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