40.5 months, 20 months, 40 years...

Late again! I'm just going to accept that monthly blogs are no longer possible. As a friend recently described to me, the moment you think you've hit your max, then comes another challenge that stretches you yet again. And this past month has been no different - with holidays, closing on a new house (and the piles of paperwork and financial nerves that come with it!), year-end projects at work, moving offices, etc., we've felt it on sides.

Despite the craziness, we made sure we took time to celebrate Shaggy/s (and Mark's) 40th birthday this month too. These days, we are constantly lamenting on how old we are...I'm just glad I'm the younger one :)

The kiddos play much better together these days. They are true frenemies especially now that Sammy can hold her own. Good 2nd child survival skills! They laugh a lot together, tickle one another, munch on the same snacks, watch the same shows (lately PJ Masks and Goldie & Bear), play with most of the same toys (although Josiah hides his most precious ones), etc. Sammy often asks for "Siya" now and is always watching him, mostly to make sure she's getting her fair share. She's picked up "mine", "me too", and "SHARE" which she says with a growl. Josiah is much more tender with her, telling me when she's "grouchy" and a "pobrecito", offering some of his toys to her (usually to make a slick trade with something she's holding), and generally enjoying her company. Hope this streak continues!

Here are some recent highlights:

• SAMMY - 20 months (how old Josiah was when I had Samantha!)
• Learned her name as "Amta". For a while, she was saying her name was "Siya" but after being corrected, she often recites the whole dialogue under her breath: "name...Siya...no ...Amta...good"
• Tons of new words, but has trouble pronouncing  "poo" (soup), "mamo" (eemo), "money" (halmuni), "col" (color), "khaki" (candy). She also exclaims "wow" or "yeehaw". In general, speaks much less clearly than Josiah  (but says "sword" and "hook" with no problem) did at her age but seems to have no problem understanding. 
• When she sings along to songs, she only sings the last syllable. Hearing her try to sing the VeggieTales theme song is hilarious. And the hot dog song sounds like "pow pow pow"
• Says Mommy almost like a high-pitched "Mummy". She says it multiple times in a row and makes me melt!
• Prays pretty well "Dear Ga...thank day...daddy, siya...men! Yay!" with applause
• Loves coloring more than Josiah did at her age. Seems to always gravitate toward the yellow crayon
• Loves washing her hands and swishing the faucet around, sweeping with the broom, and putting laundry all over her head. Still obsessed with "bow" (baths) so getting her out is always a hassle.
• Hits people and laughs. Thrashes her baby doll around, to her nanny's embarrassment when in public. When she's not so evil, she loves babies and points them out and says "aww"
• Knows how to flirt! At church, she playfully goes up to the 7-year old boys and will tap their hands and smile 
• When she's done eating, she rips off her bib and will not open her mouth for anything after that point. Only way to get her to eat more is to give it with soup (her favorite - "mmm AHH") or distract with candy.
• She likes to go into rooms and shut the door. When, we see her heading toward our bedroom, she actually zig-zags away from us pretty well. 

• JOSIAH: 40.5 months (at what point do I stop counting months?)
• Really seems to be growing up, expressing real statements, and losing his baby face! Still working on his listening skills though and trying to limit his screen time these days (it's hard).
• Back to being a Mama's Boy. Always wants to sit on my lap, play with me, go to the supermarket together, etc. And the moment he thinks I may be angry at him, he runs up and kisses me and says "I so so love you".  Smooth operator!
• Lots of funny new phrases: "what does this always happen to me?" (Donald Duck), "whole wide world", "that's too expensib", "lovely"...
• Very emphatic with his words and motions. With his arms stretched out, he'll answer nearly every question with "everything!", "everyone!"  Unfortunately, that's all he will tell me about what he does at school, so I have no clue. He is generally inclusive though - even gets really adamant about our whole family pressing the elevator button at the same time together, or singing to songs together in the car (according to the parts he gives us)
• Is very sensitive to conflict and is very good at evading punishment. When I do raise my voice, he turns it on me, "I upset because you loud"
• Is all about "super speed" running which is still a snail's pace :) He seems influenced by the older, cool kids at church and wanting to keep up. I think he's aware that he's not quite their level, because at church he'll stand in the corner or say things like "nobody play with me" and sulk.
• Prayer time has gotten really fun. We take turns starting or ending. He always asks "anything to add?" and when it's his turn, I love hearing what's on his mind - from halloween candy, to minions, to my my sister's dog Arnold, etc. 
• Plays by himself very well - loves his minion and Octonaut characters and always wants me to join in and create new dialogues and storylines. Most of them involve someone falling or chasing after bananas =P
• Favorite song is still "Sugar" by Maroon 5. Close songs are "Your Grace is Enough" and "YMCA". He's got diverse tastes like me! He loved YMCA the moment he heard it in Despicable Me. His version of the song has Spanish expletives, according to nanny...
• Potty training is still not happening...but 2 weeks to go before year-end! Right now, when he goes #2, he gets very weird...he makes strange faces, cowers in the corner, and speaks gibberish. Is this typical?

And finally, my favorite quote of the month. When we were leaving a furniture store (where he kept exclaiming "I love this place!", the salesperson said "Take care" as we were leaving, to which he responded "take care of animals"!  I think a very appropriate retort!

39.5 month / 18 month update

Late post again, but this time I really mean it when I say work is crazy busy. So much so that white hairs seem to be growing in daily and my wrists actually throb with pain from so much typing. No good. But despite being strapped for time, I get really anxious when I let these blogs slide for too long because I feel like the memories may slip away. I know that's dramatic, but there is so much I feel like I forget these days that this is one way to make me feel better. Plus, it's fun to focus on the kiddos and how much they seem to change on a daily basis.

This has been fun autumn season so far, complete with the typical trips to the pumpkin patch and apple orchard. Josiah, in particular, is at an age where he really enjoys these outings and can really participate. And Samantha just loves the new sights and sounds and curiously goes along with it. And she needs to touch everything!

And speaking of the sibs, they seem to be at that convergent point where they can do more things together, which means more fun as well as conflict. As a result, Josiah's gotten more sneaky and jealous, and Sammy's gotten more indignant and bratty. Anything Josiah has, Sammy has her eye on and screams to have one. When she plays with his toys (like his Octonauts characters), she seems to know it will anger him and she will try, often successfully, to bite or scratch him if he comes close. And if we tell him to leave her alone, she'll play with it with a goading smile and put it in her mouth. If we tell her stop, she'll scream and throw it on the ground in protest. She can out-scream anyone. Seemingly to avoid all this, Josiah's been hiding things in his buckets or sneakily making trades unbeknownst to her. This seems to be working. On the flip side of things, if Josiah sees us laughing at something Samantha is doing, Josiah will try to outdo her or even imitate her in a babyish way. And this goes on and on. Although on rare occasion, they can actually be found playing and laughing together.

Speaking of which, Josiah and Sammy were in a wedding last month (Hejin & Eric's) and they both had a blast. It was Josiah's second and Sammy's first time. Josiah walked the aisle like a catwalk, but unfortunately left his sister behind. Sammy just seemed enamored by the whole thing. By the end of the ceremony, they had traded props: Josiah loved the flower petals ("biscuits") and Sammy loved the pillow. And during the reception, they both were among the first to jump on the dance floor. And boy, does Josiah have some weird leg and head moves! While it was so cute to see Sammy running around the dance floor, it was times like these that I missed her not being mobile since we were constantly trying to grab her.

