I’ve been thinking about how quickly things change and how fast my kids are growing! Last night I was looking for a ‘particular’ photo in my extensive iPhoto library and while I was flicking quickly through it was interesting to watch the last few years in reverse. It really was just yesterday that my boys were teeny tiny! Qade was dragging around a sippy cup everywhere, Myles was flopped on a blanket on the floor because he simply wasn’t motivated to move, and so on even back as far as our first couple years as a married couple. Wow, it all shot by so fast! Then I think forward to all the fun and good times I plan to have with our kids as they get bigger, and I realize that in no time at all I’ll be looking back on those years in photos too. *sniff*
Okay, so I didn’t really mean to get all sentimental on ya, *mental shake* I was actually going to just blab about some of the recent goings on with our kiddos! 🙂
Qade our, self proclaimed, big boy really is getting so grown up. It’s fun to have actual meaningful conversations with him. And I love to talk to him about spiritual stuff. I can’t recommend those “Big Thoughts” books enough! They really open the doors for conversations. Here’s one we had the other morning. “Mama, I trust God.” “That’s good Qade.” “Do you trust God?” “Yes, I do.” “Does Ella trust God too?” “No, Ella is too little to know how.” “When she gets taller she will trust God.” Very sweet! I love to see the childlike faith that is already present in our kids. They don’t question the existence of God they just believe it.
Qade is getting big in other ways too. He has completely given up sucking his thumb!! All on his own too! The thought had crossed my mind from time to time that we’d have a rough go of it when it came time to teach him NOT to suck his thumb, but here he goes and surprises us by giving up all on his own. *sniff again* Okay slightly sentimental moment! I’m not sure that I was ready for him to just be done like that!! Ha ha ha! It just seemed like the last little bit of his babyhood and now it’s gone. Ah me. He has made great strides in his potty training as well. I consider him “trained” but he still does have accidents. The ones that are ‘deliberate’ in that he chooses NOT to go to the potty, even after we’ve just asked him if he needs to, get negative consequences. The ones that are legitimate accidents we simply let him know that happens sometime and we’ll do better next time. The accidents are becoming less frequent, yay!! And of course he’s still in pull-ups at night because he can’t get out of his room to go potty. We’ll tackle that one sometime later! Perhaps after Myles is training as well… and I don’t really want to think about that yet!
We’re still working with Qade on his strong-willed personality. Some days are encouraging, and he’ll even tell me, “I’m obeying you!” very enthusiastically. However, those days are usually surrounded by other days that are a constant battle. One day I hope that the “obeying you” days outnumber the “battle” days, but for now I know that I have to stay strong and consistent. I want to enjoy my kids, but I know that letting them get away with bad/sinful behavior is not going to help me enjoy them long term. I’m convinced it will be worth it even if it’s hard on all of us right now.
Myles is my little big boy! He’s completely convinced that he’s just as old as Qade. His vocabulary is blossoming, and it’s fun to listen to his “take” on things as well. Just the other day he came up to me and said, “Mama, I’m sirsty, have some water?” I was amazed that he connected the “thirsty” part when usually it’s just a request for a drink. 🙂 He really is our camel because the lad is constantly drinking something! If he runs out of water at night, we know it! I always try to check his cup before I go to bed so that I won’t have to do it at 1:45am! When we finally “weaned” Qade off of having a cup in his bed at night it was because I knew he wasn’t drinking anything. I’m not sure when that will happen for Myles. 😉
Myles is learning to not whine, but use his words to get help or express himself. We’re really trying to crack down on the amount of whining that happens in our house…. it’s a lot! 😉 Myles usually will correct his voice when I remind him that I don’t listen to whining. He and Qade are also learning how to talk nicely to each other. Since they both are excellent button pushers I’m trying to teach them to say “No thank you” when they feel they are being “bugged.” The thing I’ve noticed is that when they do that, the antagonist in the situation usually will just stop. It’s when they react with an ever escalating irritated “NO!” or “UH-UH!” that they gleefully keep on antagonizing. 🙂 Ha ha! Humans! All of our sinful quirks are so obvious in our kids! They’re so honest!
