I have kids now. Not a baby and a toddler, but kids. Emme is just small enough -- and cries enough -- to make me feel a little like I still have a baby, but she's definitively a toddler. She has this funny little gait, more noticeable in her bulky cloth diapers, and just yesterday climbed into her booster seat at dinner for the first time. And while Oliver has his moments as a "little guy," his burgeoning vocabulary, turn of phrase, and emotional seesawing position him solidly as a preschooler. And mostly, the kids are all right.
Oliver is just over two months away from turning four years old. He clearly meets and exceeds all of the developmental milestones and probably has the most room for improvement on fine motor skills (ie. holding a pencil, drawing shapes, writing letters) though he has already made some progress. He can count to 12 now but needs some help after that to keep the teens in order. He can add and subtract with manipulatives. He has some basic phonics knowledge and can spell or "read" a few words from memory. He's strong, a good runner and walker, and he loves to jump. His vocabulary is rapidly increasingly, and we're working with him gently on his grammatical errors (like past tense of irregular verbs) and pronunciation (like the th sound). When he makes an error, I just repeat it back to him correctly and let him pick up on it himself. He has some sophisticated words ("cahoots"), some mature turns of phrase ("Oh, sorry, sorry, I mean..." or "Sure, mom"), and some original terminology ("light naps" and "dark naps" for daytime naps and nighttime sleep, respectively). He's getting a lot better in water even though he can't really swim. He likes to dive underwater and can hold his breath for increasing periods of time. He still gets nervous about letting go of me in the water, even with a life vest on, but we're getting there. We're dealing with some of behavioral issues. For the last month or so, Oliver has been mimicking Emme's babyish noises and psuedo-words. When she screams, he screams. Last weekend he got into a phase of being bossy -- telling me and Wes (whom he, more often than not, calls by name) what to do. We've settled on a response of admonition, rephrasing his statement more appropriately, and having talks before bedtime about what he did well during the day and what he needs to work on. He doesn't nap well on the weekend, something I'm still working on, and when he gets overly tired his behavior completely falls apart. I'm really trying to encourage him to be an example for Emme -- in talking properly so she can learn her words, in discouraging her when she screams rather than mimicking her, and so forth. It works better some days than others. I see improvement overall, even though there's frustrations day to day. He still has strange emotional reactions. He cries at the drop of the hat over the strangest things -- today because he was sad about Emme sitting in his old car seat, and because he said he liked an orange booster seat. This morning was something else so random I don't even remember what it was. With redirection, it usually passes fairly quickly. He's still a good boy, really happy, and genuinely sweet with his sister.
Emme will be 18 months in a few weeks. She is just the funniest little thing. She is increasingly loud these days. It's not just crying -- which has intensified at bedtime in the past week -- but just loud yelling throughout the day and especially at mealtimes. Sometimes she seems to do it because no one is paying attention to what she wants. Other times, she seems to just like hearing her own voice. I've started asking her to be quieter at mealtimes at the very least, just so Wes and I can hear each other. She also got her first time out today for hitting Oliver. I was hesitant to start this, as she seems so young, but I know I began using them with Oliver at the same age. She wailed the entire time, but I'm hoping it discourages the behavior. She seems to have a significant receptive vocabulary. Even her teachers at daycare have commented on it. She can follow directions really well. Her productive vocabulary is increasing as well -- she has mama, daddy, Aw-ver (for Oliver), Cille (for Lucy), dog, baby, sippy (for zippy cup), water (she loves the water), bath, and things that sound like bird, book, ball, more, milk, please. I can say simple words to her and she'll try to say them back. She repeated but not used independently words like car and truck and pee and poop. I think by 19 or 20 months, she'll be speaking almost as well as Oliver did at 2 years old. She just moved up to the one-year-old class at daycare recently, which should help that development. The transition went better than most of us expected, given her adoration for the lead teacher in the infant room. She doesn't seem entirely "at home" in her new classroom, but she doesn't cry or cling to me, either. In a few weeks, it will get better. For now, she is consoled with the greater access to the toddler playground that the new classroom permits. Today she came home just covered in sand and dirt. I sat her on the frog potty for the first time yesterday. We read two books, sang two songs, and then gave up. She likes to sit on it (often fully clothed), but clearly doesn't have any idea what to do there yet. She is playing more with toys now. She likes to put on the beads, carry around small items like the Lego people, and push trucks like Oliver does. She mimics his activities more in play than elsewhere. Recently, the kids have been "cooking" together. Oliver starts by asking me what I want, and then Emme gets involved with bringing me imaginary food. Sometimes Oliver asks her if they have something I've ordered, and she'll shake her head yes or no. It's a riot. She still gets fussy and wants held a lot, but usually when she's tired. She's gotten in the habit of demanding breakfast the seconds he wakes up in the morning. And in true big girl fashion, she's now moved out of the crib and onto a mattress on the floor. The quilt and cute sheets I ordered for her came in the mail today, and her bed is on order and should come at some point in July. She's been having screaming fits at bedtime, sometimes an hour or so into sleep, that are hard to quell. We've gone to her fairly quickly so far, but starting tonight we're trying to let her go a little longer to get used to her new setting. With the heat (the forecast is 100 or hotter for the foreseeable future) and longer days of sunlight, both the kids are short on sleep. We're putting them both to bed earlier, but my sense is that they would benefit from more rest than they're getting. We scheduled Emme's next surgery for November 5, which gives us several more months of no doctor's appointments or casts.