SAMANTHA - 18 month update

Gonna start with her this time to change it up. This little girl has attitude for days. I walked into her room this morning and she shouted "no" and kicked the crib since she clearly was annoyed at me for waking her up. Then she proceed to kick the mobile and turned it on with her foot. I was both shocked and impressed.

She continues to pick up more words here and there, but doesn't really string them into any phrases except for "want more?" when she is asking for something. She says "chair" and tugs on it when she's hungry. She says "my" for mommy, "tuh" for tummy, "enn" for belly button, "men" for amen, "mow" for Mickey Mouse, "bow" (for bath - her favorite pastime), "done", and "down" (during Ring around the Rosie). And she sometimes says "sha sha" or "siya" for Josiah. Overall, she's very direct and seems to be a girl of few words, mainly to tell us to give her something. And she continues to tell us "no no no" when she doesn't like our singing...which unfortunately happens to me a lot. But when she does like it, she sometimes joins in (in an alto voice) and will surprise us with the one or two random words that we had no idea she had picked up! Of course, this annoys Josiah like crazy because he claims it's his song.

Sammy also has a funny sense of humor and will randomly yell "BAHHH" with a scary face or shout "BOO". She also will snort and make faces - where did she learn that? She is always wandering around the apartment, grabbing the broom, pulling out wipes from the container, playing with shoes, taking shirts out of drawers, etc. Lately, she's been observing Josiah's potty and even used it the other day! She said "poo" so our nanny took her to the potty and she did her business with a book in hand!

She still has her trademark three-fingers-in-mouth habit and it's gotten so bad that she's developed rashes around her mouth from the saliva. She's gotten used to us pulling out her hands and saying "no hand in mouth" that she thinks it's a game and will even tease us. But it's served us well as a self-soothing sleeping tactic, so we don't mind too much.

I am constantly fascinated by my little girl and a bit envious about her fearlessness and directness. Who knows what personality traits she will manifest as she's older, but I like where she's going so far!

JOSIAH - 39.5 month update

I am proud to say that Josiah started sleeping alone again this week! Fellow parents know how big of a deal this is. And I have to credit Shaggy for the brilliant transition. We had become so accustomed to sleeping with him for so long that I'd begun to just assume this was the way it was going to be. But as Shaggy was putting him to bed this week, he firmly said that he would need to sleep alone. Josiah said he was scared and that he thought we would be gone. Shaggy said we would be right there and to say "Dear God" as he fell asleep and "Amen" in the morning. I guess it worked because it's been a full week and BOOM, we have our evenings back! And every morning, he's been running out into the living room bragging "I not cry!"

That's just one example of how his comprehension skills seem to be expanding these days. Although he still can get fussy and pouty, he seems to be more open to reasoning. And while he still is a scaredy-cat, he's been able to overcome some of his fears with some encouragement, like going down the slide, walking in the garage without being freaked out by cars, sitting through a haircut, etc. Still no progress on the potty-training front. His school has been trying a bit, but he's been coming home in different clothes nearly every day from "accidents" :(  Even though he's on the late side, I'm going to let it go until end of year.

His conversational style is so quirky and funny. He's says new things like "I forgive you", "sooner or later", "so much to do today" and "the TV is not working so let's do Xbox"". And whenever Sammy mumbles, he likes to tease her and say "what do you mean?!?" And he's still an entertainer and loves to make us laugh. He's even picked up this flourish/bow move (where does he get it from?). His laugh is like a hyena and will cackle from silly things like mixing up our names or repeating back things he hears on TV like "boom boom chicken". He still pretty much plays with himself or adults, so he needs to branch out and make more consistent friends. He apparently has some at school but complains that they chase him around. And most of his friends tend to be girls since he doesn't really like rough-housing and prefers to role-play with characters or build things...into cakes =P I wonder if his obsession with cooking will continue into the future. I would love to have a chef in the family!

38.5 month / 17 month update

Monthly blogging is turning out to be more challenging, now that my TV binge watching has gone off the rails!  I'm almost done with OITNB and can soon reclaim some of my precious night time (when I'm not "on call" with Josiah)...that is, until I get sucked into other shows!

Well, back to the kids. That's all people care about anyway, right? This past month, we went to Clearwater Beach with the extended Lee family and it was wonderful. Location was beautiful, the kids had a BLAST (especially in the sand), and we were even able to make time for Universal Studios for us adults.  Lots of fun and memories to mark the end of summer.

JOSIAH: 38.5 months

"Josiah Daniel Minjong Lee", as he now proudly chants is doing great, and continues to be the family clown.  He says all kinds of phrases that make us burst out laughing ("Hi little fellas", "You can cry all you want, Samantha", "The king is here") and also melt us completely ("I so so love my family", "Sometimes you go to work and you come back. I thought I lost you, but it's ok!").  He loves the attention that he gets from his funny antics, especially by his grown-up "friends" at church. Interestingly enough, he doesn't really acknowledge other friends his own age.  His favorite attention-grabber these days is lip singing to music, especially "Sugar" by Maroon 5.  The minute he heard it, he instantly loved it and started assigning instruments to the rest of us for his band. He loves singing and dancing, and has the strangest moves (e.g. foot twists and twirls) and facial expressions.  I hope he continues to be uninhibited like that...unlike his self-conscious Mommy.

We continue to listen to VeggieTales Silly Songs on repeat every.single.day. By this point, we've collectively memorized every word, melody and harmony...so much so that we have assigned parts in the duet, and even Samantha croons along. He also improv raps pretty well. I give him a beat and he says his name and random other things like "boom boom chika doo".  He cracks me up!  He also plays more independently these days and he can keep himself occupied for longer stretches without the TV. He loves his Octonaut and Minion "characters" and will be role-playing with them for hours...well at least until Samantha comes and ruins his fun.

As fun and sweet as he is, he continues to push boundaries. He used to always make sure we were within his sight...especially me. Not only has he shed his Mommy preference (*tear), he also seems to be much more confident on his own. Just this week at church, I noticed him creeping out of the room and exploring more on his own. The funny thing is that he does it gradually...goes a bit further each time. I guess his independence is a good thing, but I was surprised when he actually left the room and I momentarily couldn't find him. It doesn't help that his listening/response skills are also poor. He just flat out ignores us sometimes and gets really huffy when he doesn't want to do what we say. He even talks back and defiantly says "But I SAID..." and "Excuse ME" when we are trying to sternly talk to him. We've followed through on Time Outs a bit more, which actually works ok...but then he becomes a mush-ball afterwards and becomes extra affectionate...he knows how to work me! He can't bear the thought of being in trouble.

Last topic is potty train...and not much to say except that we tried for a day and quickly gave up after he had 2 accidents in 20 minutes.  We don't have the stamina for it right now, so back to diapers for now!

