Elise - 4 years old summary

So I started writing this post in February and never quite finished it... ooops!

Having a 4 year old is so much fun!  Elise is so independent, helpful, kind, funny, and really enjoyable to be around (the vast majority of the time, haha).

Stats:  Her height is approximately 43 inches (95%) and weight is approximately 38.5 lbs (75%).  She wears mostly 5T or girls sizes XS and S with a size 12.5 shoe.  (Edited to add:  By April, she now wears a size 6 or girls S and still a size 12.5 shoe).

Sleeping:  Elise still loves to sleep and needs about 12-12.5 hours total throughout the day.  We made the decision in January to start the transition to rest time instead of nap time because it was taking Elise too long to fall asleep at night (and then she would be tired in the morning, and then cranky after her nap, and then take too long to fall asleep... bad cycle).  We've been doing this for about a month now and she still naps about half the time but it is going well and she is happier.  The other day just before nap time, in a somber tone, she looked at me and said, "Mommy, I don't think I'm going to be able to stay up with you today.  I'm too tired."

Transition to Rest Time:  She's had an Onaroo Teach Me Time clock in her room since we converted her crib to a bed.  It is awesome and worth every penny.  It makes time changes and travel adjustments a piece of cake.  We set it to turn green at 7:15 and she can get up any time after that (usually up by 7:30 at the latest).  Anyway, I did some research and ended up buying a second clock, which we will eventually use in Jack's room.  It is the Onaroo Ok to Wake clock (which doesn't have all the features of the Teach Me Time clock but does has a nap feature).  When it is rest time, we set it for 30 minutes, turn it on, and then when it turns green she can get up.  I gave her the option of reading books or playing quietly in her room during rest time, but she insists on turning the light off and "resting" in her bed.  So, she falls asleep about half the time but I think it gets her the sleep that she needs without giving her too much.  I try to wake her after an hour to an hour and a half if she does fall asleep.

Eating:  Elise is still a great eater, especially when compared to her brother.  She is very predictable on the foods that she likes to eat, and has learned to say "that isn't my favorite" to let me know that she doesn't like something... and most of the time she'll eat it anyway without complaining.  She drinks mostly water and has plain milk several times a week.  Juice is an extremely special treat... she eats a ton of fruit and doesn't need the extra sugar :)

Breakfast favorites:  Yogurt, dry cereal, oatmeal, eggs, bacon, bagels, waffles, pancakes, fruit
Lunch favorites:  Peanut butter or almond butter (in sandwich form, cracker form, dipping in apples form, granola ball form, etc), cheese, cucumbers, fruit, turkey, grilled cheese
Dinner favorites:  Chicken, steak, turkey, ham, roast, pork tenderloin, (not ground beef), rice, pasta, asparagus, broccoli, sweet potatoes, (not carrots), fruit, corn, peas, beans, macaroni, quesadilla
Snack favorites:  Raisins, granola bars, pretzels, crackers, squeezy packs

Independence:  Elise does so many things for herself at this age.  She likes to dress herself before she comes out of her room in the morning.  Her favorite clothing items include leggings and anything pink or sparkly.  She can turn clothes inside out, put on her jackets and zip them, button her sweaters, brush her teeth well, serve snacks, clear her dishes without being asked, put her clothes away without being asked, etc.  She is usually very eager to go get things for me or Jack and will sometimes even ask if I need help with anything.

Playing:  Elise and Jack love being together.  Their idea of a good time usually includes running, jumping, climbing, or hiding on the couch.  Due to the age and gender difference, they usually don't play with the same toys at the same time unless we are all doing something together.   The other day I peeked in the playroom and had to laugh because Elise had dumped out her dolls and was busy changing their clothes and shoes just a foot away from Jack, who was completely engrossed in moving cars around the duplo track.

With peers, Elise is very interactive and a very good friend.  She loves to play with her friends at preschool, at church, and on playdates.  Favorite things include dolls, princesses (especially Ariel and Cinderella), pretend play, Lego friends (she plays quietly with these for very long periods of time!), the trampoline, playing at the park/zoo/aquarium/etc, running, and playing games (Candyland, cards, etc).  She enjoys going for walks, playing chase with her brother, and going anywhere that Mommy goes.

