The end of March we headed out to Joshua Tree to meet up with the Hughes family (Guys sister and family). The boys had a BLAST. They loved climbing rocks and going on adventures. They loved their cousins Gabe and Sierra, who were excellent at keeping them entertained. They loved Uncle Chip and Aunt Kelly and all the super fun adventures they took them on. I don't think there was anything they did not like. It was so neat for Guy and me to watch the boys grow up and bond that week.
Updates about the kids...
Skylar is officially a big boy. I can no longer buy him clothes in the toddler section because he has graduated to the boys department. This is proving to be a bit difficult for us because in the boys department the pants are usually not elastic waist, and for a boy who is just learning how to get his pants off and on when going potty, snaps and buttons prove to be a challenge. He is also registered to go to "big boy school" AKA preschool. I think that I am the most excited about this. I think that it will be great for him to be exposed to a world without mom. Skylar is doing excellent at writing his letters. He still has not picked a hand yet so sometimes he is right handed and other times he is left. Everyday he amazes us with his choice of words and the way he can put concepts together. He is all about trains. Steam trains tend to be his favorite but any train will do. He understands and can tell you how a steam train works. He notices many details and does a decent job of explaining sequences and cause/effect, even if he has to make up some of the steps. He is even better with nuance and subtle humor. The only movie we are allowed to watch (that does not scare him) is the Disney/Pixar movie Cars. Lucky for us Guy and I enjoy watching it too. His favorite colors are green and yellow, but green has an edge up. He is a great big brother and is super helpful when he wants to be. But it's all about reverse psychology with him right now and it works to an astounding degree. We can blatantly go reverso on him and the minute we say "No, please don't help me. No No! Stay away I don't want you to share your toys" (or whatever) he cranks on it a bit and quickly decides to prove to us he's got his own mind to make up and sure enough he does what we challenge him not to do. Meanwhile he'll say "I love to share my car with Niko. I love my brother Niko. I'm a happy boy!" etc. We're sure he's smart enough to realize how arbitrary he's being, and yet it's really cool to see him take so much pride in deciding to be good, despite all advice to the contrary. The key thing is that he's recognizing the choice, so we are very optimistic that he's discovering his empowerment and also noticing the rewards of the superior path. He loves when he and Niko are dressed as twins. He can make Pepper laugh super easy and continues to have a real caring streak toward her.
Niko is all over the place. He loves to mimic everything Skylar does, and I mean everything. If Skylar has done it or is doing it Niko is all over it. Whether it's playing, talking, or getting into trouble, Niko is there. Yet Niko is also mister independent. He can go off and play forever by himself. He loves his "bank-dawn" AKA blanket, which is winning out over any stuffed animals right now. He's totally a daddy's boy. He's super cute when he tries to quote movies or songs, because he does not have a full vocabulary yet, so often things come out more as grunts, groans, and full paragraph-sized mumbles, but he gets all the tones and inflections correct so you can sometimes figure out what he is quoting. He's just about able to fully jump off the ground with two feet. Niko loves "baby" (won't say "Pepper"). Oh and he is potty training us! I was so not ready to start potty training but at least once a day he tells us he has to go potty and runs to the bathroom. He sits on the big potty and will go (both #1 & 2). Sometimes he really nails it, other times he's quite late, so he's still working on it. He will choose the color blue if given the option.
Pepper is growing like a weed. I think we are getting back to sleeping through the night, which is crucial since she got off course after our camping trip. She is so darn smily! She loves to make everyone smile. She is doing great at sitting by herself... she still topples over eventually, but she stays up for a good chunk of time and when she falls she sorta takes it in stride. Tonight we put her on her belly and she was very close to rolling over. She turned around on the floor more than 90 degrees and even was trying to scootch forward. We gave her her first taste of rice cereal the other day and she loved it; she was grabbing at the spoon and doing great with it. However several hours later I think she was having major stomach pains from trying to digest it. So I think we are going to take a break and give it another shot when she gets a little older.
I think that is the updates, I will try and get some pictures up soon.
1 comment:
wow those are some good updates! glad to hear that all your kids are doing well!
Post a Comment