SAMANTHA: 17 months

She finally walks! Despite her general fearlessness, it sure took her a while to take her first real steps on her own. The funny part is you could totally see her calculating every move and object in her path when she finally did it. And while she is much more confident now than in her first few days doing it, she still walks tentatively, holding her belly for support and humming a bit under her breath.  While I'm so relieved that she's finally doing it, her mobility has just opened up a whole new world of mischievous possibilities. We constantly find her by the fridge, the shoes, the TV, or the bathtub.

Samantita is also gibbering away. Her fave word is definitely "Daddy". She even says it repeatedly to me, which I am sure she does to get a rise out of me. She also says "no no no" when she doesn't want what we are feeding her and will dramatically toss the food over her shoulder. She also says it when she doesn't like the song I'm singing.  She also learned "go go go" with her pointed finger when she wants us to bring her elsewhere. She instigates with all of us constantly, especially Josiah. She even started hitting him while saying "hiya". When he fights back and grabs toys from her, she shrieks like a victim and falls on the floor dramatically.  Hmm - why does this bring up memories of me and my brother growing up?

She is an interesting gal - very sweet at first, but will not give you many chances. For example, she is an early riser and will wake from even the slightest rustling of bed sheets. She usually gives us one holler and if we don't come to get her, she starts screaming at the top of her lungs.  And little miss "Hot Mess" is not her best self when she wakes up. Another example - she likes to feed us snacks and will say "ahh" and expect us to open up. If we don't comply immediately, she starts screaming once again.

I hope all his ear-shattering screaming will stop once she picks up even more language. Her vocabulary is not too shabby, but still limited to a few objects - ball, shoes, dog, meow, door, cup ("p'cup").  This is generally all she needs to say in a given day, along with her commands of "more", "see" and "meeenaaa", which I think is combo of her nanny's name and just a general bossy phrase.

Some of her favorite things right now: bath time (loves splashing from the faucet), carbs, miso soup ("mmmm!"), balls, and dogs.  And despite how grumpy and bossy she can be, she's equally giggly and fun-loving. She especially loves being tickled all over and spun around.

37.5 month / 16 month update

It's always so hard to find time to sit and write, but I always feel much better after finishing each blog. Reflecting on the past month helps me look past the day-to-day emotions and focus on the big stuff. Sure, there's been our share of tough things this month...another cycle of fevers, ear infection for Josiah and even chicken pox for Sammy (!), juggling work trips and leaving Shaggy to take on both kids at once, and just the daily grind...but it's all still good. I treasure our role as parents and enjoy watching them grow and change, especially as they get closer to one another. Their squabbles are still incessant and crazy ("stop bothering me, Samantita!" and "AHHHH"), but it's promising now to see moments of them laughing and playing together..

JOSIAH - 37.5 months

My big boy continues to surprise me. As soon as he turned 3, he insisted on using a regular chair at the dinner table. I wish this also applied to potty and bedtime, but not quite yet. He is still very much a baby in those departments, but admittedly I'm not really doing my part to help either. Give me til he turns 3 and a half!                                                                                          He also had a vocabulary surge this month - words like refrigerator, air condition, violin - I'm always surprised by what he knows. He's still very expressive about his emotions, from "I'm so so happy Mommy!", to "Humph, I'm upset. I talking to you!". His attention skills aren't great though, and probably somewhat due to all the Playdoh videos he's been watching. It's still his favorite thing in the world. It's so hard to get him to talk about school (already, right?), but every now and then he'll give me a nugget and mention something random he learned. When we don't ask him questions, he's a chatterbox and uses terms like "because", "though", and "but" while explaining his thoughts. Best quote of this month: "I like your dress, Mommy. You are a princess. I am a king. We all dressed up!"

He's my entertainer - always improvising songs, asking me to pray for all of his "friends" (his 10+ dolls in bed) and even his stinky feet at bedtime, and shouting "skip ad" at the TV when there's a commercial. Before bedtime, he always asks us "Who want to sleep with me?" as if it's our privilege! Shaggy and I are basically on a call schedule. My favorite game these days is when he plays doctor and asks around "who I gonna fix?" He then calls me his nurse and makes me stand by him as he removes splinters, listens to heartbeats ("sounds really good") and gives band-aids. And because of recent accident in the family, he always checks to see if people have missing teeth. Very versatile doctor, I'd say.

Speaking of doctors - he had a not-so-great dentist appointment the other day (Hi Dr. Wendy!), but it was actually a good reminder for Shaggy and me to be better about brushing his teeth and things like that. You'd think we'd be more diligent with our first-born, but it goes back to that daily grind thing. Anything we can do to avoid cavities, including dialing back on all the OJ and gummies that he loves. 

Lastly, I'm happy to say that Josiah finally seems to be embracing his full name, including his Korean name. He no longer screams at us ("No Korean! No Spanish!") when we say it and now almost recites it proudly. Funny to think when/why things click for little kids.

SAMANTHA - 16 months

Ah, my special gal. Still no walking, but we're getting a few steps here and there. When she tries, you can see the intense determination and calculation in her head. So when she ends up falling on her butt, you can see the complete horror in her face...and then it takes a while for her to try again. We're trying to teach her to bend her knees when she walks since she definitely has the gait of a mini Frankenstein for now.

Walking is probably the only area where she's cautious. In every other way, she seems more adventurous than Josiah. She's always climbing into his car, bike, scooter, etc. and finding a way to fit through tiny openings to get to the toys she wants. Even in the pool, she seems to want to leap right into the water on her own.

She's also had a vocabulary surge of her own, but everything sounds like a song. In her high-pitched voice, she says "waaa" (water), "baaa" (ball), "buuuh" (bubbles), "cheee" (cheese), "mooh" (more), "daww" (dog), etc. And like a minion, when she spots a banana, she starts shrieking "bana"!

Her most commonly said words these days are "hiiii", "baiii" and "no no no no" with her lips puckered and finger wagging. It's ridiculously cute and sassy. But best of all, it's replaced her screaming from months past. She still has amazing vocal chords and let's us hear it when she's angry, but things are so much quieter these days now that she's empowered with words. Beyond these limited verbal skills, she really seems to understand us. She always seems to be listening. And when we scold her, she gets really upset and looks like she genuinely feels badly about what she's done. Or maybe that's what she would like us to believe. She always has that naughty twinkle in her eye too.

Her recent "tricks" - she does the motions to "If you're happy and you know it", gives us fist bumps on command, wiggles her tongue, claps after we pray, and points to her facial features (with about 60% accuracy).

I'm excited for what this next month will bring. 2 more weeks of summer left and so much left to do!

36.5 month / 15 month update

Yup, my boy turned 3...and it's been wonderful so far! I don't know if turning 3 flipped a switch for him, or just simply opened my eyes more...his conversational and comprehension skills have really gone up another level! He still repeats funny phrases ("Shiver me timbers", "No comprendo"), but more than being a chatty parrot, he's expressing himself so well. From "There's a bug in the house. Can you catch it?" to "Mickey Mouse? This is my favorite show!" to "Mommy, are you happy or sad?" And the milestone that really did it for me was when he went to his 3 year doctor check up and did not shed a single tear! He used to be THAT howling, shaking, nearly convulsing kid that wouldn't even stand on the scale without major dramatics. This time, we explained what would happen, let him observe an example, and said we would give him a lollipop afterwards. I was shocked it worked! He even sat through the finger prick and blood work, and just excitedly said he was going to get a "boo boo" (bandaid) and sticker. I was beaming with pride and shock! Next up - haircut!  Once he passes that obstacle without tears, I may just have enough courage to try potty training.

