In the order of the notes I took here are some of what Max and Emma have been up to 18-21 months:
-Max and Emma's favorite thing to do right now is look for "meows" (especially Emma, she is obsessed!)
-They both LOVE to play ring around the rosy and it's so stinking cute! (5/10/12)
-They have finally stopped crying every time I drop them off at MDO and the kids korner at the gym YAY! (5/10/12)
-They both started out hating the splash pad, but are really starting to warm up to it and are getting more courageous each time we go, however there fav thing to play with remains the water fountain.
-We all took a road trip to Lubbock for Uncle Tim's graduation from Texas Tech and the poor babies were in the car for 9 hours!!!! But they did sooooo good and were so patient. They also surprisingly slept really well while we were there. The hotel (The Overton) did not have a bath tub, so that was interesting, let's just say the babies were not big fans of the shower! On the day of graduation, we all got to go down onto the football field and take pictures, tour the locker room, ect - it was pretty cool. The babies loved to be able to just run around. Of course, they were dressed in their finest raiders gear; I made a super cute tutu for Emma, bought an even cuter shirt for her on etsy and found Max a little raider t-shirt, they were so stylin!
And they just LOVE their Uncle Tim! Emma kept trying to get in every.single.picture with Tim - so stinkin cute! Their cuteness faded pretty quickly at the restaurant that night though - they were a HOT MESS! Which only fueled our desire to never leave the house again! Ugh, such a beating! (5/12)
-Hallelujah! MDO started back up again June 5th! Praise the Lord for MDO, for it is my saving grace! I don't know how I'm going to survive August when they are out of "school" for 6 WEEKS! They have moved up to the toddler class this summer and will now be taking naps on nap mats (ha! yeah right!) or so I thought, they have actually been doing remarkably w,ell - I was shocked! They also have to be able to feed themselves at lunch, which is making lunches a little more challenging - but mostly just for Emma (she is so finicky sometimes and will often go on a food strike), and most of the time will only eat cheese, yogurt, and applesauce, and since I can't send yogurt, her lunch (or at least the part she eats) consists of an applesauce pouch and shredded cheese (her current fav form of cheese and the only kind she will eat - high maintenance much?!). I so wish they would make yogurt in those little pouches, life would be so much easier - or better yet, sell the empty pouches that you can refill yourself! I'm sure they'll come out with those as soon as the babies have mastered feeding themselves!
-Emma is talking up a storm, picking up words left and right and mimicking everything you say and do. She's turning into quite a little mommy and sooo bossy! Incidentally, she picked up the phrase "oh shit" and has used it quite appropriately I might add - little stinker! J and I didn't even realize that we had said that - oops! Lesson learned! She has since stopped saying it, I guess because she hasn't heard it again, just goes to show how much you as a parent are a model for your kids, their behavior, their morals, their values, and their words! Max is also finally picking up more words too, and finally getting in more teeth - he is such a late teething - even now (8/11/12) at almost 2 he still doesn't have all his teeth, and I'm not talking molars here people, I'm talking the ones up front on the bottom - crazy!
-Max is still my rock star eater, he's my little disposal! I swear sometimes he must have hollow legs! Most nights his little belly gets so full and round that he looks like one of those poor malnourished African babies with swollen bellies! I really don't know how he continues to be on the way low end of his growth chart every time we have a check up, the kid is an eating machine!
-As of 6/26/12, both babies are about 24.5 pounds (I can finally weigh them on our scale at home)
-We went on our first family vacation to the beach June 17-21! We went to Port Aransas with Mimi and Poppi and stayed at the Executive Keys right on the beach. My family has stayed here for years and years and years - I grew up coming and staying here. To practice for the beach, we took the kids to Lynn Creek Park in Grand Prairie (they have a beach right on Joe Pool Lake), and they did really well - they really seemed to like sitting on the surf and letting the waves roll over their legs. So, as soon as we got to the condo, we unloaded and headed down to the beach around 5p, and... they LOVED it! Yay!! They were so excited and were having so much fun - I wish we could have stayed out there longer.
Max and Poppi
Max walking back to the condo, wet pants falling down and two flowers in his hands!
