Sunday, January 27, 2013
Traveling and motherhood joys
Forgot about this until I came across this picture today. On the ride back from Utah last weekend Josh stuffed a Kix up his nose. Sure made the traveling over the weekend interesting. Not only did this happen on the way back but on the way down both kids had a "spill it" (aka puke) episode, with Audree's all over me. Ha!! Oh the joys of motherhood!
Friday, January 25, 2013
Thursday, January 24, 2013
And so it begins...
This busy girl is now getting into everything. She's so much more curious and adventurous than Josh ever was. Too fun!
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Joshua: 2 1/2
I cannot believe that come early May that I will have a 3 year-old. That sounds so old for my little baby boy, but the more I look at him and watch him grow the more he matures every day. As challenging as some of the things are with this stubborn boy, he really is such a sweet, happy, funny and loving child.
He still has a huge obsession for anything with motors or wheels. Trains, planes, motorcycles, bulldozers, dump trucks, garbage trucks, excavators; you name it he loves it!
Over Christmas we got one of those HotWheels race tracks and he loves it. We've set up in our playroom downstairs and he's termed at as "real racing". We've set up to do a jump and one of my favorite things he does is when we ask him if a car has the power. If it makes the jump he excitedly says "yes" (insert a little tiny lisp on the s too) and if it doesn't make the jump he shakes his head and says "no power". Too funny!
He is definitely growing in his vocabulary every day. He still is our little parrot and literally repeats everything you say. He has just started repeating prayers which is just the cutest. One of my favorite experiences with his growing language is when we were driving home from Montana for Christmas he had a little puking episode and I would guess it was a combination of drinking milk and getting car sick. When he puked all down his arm, he kept saying over and over "a spill it", "a spill it". As sad as it was that he just puked everywhere it was still pretty funny to hear that over and over.
Josh also continues to grow in his smarts. He knows all of his letters and sounds really well, he knows all of his shapes including pentagon, hexagon, octagon and trapezoid. He counts good to 40 and can sometime even make it to 50. He is learning how to draw his letters when we do school with him, for instance to draw an H he'll say, down down cross while drawing it in the air with his fingers. So smart and I'm so proud of him. He's just a sponge and so we have been trying to teach him as much as we can while he's enjoying it. He memorized his books quickly and loves to have us read to him.
One thing I've found I haven't taught him though, is how to dress and undress himself. I've come to realize I've done a huge disservice by not doing that sooner. As you can see from pictures below, he now expects me to do everything for him and if I don't he just cries and whines until I do. Ha! We'll have to work on that.
Josh is still in a really challenging picky eater phase. Like I've told many people around me, this is the most challenging thing I've been faced with in parenthood so far. The things that get me are, he refuses foods he has eaten and loved before (over the past month or so i feel like he's limited his foods even more), he is ornery and fussy because he's hungry but doesn't recognize it and that I can't be in control of the situation.
Most days I've just about given up and give in to something he'll eat so I can have my happy child back. But then other days I'm at my wit's end and so frustrated that I give him something and if he doesn't eat I make him sit and cry for 15 minutes then let him down with nothing to eat. He doesn't even budge though. he could go 2-3 attempts without eating and still not eat the next time around.
We've tried all the approaches of putting introductory food out multiple times with foods he loves and he'll supposedly eventually try them. This does not work with Josh. I've put the same introductory food on his plate, 10,15, maybe even 20+ times and he still won't touch it. If I try to talk him into it that just makes him more upset and defiant. He doesn't take bribes of dessert or candy for even trying just 1 bite of food. My gut is that he has an extremely strong fear of food, new food and texture.
If anyone else has had an issue like this, any guidance or advice is much appreciated. Most days I come to the conclusion that in the grand scheme of things it's not really that big of deal. And that all I can do is keep trying, and try not to stress about it because other people in the world have much bigger issues than a picky 2 year old.
Overall though, josh really is a great kid. He's social, fun-loving and happy. He loves his family and it has been fun for us to watch him remember names and people in our family including all of his aunts, uncles and grandparents.
I couldn't imagine life without my little buddy. What a blessing he is in our family.
He still has a huge obsession for anything with motors or wheels. Trains, planes, motorcycles, bulldozers, dump trucks, garbage trucks, excavators; you name it he loves it!
Over Christmas we got one of those HotWheels race tracks and he loves it. We've set up in our playroom downstairs and he's termed at as "real racing". We've set up to do a jump and one of my favorite things he does is when we ask him if a car has the power. If it makes the jump he excitedly says "yes" (insert a little tiny lisp on the s too) and if it doesn't make the jump he shakes his head and says "no power". Too funny!
He is definitely growing in his vocabulary every day. He still is our little parrot and literally repeats everything you say. He has just started repeating prayers which is just the cutest. One of my favorite experiences with his growing language is when we were driving home from Montana for Christmas he had a little puking episode and I would guess it was a combination of drinking milk and getting car sick. When he puked all down his arm, he kept saying over and over "a spill it", "a spill it". As sad as it was that he just puked everywhere it was still pretty funny to hear that over and over.
Josh also continues to grow in his smarts. He knows all of his letters and sounds really well, he knows all of his shapes including pentagon, hexagon, octagon and trapezoid. He counts good to 40 and can sometime even make it to 50. He is learning how to draw his letters when we do school with him, for instance to draw an H he'll say, down down cross while drawing it in the air with his fingers. So smart and I'm so proud of him. He's just a sponge and so we have been trying to teach him as much as we can while he's enjoying it. He memorized his books quickly and loves to have us read to him.