Josiah had a birthday marathon leading up to his 3rd birthday. From cupcakes at school, watching his first movie (Inside Out) at the theater, Bronx Zoo with the Troisis, family celebrations, a cake at church, and a crazy bouncy house party with friends...and apparently his girlfriend, Azza! It was so strange to see him so laser-focused on one person, following her around like a shadow. It was also sweet to see that he can really care about others aside from us. Up until now, it's only been about family and Maria, our nanny. So it's good to see him branching out and keeping up with others his own age! And I think having her lead the way made him braver too.

Speaking of which, he's still very anxious and cautious. And very particular. Since we've established that he is more me than Shaggy, I totally know how to read him. Even at Sesame Place (with the Parks and Rhees), he said no to every ride ("no thank you, I fine") . When I gave him options to ease into things, like dipping his toe in the water first, or sitting on the stationary bench vs the horse on the carousel, he would be more open to it. Yup, he's me. And just like me, instantly loved the wack-a-mole game!

More than any particular event, I've just enjoyed spending time with him and seeing his sweet, sympathetic, and goofy self continue to develop.  He asks us how we're doing, says he's proud of us and that he loves us.  Hope he never stops doing that.

Samantita. Oh Sammy. She is "special" as Maria says. Still a happy and cuddly gal, but definitely stubborn and feisty too. She's an early riser and demands to be picked up right away.  If she even hears a peep from us being awake, she screams her head off and goes nuts if her warm milk is not given to her in like 10 seconds. And don't even dare putting her down when she's hungry or thirsty.

Once she's fed and clean (she freaks out if her diaper is dirty), she goes about her exploring ways.  She loves hanging by the TV to yank out the cable card, to her brother's dismay.  And even though we created a fortress around Josiah's train table set, Sammy managed to find a way in and started destroying everything.  She's like a dainty version of Godzilla - she stomps loudly and will let nothing stop her from getting her hands on what she wants.  And as much as she has the look of innocence, I shouldn't put too much past her. She really enjoys the reaction she gets from Josiah - his complaints when she sits in his chair or pushes his shopping car, and her favorite being when she sticks her foot in his car seat.  She even started to put it in his mouth when he's sleeping, and smirks when we tell her to stop.  Shaggy always shakes his head at her and says "what trouble is she going to give us when she's older?"

Still no sign of walking. Maria keeps saying that she stands on her own when she doesn't know you're watching. But otherwise, doesn't give us the satisfaction. She gets really mad when we practice walking with her and throws herself on the ground and crawls quickly away.  She still enjoys being carried and loves throwing her head back wildly. She discovered how to climb up furniture, so we have to watch her like a hawk even more so now. In general, she seems more action-oriented than Josiah - she even loved going on the rides at Sesame Place with Daddy. 

I love her teeny frame (still 10th percentile) and the way she dances. She loves music and shakes only her booty and midsection to the music. Her new thing is shaking her head and saying "no no no" with her pouty lips and telling us "ssshh".  The best is when she does it after she screams.  And she loves telling everyone "Hiiiii" in her low, alto voice.  And all of a sudden, she started shoving her finger up her nose, which we are trying to stop the habit immediately.  I guess all this adds to her sassy, little character!

35.5 month / 14 month update

I'm writing this post on the train to Philly, since these trips are the only moments I have to myself these days. Josiah turns 3 next week so I want to recount his last month before he transforms into a dreaded "threenager".

If this month has been any early indication, his threes are going to an emotional ride. One minute he will be cracking up with laughter, singing songs and making up dance moves...and then the next he will be crying or walking around in a huff.  His big thing these days is sharing how "upset" and "angry" he is and that his feelings are hurt. Yesterday, I even heard him mutter "Jesus" under his breath, which promptly led to some questioning! I think it's good that he's learning to "use his words", but I think he's enjoying the attention he gets from stomping around a little too much. It doesn't help that the "Inside Out" movie trailers are always on TV. I think that may be encouraging him a little too much to express his emotions.  He especially likes to imitate "anguh" and "isgust".  On a happy note, we're going on a date to see it (his first movie in a theater) together!

Josiah has been exhibiting more independence and desire to do things himself. I'm glad to seem him braver on the playground and pool - for example, he suddenly wanted to climb up the slide and rock wall like the other kids...but then he got a little scuffed up when a kid fell on top of him. And he wanted to "swim" by himself, only to swallow lots of water.  I know this is normal and actually good in some ways, but I am still a helicopter parent. He also got bit on the arm by some kid in daycare...so I know we can't control every weird and unexpected incident that will come his way. But still, I try the best I can!

The one area that has not been progressing at all is potty training.  We still drag our feet especially since he has not demonstrated any desire to move out of diapers. He's only told us a few times that he's needed the potty, but then he changes his mind.  People say to look out for signals of readiness, but we don't see any at all.  The other day he did declare "I want to push with my best friend, Mommy!" and then "I want to stay in my poopy all day", which was weird but at least something new!  I wonder when things will click for him.

This has been a tough disciplinary month.  Sometimes he just whines non-stop about all kinds of things (e.g. blanket is not covering his feet completely, Samantha is coming toward him, he wants to skip the commercial, etc.) and it's so difficult to calm him down and talk through each situation.  He is already a pro at selective listening (gets it from his Dad? Haha) and evades eye contact when he knows he's misbehaving.  And he's started turning our words against us and often asserts, "I'm asking you a question!" or "stop it!" when he wants to argue with us.  I admit he's still pretty spoiled, so we're trying to figure out the best way to get through to him, especially when he's not quite there in understanding actions and consequences.

The good news is that Josiah has been playing a bit nicer with his sister...but only if he retains control. He's sharing more (or at least learning to put on a good front), but still wants to always make sure he keeps a distance from her and her grabby and destructive hands. He gives her select toys (aka the worst ones) to play with and calls out to her "here little fella". He even asks her "How are you Samantha?  Are you feeling well?" The other day we saw Samantha handing toys from her playpen to Josiah so he could arrange them in a straight line, like an assembly line. Samantha looked thrilled to be included.  By and large, separating them is still the best tactic, but every now and then, we catch an adorable moment and hopefully a glimpse of a good relationship in the future.

SAMANTHA - 14 months
 
Samantha is Little Miss Trouble now. She's still on the small side, but we have learned not to underestimate her.  Her gentle and innocent demeanor is completely gone, probably due to being on constant defense with her brother! She wants in on all the action and will scream and throw things if we don't give in immediately to her desires. She spits out food that she doesn't want, bangs her utensils and cups on the table, and throws her head and body back when she wants us to put her down. She's always screaming. Even our nanny said she can't take her to restaurants for lunch because she's so disruptive to the other patrons! I think Samantha likes the attention and is also frustrated at not being able to communicate. We are hoping this will change soon. Not a ton of progress there, but she's moved on from only "do do" and now always says "Eee" when she wants something or "D" in a high pitched voice, which we think means Daddy. Shaggy doesn't believe me, but I swear that she said "Hola Mom" the other day!

