Faith August - 4.25 years

Sleeping - Everything here continues on as before.  No naps but she enjoys rest time and gets a full nights sleep.

Eating - No real changes here either except that she is learning to eat salad.  Ranch is her preferred dressing and she does well with it. 

Skills - "Mama, watch this..." is a phrase I hear a lot and then she attempts some random feat like standing on one leg or jumping around in a circle.  She is learning to do more physically and that is always good.  She will be ready for a bike with pedals anytime.  I am probably going to wait to get her one at Christmas and she should hopefully make the transition easily.  She still swims with her floaty but I am hoping that we can do swim lessons sometime soon and next summer she'll be swimming on her own.  After our long cross country trip she has found a new love of coloring and is getting better at coloring in the lines.   She loves feeding her sister, Grace, and her ability to do so is improving.

Play - She likes wearing a hipster purse... she looks like such a big girl wearing it!  She has found that ziplocs bags can be fun to play with.  She likes the slide top kind and puts anything in them to keep it safe.  I looked in her pink bucket one afternoon and saw half a dozen of my quart size bags in there full of paper and her other toys.  She LOVES Grace.  Loves making Grace laugh, feeding her, sitting with her.  it is the most requested thing of the day "Mama, can I hold Grace, please."

Random - After listening to "The Patience Song" from the Basic Institute for Life CD, she asked "Mama, is there something I can help you do?"  She has always been good about asking when it is time for meals or when we've trained her that now is the time to ask but she came up with this on her own and she used the exact wording from the song.

One night during prayers we were discussing why God and Jesus were the same and she asked how many people are God in heaven and we discussed the trinity using the egg analogy.  She asked if she would have eyes in heaven to see God and I said she would be able to see Him and the streets of gold, the crystal sea, and the river of life.   She got pretty excited and said "I bet we'll be able to swim in the river!"  It was really sweet.

Education - School has been a little sporadic this summer due to our extended travel but she still loves to learn and is going to be ready for a reading program soon!

 

 

 

Rebekah Joy - 33 Months

Rebekah Joy – 2 Years 9 Months

Sleeping – Nighttime sleep was interrupted this month due to our travel across 10 states, sleeping in the same bed as her sister, and in 8 different locations.  She did pretty well and there were nights of uninterrupted sleep but there were plenty of wake ups as well, usually when she and Faith were sharing a bed.  I’ve decided Rebekah sleeps in one position and gets pushed around by Faith, very much like me and their dad J  Naps have been going well, especially considering many of them happened in the car!  “I’m so so tired” has been a frequently heard phrase.  Actually, “I’m so so _____” has been her new phrase.  She is quite passionate!   Since she started sleeping with a warm blanket (that gets rotated) she has been sleeping under it but this month she has started requesting it be “just like Faithie’s” who has her warm blanket folded up and placed next to her. 

Eating – Rebekah actually tried radishes with my dad during vacation.  I was impressed that she tried them because they have been demonized by her big sister (who did not try them again!).   She has stopped using a bib of her own accord. 

Skills – She has begun “reading” to her animals in earnest.  Rebekah developed a new love for coloring after visiting with their best friends, the Langehaug children in Colorado.  She has an incredible memory.  Loves singing and is always exuberant about it.  She has started counting and being excited about that!  She has been putting her own crocks on all summer and has started doing her “running shoes” as well which have a strap.  She gets them on the correct foot over 50 % of the time!  She still loves green; that is certainly her favorite color!

Play – We brought home a stuffed kangaroo from Australia for Rebekah last year and it was the choice for her during our car trip and vacation.  Kanga has been her constant companion this month.   After the first trip to the Cedar City Aquatic Center where Rebekah was very timid and did not want to go near the water that would fall on her face, the second trip she found a great deal of courage and loved every minute of that play area.  Still not a fan of the big bucket of water but that is okay!  She has excelled at blowing raspberries at Grace to entertain her in the car.  Here is a picture of Rebekah with her Kanga...

Grace AnneMarie - 8 Months

Grace AnneMarie – 8 Months

Sleeping – Nighttime sleep continues to go well with no significant interruptions.   We are firmly on 2 naps now, the first one around 9:45-10 until noon and the second starting around 2.  I would like to say she sleeps for 2 hours for that one but usually is 45 minutes to 1 ½ hours but she stays in her room until 4 and is usually okay with that.  For most of this month we’ve been travelling so she has taken a ton of carseat naps both in and out of the car.  She is a trooper though and only after 3 days of all day driving did she really have a melt down; one good night of sleep though and she was back to her happy self again.

Eating – Nursing still 3 to 4 times a day with the DF milk given at the 7pm feeding.  New solids this month include cauliflower, apricots (the best first fruit for her yet!), blueberries, and fish.  She found a love for avocado this month when I gave it to her not mushed up. 

