Little Princesses

Today we went to our favorite dinner theatre to see Rodgers' and Hammerstein's "Cinderella."  John, Katie and I went with John's parents and brother, and family friends Bev and her granddaughter Audrey.  Katie called Audrey "Laundry" and had a great time dancing around with her and watching the show.  Here are a few photos and video from our time.

Audrey and Katie meet one of the wicked stepsisters -- yes, that is a man in drag.

Katie's Christmas Song

Katie performed in her first Christmas sing-along yesterday with the rest of her preschool class.  She's in the plaid skirt and her best friend Daniel is in the green shirt.

I didn't know until the performance that she has now learned how to bow.  And how!  The end of this video reminds me of the woman at the end of "The Sound of Music" -- the woman in the singing competition who wouldn't stop bowing.

Big thanks to her daddy and her Oma for making sure they were in the audience for Katie's Christmas debut!

Quick Joshua Update

Joshua has a few new words, including "ball," "bubble," "book," and "mock" (milk).  Again, he is motivated to learn how to say things he wants.  :-)

Also, I wanted to jot down a few of his growth statistics before the paper gets lost on my desk again.

18 month appointment:
Weight: 26 lbs, 4 oz (50%)
Height: 32 1/4 inches (50%)
Head: 48 cm (50%)

He is 50th percentile across the board.  Take that, those of you who talk about how huge my baby is.  :-P  He's just broad-shouldered!

I don't think I ever wrote down the 12 month statistics either:
Weight: 23 lbs, 12 oz.
Height: 29 1/2 inches
Head: 46.8 cm

Joshua's Growing Vocabulary

Hi!  We're still busy unpacking and organizing, so I'm going to skip the photos and just fill you in on Joshua's growing vocabulary.

Katie was much more of a talker; Joshua is much more mechanically-minded.  He is always trying to push any button he can find and figure out how things work.  He would be content to flip light switches all day. Once I needed to keep him occupied in a hotel hallway so I showed him how to use the ice maker.  He pushed it and pushed it and pushed it -- I could have been Pavlov since he just couldn't get enough of the reward of watching the ice fall.

So needless to say, he hasn't been all that interested in talking until recently.  He enjoys making noise, mostly by screaming, but also "singing" along to "Jesus Loves Me", "Elmo's World", the ABCs, and the "Muppet Babies" theme song.  Singing here refers to making random noises including grunting and raspberrying, but I can tell he's trying to do it along with the song.  Make ANY joyful noise, Joshua!

Last time I wrote, Joshua had three words: "Dada", "Mama", and "Caca" for cookie/cracker.  That night Joshua kept saying "Caca" as he pointed to his diaper, and I was wondering about that since "caca" is Spanish for "poop" (but I was pretty sure he wasn't bilingual).  It turns out that he was pointing out that Cookie Monster (aka "Caca" for "Cookie") was on his diaper.  I was so excited to see him break through and express a new thought with his words!

In fact, Joshua's vocab mostly consists right now of Sesame Street characters: "Caca", "Melmo" for Elmo, "Buhbuh" for Big Bird, "Bird" for Bert, "Gaga" for Grover, and my favorite of all -- "Tsss" -- his word for Ernie because that's how Ernie laughs.  I love it.

I should mention Joshua's fourth word though: "Muppet Babies."  Yes, he said dada, then mama, then caca, and then "MuppaBaby".  REALLY?  But I promise you that's true.  He first said it as John came to  pick him up from his crib after naptime.   And now he uses it to ask to watch TV -- and of course, his favorite show, Muppet Babies.

Other words/ understandable sounds:
"Ligh!" (light)
"a i a i"  (trying to sing the ABCs, as in "H I H I")
"hi"
"goodni"
"ooh ooh" to bark at Bella and other dogs
sheep and horse noises (sounds more like a laugh)
"geh down"
"baby" (mostly used to ask in shorthand for Muppet Babies)
"Daniel" (taught to him by his Uncle Daniel but said repetitively as he chases Katie's best friend Daniel around the yard)
"Papa" (Grandpa)
"No" (used for both yes and no)
"Peasss" (please)
"ball"

I'm sure I'll think of more and then I'll add them to this list.  Thanks for reading!

Happy 18 month birthday, Joshua!

Happy half-birthday, Joshua!  

You're no longer a baby and I love the little boy you're becoming!

Katie's First Day of Preschool

Katie's first day of preschool was today! We've signed her up for three hours a day, two days a week, at a Christian preschool about three minutes from our new house.  She has a few friends that attend this preschool, including her best friend Daniel (who is in her class) and another friend named Caitlyn whom we were surprised to see today.