As much as Josiah bothers her, she certainly likes to provoke him too.  Specifically, she sticks her foot in his face constantly.  Maybe we've encouraged "stinky foot" jokes a bit too much.  During car rides, she always puts her foot in his seat, or tucks it under his car seat cover, since their seats currently face one another.  It drives Josiah CRAZY though and sends him into fits of tears, while she just smiles and does it over and over again.  (Why am I suddenly nostalgic of my childhood? Haha) Refereeing during car rides has become exhausting.

Samantha is still nowhere close to walking and thinks it's funny when we even make her try.  She just relaxes her legs and lets us try with no success.  She prefers to cruise around quietly on her own, so we end up finding her in all parts of the house. She loves tinkering around with toys and gadgets and likes to figure things out on her own. When she gets things to work or make sounds, she scrunches her face into a big grin and giggles.  She's easily pleased by herself.  She also loves it when we run around with her.  We make a panting sound, which sends her into hysterics.  She also loves when I wiggle my eyebrows at her.  Her laughter is still the cutest sound.

She seems to be more independent than Josiah was at this age.  She is always observing things, particularly watching what we're doing with Josiah to make sure she doesn't get left out.  I guess that's the life of a 2nd child!  This at least makes mealtime easier, since we just replicate his meals for her. She loves feeding herself and is already mastering the fork/spoon pretty well.  But when she's done with her meal, she tosses everything on the floor.  Regardless of how sternly I say "No, Samantha!", she just smiles and stares back into my eyes.  It's actually quite startling how unapologetic she is!

Beyond this little attitude of hers, she's still a sweetie.  She loves blowing kisses and making raspberries on our cheeks.  And she's also still a great sleeper - while she fights her morning nap, she still takes one long nap in the afternoon (if we're lucky, at the same time as Josiah), sometimes another nap before dinner, and sleeps through the night without fail.  The only caveat is that we do everything we can do not wake 'the sleeping dragon' - she lets us have it if her sleep is interrupted!

This age combination of 1 and 3 has been really rough on us, but we're getting by.  We have a busy summer ahead - birthday parties, Sesame Place, vacation in Florida, etc. so we're hoping to keep the kids active and tired all season long :)

34.5 month / 13 month update

Life is so full and crazy these days.  I missed my last post, so I'll try to recall all that's happened during these past two months.  It's amazing what you can remember, in spite of foggy, sleep deprived brain!

The big stuff:

• Samantha turned 1 in April and we celebrated with a big bash.  We officially have two toddlers in the house! They are still angry at each other most of the time, but doing better at co-existing these days.
• My brother Ed and his family visited from Japan in May.  The last time I saw my brother was before my kids were born. And this was the first time that our children met.  It was crazy corralling 12 people in and out of NYC and doing all kinds of touristy things, but totally worth it. We miss them already.
• Two rounds of sicknesses - stomach bug in March and fevers in May shortly following my brother's visit.  As much as we tried to separate the kids and avoid the contagion, I realize it's just futile.  Next time, I'm going to at least try to coordinate them so we can get it over in one shot versus a seemingly never-ending cycle.  Now I know why my mom was obsessed with me getting chicken pox from my brother...
• Shaggy went away to DC for a conference for a FULL WEEKEND in May, leaving me with the kids by myself.  I know I've already received enough sympathy from friends, but it's worth documenting :)  And although it felt like endless cooking, cleaning, and refereeing, it was actually pretty sweet to spend so much time with the kids.  And I really do think it's true that kids ease up a bit when they know they've outnumbered you.
• We are in the process of selling our place and looking for a new home in the real 'burbs.  I spend all my waking moments on real estate sites.  We love our place so much and have so many memories here. But we need more space!  Praying for an easy search.
• ALLERGIES!

SAMANTHA - 13 months

Our girl "Samantita" or "Octopus" (according to Josiah), is no longer a baby!  However, she remains on the small side, so we'll keep thinking she's a baby as long as she'll let us.  But don't let her little 10 percentile body fool you - she is one tough cookie!  She gets into screaming matches with her brother constantly and will even grab a tuft of his hair and occasionally bite.  She's got quite the grip and will not let go of whatever it is that she wants - whether it's crumbs of food, Josiah's toys, electric cords, remote controls or most of all, my iPhone! Whenever she catches a glimpse, she starts panting with excitement and will do anything to get her hands on it, even nose-dive for it.  It's so funny to see how much she's picked up by just watching me (or perhaps it just reinforces how attached I am to that darn thing).  She pushes the home button, swipes at the screen with her fingers, and puts it to her ear and says "Ho?"  Taking it away from her causes immediate tantrums. She's picked up the nasty habit of throwing her body on the floor (while kneeled) when she gets really upset.  In fact, she cries and gets mad at us a lot...when she wakes up and we don't immediate get her, when she doesn't want anymore food, when Josiah takes toys away...she's always letting us know when her needs are not being met!

Here are some other recent Samantha-isms:

• Top 2 teeth have come in! This means teething pain..but also an increased desire for our table food! She wants nothing to do with purees anymore, and wants whatever we're eating.  She pretty much eats anything Josiah does now (eggs, fruit, rice, chicken, cheese, etc.). And she LOVES donuts.
• She's beginning to stand on her own, but not for longer than a few seconds.  And then she gives herself applause!  She's still pretty careful and calculated with her movements. It's fun watching her figure out a path to her desired destination, testing various items for their level of sturdiness and support.  I don't see her walking anytime soon, but you never know!
• She's our future engineer.  She likes to hover around the TV, press buttons, pull out the cable card, etc.  She seems to always be examining things and tossing them on the ground.
• She still doesn't verbalize much other than "do do" and "uh" (while pointing).  She still shakes her head at everything (we're convinced "no" means "yes"), but has started to nod here and there.  She's a girl of a few words.
• She loves to wave and blow kisses to everyone when you're holding her.  But when not held, she freaks out when other people get close.  Not a social butterfly like Josiah was at her age. 
• She still loves it best when we swing her around, blow in her face, or squish our nose against hers. Her absolute favorite is when we take her diaper off before the bath. Don't know why, but she starts kicking up her legs and cackling. 
• During diaper changes, we say "hands up", and the hands go flying up. When we say "oreja", she points to her ear
• Her hair is getting longer and harder to tame each day. We try to avoid her natural ajuma hairstyle, so she's always in pigtails.
• She watches all the same TV shows as her brother and likes to dance (or awkwardly sway off-beat) to the music
• She's starting to get interested in shoes...

JOSIAH - 34.5 months

My little man...and mama's boy.  He's still all about me, and I kind of love it.  He always wants to play with me, sing silly songs with me, go to A&P with me, hold my hand, sleep with me, etc.  But it's also exhausting!

Josiah continues to be very in tune with his emotions.  He has picked up a few more adjectives and often tells us that he is upset, sad, angry, grumpy, etc. Whenever he doesn't get what he wants, he often crosses his arms and goes "humph.  I'm upset". He's even started to personify his toys - he'll say things like "Mommy, rabbit and frog are hitting each oger (other)" or "Letter A and Z are not nice. They need to take a break".  He must be learning about discipline in school lately, because he acts this scene out a lot. He is so scared at the concept of 'taking a break'! We've threatened him with this once or twice, but stopped once we realized that we were never following through!