Favorite things:  Elise primarily asks to read her Disney Princess books or bibles.  She loves to play princess, dress up as a princess, pretend to swim like a mermaid, etc.  When she gets to watch a DVD, she either watches Boz the Bear, Veggie Tales, one of the Preschool Prep DVDs, or one of the Leapfrog DVDs. On a special occasion, she loves to have a popcorn date and watch Cinderella.  She loves jewelry, shoes, and clothes.  She always talks about her next trip to Texas to visit her grandparents, aunts, and uncles.  

Learning:  If you get Elise in the right mood, she will write her name, write other letters, draw things, sound out words, read sight words, etc.  She is definitely capable of all of that and I try to provide opportunities and encourage her but I don't want to bribe her.  She does not typically enjoy coloring or drawing.  She finally developed a good writing grip around her 4th birthday and after going back and forth for a long time, we're convinced that she'll be right-handed.  We've been working through the  "Get Ready for the Code" book and she likes it (and rarely ever wants to do any other workbooks).  At first I thought she was too far ahead for it since she already knows a lot of phonics, but it has really helped her letter writing and following directions.  She prefers using the little Crayola Pipsqueaks markers.  

What fun it is to have a sweet little girl!  We love you, Elise!  Here are a few pictures from January and February.

January 6 - Texas Birthday Party at the Arboretum... all of her grandparents, aunts, and uncles were able to come!

Singing "Happy Birthday"

She loved getting to be the center of attention with all her favorite people!  

Opening the La La Loopsy toys from Ben and Kara

Princess books from Jennifer

Set of dolls from Cinderella from Gram and Grandpa

New shirt and headbands from Bryan and Michelle

Cinderella doll, carriage, and jewelry box from Mimi and Pop

After we got back to Baltimore, she surprised us by writing her name... she has never wanted to or attempted it before and did it all by herself!  Proud almost 4 year old...

January 23 - Birthday breakfast!  She got a new pjs, bows, a skirt, and a shirt (pink, of course!) from Mommy and Daddy and some new markers and princess coloring pages from Jack

Looking so big!

Working on a princess puzzle in her room with the traveling bear from her preschool class

Playing bricks with Jack

Snow and Easter Egg Hunt

The poor blog is so far behind.  I'm really going to make an effort to post more often, even if it is just a quick post.  We've had a great month in Baltimore.  Sadly, it is still cold (as in, hats and gloves most days), but surely spring is coming soon.  I know I will be thankful for living up here when July and August roll around!

This weekend we went to an Easter Egg Hunt at the church where Elise goes to preschool.  The kids had a great time decorating bags, playing games (Elise won a prize by throwing a bean bag in a really small hole!), collecting Easter eggs, and learning about the events leading up to Jesus's death and resurrection.  The church did a great job.  Here are the kids hunting for eggs...

And saying "cheese" but of course not looking at the camera...

Elise was so excited that she got to have part of a lollipop. 

Super cheese

Kids being silly.  They love each other so much!

Then today we actually got a lot of snow.  It hasn't snowed too much in March so we weren't expecting much but we actually got about 5 inches.  Of course, I had already put away all the snow pants and couldn't find them in the storage area, so no sledding, but the kids still had fun!

Jack looks so big here!  

Throwing a "snowball"

Mommy was a popular target for snowballs

You can see how deep the snow is...

Elise is 4!

Happy 4th Birthday, Elise!  We love our sweet, silly, smart, and strong-willed little girl :)  She is growing up waaay too fast.  We are so, so blessed to be her parents.  The 4 year old summary is coming soon.  For now, here are some pictures from her family birthday party in Texas in early January.  Thanks to Bryan and Michelle for documenting it for us!  I absolutely love the facial expressions in these pictures.  She loved having all her grandparents, aunts, and uncles together to celebrate her special day in person :)

The very happy birthday girl!

Jack REALLY wanted her cupcake...

Jack - 21 months

Yet another month has flown by.  We adore this sweet little boy.  Seriously, this is my favorite age with him to date.  He is silly, super polite, sweet, playful, obedient, very talkative, and 100% daddy's little boy.  Happy 1 3/4, Jack!

Stats:  Need to measure height and weight.  He's recently outgrown some clothes so I think he has gotten taller.  Heavier, probably not :)  He wears 18-24 month and some 2T tops and mostly 12-18 month pants, size 2T pajamas, and size 7 shoes.  Updated:  Height is approximately 34.5 inches and weight is approximately 24 lbs, with fuzzy pajamas on :)

Sleeping: Sleep is still great.  He goes to bed between 7 and 7:30 and is usually up around 7 just talking in his crib.  I usually get him up around 7:15.  He takes a 2.5ish hour nap from about 12:30-3.

