Grace AnneMarie - 16 Months

This is the cutest little girl.  She waves at everyone - literally, she thinks she's Miss America and really with that smile, who could argue.  She actually gets irritated when people don't wave back if they are doing something like working or not looking directly at her when walking through a store.  I am not complaining of course, I love having a happy and outgoing baby! 

Sleeping - Going well most of the month but in the last week she's stopped sleeping well (or at all) in the afternoon) so I am thinking that she is imitating her eldest sister who did the same thing when ready to drop her morning nap.  I am giving it a few more days to make sure but I think the morning nap is about to come to an end.  She is still happy, even if she doesn't sleeping in the afternoon and the highlight of her day is hugging her sisters first thing in the morning and after naps.   Of course now I am late in posting this and for the last week she has slept both naps with the first one starting at 1030 and the second at 1430.

Eating - Grace discovered ranch dressing this month and has decided it is like manna from heaven.  She LOVES it.  She also enjoys most condiments: guacamole and sour cream specifically.  I am sure she would happily make a meal out of any of these. 

Playing - Everything her sisters do, Grace wants to be a part of.  This month she has specifically loved playing ballerina with her tutu and the Usborn Ballerina Book & CD we've been listening to.  She loves stacking toys, even just using the plastic cups makes her happy.  Solo play is going great and she enjoys just about all her toys in there.  I've been trying to ensure that she gets time to play outside with her riding toys and pushing her stroller around before we go for a walk as it occurred to me that her sisters going for a bike ride and me pushing her in the stroller doesn't give her much exercise.  She seems to like playing on those toys for about 10 minutes before she is ready for the stroller :)

Skills - Grace is a climbing crazy kid!  She loves to climb on everything and for the most part does a great job and has also learned to go down the slide on her backside.  She is learning to use her spoon very well, of course there is still a little mess but she enjoys it :)  Grace is identifying several body parts, head, ear, tongue, mouth, belly, nose.  Her speech isn't too well developed yet but I know she can hear and understand me so I am not too worried about it.  I have begun to be purposeful about singing to her during diaper changes and she really responds well to that.  After a week of Row, Row, Row Your Boat she was so cute in imitating the R sound. 

Grace AnneMarie - 15 Months

Sleeping - About half way through the month, Grace's morning nap started increasing in length and her afternoon nap was suffering for it.  So, I pushed her morning nap to begin at 1030 and that seems to have corrected the issue for now. 

Eating - She has started learning to use a spoon with yogurt, oatmeal, and some thicker soups and really enjoys using it.  I was trying to feed her yogurt one morning and she just cried the whole time although she loves yogurt and was obviously hungry.  So, I tried handing her the spoon and a giant smile extended across her face and I knew she just wanted to be a big girl. 

Skills - Grace is learning to point to body parts: head, ear, nose, mouth, and belly.  She is also learning the M sound so she is beginning to say "Mama" which is just heart melting. 

Play - Because of her nap being pushed back she has now joined us for the first half hour of school which is calendar time and worship time.  We call her the Dancing Queen but also she becomes a little Drama Queen, putting her face on the ground as she is trying to make herself cry after some perceived injustice.  She is the cutest little dancer and she loves it!  On Laundry days she loves being pushed and pulled around in the laundry bucket.  Balls have been incorporated into her list of loves which also include the dog and dolls.  Grace had her first snow day (here in Alabama!!) but wasn't all that enamored with it once her hands got cold, Mama should have put her mittens on!

Faith August - 4.75 Years

Sleep - Same as normal.  I've been trying to give her more stuff to keep her mind engaged during her rest time and she seems to be enjoying it.

Eating - Remains a great eater although not as adventurous as Rebekah, she does love food and sometimes surprises but she always asks for more fish but never for more kale :)

Skills - Faith's favorite Christmas present was her new bike.  She never tires of telling people that she has a new bike without training wheels.  That balance bike that she rode for a year was totally worth it.  Within a half hour she was riding her new 16" bike without any help.  After an hour she was starting and stopping all by herself. 
Her awesome phonogram skills continue and she has completed another book of cutting a pasting the pictures in after reading the words.  Her handwriting is improving.  Incidentally, something I've learned about her is that learning the strokes for her made much more sense when she saw what letter that stroke was going to turn into. She needs to see what it is she is doing, that her time as a purpose! 
She is doing great at ballet and loves going to the classes.  We have moved to another studio and now she gets to do tap dancing and is super excited about that. 
Her coloring has started to be more deliberately within the lines and she is enjoying it more.
She continues learning her Russian and does well at it.  I need to start speaking with her more during the day so she can really learn it!
Faith did a great job singing in the Children's Choir Christmas musical; she was an angel (literally!).

Play -  Faith loves to dance around the room, either to the music we play during worship time, or to the stuff she is just singing to herself.  In addition to the bike (which she wants to write all the time) the girls were also given a set of magna tiles and that has been without a doubt the best toy they've ever gotten.  Frank plays with it just as much as the girls!  Faith enjoys making a magna-tiles house for Rebekah's Calico Critters Kanga family.  She also continues to love her baby doll but loves Grace more and continues to play Mama with her.  It is so sweet the way she talks to her sister (except when she is coming to knock her magna-tiles tower down).  She just loves Grace. 

Rebekah Joy - 3.25 Years

Specs - 31lbs, 37 inches

Sleeping - About 3 days before she was due for this 3 1/4 milestone, she began to drop her nap.  I've been giving her about a half hour to fall asleep on her own and then books if she doesn't.  I imagine it will be several months before it is dropped completely. 

