Friday, June 7, 2013

Monthly Greetham Update

Evelyn is now 2 years and 4 months!
-Where to start? Disclaimer: Evelyn's update is quite lengthy this month, there are just lots of things I want to document because they are special and so I can look back on when her siblings are this age :) But if you stick with me, you will be rewarded with a video of Evelyn that may just be my favorite video of her to date.
-She is growing and developing so much. Just this past week we had an appointment and she is in the 97% for height & over 75% for weight. The percentile charts don't mean a whole lot to me because they are just comparing to other kids her age and I know every kid grows differently and has growth spurt at different times, but it was just interesting this time because for the first almost 2 years of her life she was consistently in the 50% for both height and weight. So she has definitely shot up in the past several months! They said on the charts she is taller than the average 3 year old, which is (obviously) a year older than her. But her weight for height was 40%, so she is "slender" as they put it. Which i coulda told you that. The girl is skinny!
-She continues to love to learn, and we have enjoyed some different learning activities, thanks to my teacher friend, Deanna who has let us borrow and use several different things. I am not sure why I am always so surprised with how much she loves new learning activities, but it is exciting to me and has really inspired me to be more intentional with teaching her, because she is a sponge!
-She still asks at least 3 times a day to do "Arts & Craps". Yes, she still says "craps"...lol I really do try and correct her!
- She is in full on sing-mode. She sings all the time! And it is hilarious because yes, she will sing songs we've taught her or from Sunday School (Jesus Loves Me, Praise Him, Father Abraham, are some of the more frequent ones) but then she will just make up songs about whatever she is doing and it is soooo funny! I keep trying to get one on video but if she sees me videoing her, it's all out the window :)
-One of my favorite new things from this month is our institution of what we call "Quiet Time". When Hunter goes down for his morning nap, Evelyn sits on the couch with a handful of books and has to sit still, with no talking, and read her books. I also play a radio segment from Adventures in Odyssey so she can listen to that as well. The point of this is to teach her how to sit still, how to be content playing with what she has at the moment, and self-control (more on that later). We have decided that we are going to start working on having Evelyn in the church service with us so this is our way to prepare her for that. The Adventures in Odyssey programs are 25 minutes and she does amazing for the whole time, she loves quiet time and asks for it every day which totally surprised me. Yesterday I heard that the program was nearing the end so I snuck in and clicked it back to the middle so she was actually in quiet time for 35 minutes (lol) sneaky mommy.... I just ordered some CDs from the library of it so hopefully we can work our way up to longer periods of time easier, because as soon as the "episode" is over, she knows she is done and is ready to get up.
- Self- control. Forest & I have realized that a lot of Evelyn's main discipline issues and struggles stem from a lack of self-control. She has had a major relapse in potty training (which has been so frustrating for me) and since she had done so well for a long time, we know it is an issue of self- control. She also  has had some intense emotional outbursts and tantrums recently and has difficulty moving on when things don't go her way. Yes, I know she is two, but we seriously want to nip this in the bud and are trying to take action against it. We want Evelyn to be self-controlled, respectful, content, and thankful and noticing the struggle in these areas we are trying to help her now.





This video makes me laugh so much at the end. It basically is a perfect picture of her personality :-)

Hunter is now 10 months!
-This kid has gone through a serious transformation. Since birth, he has been very mellow, chill, and seemed content with where he was and not constantly pushing on the the next thing development-wise (like his sister has always been). And that was fine with me, I loved his relaxed personality and Forest & I were convinced he would not be as early of a walker or mover as Evelyn. But this past month, he is a new kid! It was almost literally an overnight transformation. He was still doing his weird army-crawl around and one day he started to attempt to pull up on things. Well the next day he was successfully pulling up on everything and was shimmying around the coffee table like a pro. Now he has finally decided to do a regular crawl, but would prefer standing and walking behind his walker around the living room, which is funny to me because he looks so tiny to be walking around by himself (withtout one of us helping him) and the kid is everywhere! Which means he is getting into absolutely everything, pulling things off of tables, pulling things onto himself, and grabbing everything in sight. If my life wasn't crazy before, it definitely is now!
- On a very related note, we very much enjoy our regular playtime in the pack and play :) Boundaries are a wonderful thing. He likes being in the pack and play for a little while so I definitely take advantage of the time I have knowing he is confined and can stay out of trouble.
-So we are entering the phase of early discipline, teaching him what he is and isn't allowed to touch. So he has heard 'That is a no!' many times recently. And every time he looks thoroughly offended and gets this terribly sad look on his face. Super cute, though!
-He is eating basically everything we are eating now, which is pretty fun. It seems weird that now I give him his own little plate of dinner (obviously cut into appropriately sized pieces) and he eats it right up. HIs favorite things are blueberries, cheese, black beans, pinto beans, rice, oranges, and shredded chicken. Oh, and crackers.
-He doesn't really talk a whole lot, so I am really trying to help him along in that area.
-And really weird, last month I said he broke tooth #5 & #6...because he clearly has #5 and #6 was barely just at the surface and about to come through. Well a month later it hasn't actually came through which is perplexing to me because it looks like it will cut through any day...for the past month. Oh, well :)
Enjoying a rare moment where he actually falls asleep with me. This was becasue he missed his regular nap because he accompanied me at a wedding shower that morning :)