Girl- by Wife

*Girl has turned over a new leaf and is...sleeping in!  Sis has been sleeping til 8 or 9 and once even until 10:30!  That was after a long day at school, playdate at the park, trip to Costco and a Moms' Group (that would make anyone want to sleep til 10:30!).

*Sis loves singing and really picking up her skills late in the school year.  Starting in about early June she would come home belting out all of these adorable songs.  3 Little Speckled Frogs, 5 Monkeys and an Alligator, Little Bunny Foo Foo to name a few.  She loves to sing to baby and baby LOVES to watch her.

*Girl is finding her comic voice.  She loves telling jokes (sometimes that only she thinks are funny) and laugh hysterically after.  For about two weeks straight she told a story about a boy who had a dinosaur in his backyard.  He would go outside and find him and them say....(dramatic pause for huge punch line)...BOO!  She would say 'Boo!' in a silly high voice with her littler pursed lips and just crack up every time.  So cute!

*Girl is a chatty Kathy.  She will talk anyone's ear off at anytime.  Our friend's had her over for dinner and couldn't get a word in edgewise..nor could they get her to take a bite without talking.  Another day I was nursing baby at the park and actually had to get up and assist a young girl and her father around a play structure.  Sissy had cornered them and was going on and on about something.  The dad was too polite to stop her chatting and try to get by.  Hilarious!

*Sis is becoming a wonderful listener...with the right motivation. Sometimes she will choose to listen just because...but if there is even a hint of a reward, she will blow through anything in her way to get it.  

*Miss Girl has the memory of an elephant.  She truly stuns me with the details of events that happened over a year ago.  I think it is so wild that at 2 things were sinking in so much that she can verbalize them now.

*House-Girl and Boy are so cute playing house.  I'll take it as a sign that staying home with the kids is the right move for our family.  They play mom and dad and baby all the time.  They serve food, get ready for nap, watch a show (with juice, popcorn and candy).  It is often a great wake up call for what is going on in our life to see them emulate what they see everyday.  I have to say one of the most hilarious 'episodes' was when R was over.  R was mom, Boy was dad and Sis was baby.  I hear them bantering outside, "Hello sweetheart"~mom.  "Time for dinner"~mom.  "Goo Goo"~baby.  "Can I have some money please?"~dad!  I was cracking up!

*Girl's fits are getting to be less and less these days.  However she will look at me with a rude face and say "No" sometimes.  She is quick to understand consequences and almost immediately after rude behavior she apologizes and straightens up or freaks out because she doesn't want to get in trouble.

I'm truly loving life with a 3 and a half year old daughter.  She is totally and truly sweet and loving sometimes and it makes it all worth it.

Boy- by Wife

*Our little early bird.  Mr Boy has been rising with the sun the last couple of months.  He is so loving and sweet and will come and snuggle with us in bed and wait for the girls to wake up.

*The sam'est'.  Boy has been 'practicing' with prefixes and suffixes lately.  It is hilarious.  My current fave is samest.  When two things are the same or similar Boy runs around saying, 'They are the samest!"

*Mr. Independent Play.  Boy's attention span continues to astound me.  As long as he is not distracted (which is often) he can stay very content with a small pile of toys or books.  Current favorites include Cars, dominoes, Duplo barn legos, and his truck and car collection (which he carries around in a sweet Napolean Dynomite metal lunch box).

*Potty trained!  After months and months and months of accidents Boy has turned the corner with undies.  A couple of weeks ago he said, "Mom I won't poop in my pants any more."  I was skeptical :), but now I see him stop playing, come inside and holler (to no one in particular) "I need to go poo poo!".  Yay!

*ABCs and 123s.  Boy recognizes many letters now and is in love with a show called, Word World.  Boy has also been counting quite a bit and what I am most impressed with is his ability to count small groups of items without using his fingers.  I will ask him how many bowls are on the table at dinner and he will quickly look around and say 4.  I think that is pretty neat.

*Our biggest discipline areas are acting silly to avoid having a serious conversation and dealing with the fact that about 90% Boy's first responce to everything is "No!" (Something he mimics from his father)  It is as automatic as a reflex.  His "No!" answers have become so common that now I mostly just ignore the first thing he says and give him a couple of seconds to actually think about the question and do what I am asking him.  As for acting silly, Boy often crosses his eyes or does a silly dance when we are trying to explain consequences.  Eh, could be worse:)

*Pointing with his whole hand.  It is adorable and he looks like a game show host whenever he wants to show us anything!

 

Part 2:

Boy and I have not been getting along.  It's true.  It is weird to admit, but when I thought about it..that's just what is happening.  Let me go back.  Ancora has been going to the feild/deployed since the kids were 20 months.  That is basically half of Boy's life and he is SO much more sensitive to when E is away and when he is not. 

E has been on vacation and we have had a lot of Daddy time the last month.  Now, with Eric gone to work, the little pieces of defiance, easily irritated, not listening...have been trickling in.  It seems that everything I do to handle the situation with Boy only made things worse.  