Speaking of school, Josiah still doesn't tell us about it at all and actually seems to avoid the topic when we ask. We think he may have a lot of girlfriends because the only people he will occasionally mention are girls names (Azza, Anya, Maddy, etc.). The teachers say he's friendly and perceptive, but sometimes hugs people too hard!

He's a bit kinder to his sister these days - at least his aggression is more passive vs. outright. He'll sometimes throw her a toy (the least desirable one, of course) out of the piles and piles of his toys when we insist that he share. Or he'll say things like "Samantha wants medicine" when he wants to deflect from him!  And when he does things that he knows are wrong, he'll quickly say "sorry sorry!" There are a few moments of unexpected sweetness though, like when he puts his arm around her or runs to her crib saying "she needs her baba" when she's crying.  However, she always seems a bit guarded and suspicious in those moments.

He continues to be really imaginative and musical - has started to make up songs and rhymes, and loves singing along to Veggie Tales Silly Songs in the car.  It's amazing what he's memorized and how he really commits to all the parts!  He is also really into Pocoyo these days and has even assigned us each one of the characters - he's Pocoyo (of course), I'm Pato the duck, Daddy is Ellie the elephant, and Samantha is the Octopus.  He's also been watching 'Finding Nemo" and has been in a sea life kick ever since, constantly asking about Nemo, Daddy fish, and the other sea life.  Out of desperation, I started to feed him saying he was a shark...and it seemed to work! Aside from regular TV and movies, he is also really into YouTube videos about Playdoh and surprise kinder eggs.

Physically, he still tends to be tentative. He's regressed a bit where he's a bit wary of things he used to love...like the playground, dogs, etc. He seems scared of things and is overly careful. For example, when we put him on the swing, he started trembling and screamed to get off.  We need to bring him outside more often and get him exposed to new things.  I'm hoping to enroll him in some swimming lessons this summer, but I can already anticipate the crying. He really seems to want a scooter for his birthday, so maybe that will unleash him a bit.

He still says the darndest things.  Here are some recent funnies:

• I'm a doctor. Don't be scared.
• Sa-man-ta stop! She wants to go in cage.
• I not can see anything!
• No, I fine. I better.
• I want to join you!
• I prayed already!
• Just one more episode!
• No, that's silly.  Try again.
• That's right, mommy.  Good job!
• I'm Kitchen Josiah!
• It's good to see you.  Are you doing well (prounounced "weh-yell")?
• I'm sorry that I'm scared you when I saw you on TV (he quotes this line everytime he thinks he scared someone)

Long post, but it was a long two months.  Looking forward to the summer!

32.5 month / 11 month update

Here's a picture of our dynamic duo - but don't be deceived by their smiling faces. This month, they have been cooped up at home (neverending winter) and at each other's throats. The crying episodes and screaming matches are out of control. It's to the point where we can hardly leave them unsupervised for even a few minutes, for fear of someone really getting hurt. We sometimes catch Josiah pulling off her fingers when she's standing, swinging a toy a bit too close to her head, or simply trying to sit on her body. And Samantha isn't so innocent either - she grabs tufts of his hair, scratches his face, and kicks him. It's been an exhausting month of refereeing these squabbles and trying to be patient with explaining things to Josiah in the process. Thank God we have daycare during the day. While it was a tough process to get him acclimated, time apart and structured environments have been the best thing for everybody!

JOSIAH - 32.5 months

Josiah's been loving daycare. He makes a big spectacle about leaving in the morning.  He gives me, Maria, and Samantha hugs and declares that he's going to school with Daddy and going to be a good boy. While the teachers praise him for being very engaged and active, they also alluded to the fact that he tattles on other kids when they don't listen! Haha - little hall monitor. His main issue at school was being too scared to use the potty. However, after buying him a Thomas the Train potty seat, he's been at least agreeing to sit on it during school. But no action yet. So, some progress, but seems like we have a long way to go.

Josiah's still really clingy to me. He won't go to sleep alone and will only agree to go with Daddy if he thinks he's sad.  He's very sensitive to emotions and still says "I'm sad" like every other sentence. His bouts of jealousy have hit a peak as well. He gets really pouty when he sees us give Samantha too much attention. He constantly begs me to "hold me!" and pick him up. As much as I could use a good work out, it's killing me! Of course, when Samantha's not around, he agrees to walk.  And I don't know where he's learned this, but he often yells at Samantha in a stern, growly voice...like "Sa-man-taaa!" She, of course, screams right back.  It's amazing how sibling rivalry starts so early.

Another new thing these days is him walking out of his room in the middle of the night. It's so startling to wake up to his footsteps and little voice in the night. Lately, we've been singing to put him back to sleep that he's now learned to demand "sing song", with a special request for "how great" (is our God). As we've learned, he's very particular, and likes things a certain way during bedtime - his water bottle on the windowsill, his seahorse by his side, his blue blanket on him (my green blanket dare not touch him). Sigh.

Josiah's leaned out completely. I don't think he's gained even a pound this full year!  Just like Samantha, he's at the 20% percentile now. I still look at his baby pictures and gasp at the contrast. There's almost no trace of his rolls now! Part of it is due to him not eating as much. It's so hard to get him to eat, let alone give him any sort of healthy balance. I hate to admit it, but I still bribe with Youtube (Bob the Train or Pocoyo) to get him to eat. His loves are still strawberries, egg whites, and bread...and now orange juice! In fact, when he sees us eating something he likes, he yells out "sharing is caring!"

Multi-tasking

Developmentally he's doing great. He continues to rattle off new words everyday. He can name almost every shape (even parallelogram and trapezoid), knows colors and numbers in Spanish, and say a ton of funny phrases ("my goodness", "i got idea", "ready Freddy", "I superman and save the day") However, he's not as advanced with regards to physical coordination - probably my fault for coddling him so much! He still needs help feeding himself and picks at his food with his fingers (if not spoon fed by me). While he can spell his name, he can hardly trace the letters. Either he doesn't enjoy these things, OR he's already being reinforced to only enjoy the things he's good at. Maybe I'm reading too much into it already, but I'm hoping to foster a 'growth mindset' in him early on!

Overall, Josiah is doing well and going through the typical toddler motions, it seems. Most of the time, he's a delightful goof and knows how to make everyone around him laugh. He loves to "dance crazy"and make jokes and rhymes, mostly related to poopy diapers and stinky feet. As much as he can drive me nuts, he knows how to make me melt. Just today, he called me "Princess Mommy" :)

SAMANTHA - 11 months


Our gal is one month away from being a toddler! She seems ready to grow up and see the world for herself! She crawls so fast and tries to get her hands on absolutely everything, especially cell phones and power cords, of course. She can stand with support, and always has this look of fierce determination on her face as she tries to figure out her stance. We thought she may walk sooner than Josiah did, but she doesn't seem like she wants to take the risk now. Instead, she just screams until she gets what she wants :)

Speaking of screams, she is SO LOUD. She babbles up a storm and repeats "do do do do" with her lips out like a duck. But most of the time, she has varying degrees of yelling - ear-piercing pitch when she doesn't want to be in the crib, normal high pitch when she's yelling at Josiah, and a lower pitch when she's hungry. She will accompany these screams with fist pounding on the ground and dramatic flairs, like throwing her pacifier if it's not to her liking. Little diva!