Cuddling is not what Myles likes to do! I’d LOVE to get more snuggles from him, but it’s just not how he functions. Still, he does like to sit on my lap and rock with me as long as I don’t try to rub his head or put my hands on him, ha! Unlike Qade, Myles is still a VERY dedicated thumb sucker! In fact it’s gotten even more-so with him. He used to only suck it when he was getting sleepy, but now he generally walks around for a good part of the day with his thumb in his mouth. He’s still a two handed thumb sucker too. But even that has changed some. He used to tap his top lip, which he still does, but now he moves between that and pushing his earlobe up into his ear while he’s thumb sucking. Ha! How do kids come up with this stuff?
Our little Ella is growing up way to fast for me too! She has become much more verbal, and will “tell us all about it” frequently! I love to see her sweet expressions as she gurgles and coos at me just letting me know about life. She recently discovered the joy of laughing out loud and I just crack up myself every time she does it! Today’s hilarity came from my coughing while I changed her diaper. That was just too funny, and she laughed and laughed!
Ella is such a “dainty” eater compared to her brothers. I don’t recall EVER having to coax the lads to finish a bottle! But Ella-bella will take her time (pokey!) and of course she has to occasionally just stop sucking to “tell” me something very important. 😉 Not that she doesn’t hork it down from time to time, but she’s certainly different than the boys!
She’s adapted to her schedule amazingly well, and is doing so well sleeping! In fact, I’ve noticed that she ‘adheres’ to her schedule so well that variations in it can really throw her for a loop. The boys were both fairly flexible as far as where/when they had their naps and such. Ella doesn’t do that as well. She seems to NEED to sleep in her bed and be swaddled up nice and tight. Though she’s gotten good at “breaking out” of her swaddling once she’s awake. She doesn’t even sleep that well in her car seat in the car, which is really unusual! Ella seems to already be developing a preference for being with me. It’s not surprising that babies do that since Mommy is the one who knows what needs to be done and how, but I think that this is starting a little early with her. The other night when we were at Wal-Mart shopping, she had a hysterical meltdown in the bathroom while I was changing her. She was SO upset (I think it must have been the hard, cold plastic changing table) that she just couldn’t calm down. So Stu took the kids back to the vehicle while I rushed through the shopping. Poor girl screamed nearly the entire time for poor Daddy! She just wanted Mommy. 🙂 Kind of heartwarming in a way! I like to have my babies like me, but I don’t want to be the only person they will be “okay” with.
We’re still looking forward to the night Ella decides to sleep all the way through! She’s done it before, but on a regular basis she gets up around 3:30 or 4am. I always give her a few minutes to see if she’ll sooth herself back to sleep, and sometimes it works. 😉 I keep meaning to put her in her room for naps instead of upstairs in our room, but the lads make SO much noise downstairs that I’ve been reluctant to make that transition. I have finally taken the boppy out of her bed though. I like to use the support pillows when the babies are teeny. She’s big enough and squirmy enough now though that it needed to come out.
Ella is getting more and more dexterous as well. She loves to bat the toys on her play mat, and she likes to grasp at her blankets and burp rags. So I dug out one of the SOFTEST little loveys that someone gave her. It’s a little yellow blanket with a duck head and arms at the top. The inside is satin and the outside is this incredibly soft fabric!! I almost want to cuddle with it it’s so soft. 😉 She gets a kick out of rubbing that against her face and generally slobbing on it. 🙂
One last thing and I’ll end this HUGE epistle. 😉 Guess that’s what happens when you get a mom talking about her kids! But this is too funny not to mention. I have morphed from Mommy to Mama recently. This was not MY doing. Qade started it, and Myles jumped on board. Now they almost never call me mommy, but always Mama. I think it came from a book that I bought Myles for his first birthday. In it the little boy asks “But mama, but mama” over and over. Qade started calling it the ‘But mama book.’ We explained to him that Mama was another name for Mommy. He would ask about that from time to time. Then a few moths ago he just started calling me Mama, and that was that! I still refer to myself as Mommy, but they’re pretty consistent with the Mama thing now. 😉 Ha! Thought I would escape that after moving away from the south!
Oh well, Mama or Mommy either one is a pretty special name when you hear your little ones say it!
Toodle-oo
P.S. Next time I won’t write SUCH a long post! Promise!