Update on the Kids
It has been a while since I posted anything and even longer since I gave much of an update on the kids. So here it goes.
In the education realm, Ellis is sounding out words and knows several on sight. Her teachers have given her a series of books with sight words and pictures for the bigger words. As you move into the higher levels, the pictures go away and the words get more plentiful. She is doing great with it. Her hand-writing is also improving, and she is mastering lower case. But she still defaults to upper case writing. Also, Ellis is particularly proud that she counted to 400 last weekend.
Ellis loves drawing and is still improving. She is very creative and particularly impresses us with the projects she comes up with on her own. Here is a record player...
Ellis has gotten much more adventurous. At the park, she spins uncontrollably on the spinny thing, gets up and walks off like it is nothing. She also slides down slides upside down and backwards. She loves gymnastics class and is good at swinging but is struggling with climbing.
She loves superheroes, especially Spider-Man and Thor (who she always refers to as "The Mighty Thor"). Superheroes beat princesses, not completely but mostly.
If there was any doubt that Ellis is my child, she is demonstrating her link to me in her personality. She is quite bossy and often melodramatic. I punished her the other day for an attitude problem, sending her into time out and threatening to take TV away if she didn't turn things around. Her response: "Maybe I shouldn't watch TV again. Maybe I shouldn't have any toys." Yep. Some of you may recognize this behavior from about 35 years ago...She later told me she doesn't like the fact that everyone tells her what to do all the time. We negotiated some rules that she owned and that made her feel better.
My little girl is also for gentle and playful with Anders, though she is also a bit of a tattle tale. One of the things I love the most is she is still very cuddly. Here she is bringing the 49ers luck in the Superbowl. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to over come the mess they made in the 1st half.
As for Anders, he is a little like living with the Hulk. He is a super nice Bruce Banner, very happy and giggly -- until he isn't. And for the record, you wouldn't like him when he is angry. He is stubborn and will fuss out of anger. But he laughs more freely than anyone I can think of. He is also a wild man who will head butt you as soon as he'd hug you.
Anders hates hearing Ellis upset. When it happens, he runs up to her, says her name and pets her. Even if she isn't upset, he likes to keep track of where she is. And "she is sleeping" is not an acceptable answer.
He has been slow to be verbal. But he does have a couple of sentences now. He first 2 sentences, which sound a lot alike, were "I want that" and "I want to dance." Rather than use words to tell you what he wants, he is more likely to point in the general direction for what he wants. Sometimes, he just wants attention by pointing. If you actually try to find the thing he is pointing at, you never find it.
His favorite food is crackers and peanut butter, which he calls ca-ca and buh. He signs both. Speaking of signs, he loves "Signing Time" but doesn't necessarily sign much. He seems
confident that he will get what he wants with grunts and points and is
almost defiant about clear verbal communication.
His sleep is all over the place. One week he will sleep until 6:30, the next 7:15, the next 7, sometimes almost 8. The past few nights he has woke up at 4 and is wide awake. I put him in the pack and play and let him cry until he goes back to sleep. 4 is not acceptable. It takes a while.
His naps are predictable in that they will happen. If you don't get him to his crib, he will shame you by laying down on the floor and going to sleep. But the length is totally unpredictably. It is usually 2 hours, but sometimes it is 1 hour and others it is 4 hours. And he will tell you when he is tired. He walks up to me, pats my lap and says, "Mama. Bed."
In the education realm, Ellis is sounding out words and knows several on sight. Her teachers have given her a series of books with sight words and pictures for the bigger words. As you move into the higher levels, the pictures go away and the words get more plentiful. She is doing great with it. Her hand-writing is also improving, and she is mastering lower case. But she still defaults to upper case writing. Also, Ellis is particularly proud that she counted to 400 last weekend.
Ellis loves drawing and is still improving. She is very creative and particularly impresses us with the projects she comes up with on her own. Here is a record player...
Ellis has gotten much more adventurous. At the park, she spins uncontrollably on the spinny thing, gets up and walks off like it is nothing. She also slides down slides upside down and backwards. She loves gymnastics class and is good at swinging but is struggling with climbing.
She loves superheroes, especially Spider-Man and Thor (who she always refers to as "The Mighty Thor"). Superheroes beat princesses, not completely but mostly.
If there was any doubt that Ellis is my child, she is demonstrating her link to me in her personality. She is quite bossy and often melodramatic. I punished her the other day for an attitude problem, sending her into time out and threatening to take TV away if she didn't turn things around. Her response: "Maybe I shouldn't watch TV again. Maybe I shouldn't have any toys." Yep. Some of you may recognize this behavior from about 35 years ago...She later told me she doesn't like the fact that everyone tells her what to do all the time. We negotiated some rules that she owned and that made her feel better.
My little girl is also for gentle and playful with Anders, though she is also a bit of a tattle tale. One of the things I love the most is she is still very cuddly. Here she is bringing the 49ers luck in the Superbowl. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to over come the mess they made in the 1st half.
As for Anders, he is a little like living with the Hulk. He is a super nice Bruce Banner, very happy and giggly -- until he isn't. And for the record, you wouldn't like him when he is angry. He is stubborn and will fuss out of anger. But he laughs more freely than anyone I can think of. He is also a wild man who will head butt you as soon as he'd hug you.
Anders hates hearing Ellis upset. When it happens, he runs up to her, says her name and pets her. Even if she isn't upset, he likes to keep track of where she is. And "she is sleeping" is not an acceptable answer.
He has been slow to be verbal. But he does have a couple of sentences now. He first 2 sentences, which sound a lot alike, were "I want that" and "I want to dance." Rather than use words to tell you what he wants, he is more likely to point in the general direction for what he wants. Sometimes, he just wants attention by pointing. If you actually try to find the thing he is pointing at, you never find it.
His sleep is all over the place. One week he will sleep until 6:30, the next 7:15, the next 7, sometimes almost 8. The past few nights he has woke up at 4 and is wide awake. I put him in the pack and play and let him cry until he goes back to sleep. 4 is not acceptable. It takes a while.
His naps are predictable in that they will happen. If you don't get him to his crib, he will shame you by laying down on the floor and going to sleep. But the length is totally unpredictably. It is usually 2 hours, but sometimes it is 1 hour and others it is 4 hours. And he will tell you when he is tired. He walks up to me, pats my lap and says, "Mama. Bed."
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