Her food preferences keep changing too. While she continues to like Daddy's homemade creations, she's been eyeing our table food more and more. She loves whatever we give her from our plates. And now, she seems to prefer water over milk too. We are always afraid of over-feeding her, because she easily throws up (got that from her Dad!). Earlier this month, we had the craziest projectile vomit scene at a restaurant that you can imagine. Even Josiah was like "woah".

Samantha's got some new tricks! She can now wave (squeezes her palm toward herself), clap to "yay!" and blow kisses when we say "besito"! I love the look of pride on her face after these major accomplishments! She loves to show people too and seems to enjoy the positive attention she gets from it to. We catch her staring and smiling at people across the room. And just like Josiah, she loves music and will bop her head, kick her feet, and wave her hands to the music. At church, she will howl along to the songs too.

Our "Samantita" is small but mighty. I wonder how she will be when she starts walking! We have some major child-proofing to do!

31.5 month / 10 month update

I am so late with this post...so much so that I’ve decided to use Samantha’s birthday (18^th) to be the new monthly rhythm.  Whatever makes me feel less behind, right? :)
 

As much as I’ve considered abandoning this blog, there’s so much that happens each month that I don’t want to lose track of those things.  And God knows my memory is not reliable these days!  These past few weeks, in particular, have been crazy.  I took a new job (same parent company, different role), with occasional travel to Philly.  I’m actually typing this on the train now, since I haven’t had a second to do it elsewhere.   It's been exciting to change things up, but also a bit stressful to be adding something new into our busy lives!

Beyond the usual busyness, we went on vacation this past month to Puerto Rico, both kids have gotten sick (first bout of daycare-related illnesses?), and Josiah’s sleep has majorly regressed.  Being a toddler is tough enough, but throw in sickness and a disruption of routine, and all the good habits are undone :/

JOSIAH – 31.5 months

This has been a big month for Jiggy.  He’s been at daycare for a month now, and while it started out rocky, it only took two weeks for him to declare “I like school”.  It’s amazing how kids can go from one extreme to the other.  Now during drop-off, he just waves goodbye to Daddy.  And whenever he gets picked up, he exclaims “you came back!”  I only wish I could watch him in action, but from what the teachers say, he’s doing great.  His only issues are that he won’t use the potty there (not even close to training!), generally doesn’t poop (whereas he’s usually a machine!) and who knows if he’s eating anything since he’s so used to being hand-fed at home!  And as verbal as he is, he won’t tell us a thing.  When I ask him about his teachers, he just says “Miss Alison says SSSHH. Go to sleep.  Turn off light”.  And when I ask him what his friends’ names are, he just laughs and says “Yaya”.  I’m waiting for the day he really makes his first friend!

Perhaps related to the adjustment to daycare, his sleep routine is out the window!  His bedtime is now pushing toward 9pm and he won’t go to sleep without one of us with him.   He teases us and pretends to debate between his options (“I sleep to Mommy or Daddy?”)…yet picks me 9 times out of 10.  And as much as we want to be stern about going to sleep alone, we can’t afford him crying and waking up Samantha.  So, Josiah wins.  And I lose my evening “freedom” and usually wake up in the middle of the night, confused and disoriented.  Shaggy doesn’t stay victorious for long – he usually handles the middle-of-the-night screaming responsibilities.

In general, Josiah’s been on TEAM MOMMY these days.  He flat-out said he loved me more than Daddy! (I win!) He gets upset when I give Samantha attention and will insist that I hold him ("hold me hold me hold me!") and that I give Samantha over to Daddy.  In some ways, we’ve reinforced that since we typically divide/conquer the kids that way – it wasn’t really an intentional thing, but I do think we generally gravitate to our minis”!  As silly and hyper as Josiah is, I have to admit that he gets that from the Cha side.  He reminds me a lot of my brother as a kid, especially with his humor and wild dancing.  And he certainly has acquired my sense of caution and pickiness.

The jealous spurts between the kids have been tough.  I actually can't trust them to be alone for too long, for fear that he will sit and smother her.  Josiah is not great at sharing and has developed a stern voice to yell “No Sa-man-ta!” when she gets close to his toys.  And he monopolizes all of her toys too and loves to yank things away from her.  When we try to encourage him to share or anything else he doesn’t want to do, he immediately pouts and says “I sad” or “I don’t want anything, anymo!” Or he just bursts into tears. How can a 2 year old be so emo?!?  Sometimes he even lashes out and even hits us, which is when we followed through with his first time-outs.  It’s heartbreaking to do and I’m not sure how successful they’ve been beyond just completely freaking him out.  And then he'll just quickly shout out "sorry sorry!", without truly being remorseful.

Now the fun Josiah quotables from this month:

• What the big idea?
• Broccoli is gross.  That’s caca.
• I be patient
• You want special? (referring to his cooking)
• Just one more.  Pinky promise
• Scary monster! Hami is grandma!
• What?!?  I not Min-Jong, I Josiah (when I call him by his Korean name)
• Mommy big, Josiah small (-_-)
• Are you get my blanket? (I love his grammar mistakes)

SAMANTHA – 10 months

Our Sammy Burrito is a real person now, albeit a little one (she’s now 20 percentile!)  What is it about our kids oscillating from one end of the weight curve to the other?!? She is so adorable and I could kiss her all day! 

Her personality is becoming more prominent and she’s becoming more active and verbal by the day.  She started crawling last month and will move around the house without us realizing it sometimes.  She seems very determined and will do whatever it takes to get the object she’s eyeing. Shaggy says she’s like Ursula with her active arms.  But whatever you do, don’t try to take the toy (or iPhone or extension cord) away, or watch her throw a fit and start beating the ground in frustration.  

She still a happy and chill baby and sleeps great at night and can play by herself easily (she loves rolling around in her “cage” with all the balls and toys).  However, she’s no pushover – when Josiah gets in her personal space, she screams and/or pushes/kicks him, probably rightfully so.  Since Josiah is home 2 days out of the week, our nanny has commented how much happier Sammy’s been when her brother’s away!  She loves the 1-on-1 attention and ability to touch all his toys.  And despite how angelic I still believe her to be, she definitely whines and cries more these days.  And she’s begun to show some stranger anxiety this month for the first time.

Samantha’s become very responsive and interactive too.  She knows “baba” for bottle and will scream in the morning until we give it to her.  She runs the extremes - will either be kicking her feet and chuckling like crazy...or screaming with her face all pruned up if we don't give her what she wants immediately.  She's less "deadpan" in facial expressions!

She's trying to talk and makes all kinds of babbles like “na na na” and "ya ya ya" and waves her hands around, best compared to either a conductor, fan-dancer, or pageant queen!  She also puts her hand out for high-fives and makes sounds by playing with her or others’ lips.  She’s often grinning and smirking, especially at Daddy, and has just recently been laughing more like “Ha Ha” these days.  She loves being swung around by Daddy and just squints her eyes in bliss.  Shaggy and I joke around that she’s going to be into action sports like her Daddy, while Josiah will watching from the bench with me :/  However, one commonality with her brother is that she seems to love music.  She bounces her body and kicks her feet along to the music, sometimes even howling along.