We were mad at eachother.

I was getting concerned.  Boy was having more accidents and continued to withdraw from me verbally day by day.

This week, my sweet friend, texted me out of the blue offering to take both girls for a couple of hours so that Boy and I could have some alone time!  Yes, please.

Let's go!

*All of the pictures in this post are courtesy of the iphone!

Lunch at the food court.  Boy's chose, "rice and beans...and cheese and salad" (that is what the kids call lettuce).  I was so proud of him, he was SO happy eating and chatting and just basically getting to do whatever he wanted and not having to wait for either of his sisters to take some of the attention away.

"Are you having fun?"

"Yes mommy!"

We were watching the light rail and decided to take a quick ride. It is SO different having a 1 to 1 ration with a child.  You can change plans, pick up a kid and go!  No planning for infant meals/diaper changes, no negotiating who is going to go first/if we both want to ride the train/run to the bathroom.  

Honestly, this 2 hour date day invigorated BOTH of us!  Boy has been talking more, listening better, happier (just look at his smile in the next pic!  I haven't seen that free of a smile  in a while.

Lil Miss- 9mo!

Happy 9 Month Birthday Angel Pie!

Miss E is growing by leaps and bounds!  At her 9 month appointment she weighed 18.5 and was 30 inches long.  She is in the 50% for weight and 95% for height. (She is 3 pounds heavier than Miss Girl and 1 inch longer at this age.  She is about 1/2 pound thinner than Mr Boy and 1 inch longer at this age!)

(Adjusted age for the twins^)

Top 9 at 9 for Lil Miss

9.  She is baptised!  Lil Miss is SO lucky to be loved by so many!  We had a beautiful service for her where Wife and I were married 4 years ago and the twins were baptised 3 years ago).  So many dear friends and family from EVERYWHERE came to the service and Grampa and Grama hosted a fun get together afterwards. Today, on her 9 month old birthday, we had her baptised at the Catholic church that we havent attended for the last 3 years. (Having been stationed elsewhere)  We were so lucky to have Nana and Poppi over to visit for the whole week!  The service today was so special thanks to so many dear friends as well as our family, welcoming Lil Miss into the Catholic faith. It was just heart warming to stand there and celebrate our daughter and look out to see so many faces who love us...truly an amazing day!

8.  Baby is crawling!  Lil Miss scoots along in the most hilarious way.  She 'swims' with her arms and pulls her body forward while pushing along with her right foot.  She never uses her left...but it gets the job done.  She can get to where she wants to go, and quick!

7.  Lil Miss pulled herself up to standing for the first time on July 21st!  Grampa and I were witness to the miracle that is a child growing up before our eyes.  I was sitting on the love seat and baby grabbed for the couch cushons and pulled herself up. It wasn't immediate, we had time to say to eachother "Are you watching this?  This will be her first time pulling up!"  It is so amazing because I can remember the exact first time both of the twins pulled to standing.

6.  Teeth!  She has had four teeth for a while now, but they just seem to be getting bigger!  And she likes to use them...on Mommy unfortunately. And Daddy, and your finger, and your shirt and your shoulder (ouch!).

5.  Eating. Ev is eating most solids. She so daintily grasps any finger foods.  She will patiently eat from a spoon until she is bored of that and wants to grab at the spoon.  Her current favorites are sweet potato, oatmeal with raspberry, hummus!, banana, and green smoothies.  The way her little face contorts when the food is cold is adorable.  

4.  Sleeping.  Naps are consistently one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  She is by no means on a schedule as strict as the twins were.  It would just be so time consuming to try to recreate that and then the kids would be stuck at home all day around a baby nap schedule...talk about recipe for disaster!  Night time sleep is ok.  She goes down typically around 8:30 and (on a good day) will sleep until 5:30/6 and wake to eat.  If Wife nurses her in bed, she will fall back asleep for a couple hours, but if I try to put her in her crib she will often stay awake.  And car sleeping is still amazing...just like the 2 before her:)

3.  Happiness!  Lil Miss is just a joy to our hearts.  She is SO happy.  She loves watching her big bro and sis do anything.  She is so content, plays well with others (besides the scratching, sorry A!), like new toys, like old toys, hangs out in her high chair.  Having the big kids really makes a difference in keeping a baby occupied.  There seems to always be something to watch and keep her interested.

2.  Lil Miss plays with her feet so sweetly.  She can clap her hands sort of wave, more like a hold her hand out to you.  She rocks her head back and forth a lot.  But now with the swim crawling, she seems to be doing that less.  She LOVES to be talked to.  SHe is at that sweet age where she wants attention and loves it when she gets it!

1.  Da da!  Wife asked Lil Miss to say "da-da" this morning while we were saying goodbye, immediately in the teeniest sweet voice, she said Da-da!  Now to start working on Mama:)....maybe.....

Love you Baby