We couldn't wait for morning to come so we could go back out there and see everything new through the eyes of a child, but alas, morning came, we walked down to the beach and... the HATED it! What happened to the babies from yesterday that loved it?! What could have possibly happened since last night? Very confusing. They were both very trepidatious of the water and waves and very clingy. Max seemed to be a little more accepting to the idea of playing in the waves, but Emma - my supposed dare devil - wanted little to do with it - she was much more interested in chasing seagulls, picking up trash, and chatting with, our neighboring beach goers. We hoped that as the vacation continued that they would warm up to the beach and love it again like they did on day 1, but sadly it just never happened :( But they did seem to have fun playing in the sand, except for when it got in Emma's eye :( Max decided that he was part fish while we there, swimming away in the pool, jumping off the side into the pool completely fearless! (with his puddle jumper on of course) Emma remained guarded and unsure about the pool - hopefully she'll get over her fear and become a little fish like her brother. And I can't forget to mention Max's severe diarrhea which decided to rear it's ugly head (no pun intended) from the time we Dallas, all during the vacation and upon returning home - fun times. Can anyone say poop explosion in the car seat? Yeah, that's just what you want at 10 o'clock at night, after being in the car for about 6 hours. What a greeting for my parents too - and at their new house to top it off! Great way to christen the new house right?! As if that weren't bad enough, just before we were leaving for the coast (we were literally picking up the babies to put them in the car) Max decides it's a good time to puke all over Jason and the floor! Then while eating at a restaurant in Port A - Max once again puked up all of his dinner on the table. We are becoming quite the experts at cleaning up Max's puke at restaurants - I think this was the 3rd or 4th time - we are so good in fact, that I don't think other patrons are even aware that anything has happened - we just spring right into action - we're quite the team Jason and I :) Upon coming back to my parents house in Wimbo, we made the colossal mistake of giving Max some milk (he had only been drinking water and pedialyte for the past 5 days) and wouldn't ya know, as soon as he finished, daddy picks him up as they are saying night night to Mimi and Poppi, and he vomits all over Jason (again), the floor (again), the couch, everything! I immediately spring into action, grab him and start heading for the bathroom for bath numero dos of the night, when he proceeds to vomit yet again, all over the floor - Emma was standing right there and starts freaking out - and now Max is crying covered in vomit, Emma is crying surrounded by vomit, Jason is standing there covered and surrounded by vomit and I just look at my poor parents with the most apologetic look I can muster, so very thankful in that moment that they chose hardwood floors throughout the house! Oi vey! Mimi and Poppi's new house may never fully recover from our stay and I'm pretty sure Uncle Jacob got a MAJOR dose of birth control - so much so, that he may become a celebrate for life just to be safe!Vacations are so much fun! So... after 10 hellacious days, we arrive back home, back to our beds, and back to our sweet Lucy, and we resolve to never leave the house again - ever!
-On another note, Emma is completely obsessed with her Poppi :)
-Lately I have been bringing the babies with me to the bathroom every time I need to go potty, partly to show them what the potty is all about and because they just end up banging on the door and screaming "mama" anyways! Emma is very interested in the potty and has been for a while, but I think she's really starting to "get it" now and is realizing that it's not just a cool place to sit and read books! So, this morning we all crowded into the bathroom, I showed her I was going pee pee, and as usual, she wanted her diaper off , so I obliged (even though she never actually does anything, I humor her) and she runs over to her potty, sits down, and I flush the toilet, say bye bye pee pee, and suddenly hear the potty singing and cheering (which is what it does if you go pee in it), and Emma bolts up out of her seat, clapping for herself with a grin from ear to ear, pointing at her pee pee! I was so excited, jumping and clapping! We poured the pee pee in the toilet, flushed it, said bye bye pee pee, and washed our hands (her fav part) - so proud of my smart little princess! Max was still unsure what all the fuss was about - boys!
-In other news, the babies are both almost entirely in 18-24 month clothes, with just a few 12-18s (mostly shorts for Max) - and we even have a few 2T shirts!
-Both babies are really in to animals these days and cars. Emma can even recite the sounds that different animals make, like a cow, a dog, cat, dinosaur, lion, monkey, elephant, and bear (granted the lion, bear and dinosaur are all the same sound!) Max is getting there, he knows the cow, the cat and the dog, but he's getting there! For our beach road trip, I found a video called Cats and Dogs at Half Priced Books that I just knew would be perfect, and sure enough, they LOVED it!! They seriously sat through the ENTIRE movie in the car, completely enthralled, laughing at different parts, meowing at the cats - it was so cute! So yeah, thank you Jesus for Cats and Dogs the movie!
-They turned 20 months while we were on vacation and aren't teenagers anymore - I can't believe that they will be 2 years old in just 4 short months! But, I think we may have started our terrible 2s early! I guess it's time to start thinking about a discipline plan - boo and I thought maybe I would be the first parent ever to have perfectly behaved kids all the time ;)
20-21 months
-Max is learning so many new words! He is really starting to catch up with Emma!
-They are both picking up sign language like crazy and Emma is starting to put 2 and sometimes 3 words together to form little phrases, for example: momma all done (when I finish my dinner)
-Emma is apparently very much ready to start seriously potty training as evidence by her constantly telling me when she needs a new diaper, always wanting to go sit on the potty and subsequently actually going pee pee on the potty! She's also figured out how to take her diaper off - oh joy! Can anyone say duck tape?! So, I think we are going to try and start potty training the last week in July (after "school" is out) - I hope it goes well! Max still has no interest at all - oh well, it's still early.
