Growing = Updates

Grace's preschool update - I had a parent/teacher conference with Grace's preschool teacher recently. Grace has finally started talking a lot at school. Thank goodness. The child talks up a storm so it is good to see she is finally comfortable with talking at school. (This is part of the reason is in preschool so it good to see it paying off.) I was also told that Grace loves individual quiet play. We knew that. She loves to quietly play at her doll houses. Sometimes she asks Sophie or daddy to play with her but she is most often happy there by herself. In her self portriat, she now has six identifiable body parts (arms - 1, legs - 1, face -1, eyes - 1, mouth -1, hair - 1). This up one from her fall picture. They like kindergardners to have seven so she is really on track there!

Sophie is a big girl. Sophie has taken interest in going potty again. Grandma has been a big encouragement on the days she is here. Sophie seems really excited about going potty which is great. She is still working on it but is on her way to being potty trained. This is good so she can go to preschool in the fall too!

Matthew is growing up on me. Matthew is making more noises. I got a mama finally! I was even around to hear it!! He has also started saying "bu-bu". Maybe I call him Bubba too much? Maybe. He is also say "ga" when he sees Grandma. He knows how to get what he wants! Matthew LOVES to stand which is great except he expects to do this a lot which means you have to hold or be ready to catch him a lot. He still has one super sharp bottom tooth. The only picture of said tooth is on Uncle Greg's camera. It sure is hard to get a picture of it!!

Sitting, Talking, and ... Bleeding

Bleeding? What? Keep reading ...

Matthew has become a pro at sitting up. We have pulled out the trusty blue mat again and he sits on it to play for the longest time. The girls are doing great playing with him and mostly not overwhelming him with their craziness and loudness! Matthew took his first bath sitting up this week. He wasn't sure about it but did finally realize he could still splash like he loves to during bath time while sitting!

Grace has started talking at school! Grace's preschool teacher told Brian in the fall that she didn't talk much which we laughed at because she doesn't stop talking at home. We knew it would come when she got comfortable with school. It did and now she is a talker at school. Her sentences are so clear too. She told us the other night at milk wasn't her favorite. When asked what her favorite drink was she said "lemon-lade and chocolate milk". (lemon-lade = lemonade) It is fun to have those little conversations with her!

Sophie can blame Grace for what will be scar on her forehead. Grace claims that she shut the bedroom on Sophie's head and that is why I found it bleed everywhere yesterday. Every hour or so, Sophie reminds who ever she can that she has a boo-boo ... as if the butterfly and the band-aid on her head aren't enough of a sign to everyone that she has a boo-boo! Thankfully I was able to clean it up and dug out those butterflies that were in my Christmas stocking (good thinking, mom!) She will have a little scar but will survive. Grace didn't finally tell Sophie that she was sorry. Sophie's response was "No!" Grace's response back was "You are suppose to say you're welcome." I admit it. I laughed.

Mommy Thoughts: Yesterday was a day that stressed me out. It was not my day in that the van had a flat tired when we went to leave for the doctor's office. I apparently wrote down the wrong day for said doctor's appointment (I wouldn't have scheduled it for the day it was scheduled so I have learned to double check what they tell me!!) Thankfully, they saw Matthew anyway. The tow truck and wood delivery guys came at the same time. Grace busted Sophie's head open. It just wasn't my day. That being said, we all survived and that is what really matters. It took me awhile to admit that but when they were all in bed (even if it was short lived due to the boo-boo), it was all good in our house.

Talking and Growing

Grace's catch phrase lately is "hmmmm, maybe ..." This works for just about anything. It works for: do you want a snack? Response: "hmmm, maybe an apple." Are you ready for bed? Response: "hmmm, maybe play on the bed with daddy." To top this phrase off, she holds one finger on her chin like she is thinking really hard about it. It is all you can do to not bust out laughing at her little Miss ways!

