Applesauce, Nickname, and Cruising

Grace surprised me the other night and made up an applesauce song at bedtime. It basically was the word applesauce over and over and over again. I rarely get bedtime duty as that is a daddy job per Grace and Sophie so it was nice to see this side of Grace. Brian tells me that this wasn't the first time she picked the applesauce song to sing so it must be a favorite ... at least for now!

Sophie's new nickname might just be "Crash." She has the most banged up knees of any little child around. As soon as one boo-boo gets better, she is scrapping them up again. People including Grandma, of course, are now commenting and asking about her poor knees. Sorry, Sophie. You are related to your mom and her mom and we lack coordination too.
Matthew has started to cruise around stuff. The coffee table is his favorite cruising object as it was for Sophie and Grace. We are very thankfully for its round corners. Matthew is trying to get more teeth and is still not sleeping through the night for me. The sleeping thing will have to change here soon. It must.

Two New Looks and a Favorite Saying

Matthew, well Sophie, gave me my first ever visit to the ER. Sophie claims she shut Matthew's finger in our closet door and that is how it got a big slice in it. One ER visit, two stitches, one band-aid, and four hours later, he was doing OK again. I had to hold him as they put the stitches in his finger. I bruised his arm holding him still. He then flipped out completely when the doctor went to put the band-aid on his finger. ugh. I hope to avoid that place for the rest of forever. I am sure I won't but I have no desire at all to go there again!

Grace's favorite saying right now is "You make me laugh." She will just look over at you and say it or you will say something and that will be her response. I have to say having a 3.5 year old tell you that makes you feel like you are worth something!

Sophie has a new look this summer. She has skinless knees. The poor child has no coordination and is always tripping over her feet. I don't know how she does it. Well, I do know how she does as I have no coordination either so hopefully that means she will out grow the part where she tears up her knees. So if you see the boo-boos on her knees, give her kisses. Gosh knows, she needs them!

Crawling, Singing, and a Shadow

Matthew is crawling like a mad man. Slap. Slap. Slap. You know he is coming when you hear the slapping. The slapping on the floor as they crawl is one my favorite things about the crawling age. It gives you time to get ready to give them a big smile as they turn the corner looking for you! We also had to lower Matthew's crib all the way down. Now if I don't drop the side, I end up dropping him into the crib. oops! To add to his first, he has started standing next to stuff now. Standing at the coffee table is one of his favorite activities right now.

Grace has become a singer. In a typical preschooler way about half the time she belts out the songs like she shouting down the street. Her memory is getting really good and she is remembering songs she learns at school and singing them at home. She sang Skin-a-ma-rinky-dink as part of her Mother's Day Tea at preschool and now likes to sing that at home. I must try to find the TV show that song was part of ... sadly it is the only part of the show I seem to remember watching as a kid!

Sophie has become Grace's shadow. She is a little follower when it comes to playing. It is probably a good thing because Grace is a little bossy-boss. One of these days, Sophie will get tired of it but we find ways to use it to our advantage now. We commonly ask "Sophie can you had toys to Grace and then Grace can put them away." I am sure this will back-fire on us one of these day. For now though, it is useful and with three of them, we take what we can get!

A Nine Month Old, A Repeater, and An Encourager

Matthew is nine months old! He is trying, trying, trying to take one nap a day. If we get in the car in the afternoon though he finds himself a second nap. The main issue is that his one nap isn't really long enough to keep him going through out the day.

Sophie loves to repeat what you say. I have learned that I have to be very careful with what I say around her. She is a little bugger like that.

Grace has become a little encourager. Some of her recent comments have been ... "good job, Sophie". "yay Sophie", and "Come here, Matthew." She dearly loves her brother and sister ... well, unless she is beating them up.

Teeth, No Naps, and Writing

Matthew now has two top teeth to go with his two bottom teeth. They aren't the middle teeth though. They are the side teeth so he looks very silly!
Sophie is trying to give up naps but the thing is that she still needs naps. So we have taken to letting her sleep where ever she falls asleep ... on the floor, on the couch, in a chair, and in whatever uncomfortable position.

Grace loves to get up on the computer and "write" her name. She wants to spell out her name and see it on the screen. She gets very excited to do this any time she thinks she can get time on the computer.

Another Tooth and some Easter Egg Hunting!

Matthew has a second tooth! It came about a week ago but disappeared. It is now there for what seems like good! I still can't get a good picture of thsee teeth though. So the best way to know they are there is to put your finger in his mouth and he will bite your finger. You will then KNOW they are there for sure! haha

We took the kids to an Easter egg hunt on Saturday.
Sophie is a machine ... an egg hunting machine. Sophie grabbed one egg after another. Brain described her as a machine. Her bucket was almost full. She was a blast to watch!

Grace is a looker ... an egg hunt looker. Grace stopped to examine each egg before picking up the eggs up and would wander past several others before find another to examine and pick up. Grace did end up with a decent collection but it took a lot of encouragement to pick up the eggs.

I think they are due for some yard Easter egg hunting here soon ... if the yard every dries up from this Spring rain that keeps showing up every few days!

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!!