading a Highlights
magazine and suddenly jumped up and started rummaging through a
kitchen drawer. I finally got his attention and he told me he
was looking for a balloon. Of course, what was I thinking?!
Upon requesting further clarification he showed me his magazine
and pointed to the “Paper Mache Pig Bank” craft project and
said “We need a balloon so I can make a piggy bank.” I’m
constantly floored by his reading and comprehension and
independence! The other day he dug up some scissors and started
cutting up a page in a book! When I stopped him and asked why,
he pointed to the “cut here” line and, of course, was just
following instructions. Crazy! So, anyway, we made paper mache
piggy banks :) I need to buy some paint to finish the project,
but we had a good time making them. Lex didn’t really like the
flour/water part of the job. He more enjoyed the “throwing
around the balloon with egg carton parts taped to it” part. :)
The next day we made construction paper Valentines Day cards
with glue and Jello powder. I guess we were all feeling a bit
crafty.
The girl has been in underwear for three
days without accident!! (diapers for nap and night, of course)
Yesterday and today she even started telling me when she has to
go. And today all the poop went in the toilet too!!! (TMI?
Welcome to potty training!!) She kept getting mad at me today
because I wouldn’t let her put on different underwear each time
we were in the bathroom. Previously, when she was having
accidents, we changed her underwear frequently, but not lately!
Amazing!
(Upon rereading this post I see that it’s mostly
just a crazy jumble of thoughts. I’m going to leave it as is,
but read at your own risk :) )
Have I posted about three before? If so, it’s a long year
so I’m going to go ahead and post again. I guess we could call
this “three and three quarters” to be a little more precise. Or
not. Whatever. Anyway, three is a funny age. He’s so smart and
so capable that it’s easy to forget he’s just a little kid.
Sometimes he seems so big and grown-up, then I seem him with a
bunch of other kids and he still looks like a baby. I think
sometimes my expectations of him are very high. He can fully
dress himself, including outdoor clothes (needs help with the
mittens, but that’s understandable!). He’s fully potty-trained
and can do the whole thing on his own with little to no help
from us. He can read and he’s starting to make recognizable
pictures (he drew an awesome fish the other day!). He can write
some letters too, but seems very resistant to the whole concept
of writing. He must get that from daddy, ’cause I can write all
day! :) He also has an amazing memory and can recite books and
his new Thomas the Train DVD for hours. HOURS, I tell ya!! Book
recitals are calm and mellow, but Thomas recitals involve
complicated walking around patterns, usually involving climbing
over things and circling around me. They also involve lots and
LOTS of repetition, in both motion and words. He does a great
job of getting the inflection and storytelling emphasis right.
I sometimes find myself yelling at him to sit still and stop
talking because he isn’t really saying anything, just “telling
me” the Thomas story. It usually starts with “Mom! In my new
Thomas the Train DVD…” and goes from there. Whew! I get
exhausted just thinking about it. Despite (or because of? who
knows) his ability to remember everything under the sun, his
imagination is really coming through lately too. The other day
he made a “really terrible accident” in the living room that
involved all of his cars and trucks, lots of toys, doggies,
blankets, etc. Then he built the firetruck floor puzzle and
“drove” the firetruck over to help at the accident. Slowly the
cars and other items untangled and came over to admire the
firetruck. It was a long involved game that kept him busy and
relatively quiet for awhile, with the occaisional requests for
“mom! come see this really terrible accident!” I like the
mostly quiet kind of games :) For some reason he seems to be
regressing slightly in some areas. Not sure why. He claims he
can no longer put on his own winter jacket, he consistently
puts his boots on the wrong feet (after knowing right from left
for a long time now!) and he started using the little potty
again and not emptying it, after using the toilet for quite
awhile. I think the potty thing might be because Eve is using
the potty a lot (although she always wants to use the toilet
like Lex), but I can’t figure out the dressing thing. He also
gets super frustrated by things like inside-out sleeves on his
PJs. It occurred to me the other day that he (and probably most
3yr olds) could accomplish so much more if they were able to
focus. When I get Lex to sit still for a split second and look
at his PJs he is able to straighten them out easily, but he
just gets flustered and moves so quickly that he can’t handle
it. Must be an odd feeling being three. It seems like he has so
much energy he can barely slow himself down, but then,
suddenly, it’s gone and he drops. Crazy. Lucky for me he has
been super, super sweet at bedtime and quiet time. I am sooooo
happy that we don’t have to fight the bedtime battle anymore
(well, with Lex anyway. Eve is becoming more difficult in that
area :/ ) It’s like he’s finally starting to appreciate that
his body needs rest. Ahh… ok, I’m done now. In summary: Lex
is an amazing kid. I couldn’t ask for a more perfect son!
The
The wild
TheAs most of you probably know, my little
sister joined the Navy today! (Alan keeps reminding me that she
joined many months ago, but she WENT today!). It’s exciting,
but a little scary. I hope she has fun. We’re all super proud!
Please send love and thoughts and prayers her way.
If you’re interested, here are two YouTube
videos she sent me about Navy bootcamp. The whole thing is
about 30 minutes. I think it’s pretty cool.
Part 1 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdHt56NdERo
Part 2 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYREP-35Ylk
We love you Joyce!!!!!
Eve is 22 months today and just told me
that she needed to pee on the potty! Yay! Happy 22 months to
her. Her 2nd birthday is sneaking right up on me! It occurred
to me the other day that this is how old Lex was (plus a week)
when Eve was born. Crazy! Here’s a picture of a 22mo old Lex.
He looks like such a baby!
Alan is bathing the kids (yay!) so I’m
going to sneak in a quick blog post! Eve has been wearing
underwear most of the time for several days now. She’s really
in to it and gets super excited when she pees on the potty. She
doesn’t do a perfect job, but she’s making great progress.
Today we went to the store and to Michelle’s house (first time
we’ve left the house all week!) and Eve got mad when I put her
in a diaper. I’m not brave enough to take her in the car with
no diaper just yet! She went diaper-free at Michelle’s house
and did great!
Since it’s January and cold, the diaper-free
thing has made for some interesting outfits. She won’t wear
pants over her underwear, but seems ok with sweaters and hats
and mittens. Silly girl. I got a bag of clothes from freecycle
last week with a few skirts and dresses and those have been
handy in our efforts. The whole process has been pretty
different from our experience with Lex. I’m curious if she’ll
continue down this path to potty trained, or if we’ll stall and
be in diapers for awhile longer. Time will tell… :)
Eve has put herself in charge of keeping
track of everything and every one in our life. She frequently
asks where people are, including Aunt Joyce and “uncle bama!”
Her preferred question is “Where is daddy be?” (you can replace
daddy with just about anything because she tries to keep track
of everything!) We’ve stared talking about Daddy Bee and Doggie
Bee and Lex Bee and Mommy Bee. :) She laughs and we laugh and
all is good. Buzz buzz.
Here is a little video from today. I
wanted Lex to go down the slide in the front, but instead he
sent the shovel down that way and he went down the other slide.
Eve loved the slides but couldn’t figure out how to get herself
to the top, so she could only play when I picked her up and put
her at the top. The snow is so deep I don’t think she could
climb up there anyway.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3QQsYydFWI]