Skills – While not crawling she is certainly no long stationary.  She skootches around within about a 3 ft diameter circle going after things she wants or just moving for the sake of doing it.  She continues to be incredibly vocal but really only knows the Da sound, a sort of singing sound, and the cutest little cooing.  She is rolling onto her tummy consistently and then belly crawling backwards.  She has started playing peek-a-boo and loving it!  Grace also enjoys throwing herself backwards while in our arms.  There have been a few times we weren’t ready for it but no real mishaps J

Rebekah Joy - 32 Months

Rebekah is offering me some mud hearts during our pool / take apart the garden mud day!

Sleeping - Her naps have been starting at 2 and she is sleeping all the way to 4.  No more diapers at naps or nighttime.  We told her if she went a week with no accidents then she could wear panties for both and she did! 

Eating - I ended up having to buy skim milk at one point this month and she hated it.  She told me she didn't like the taste I could empathize because I remember not liking it when my parents switched to skim as well.  Because it worked once, she has used that same rational several more times for why she hasn't been finishing her milk.  Unfortunately for her, the commissary has been well stocked of 2% milk since then :)

Play - LOVES her Octopus, Kangaroo, and her bears.  I still rotate her stuffed animals along with other toys.  Still loves puzzles!  She really has started enjoying "cooking" in her kitchen more and is very intent on making sure there is Orange Juice for her husband as well as giving me some for mine.  It is darling.

Skills - Rebekah knows all her colors and green has always liked the color green but it is becoming much more obsessive these days."I love geen because I love geen"  Also, I am hearing a lot of "I would like two because I am two." Two of everything. That started just following Faith's birthday so I am sure Faith turning 4 had something to do with it. We'll see how long our green and two obsessions last :)
This month she started really cutting.  I bought her some self-opening scissors several months ago to get some practice and while she liked them, they don't really cut anything.  This month I gave her a real pair of scissors and she LOVES them.  She asks to cut fabric constantly.

Random Thoughts - Reminding Faith that "honeycombs are like a honeycomb" following some correction Faith recieved.  That was her take on Proverbs 16:24, pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and health to the bones.  Also reminding Faith after we lost power in the middle of the night during some rough weather that "God is always with us".  She believed it and was unaffected by the loss of power or the thunderstorms that rolled through all night.

"What after?"  Rebekah constantly wants to know what is going to happen next.  I usually have to lay the whole day out at breakfast and even then still get the question of "what after bed?"

Grace AnneMarie - 7 Months

Grace continues to be a happy, well adjusted baby who loves life and constantly has a smile on her face.

 

Sleeping - Still doing well on a 4 hour schedule.  I've been able to push nap times back a little bit so they are starting around 9:45 and 1:45 now.  I've experimented with the carseat, swing (not on), and bed and she does better in her carseat for most naps so that is where she stays and will sleep for 2 hours at each nap.  In the afternoon if she wakes up and makes a diaper for me then there is no going back to sleep but she is usually happy after I change her.  She dropped her 3rd nap about midway through May and it was a pretty cold turkey drop.  One night she just screamed her whole nap and for the next 4 successive nights I tried putting her down for it with the same results, so that was it, now we're at 2 naps!  I introduced a lovey blanket this month and by the end of the month she was really excited to see it at each nap and bedtime so she is starting to associate it with sleep.  Nighttime sleep is still going well with interruptions around 5am but she usually goes back to sleep after a few minutes of talking/singing :)

 

Eating - Starting on her 6 month anniversary life got sweeter for her in that she was introduced to fruit.  She has yet to really take to avocado which was the first one I tried.  Bananas have been a good one but pears were a very hard sell and only toward the end of the month was she beginning to enjoy them.  Applesauce is always a good one :)  Nursing continues as before with no real changes.

 

Skills - Everyday she sits up better and better and rarely has a fall.  She is talking and singing much more now.  Not yet imitating us when we speak but it is coming.  If she wants something she brings it right to her mouth.  There have been a few occasions this month when my "no" alone stopped her from touching a forbidden object (but on the other times, the had press was used).  She loves her little crinkle books and teething rings.  Solo play is not going that great.  She is totally fine playing by herself when she is out in the living room or something even if no one else is around but the moment I close the door to her room while she is in their playing the waterworks begin.  I know from experience that this will end but I won't allow it to go on as long as I did with her older sister and more drastic measures will be taken earlier if needed but I am hoping she figures it out on her own.  There have been a few successful days this month so I am hopeful. 

 

Her Schedule -

0800 - Wake up, nurse, 2oz fruit & cereal

0900 - Outside

0945 - Nap until noon

1200 - Wake up, nurse, 2oz veggie

1300 - Solo play, Mama time

1345 - Nap until 4

1600 - Nurse

1800 - 2 oz veggie, 2oz fruit

1930 - Nurse or bottle + bottle of expressed milk from former DF time

2000 - Bedtime!