One thing I've found I haven't taught him though, is how to dress and undress himself. I've come to realize I've done a huge disservice by not doing that sooner. As you can see from pictures below, he now expects me to do everything for him and if I don't he just cries and whines until I do. Ha! We'll have to work on that.
Josh is still in a really challenging picky eater phase. Like I've told many people around me, this is the most challenging thing I've been faced with in parenthood so far. The things that get me are, he refuses foods he has eaten and loved before (over the past month or so i feel like he's limited his foods even more), he is ornery and fussy because he's hungry but doesn't recognize it and that I can't be in control of the situation.
Most days I've just about given up and give in to something he'll eat so I can have my happy child back. But then other days I'm at my wit's end and so frustrated that I give him something and if he doesn't eat I make him sit and cry for 15 minutes then let him down with nothing to eat. He doesn't even budge though. he could go 2-3 attempts without eating and still not eat the next time around.
We've tried all the approaches of putting introductory food out multiple times with foods he loves and he'll supposedly eventually try them. This does not work with Josh. I've put the same introductory food on his plate, 10,15, maybe even 20+ times and he still won't touch it. If I try to talk him into it that just makes him more upset and defiant. He doesn't take bribes of dessert or candy for even trying just 1 bite of food. My gut is that he has an extremely strong fear of food, new food and texture.
If anyone else has had an issue like this, any guidance or advice is much appreciated. Most days I come to the conclusion that in the grand scheme of things it's not really that big of deal. And that all I can do is keep trying, and try not to stress about it because other people in the world have much bigger issues than a picky 2 year old.
Overall though, josh really is a great kid. He's social, fun-loving and happy. He loves his family and it has been fun for us to watch him remember names and people in our family including all of his aunts, uncles and grandparents.
I couldn't imagine life without my little buddy. What a blessing he is in our family.
Audree: 10 months
I really can hardly believe that my little Audree girl is already 10 months. I've been a huge slacker the past few months when it has come to keeping track of her progress and growth, but I hope that with a new year I can get back into it.
In just the past couple months she has grown and changed so much. I had just mentioned to Jake the other day how much more her personality and voice are coming through. It has been so much fun to be able to communicate more and watch her grow.
Her most recent achievements or growing changes are:
She has transitioned pretty much as much as she can with her few teeth over to table food. She loves eggs, toast, soups, cooked veggies (carrots, corn, peas, etc.$ she loves chicken pot pie, soups, beans, bread, Cheerios, an just about everything in between. What's funny to watch is that when tries something new or is getting used to a texture, she'll put something in her mouth, make a face, pull it out and hen put it back in and finish eating it. I hope she keeps it up, not sure if I coul handle another super picky eater.
She has started standing on her own for a long time and has taken about 4-5 steps in a row. She climbs up stairs well and tries to climb on just about everything else that she can. Just last night we also started to see her get the hang of going down stairs. I'm worried she's going to be my crazy one.
As for communication she waves, claps her hands, plays peek-a-boo and mimicked "mama" "dada" and "dog" pretty well. She loves to give us kisses.
As we found out from the few baby dolls she got at Christmas and seeing all the babies in our ward she LOVES babies. She tries to talk with them and loves playing with them.
Her most recent fascination is with books. She'll open all of our board books and chat as if she's trying to read them. It's super cute.
Probably one of her most favorite things still is playing with josh. She follows him everywhere, plays and makes car noises with his cars, and laugh with him all the time. Even though he can be bothered sometimes, I think he really enjoys having her around too.
This little girl is such an angel though. I truly am blessed to call her my daughter and I learn so much from her.
In just the past couple months she has grown and changed so much. I had just mentioned to Jake the other day how much more her personality and voice are coming through. It has been so much fun to be able to communicate more and watch her grow.
Her most recent achievements or growing changes are:
She has transitioned pretty much as much as she can with her few teeth over to table food. She loves eggs, toast, soups, cooked veggies (carrots, corn, peas, etc.$ she loves chicken pot pie, soups, beans, bread, Cheerios, an just about everything in between. What's funny to watch is that when tries something new or is getting used to a texture, she'll put something in her mouth, make a face, pull it out and hen put it back in and finish eating it. I hope she keeps it up, not sure if I coul handle another super picky eater.
She has started standing on her own for a long time and has taken about 4-5 steps in a row. She climbs up stairs well and tries to climb on just about everything else that she can. Just last night we also started to see her get the hang of going down stairs. I'm worried she's going to be my crazy one.
As for communication she waves, claps her hands, plays peek-a-boo and mimicked "mama" "dada" and "dog" pretty well. She loves to give us kisses.
As we found out from the few baby dolls she got at Christmas and seeing all the babies in our ward she LOVES babies. She tries to talk with them and loves playing with them.
Her most recent fascination is with books. She'll open all of our board books and chat as if she's trying to read them. It's super cute.
Probably one of her most favorite things still is playing with josh. She follows him everywhere, plays and makes car noises with his cars, and laugh with him all the time. Even though he can be bothered sometimes, I think he really enjoys having her around too.
This little girl is such an angel though. I truly am blessed to call her my daughter and I learn so much from her.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
A real playroom!
We definitely enjoy having a big new play area! Having a space away from our living room big enough to let the kids play with all their toys is awesome. Josh could spend hours down here.
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