-Max is FINALLY cutting his two bottom teeth (the ones beside the middle ones) which have been vacant for some time now! He is slobbering like crazy! I don't think he has slobbered and drooled this much since he was little bitty!
-Max only has to master 4 more goals and he will get to graduate from physical therapy! And as of 7/19 he has been doing 3 out of 4 of them fairly consistently at home. Yay Max! I'll be glad to not pay that outrageous bill every month! $$$
-The mystery of the spider/bug bites on Max has finally been solved! Turns out, it all started with one or two bites, which got infected from Max scratching them, then her would touch or scratch another area on his body thus spreading the infection, which would manifest itself into another blistery bite mark, and so on and so on until they were covering his legs and body. We took him to the doctor and got him all hooked up with some antibiotics and some hydrocortizone cream (the antibiotics incidentally are what caused his diarrhea), and they are magically disappearing!
-Max continues to LOVE the pool and "swimming", and jumping in, and splashing! My little fishy! Emma will tolerate it, but that's about it.
-MDO is out for the rest of the summer - wah!!! I may lose all signs of sanity before September when they go back! Lord give me strength and patience!
-Soooo today, (7/19) Emma discovered while in time out, that she could climb out of her pack n play. Awesome. Of course, this would be the day before we leave for my parents house (yes, against our better judgement, and my parents probably too, we are leaving the house again!). So, after seeing several recommendations for it, we bought a pea pod (child's sleeping tent thing) in hopes that she would be able to sleep in it instead. So far, they think it's the greatest toy ever! I don't think I have ever heard/seen them play with each other, laugh and giggle so much, and for so long! They were both a sweaty mess by dinner time - crazy kids! Let's just hope she'll actually sleep in it!
-Pea Pod = epic fail :( Yeah, so that didn't work out so well. But on the bright side, she has not gotten out of her pack n play again since that one time - so that's good.
-Some days Emma will go pee pee on the potty 6 or 7 times, other days, she just sits there, this potty training business is for the birds! But I guess it's one of those necessary evils! I struggle with how much I should actually push her to do it though - right now I am just kinda letting her take the lead on this and we'll see how it goes, but I'm always open for suggestions :)
-I went to the library recently with the babies, and honestly I couldn't even tell you the last time I checked out a book at the library (with the exception of the school library when I was teaching) - maybe high school? My mission was to check out a bunch of child discipline books and see what the experts had to say on the matter. Jason and I both grew up with spankings, and we're not traumatized and consider ourselves pretty well adjusted, but at the same time, there is just something inside me that feels so innately wrong spanking a child while also telling them that hitting his bad, or hurting people is wrong - sounds like that would be really confusing for a child to understand. Anyhoo - I checked out and read the Happiest Toddler on the Block, and while it did make some good points, I just wasn't feelin the whole "toddlerese" speak business - and I'm pretty sure I would get cps called on me for being certifiable insane if I spoke to my children like that in public. So, I started on book #2 - Love and Logic for Early Childhood.
A very short and interesting read - I was pretty familiar with the concepts already since I read the teaching with Love and Logic several years ago. Good stuff. In fact, I decided that this would be the way to go - or at least try it out and see if it was a good fit for our family. I haven't even read book #3! We started with the "Uh-oh" song and quiet time in their room a few days ago, and so far it's working GREAT! After day 1, all I had to do was sing "uh-oh" and Emma would stop whatever she was doing and say "no" and shake her head because she knew what was coming if she didn't. Things have been much more pleasant around her, less fighting for sure! In my limited experience with L&L - I would have to give it 2 thumbs up! I will give you a fair warning and tell you that day one was ROUGH - I think the babies took turns being in quiet time all.day.long! But now, it's not uncommon to go the whole day without a single "quite time out"!
-For sooooo long, we did not really let the babies watch any tv, for several reasons, but recently we have been letting them watch a show here and there, and half the time they are interested and the other half they could care less, unless the Bubble Guppies are on. OMG - I don't know what it is about those Bubble Guppies, but they are entranced by this show - it's like nothing I've ever seen! No other show captures their attention, it's only Bubble Guppies, they even cry is cats and dogs is on because they would rather watch the "uppies". We quickly began to regret exposing them to this show because now that's all they want to do! So, we've started telling them that the "uppies" are sleeping - not sure how long they'll go for that though! I guess there are worse things they could watch, at least this show does teach them stuff!
*Well - that's about it. I'll have to do a separate post on the awesome play kitchen Jason and I made for the babies, and the trip to Wimbo for my dad's surprise 60th bday party. And apparently I will have make a photo bomb post of pics from the last 4 months, so expect that in the near future!
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