We had a wonderful Christmas and are thoroughly enjoying our time in Texas. The kids are thrilled to get so much play time with their grandparents, aunts, and uncles. Christmas update hopefully coming soon, but first, some kid updates that I have been meaning to post for a while.
Elise - almost 4 years
Things are going well. She is definitely a strong willed child, and I feel like discipline is a work in progress (especially for the last few months!), but we are having so much fun with her. She's grown up so much and I treasure the time that we spend together. Since my most recent Elise update in September, things haven't changed too much. Sleeping and eating are still great, even on vacation, though sometimes she takes forever to finish her meal. She still takes a 1.5 hour nap almost every day. She's grown about 1.5 inches and gained a few pounds, and is now about 42 inches tall and weighs about 40 lbs (clothed). A few of her 5T clothes are too small now but for the most part she wears size 5 and 6. Size 11.5 and 12 shoes still fit but I think she needs new ones. Birthday, perhaps?
In the last 3 months, Elise has grown up and learned new tricks. She can pump her legs to swing herself in the big girl swing and actually catch a ball. She switched from baths to showers and now prefers to walk rather than ride in the stroller (unless I am pushing the stroller while running... then she gets to walk after I am done). Most of the time, she dresses herself in the morning before coming out of her room. She absolutely loves preschool and playing with kids her age. She also loves playing with Jack, but that usually consists more of chasing each other and acting silly. She's entered the princess phase and loves jewelry, dress up, dolls, accessories, and anything girly. She's my little companion and loves getting to run errands with Mommy, especially when the boys stay home :)
She was talking to Pop on the phone earlier this month and he asked her how many days left until our trip to Texas. She enthusiastically said 10 days! And then tomorrow there will be 9 days, and then the next day there will be 8 days, and the next day there will be 7 days, and continued until she got to one. I had no idea that she could count backwards.
For most of this time period, she was obsessed with her bible from preschool. As in, we read it for every nap time and every bed time for about 3 months. It is 500 pages long, and I'm sure we read through the whole thing at least 20 times. She knows the stories very well and can describe them to you. This has resulted in a few funny conversations...
She was playing around on her chair at dinner and almost fell off:
Me: Elise, please turn around and face the table.
E: Why?
Me: So you don't fall off the chair and hurt yourself.
E: But don't you think that God would heal me?
Praying at dinner:
E: Thank you God for our food and our toys and for Mommy and Daddy and Elise and Jack and Boss and for everything around the whole world, and for light bulbs and beds and for my clock and for sending Jesus to die on the cross to save us from our sins.
Reading a bible story from the old testament:
E: "Are Elijah and Elisha in heaven?"
Me: "Yes."
E: "Why?"
Me: "Because they believed in God and Jesus."
E: "But Mommy, Jesus hadn't even been born yet!"
Oops. Elise: 1, Mommy: 0
Jack - 19.5 months
Jack is in a really cute phase right now and we wish that time would slow down just a little :) He is also sleeping great, even in a pack and play. He's still a pickier eater than his sister, but I think he has fewer picky meals now than he did at the last update. He is still tall and thin and wears 18-24 month tops and 12-18 month/18-24 month pants. Size 7 shoes are still good.
He speaks in mostly 2-3 word phrases and can accurately say up to about 4 syllables. He talks all the time. He's 100% boy and loves trains, trucks, cars, balls, blocks, collecting sticks and rocks, and knocking things down. About a month ago, he finally started calling Elise "Weese" instead of "tister". He is very interested in letters and probably knows all of the capital letters, most of the numbers from 1-10, and at least half of the lowercase letters. He loves his block toys and duplos and always stacks duplos of the same size on top of each other. He won't make a tower with mixed block sizes. He is very good at the shape sorters and is getting good with his colors (red, yellow, and pink are his best).
His little brain is working hard! Here are a few little stories from the buddy.
He's started putting up a little bit of a fight when you tell him it is time for bed. He will run away from you yelling, "No bed! No bed! Play mommy! Play daddy!" Once you pick him up and take him to his room, he is fine and content to read his truck books.
The other day, he wanted to go outside and I was holding him, so he kept saying "Mommy outside". I told him it was too cold for Mommy to go outside, so he said "Daddy outside Daddy outside." Daddy didn't answer right away so he turned to Mimi and said, "Mimi outside!" Mimi obliged and he was successful in manipulating us :)
He was fussing about 15 minutes after going down for his nap today, so Mike went in and checked and he had pooped. As soon as Mike laid him on the changing table, he said "Tank ooo daddy, tank ooo daddy!"
If you ask him if he is a baby or a big boy, he says, "I baby!" If you ask him how he is, he says, "I fine!" If you ask him how old he is, he still says, "Two!", even though I've tried to teach him otherwise.
He often says "peeease" and "tank oo" without being prompted. He loves to greet people by saying "Hi" or "Heyyy". He is able to say anything that he needs to say, and usually communicates very well, except for some reason he cannot clearly say "water" and often gets frustrated because we don't understand him the first, second, or third time.
He loves his grandparents, aunts, and uncles, and especially loves hanging out with the guys. He will walk up to them saying "Hug _name_" and give them a big hug. He will cry if one of his guys leaves without him. He loves following his daddy around and greatly prefers for Mike to put him to bed.
He also likes to direct people where they should go. I was fixing breakfast a few weeks ago and he grabbed my hand and started dragging me to the playroom saying, "No eat. Mama playroom!"
Mimi was playing cars with him and said, "Jack, that is so silly!" and he replied, "I know.".
He has started saying "Bless you" after he sneezes.
Here are some favorites from our November photo session with my lovely sister-in-law, Michelle, of Michelle Boyd Photography. Jack was extremely fussy during this shoot because a)he didn't want to wake up from his nap, b)it was very cold and windy (low 40s) outside, and c)he isn't bribe-able for picture taking. Elise will smile for a goldfish cracker. Thankfully, Michelle still got some awesome pictures and we love them!
