I thought I'd update a little more about the boys today. I'll copy what I wrote in their journals today.
Sam:
Sam is such a cute little boy! I just love him. He is generally happy and so so sweet. He’s talking all the time nowadays and his
voice is so cute. The other day he
counted to twelve without stopping and I was so surprised! I guess all the games of hide-and-seek we’ve
been playing are actually teaching him something!
Sam likes to ask “why?” a lot now. He wants to know why he’s getting dressed,
why we’re going somewhere, why we’re eating, etc. If I ever ask him a why question he says, “be-tos”
(because).
If you ask him a question like, “Sammy, what did you
have for snack today in nursery?” His
response always starts with a long, “Uhhhh…” as he thinks about it. Nick likes to ask Sam questions about his day
when he comes home from work. Sam always
says, “Uh...” while he thinks about what he had for lunch or what he’s been doing
all day.
I talk to him a lot about going to the bathroom on the
potty (not getting my hopes up of course.)
He has no interest at this point but he immediately comes to me for a
diaper change when he’s poopy.
He loves the word “no”. He calls Luke, “Gewk”. I love how he says the word cold too—“tolg”.
We got rid of his binky in November. He did pretty well saying goodbye to it. Just had a couple days of crying only for
about 15 min or so. I just tried to
make sure he was pretty tired for nap and bedtime on those days. He transitioned to one nap around 18 months.
He likes to clean his ears with a q-tip after his
bath. He likes to brush his teeth. He likes to carry around cars and play with
trains.
He still drinks a 6-8oz bottle of milk at
bedtime. We’ve switched to soy milk
because I was told that the Green Smoothie Girl had a child with asthma. She took him completely off of dairy and it
cured him I guess. Well, I’ve noticed a
difference even with Sam being off of milk for a month. I haven’t had to give him a nebulizer
treatment in 2 weeks. With him drinking
soy milk during the day and a soy milk bottle at night, he just doesn’t create
the mucus that causes the wheezing . It’s
been awesome. If he gets a cold it
usually brings on a lot of his asthma symptoms but he hasn’t had one since we
switched to soy milk—it will be interesting to see if he can get away without
his nebulizer with his next cold too.
He says his prayers really well now—not all by
himself, but he repeats all the words we tell him. It’s really cute.
Luke is almost 4! I can’t believe it. He has grown up too fast. Luke is doing so well in preschool. His teacher Mrs. Terlap says he is such a “nurturer”. I had a parent teacher conference with her
last week and he’s doing awesome in every area—good listener, great social
behavior, etc. The only thing we need to
practice is some coupon clipping (scissor practice) and writing his name. Oh, and hopping four times on one foot. I guess he does well on the other large-motor
skills but hasn’t yet mastered hopping.
Luke is such a sweetheart—always very concerned if we are
hurt or sad. He’s also constantly
pushing my buttons J
Typical for his age I think…I guess he’s just fulfilling the “older brother”
duty by teasing Sam constantly. When I get upset with him he says, “Fine. I’m leaving.”
And he’ll go try to put on his shoes.
I remind him to put on his coat before he leaves and then he says, “I’m
not going anywhere!”
The other morning I wouldn’t let him have a 3rd
bowl of Lucky Charms. A few minutes
later he said, “You’re making me very upset mom.” I said, “Why buddy?” He said, “Because I have to look at you all
day.” Charming little one.
We made a little chore chart for Luke so he can earn a little
bit of money for toys. He obsesses over
toys at the store and throws huge fits when we leave without them. I’ve explained how money works (in 3 year old
terms) and he’s now working to make some money so he can buy things.
Luke is very repetitive.
He’ll ask the same question 10 times even if you’ve given him an
answer. Sometimes I just have to say, “I’ve
already answered your question Luke.
Think about what I said.” He’s
very curious too. He asks what all the
signs on the road mean while we’re driving.
He notices when we drive in Dad’s civic because it’s “bumpier” than the
suburban.
He still takes naps which I’m realizing is a significant
for his age. A lot of people in our ward
here with kids the same age tell me that their child was done with naps a long
time ago. I’m hoping Luke sticks with it
for a while longer J
He often doesn’t like what we’re having for dinner (without
even trying it) and Nick has to tell him stories to get him to eat. Just this week we convinced him that he could
hold his own piece of pizza instead of having us cut up bites for him. He was a little worried about getting his
hands messy but he was very proud of himself.
He’s a lot of fun to have around. Never a dull moment with this one.
I'm feeling like I lucked out big time with these two. They are so much fun and such good little buddies. My favorite thing is hearing them play well together. They each love having the other one around. I'm just really grateful that I have the option of being home with them every day. I know a lot of people don't have a choice, or choose not to, but I'm really glad I can and want to. It's definitely not easy and some days I wish I had another job--but ultimately it's the most rewarding thing. I think it's teaching me more about myself and qualities I can improve upon more than any other job would.
(Also, these pictures were taken by my good friend Amber. She did such a good job and I was really happy with how they turned out. I'll post more of the entire family next.)