Katie picked out her own outfit this morning, and was most excited about having a lunchbox for the first time.  When we got to her classroom, she and Daniel ran into the class without even saying goodbye to their mommies (Daniel's mom is my best friend Sara).

 

While some moms may cry over this, I was thrilled to see Katie so excited and happy to be there.  I've been talking about preschool with her for months, and part of her potty training motivation was that she'd get to go to school when she was always successful.

Here's a video of her discussing (rather distractedly) her first day of preschool, just before we head home.

Quick update on the kids

Hi!  We're MOVING on Saturday (hopefully more about that later), so I'm super-swamped, but I couldn't resist taking a quick break from packing in order to fill you in on the kids.

JOSHUA

Joshua's vocabulary has doubled in the last few weeks.  Up till now, he would say Dada (a lot), Mama (only when he wanted something, and usually in a frustrated tone), and NaNa (for "no no" when he was getting into something he knew he wasn't supposed to).

Recently he started saying "CaCa" for "cracker," and he uses this term for any snack he wants.  He will hunt me down carrying whatever he finds in the pantry -- from boxes of cookies or crackers to individual Peppermint Patties, and repeat "CaCa!  CaCa!" in the hopes that I'll open it for him.

He has always loved bananas; they're often what he eats for breakfast.  Recently he has alternated saying "Bana" and "Nana."

His "NaNa" (no no) has become a decisive "no," which is actually a word I'm so glad he knows.  Now if he wants something at mealtime, I can hold up different objects until I find something that he does say "No" and shake his head at.  We've also heard "yeah" on occasion though it's not consistent yet.

He comes very close to saying Grandma and Daniel, two of his favorite family members.  His tone saying "Mama" has softened too, as he's learned how to communicate in other ways.

I'm really enjoying him so much more now than I did just a few months ago.  As he learns to communicate, our times together are much more enjoyable and fruitful, instead of me trying to figure out why he is angry.

I finally weaned him last week (Aug 14) (hooray!  Do you know that I've been either pregnant or nursing since Fall 2006??!!!)  and though he was a bit needy at first, he and I have found other ways to bond.  He is much more snuggly now, and he will snuggle into my shoulder and allow me to rock him, sing to him, and pray over him.  He never sat quietly in my lap before now.  He also sits in my lap and we'll watch TV together -- at least until Katie asserts her right to my lap as well or he eventually gets restless and wants to run.

And run he does!  He went from crawling to running very quickly, and it's so funny to see him go.  I'm so thankful that we'll have a bigger home now because he'll have plenty of space to stretch his legs.  He also is constantly trying to get to the highest point in the house.   If I accidentally leave a chair next to the kitchen counter (which I've done a fair amount recently while packing dishes), he will get up and try to pull everything off the counter.  Once I found him on the floor with my coffeepot, with coffee all over himself.  I can't figure out how he pulled it down to the floor without breaking it, but thankfully he was ok!  And I've learned my lesson about leaving chairs near counters!

I tried hard-soled shoes on Joshua for the first time last Thursday (8/19) before my parents took my kids to the County Fair, and it was fun to watch him navigate with the new sensation on his feet.  (Please excuse the pre-move mess!)



Within the last week Joshua has learned to "blow" kisses -- which consists of simply going "mmm" in my direction, or accompanying that sound with a hand from his mouth into the air.  Simply charming.

Ah yes, and one final new "first" to tell you about with Joshua.  I returned from Home Depot the other day to John and the kids, and John greeted me with a laugh and a "Look what he's doing!!"  I was honestly afraid to look.  Here's what I found.  Apparently he stole the controller out of his daddy's hands.



KATIE


Katie is as delightful as ever.  Though she's had spells of being rude or too rough, she takes quickly (so far) to correction, and a timeout or even threatened timeout is usually enough to change her behavior.

After trying various bribery techniques (lollypops, Disney movies), Katie has started using the potty almost exclusively.  In fact, though she's been wearing diapers all week, her diapers have been staying clean and dry; she always tells me when she needs to go!  Hopefully she'll keep this up!

Initially she was registered this fall in a preschool that required her to be potty-trained, and the nearing deadline was stressing me out.  Then we learned we were moving, and I couldn't imagine trying to enforce potty-training during the already stressful (for all of us) transition of packing and moving.  So I'm so thankful that she's doing this herself.  Plus we transferred her to a new preschool that will be minutes from our new home, and that does not require 3-year-olds to be potty-trained.  So I thank God for relieving that stress from me for now!

Well, I have much more to say but it will have to wait till post-move.  Thanks for caring about us!