Eating:  Eating is still okay.  He always eats a great breakfast and loves eggs, bacon, pancakes, oatmeal, bagels, waffles, dry cereal (current favorite is plain Cheerios), yogurt, fruit, etc.  Lunch and dinner are hit or miss.  He is offered 3-4 items that are similar or the exact same as the rest of us are eating and if he doesn't choose to eat much, then that's his choice :)  He likes all fruit, meat sometimes, beans sometimes, and he will finally eat regular cheese again.  I've tried peanut butter again and it doesn't make the skin around his mouth red, so he gets that sometimes instead of almond butter.  His favorite (ok, only) vegetables are sweet potatoes and pureed butternut squash.  I still make purees with fruits and green vegetables about 5 times a week, and he enjoys eating them out of a bowl or in a Sili Squeeze.  He uses a fork and spoon well and enjoys his newfound independence with food that he can spoon feed himself.  Mama enjoys this, too!  His all time favorite food is macaroni.  I walked into Panera Bread the other day to pick up some bagels, and he immediately started saying "rah roni peeeez, rah roni peeez" and only gave it up when I promised part of a bagel.  His favorite snacks are currently raisins, pretzel goldfish, healthy granola bars, fruit, or squeeze packs.  He drinks probably 90% water and 10% whole or 2% milk.  This month he finally started saying "water" or "my water cup" instead of "mytraw" (my straw, which took us a long time to decipher!).

Playing:  Jack will play for a long time with a lot of different toys, but his favorites this month are the trampoline, duplo car track, magnets (letters, shapes, numbers, words, etc), balls, and stacking cups.  He has one train car and loves trains, so I think we will probably go that route for his 2nd birthday.  Any opinions on Thomas vs. Chuggington or other brands?  He absolutely adores jumping on the trampoline and I have counted 30-40 consecutive jumps on multiple occasions.  He still loves to "pay football dada" and run around and chase or be chased by us.  Elise brightens his world and he always wants to know where she is and what she is doing.  He gets so excited when it's time to get in the van to go pick her up from preschool.

Learning:  Jack is such a little chatterbox.  He is constantly using short sentences and phrases to narrate his day.  He can now answer "or" questions instead of just repeating what I said.  He always points out colors, numbers, letters, and shapes.  He knows almost all of the lowercase letters now and a lot of new shapes, like octagon, pentagon, parallelogram, trapezoid, etc.  He's started picking up on letter sounds and will sometimes randomly say them while playing with his magnets, like "Z Z zuh zuh zuh".  He often stacks 6-8 small blocks on top of each other before they fall.  He normally tells me when he goes #2 and asks for a new diaper.  He likes to sit on the potty but hasn't done anything on it yet.

Other Likes:  Riding in the car, stroller, and Beco, playing with his peeps, climbing, hiding, getting his vitamins, music
Dislikes:  Getting nails or hair cut, when Boss takes a piece of food out of his hand (he bawls and bawls, which is why he eats most snacks while strapped in the booster chair), when someone says that it's nap time or bed time

Funny Sayings:  The funny sayings have started and his little voice is so sweet.

(during a diaper change)
Daddy:  "Who loves you, Jack?"
Jack:  "Mama wuvs you.  Daddy wuvs you.  Weeese wuvs you.  Payoom (playroom) wuvs you!"

(in the morning after going to look for Daddy)
"Here he is!  Get up, Dad!"

Me:  "Jack, where are your shoes?"
Jack:  (walks over to front closet)  "My shoes.  I found it!  Here it is!"

Me:  (trying to distract him while making dinner) "Jack, where is your (car) track?"
Jack: (trying to lead me to the playroom to the track that Daddy made) "Come on, Mom!  I found it!  Play track.  Daddy did it!"

(when seeing something new)
"That called?" or "This called?"

Random adult at the store:  "Hi there, how are you?"
Jack:  "I fine."
Random adult:  "What is your name?"
Jack:  "Gak."
Random adult:  "How old are you?"
Jack:  "Two!"
Me:  "How old are you really?"
Jack:  "One half!"