And so my kids grow up a little more -- learning to do new things, say new things, trying out behaviors good and bad. Ob-la-di, ob-la-da.
Oliver is just over two months away from turning four years old. He clearly meets and exceeds all of the developmental milestones and probably has the most room for improvement on fine motor skills (ie. holding a pencil, drawing shapes, writing letters) though he has already made some progress. He can count to 12 now but needs some help after that to keep the teens in order. He can add and subtract with manipulatives. He has some basic phonics knowledge and can spell or "read" a few words from memory. He's strong, a good runner and walker, and he loves to jump. His vocabulary is rapidly increasingly, and we're working with him gently on his grammatical errors (like past tense of irregular verbs) and pronunciation (like the th sound). When he makes an error, I just repeat it back to him correctly and let him pick up on it himself. He has some sophisticated words ("cahoots"), some mature turns of phrase ("Oh, sorry, sorry, I mean..." or "Sure, mom"), and some original terminology ("light naps" and "dark naps" for daytime naps and nighttime sleep, respectively). He's getting a lot better in water even though he can't really swim. He likes to dive underwater and can hold his breath for increasing periods of time. He still gets nervous about letting go of me in the water, even with a life vest on, but we're getting there. We're dealing with some of behavioral issues. For the last month or so, Oliver has been mimicking Emme's babyish noises and psuedo-words. When she screams, he screams. Last weekend he got into a phase of being bossy -- telling me and Wes (whom he, more often than not, calls by name) what to do. We've settled on a response of admonition, rephrasing his statement more appropriately, and having talks before bedtime about what he did well during the day and what he needs to work on. He doesn't nap well on the weekend, something I'm still working on, and when he gets overly tired his behavior completely falls apart. I'm really trying to encourage him to be an example for Emme -- in talking properly so she can learn her words, in discouraging her when she screams rather than mimicking her, and so forth. It works better some days than others. I see improvement overall, even though there's frustrations day to day. He still has strange emotional reactions. He cries at the drop of the hat over the strangest things -- today because he was sad about Emme sitting in his old car seat, and because he said he liked an orange booster seat. This morning was something else so random I don't even remember what it was. With redirection, it usually passes fairly quickly. He's still a good boy, really happy, and genuinely sweet with his sister.
Emme will be 18 months in a few weeks. She is just the funniest little thing. She is increasingly loud these days. It's not just crying -- which has intensified at bedtime in the past week -- but just loud yelling throughout the day and especially at mealtimes. Sometimes she seems to do it because no one is paying attention to what she wants. Other times, she seems to just like hearing her own voice. I've started asking her to be quieter at mealtimes at the very least, just so Wes and I can hear each other. She also got her first time out today for hitting Oliver. I was hesitant to start this, as she seems so young, but I know I began using them with Oliver at the same age. She wailed the entire time, but I'm hoping it discourages the behavior. She seems to have a significant receptive vocabulary. Even her teachers at daycare have commented on it. She can follow directions really well. Her productive vocabulary is increasing as well -- she has mama, daddy, Aw-ver (for Oliver), Cille (for Lucy), dog, baby, sippy (for zippy cup), water (she loves the water), bath, and things that sound like bird, book, ball, more, milk, please. I can say simple words to her and she'll try to say them back. She repeated but not used independently words like car and truck and pee and poop. I think by 19 or 20 months, she'll be speaking almost as well as Oliver did at 2 years old. She just moved up to the one-year-old class at daycare recently, which should help that development. The transition went better than most of us expected, given her adoration for the lead teacher in the infant room. She doesn't seem entirely "at home" in her new classroom, but she doesn't cry or cling to me, either. In a few weeks, it will get better. For now, she is consoled with the greater access to the toddler playground that the new classroom permits. Today she came home just covered in sand and dirt. I sat her on the frog potty for the first time yesterday. We read two books, sang two songs, and then gave up. She likes to sit on it (often fully clothed), but clearly doesn't have any idea what to do there yet. She is playing more with toys now. She likes to put on the beads, carry around small items like the Lego people, and push trucks like Oliver does. She mimics his activities more in play than elsewhere. Recently, the kids have been "cooking" together. Oliver starts by asking me what I want, and then Emme gets involved with bringing me imaginary food. Sometimes Oliver asks her if they have something I've ordered, and she'll shake her head yes or no. It's a riot. She still gets fussy and wants held a lot, but usually when she's tired. She's gotten in the habit of demanding breakfast the seconds he wakes up in the morning. And in true big girl fashion, she's now moved out of the crib and onto a mattress on the floor. The quilt and cute sheets I ordered for her came in the mail today, and her bed is on order and should come at some point in July. She's been having screaming fits at bedtime, sometimes an hour or so into sleep, that are hard to quell. We've gone to her fairly quickly so far, but starting tonight we're trying to let her go a little longer to get used to her new setting. With the heat (the forecast is 100 or hotter for the foreseeable future) and longer days of sunlight, both the kids are short on sleep. We're putting them both to bed earlier, but my sense is that they would benefit from more rest than they're getting. We scheduled Emme's next surgery for November 5, which gives us several more months of no doctor's appointments or casts.
And so my kids grow up a little more -- learning to do new things, say new things, trying out behaviors good and bad. Ob-la-di, ob-la-da.
