Kids update March 2008
We have had a busy month - lots of new changes, activities, and a trip to Florida to visit family and celebrate GiGi’s birthday and Uncle Ryan’s 30th birthday…
This month Rosie really embraced her inner artist and started painting people and smiley faces.
She is really loving it and she is pretty good at making circles and other shapes too - this one she said was a family: the daddy, mommy, little girl, and little baby
She also likes cutting things with her little scissors and I find myself constantly picking up little pieces of paper off the ground.
Rosie also went bowling for the first time this past month and she loved it!
Her friend Holly (Wes and Vicki’s daughter) had her 4th birthday party at a bowling alley and all the kids had such a good time..Rosie was so cute lugging the huge bowling ball around - trying to roll it down the lane (the gutters were blocked off for the kids). There were a couple occasions where I wasn’t sure if the ball would actually make it all the way down the lane…
I don’t think she even cared if she actually knocked over any pins, she just liked the activity of picking up the ball and rolling it…
Rosie has been doing some new cute things lately - she started giving me “thumbs up” - and telling me “good job mommy”…
She also said on the way home one day - “we’re catching up to home”
She has been singing a lot lately - liking The Little Mermaid soundtrack, the White Stripes “My Doorbell” (I think she thinks it is about Dora) and Wayne Newton “Love Grows Where My Rosemary Goes”. She still gets a little shy about her singing, I think she knows she is a little off-key - but it is still so cute!
She is SO smart it blows my mind. She can count (well recite the numbers) to 100 with some prompting (she forgets that 60 comes after 59 - but knows that it follows the pattern 61, 62, 63 … after I help her with numbers 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 etc.) As far as actually counting *things* - she can easily count to 10 and sometimes up to 15-16 before she gets confused. She knows how to type her name on my computer and can open my laptop and find her Dora game, open the program and play it. She can also navigate Noggin.com and the PBS Kids websites to play games on her own. She really wants to try to read and sometimes asks me what certain words are and starts to sound them out and try to read them by herself. She is always pointing out letters to me on signs - usually saying “Look, it’s an R for Rosie!”
She has been a real handful though, still going through a defiant phase where she likes to scream “NO” at me - refuse to do things like get dressed or get in the car. Bedtime sometimes erupts into a screaming and crying match - and she is always trying to bargain “one more book” or “just one more minute”. And if we give in to “one more” - she comes back with “Ok, just TWO more”… always trying to get the most out of something…
She always wants to do things on her own, carry things by herself, she gets dressed by herself now, and can even open all the drawers and pick out her own clothes in the morning. She goes to the bathroom all the time by herself, and really only needs help washing her hands. On the way to Florida, she insisted on wearing her backpack and pulling her luggage all by herself…
Speaking of Florida, it was a great time seeing everyone in the family. We had fun at Ryan’s 30th birthday party, we went out to a nice dinner for my mom’s birthday (and the girls had fun helping me make her birthday cake)
And we got to the beach a couple times - both Rosie and Sammy loved playing in the sand…
Sammy is now 8 months old and he is constantly moving - crawling so fast - cruising everywhere - he just does not ever want to sit or stop moving - and he is into EVERYTHING.
His latest tricks are pulling wires out from behind things and trying to chew on them, pulling over plants and eating the dirt, using everything as a tool to stand or something to bang on. He likes to hold onto one of his wooden teething rings and whack it as hard as he can on the hardwood floors.
He is just so aggressive and enthusiastic about everything. So different from how Rosie was at this age.
He just started clapping a few days ago out of the blue
- it is so cute, he smiles and knows he is so clever - he just will crawl over to something, sit down and start clapping. He is constantly making noise - mostly “Uh Da” - but there have been a few “Mamama” sounds when he is whining and wants me.
He is eating more and more now - starting to actually swallow a few bites whenever we offer food.
He loves to chew on corn on the cob, (made even easier now that his top two front teeth have come in) and is working on his pincer grasp and is now capable of picking up and eating little smooshed black beans when we go get Rosie’s favorite meal of beans and rice. Along with corn on the cob and beans, he has had cauliflower, avocado, cantelope, watermelon, green beans, asparagus, apple, applesauce, yogurt, pear, banana, orange, pasta and some of those melty gerber puffs things.
We’re not really following the rule of waiting 3 days to try something - and the only thing I am really avoiding is nuts and meat right now… So far, so good!
We are still really only offering food once a day - usually because mealtime results in the need for a full bath for everyone involved.
His sleeping is pretty consistent - a small nap (45 min-1 hour) in the morning (usually around 2 hours after waking) - a longer nap in the afternoon - sometimes up to 3 hours, and sometimes a short evening nap around dinnertime (if the afternoon nap was early). He has been good with going to bed in his crib at the start of the night between 8-9pm, and then he wakes up after 3-4 hours and spends the rest of the night in bed with us or in the co-sleeper. He still nurses quite a bit throughout the night - and I hope that starts slowing down so I can start getting some solid sleep in more than 2-3 hour chunks.
He is still such a happy baby for the most part. Only getting cranky and crying when he is REALLY hungry or tired. He has been a little more whiney lately - as he gets aggravated when he can’t reach something or he falls down (which he does often these days). I think he will be walking in the next month, he is always standing, and when he holds onto my hands, he moves his legs and takes steps, and I barely have to support him, just help him balance a little bit…
He is growing so fast - I can’t believe he has been outside my womb for just about as long as he was inside there. He looks like a little boy now, not a baby anymore. He is still a chunk - about 23-24 pounds - but he is getting leaner the more he moves and grows, his torso is definitely thinning out more, though his legs and butt still are lovely and plump!