Treasure in Heaven

Two weeks ao we studied the fowls of the air and the lillies of the field from Jesus' sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6.  Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where theives break through and steal...
The following week I gave the girls their new May toys.  Faith got a great Farm Cube puzzle to go along with our P is for Pig week and Rebekah got a cute little Hide and Peek Chocolate set.  They both loved their new toys.  Well the two rectangle shaped chocolates from the set have disappeared.  We hadn't left the house between the time we got the toy and I realized they were not just misplaced in their little kitchen or something so I know they are in the house and probably together but I have turned our house upside down in search for them and they are nowhere to be found.  I was getting more and more irritated with the girls with every investigation that turned up empty.  Every time I looked under a bed or behind a piece of furniture that did not produce the lost article, I could feel my anger rising.  "Why can't they take care of their toys!"  "I just bought this"  "They haven't been playing with it for a week and it is already ruined!"  Normally my girls take very good care of their things.  We haven't lost a toy or part of a toy in over a year when Dolly was found behind my Grandmother's Bible on a bookshelf!  But I was still really annoyed, probably becasue I thought this was a great toy and how dare they ruin it!  As I was venting my frustration to Frank later he reminded me that other people in this family have been known to put fingernail polish remover on the coffee table, blighting it permanently and we still manage to use it and not continually condem the offender for the act.  Well, that was me of course who took the stain off the coffee table with a cotton ball soaked in nail polish remover.  I try to hide it with a coaster but for the most part it has just become a continual reminder for me that all of this material stuff will pass away and my treasure is not here but in heaven.  It was also a good lesson for me in the fact that I did it, not Frank because of course if he'd ruined my coffee table I would have been furious but since it was me I expected grace.
My kids make mistakes, I make mistakes, even my husband makes mistakes (occasionally) but we are storing up treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust (nor acetone) doth corrupt  and where thieves do not break through nor steal (or misplace). 

**JUNE 8, 2013 UPDATE** In the process of looking for the chocolate and pizza pieces I found a piece of meat from the Melissa and Doug Stir Fry Set that belongs to my dear friend with whom we did a weekly toy swap before they moved away.  They moved in February and who knows how long it had been in that bag of bags before that.  Then one day while talking to Sabrina on the phone I realized that the piece of meat was missing!  I began searching for it and in my search found the pizza and chocolate set!  It was smashed partially under the shoe bucket and partially behind the bookshelf.  Elated that I found my toys, I was really upset that I'd lost hers, even though a week earlier neither she nor I knew it was missing!  I ended up finding it a few days later in the pocket of my apron where I'd put it for safe keeping.  Then today Frank presented me with the "pinch" measuring spoon I have used for years to measure out the girls' probiotics that go in their morning milk.  Over a month ago I'd lost it and eventually realized I must have thrown it out by its being stuck to a garbage bag I was using on the counter to put the days cooking refuse into.  Apparently when I took the bag out to the garbage bin the spoon fell off and got partially buried in the grass because today while playing with the girls outside my pinch was found!  Now I don't have to use 2 smigins anymore :)  Just some good reminders from God our treasures must be in Heaven, He does provide for our needs on earth, even the little pinch needs!

Rebekah Joy 31 Months

Rebekah 2 years 7 months

Sleeping – No real changes from last month.  She did get out of bed one day to get her blanket which had fallen down.  She got back in bed and confessed the whole thing to Frank when he came in to wake her up that day. 

Play – She loves “singing and dancing” during Mama time, to a CD of nursery rhymes we have, and recently she has fallen in love with getting dizzy.  Still loves chalk and it is with that she has taught herself to write!  She really loves playing with magnetic dress up dolls.  Faith got a set for her birthday and they are Rebekah’s favorite of what she received J  She also likes building towers, with legos or pegs or whatever she can. 

Skills – Jumping with 2 feet off the ground.  She was so proud of herself to accomplish this feat.  Her imagination is so cute.  She still loves her stuffed animals (mostly bears) and is always saying they like this or that song or they are playing this or that game.  She taught herself to write Fs and Hs.  She is practicing writing Ms but that one isn’t as easy.  Her speech is outstanding.  I constantly have people tell me how well she speaks and what a large vocabulary she possesses.   It is always nice to know other people can understand her!  She is pretty adventurous as well.  The opportunity arose to ride a horse and grandma’s house and she was excited the whole time leading up to it and loved every minute of it, even though the entire trek was in the rain!  One day during solo play she decided to climb up to Faith’s bed and then was really upset because she couldn’t get down so she has learned to go up a ladder but not down. 

Education – She is so smart.  On a trip to the grandparents’ house she saw a map of the world that looked totally different than the map we have at home but she still recognized, unaided, all the countries we’d discussed in pre-school.  She recognizes all her numbers and about a dozen letters on sight.  She remembers EVERYTHING.  In the commissary the other day she announced that ourangutang starts with O and I am sure everyone around me though I was insane but she is right :)