Eating - Rebekah is a champion eater.  Always asking for more broccoli and so sweet in thanking me for meals, I just love it. 

Skills - "I can do it my ownself" is the most frequent phrase out of Rebekah these days.  She loves to try, she wants to learn new skills and only wants to be treated like a baby when she is playing baby and mama with Faith (although she does revert to this baby whiny talk once in a while).  It has been her job to sort and match the socks on laundry day but pretty soon she is going to move up to doing pants and I think she is ready for it.  She has started to be more deliberate about coloring in the lines on a page, although sometimes it is just a tornado of color on a page but she loves to color.  She can hop with both feet together.  "Mama look at this" is another oft spoken phrase from Rebekah.  She wants me to watch how fast she can run, how long she can stand, or at the silly face she is making.   For school time, Rebekah is learning her letters, loves to cut, match, transfer, and pour.  She is also learning her phonograms by overhearing them from Faith and plays the games in our LOE curriculum really well!  Faith's balance bike was handed down to Rebekah at Christmas this year and within about a half hour she was totally rocking that bike!

Play - Her little imagination is really coming to life in playtime.  She has always enjoyed "going on a drive" usually to "Chick-Fil-A" but she is enjoying playing choir teacher and Ms. Layne (their ICE teacher).  She loves to dance around and sing, it is so sweet.  I am sure plenty of this comes from her ballet class which she loves (although I suspect her favorite part is getting her Tiana sticker afterwards; Tiana is her favorite because she wears green).  During our Mama time she generally asks for stickers or for me to read to her.  She LOVES acting out our Bible stories; she enjoys craft but acting out the stories is her favorite part. 

Random - At her 3 year old appointment, the doctor heard an innocent heart murmur and that was verified by the cardiologist.  Rebekah did awesome at the dentist and has beautiful teeth :) 

Grace AnneMarie - 14 Months

Is it possible that I have the cutest baby on the planet?  I am sure lots of parents think that but I actually do have her!

Specs - 22lbs, 31 inches

Sleeping - No changes, still 12 hours at night and 2 naps a day, no real signs yet of dropping that first nap. 

Eating - Grace has learned to say "milk".  She is doing better about eating the food on her tray without whining for something else she sees on the table.  Not perfect but getting there.  We dropped the nighttime bottle when she turned 14 months and I still warm her milk a little bit in the sippy but she is happy with it cold also.

Skills -  Grace shakes her head "yes" whenever she hears inflection in your voice.  By the end of the month she also learned to shake "no" and is now confusing them, shaking "no" when she really means "yes" and you can tell from the look in her eyes!
She has learned to crawl up and get down safely from the couch.  She also figured out she can go down the slides at the park on her tummy with great success.  Awesome walker!

Play - If Grace sees a book, she wants you to read it.  She is constantly crawling into mine or Frank's lap with a book in her hand.  It is so endearing and impossible to resist because we want her to love to read!  She continues to love her little Hide and Squeek Eggs and Dolls.  Doll, Dog, and DaDa are the only words she really says consistently but she says them with such passion.  Her sisters got a set of Magna Tiles for Christmas and Grace has enjoyed being "Baby Godzilla" to come knock down towers!  She can be such a terror to them but then so loving to her doll :)

Faith's First Book

Faith created and read her first book this week.  We are using the Logic of English Foundations A curriculum and I love it.  I have never taught anyone to read so the step by step is very helpful for me :)  Faith has learned about 2 dozen phonograms so far, knowing all their sounds and how to write the lowercase form.  For the book, I printed out sheets of paper with a 3 letter word on them.  She had to read the word, pick the corresponding picture and glue that picture to the page to make the illustration.  She did awesome and was so proud when I told her she had to sit in the middle during reading time today because she was the reader! 

Grace AnneMarie - 13 Months

Wow, I am really late with this!  In my defense, this has been a stressful month for us!  First we found out that Frank got command of a comm squadron (great) in Korea (okay) as an unaccompanied tour for a year (not cool!).  Then after a month of getting used to that idea, he was accepted to SAASS and was universally advised to take the SAASS and put in for command later.  So, now he is staying here in Alabama for another year :)  Hooray!!  Now, onto Grace...I am trying to write this for how things were on December 2nd (even though it is about 20 days later)

Sleeping - Doing great, no changes

Eating  - Still loves bread.  Using a sippy cup exclusively and doing really well with it.  She still gets milk at snack time and a bottle before bed but I am sure these both will change by next month. 

Play - Doing great at solo play.  There is no very little or no crying at all.  She still loves dolls and loves to give hugs, especially to Mama.   She enjoys hearing the modulation of her voice when we bounce her or tap on her chest; she thinks she is pretty funny :)  She really enjoys these link toys that my sister got her for her birthday from B.  Her favorite book is Sense & Sensibility

Skills - One Wednesday night about the middle of the month she took a few steps at church.  Then a few days later she took even more and by the end of the month she was done crawling.  What a big walker and she is so proud of herself!!  She is a sorting fool and she loves putting things away.  Using her hands to move her lower lip and then blowing out to make noise.  I don't know the name of this action but it sure is cutie.  She has also learned to shake her head "yes".  Both the other girls learned the action for "no" long before "yes".  So, does that mean she is going to be my super positive and optimistic daughter?  Grace has also learned the sign for "please".