Since our house is split level, I throw the dirty clothes over the railing upstairs to get them close to the basement door.  One morning, Jack's diaper had leaked and he absolutely did not want to get out of his beloved fire truck pajamas.  After I threw them downstairs, he cried and kept saying "Tuck mamas want to get!  Tuck mamas want to get!"  He started going down the stairs after them until they were in his way, and then politely said "Cue me, tuck mamas."  (Excuse me, truck pajamas.  Ha!)

I have taken very few pictures lately but here are some of him from our family photo shoot in early January.  He does not get the "smile at the camera" concept :)  Happy 21 months, little buddy!

Jack - 20 months

Jack's 20th month of life was so fun!  We spent most of this month, from Dec 22 - Jan 7, visiting family and friends in Texas and he did great.  He definitely is a handful on a 3.5 hour airplane ride (thank goodness for direct flights!) but he put on a show for everyone that he saw in Texas.  He slept great, ate okay (normal for him), and had a blast playing with everyone.  He was not into opening Christmas presents this year, but his sister graciously stepped in and took over the unwrapping.

Stats:  He's definitely grown because his feet stay in his 2T footed pajamas now.  I'm guessing he's over 34 inches tall and probably weighs about 25 lbs.  This means he should be wearing 12-18 month clothes according to weight and 2T clothes according to height.  Thank goodness for adjustable waist pants!  He's got clothes in that whole range of sizes that he can wear.  His size 7 shoes still fit well.

Eating:  Jack came down with a fever soon after we arrived back in Baltimore.  Stomach issues followed, and his eating is still not quite back to normal.  His best meal is usually breakfast.  He likes eggs, bacon, yogurt, fruit, dry cereal, waffles, etc.  He still likes the pureed mixtures in the Sili Squeeze to get his green veggies in.  For some reason, he still refuses to eat cheese unless it is melted.  His favorite food by far is macaroni.

Sleeping:  He is still sleeping very well, even with traveling and the sickness.  He has always adjusted very quickly to the 1 hour time difference between here and Texas.  He goes to bed around 7-7:15 and usually wakes between 7 and 7:30.  He takes a 2.5 hour nap from 12:30ish-3ish.

Playing:  Jack is 100% boy.  He loves all the boy toys, from balls to trucks to cars to trains to blocks and duplos.  He loves to run around and climb.  His favorite books are First 100 Trucks, Flashing Fire Engines, and Tough Trucks.  He loves his mama but he is definitely a daddy's boy.  Anything is better with Daddy, and if Mike is home, Jack drags him around wherever he goes.  He even asks to "Call Daddy please!" during the day.  He also loves his sister, and is actually a lot more tolerant now of her hugs, kisses, and wrestling.  He loves to hide with her under the quilt on her bed.

Learning:  He's mastered the rest of his colors (to include black, white, purple, etc), numbers 1-10, and capital letters.  He knows about half of the lowercase letters, and I'm sure he will pick up the rest quickly once I start working on it.  He still talks all the time in a mostly 2-4 word phrases/very basic sentences.  He likes to "narrate" his day.  He has picked up on a lot of random phrases that we say and uses them appropriately.  We were watching The Letter Factory downstairs a few days ago and he walked over to the stairs, turned, smiled, and said "Right back!", climbed up the stairs, and got the letter magnet off the fridge and brought it back down.  He is very good at walking down the stairs now and either holds the wall or the rail depending on which set he is on.  I don't let him go on the hard stairs in the kitchen and he knows to go to the carpeted stairs instead.  He learned how to jump off of 2 feet in December.  We just got a trampoline for the basement (thanks, Grandma Frances!) and he can now jump 10-15 times in a row on both feet.  So cute!  I should post a video.  He is pretty good at sharing toys in the playroom (this might be because he and Elise usually aren't playing with the same thing) and we are working on the concept of taking turns with the trampoline.  Currently, while she is jumping and he is waiting, he repeatedly says things like, "My turn.  My trampoline.  My jumping.  Very high.  MY TURN!  MY TURN!  Tampoline!  Tampoline!"  He is very polite and mostly obedient... sometimes more so than his sister :)  He often says please and thank you without being prompted.

We love this sweet little guy!  Happy 20 months, Jack!

"hiding" with Elise

 playing with his buddy Luke (apparently they were not in the mood to smile for the camera, but at least they are both looking!)