Sophie has taken up Grace's Dora addiction. Yes, Dora is still queen and Aunt Amy's analysis of Dora that it is the same show over and over again is right. Sophie loves Swipper's catch phrase of "oh, man" when he doesn't get something. She uses it correctly in context which is very funny. If you ask her what Swipper says, she says "oh man" while swinging her arm like he does.

Matthew is trying to out grown his nickname of "Little Dude". I hate to tell him but he will always be my Little Dude! Little Dude is now in 18M clothes at almost 7 months in age. I was pulling out more and more of his 12M clothes into the don't fit drawer and finally decided to give in and just move his clothes up to the next size. Here I thought years of clothes saved up for him and I will be lucky to get to one year with all of these bargain clothes I had saved up. I better get buying clothes in the next sizes up ... soon!



Sophie - "oh, man"

Small updates and missing sleep

Small update but updates none the less.

Grace is loves school and singing songs. She loves the "good morning song" they sing at preschool. She has taught it to Sophie and will sing it to Sophie and Matthew. They hold hands when they sing it at school so she has to hold hands when she sings it here at home. It is beyond cute.

Sophie has a lot of new phrases right now. "There ya are." "Where are ya, ___?" They all have ya or y'all in them. We are raising a good Southern girl here! Her other favorite phrase right now is "I don't want it!!" ha. I wonder how she learned that one so fast!

Matthew is still growing and growing. He loves to smile and laugh. He wants to look around and is trying his best to move around. He can turn around in a circle on his belly. He hasn't rolled over again yet. I think he is too busy trying to crawl. Stay put baby boy!


This past week is the first time all three kids were sick at the same time. Brian and I then got part of what they had too. The kids are thankfully starting to feel better but Brian and I want to go crawl in a cave and sleep for a week. There is no cave here to do that, besides it would be awfully darn cold in there right now so we will just have to make due on missing sleep. You think after three years of training, we would be used it by now but we aren't!

Talking It Up

At some point, you long for your kids to talk. Then not too long after, you wonder why you ever longed for them to talk to you because what you now hear is "ma-ma" twenty times in a row with a short pause before it starts over again. That being said, it is amazing at how fast words appear from our kids.

Grace's Favorite Phrase: "Feel Better" If Grace has a boo-boo or if you say ouch, it requires kisses to heal. She used to come running saying "hurt" but now she comes running and says "feel better" as her request for kisses. If she provides you with kisses then she will ask "feel better?" and isn't happy until you say yes. So a word to the wise, just say yes to her.
On a separate note, she declared that my doormat out front had ladybugs on it this morning. I asked Brian where she learned that and he had no clue. She is right. It has ladybugs all over it.

Sophie's Talking Points: Sophie talks a lot for her age thanks to her big sister. They do have some language between the two of them though. Sophie will say something and Grace will talk back to her (sometimes I can understand Grace but sometimes I can't). Yesterday, Sophie was going on and on and Grace finally came over to me a said "Mama, Sugar is hungry." ummm, ok. That was unexpected but they did both get a snack that made them very happy. Sophie could have told me that. She has the words to say that but for whatever reason she was happy using her little sister language at that point in time.
Sophie's favorite words right now are "stuck", "hot", "whee", "go-go" (this is part of the potty training she has started), and the all time favorite of every child, "nope".
Last week, Sophie gave me one of her super, precious neck hugs (she wraps her arms around my neck and shoves her face next to mine) and said "I love you". That was her first "I love you". She said it twice that day and not since but I still love that I got it.

Little Guy's Responsiveness: Since little guy isn't here yet he obviously isn't talking but I can tell you he does not appreciate it when his sisters scream and yell and cry. Other kids doing those same things bring no response from him but if his sisters are screaming, he gets very active and I wonder if he is screaming too. Two kids screaming at the same time is a lot right now, I wonder how we will deal with three because rest assured it will happen at some point and I accept that fact right now. I guess we will get through that just like we got through having two screamers!
In writing all of this out, I do hope to take time to enjoy the little guy's baby nosies because I know they won't last forever and if he is anything like his Sophie sister then he will be talking before we know it too!