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Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Beginner reading

I've just barely started beginning reading with Eli. I've introduced a couple word families to him, and already I can tell he's going to do a great job as he learns to blend together more and more words.  We've also done a couple easy, repetitive type books.  It's so fun listening to him read a whole "book" by himself!

Note: Now after the fact, I realize when Eli said "boat" instead of "sail boat" I could have told him to re-look at the first letter of the word and figure it out from there, but while taking the video, I wasn't thinking that fast!

Monday, November 22, 2010

On the go!

In the past week Carter learned to walk with his push-cart toy thingy.  Look at him go!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

For real this time?

Maybe, just maybe, Hannah might be potty training!  For quite awhile now she's been able to sit on the potty and pee right away--HUGE deal, because that means she knows how to make her body work.  Or whatever.  But as soon as I tried to put her on the potty at set time intervals she didn't want to do that, and I didn't want to push so I just let it go.  Well, this week she wanted to wear her panties. So we let her.  The first day she peed through every pair, I think.  The next day she pulled out panties again, so we gave it a try, I remembered to have her sit on the potty every once in awhile, and she continued to stay dry for the entire morning!  I put a pull-up on her for nap and couldn't get her to do the panties again after.  But the next morning I asked her if she wanted to pick out panties for the day, and she did, so we did, and she continued to stay dry all morning!  We were going out to lunch and since she'd been doing so well, I thought we'd be brave and try going out with just panties on.  And she stayed dry at the restaurant and even in the middle of lunch she said needed to go potty so we went!  Awesome!  After nap she went back into panties and stayed dry until I put her in a pull-up for a church event.  Two days in a row of staying dry for a long period of time!  This is great!  It might actually be the real deal, not just random potty times!  This mama is excited!!

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Carter--10 months!

It was one of those months where I kept saying "He's 9 months, He's 9 months..." and it all of a sudden hit me a couple days ago that my goodness, he's turning 10 months already!








Updates:
* Tooth #5 came in.  Top eye tooth.
* He can almost clap but not really quiet yet.
* Stands all the time and is starting to cruise a little bit along the furniture.
* Stood without support the other day for several seconds when he was distracted watching Eli and Hannah play.  I haven't yet been able to get him to stand on his own since then.
* Walks with his push cart toy thingy now!
* Makes a B-line for the fridge or cupboards the second either is opened. And he likes to repeatedly pull down the towels I have hanging on the oven handle.
* Can easily twist himself out of the Bumbo seat. (though we don't use it much at all anymore) 
* He "found" his tongue and is frequently sticking it out and grabbing at it.
* He playfully shakes his head "no".
* He babbles "bababa" now instead of just "mamama".
* Is starting to figure out how to get up the stairs.  Almost time to break out the baby gate again!
* We really started bulking him up with baby food, feeding him regularly for every meal of the day.  We should find out a couple days what his current weight is.
* His nighttime sleep has been a little inconsistent lately.  Sometimes he'll sleep through the whole night and sometimes he'll wake up once or twice.  Might be because of new teeth coming??
* His daytime nap schedule is pretty consistent and predictable, and as long as he gets his naps, he's happy as a clam and a very easy baby.
* He still nurses four times a day, and I'm thankful we've been able to continue even with those teeth in there.
* He had a bout of the stomach flu this month but has otherwise been very healthy.
* He plays the "Indian" game.  If you start patting on his mouth, he'll start making the noise to go with it.
* He now gives us a super scrunched -up-nose, toothy smile like this.  

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Childlike faith

Eli's practicing writing the letter T right now in an activity packet I made for MOPS {it was an extra one he's doing again}.  He's telling Hannah it's like the cross where Jesus died.  I ask him from the other room, "And why did Jesus die on the cross?"  He replies very matter of factly, "'Cuz! For our sins!"  Oh I love how he said it.  I love how children just take what you tell them as truth. 

I continued to ask him what it means that Jesus died for our sins, what happens once our hearts our cleaned and he answered, "We go to Heaven!"

I pray that he continues to grow in knowledge and truth, that he continues to believe, and that I continue to feed him the good things I want him to believe.  Because when I say bad things, when I'm mad and frustrated, he'll believe that too and that scares me.  Lord, thank for you this sweet boy with such a big heart for You.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

He passed!

Well, Carter passed his weight check yesterday!  I was actually *worried that he'd fail since he'd had the stomach flu, but even still in two weeks he gained 8 ounches and is now at 17 lbs 10oz!  Dr. asked what I did, and I said, "We FED him!" LOL She told us to keep doing what we're doing, Carter's looking great!  Whew!


* Worried the Dr. would be concerned and want to draw blood, not actually worried about Carter's health