Samantha is loving food these days, yet less into milk (she guzzles her morning bottle, then tapers off throughout the day).  Shaggy’s been making amazing purees that she’s been gobbling down.  They’re really good – I even sneak in a taste sometimes! 

I can’t believe how quickly Samantha is growing up.  I definitely wish we could keep her at this stage for longer since it’s so ideal – she’s interactive, yet can’t walk nor talk back to us!  :P  Although her legs are still wobbly and unsteady at the moment, she's starting to pull herself up... so it won’t be too long! 

2.5 years / 8.5 month update

Happy New Year!                 Before jumping ahead to 2015, I don't want to forget all the significant events and milestones from last month - birthday celebrations (Shaggy's 39th and Dad's 70th), Christmas (Samantha's first), and Samantha's baptism.  Luckily, things slowed down at work after my trip to LA, so it was the perfect time to unwind and focus on the family...which meant a lot of fun and hair-pulling moments (and near broken nose) of insanity too.  All in all, it was a great month that I'll certainly miss as things pick up again this week. 

 

Josiah - 2 1/2 years old

Our little man ("the mayor", according to our neighbors) is midway through his twos.  And as parents warned me, the "terrible" period is only truly beginning!  While he continues to have a lot of personality and charm, he is definitely displaying more defiance and attitude these days.  He has mastered the scrunched-face pout, the glares, the fake cries, the real cries/screams, the body-plants on the floor, the slaps/kicks, the teases (replacing words with "yaya" or "no"), ultimatums ("I'm mad...I don't want anything... anymore!")...and just recently, the occasional lies ("Mommy hitting me two times")!  And don't even start with trying to get him to do something he doesn't want to do, like get a haircut!  We had the most epic meltdown at the salon, regardless of every bribe we could think of...thus the botched-up, shaggy 'do that he'll be rocking for the next few months until we go for it again...

 

As frustrating as phase is, I know he is right "on schedule" and we are doing our best to be firm, consistent, and patient through these episodes.  It's so much easier to give into him and just throw him a video ("press red!" = YouTube) or a snack...which I admit, we sometimes do.  Most of the time, he's a good kid that's probably acting out from being cooped up at home.  We've finally bit the bullet and signed him up for part-time daycare starting next week.  I'm ultimately excited for him to make friends, have more stimulation and organized activities, have more structure/discipline...and have them attempt potty training for us!  But I'm so anxious about the adjustment period (for him and us!), and a little sad for Samantha and our nanny since they're so used to having him around 24/7.  But as they say, change is good.  So I'm trying not to worry, and trust in the natural resilience of kids.  Last Sunday, Josiah stayed in Sunday School by himself for the first time!  I'm taking that as a signal that the timing is right.

 

Aside from his moments of bad behavior, he's still my silly & sweet boy and original baby (although he corrects me with "I big brother" when I call him this).  He's been more attached to me this month and will spontaneously give us hugs, kisses and "I love you guys".  What's equally cute and frustrating is that he always wants to be carried, and only by me ("I want you to hold it.  Carry me please Mommy") and will cling onto my arms and legs until I pick him up.  As hard as it is on my back, I secretly love his preferential treatment :)

 

He's also moved officially out of his crib and into the bed in their shared room.  Since it's a full-size, it's pretty much just a larger, make-shift crib since we use body pillows to flank the sides and he sleeps on top of the covers.  Regardless, he seems to love it...but now requires us to stay with him until he falls asleep.  As much as we want to be firm, we don't want to risk him screaming and waking up Samantha (to which she will yell back in anger).  And now that he can just walk out of the room himself, we don't have much leverage in the situation.  Sooo..another rough patch in the sleep department, that is slowly getting better again.

His communication skills continue to be rapidly growing...while listening skills are still not great (gets that from his dad, haha).  He remains obsessed with numbers, letters, shapes, and colors and often recites them spontaneously on his own.  I even caught him in the baby monitor making shapes with his hands.  Here is a list of recent Josiah sayings this month:

• It's a Christmas miracle!  Santa is on Mistletoe Mountain.
• That's amazing!  I love it!
• Thank you Friend!
• Ay yay captain! Coming through!
• Hello down there!
• I sad.  I want to go home!
• Are you get me out of here?
• We go to beach, get coconuts, make sand castles
• Mommy, are you ok?  I give you boo-boo (with a smooch).
• I help Mommy be pretty (watching me in the bathroom)
• I really hungry.  I want chicken and rice.
• She is soooo cute (to Samantha)
• Is it Disney, Disney Junior, or Disney XD? (when watching TV)

Samantha - 8 1/2 months old

How do I start with our little Sammy?  Her diva streak continues!  While her disposition is generally calmer than her brother's, you can already tell she's the tougher one out of the two.  Honestly, I think she is like a cat - calmly waiting, observing, and choosing her moments to strike!  She even has cat-like movements, constantly swatting at our faces, scratching rugs/couches, and grabbing things.  She has become an pro at tossing away her toys and stealing Josiah's right under his nose...which instigates a screaming match between both.  As young and innocent as she may seem, I truly believe she knows what she's doing...always with a little sly smile on her face.  Her newest thing is slapping my face or pulling my lips (particularly when I'm looking at my iPhone!) and laughing in response.  Now that she is sitting up and almost crawling, look out world!

Samantha has mastered her deadpan resting face and "mean mugging" stares.  But she doesn't stay still for long - she has fully found her voice and will randomly yell out "AHHH"  or blow raspberries for attention.  She loves it when we spin her around in circles - she will close her eyes in bliss and scrunch up her face into a big smile.  Even her nanny has mentioned that "she likes rough play", whatever that means!  She continues to love bath time and being naked in general.  Daddy is worried!

She still isn't the greatest napper.  She will only nap for about 30-45 minutes at a time, before waking up in hysterics.  She's become much more high maintenance about wanting to be held constantly, to her nanny's exhaustion.  Luckily, despite not napping well, she still sleeps through the night well...with the exception of this week, since she is getting over her first cold :(

The biggest change this month is that Samantha has finally found her appetite!  She now guzzles 6-8 ounces of milk and will start screaming when she's hungry.  She gets hyper and sort of babbles "baba" when she seem her bottle.  Given how hard it was to feed her in the early months, I welcome this change!  She's also better with solids too, and we are moving into meats and thicker textures.  Even still, you can tell she wants to skip ahead to the grown-up stuff.  Despite this increase in appetite, she seems to be trimming down.  Her checks are not as plump as before, but still very kissable :)

Me - age undisclosed (haha)
Speaking of weight, I am now determined to lose some of my baby LBs and focus on my health.  2nd time baby weight is much harder to lose than the first time around!  I guess having a fitness-guru as a sister has its perks!

Now that I haven't been nursing for over a month now, I need to accept the fact that I cannot justify all the carbs and snacks I consume each day.  And weirdly enough, my stomach is back to being sensitive, as it was in my pre-pregnancy days.  So even more reason to cut back on bad foods. 

Other 2015 resolutions:

• Less screen time for all of us, but especially me!  How I love my iPhone and TV binging!  But it's definitely had an effect on my 'engagement' with the family and ability to sleep at night.
• Less worrying and anxiety.  Gotta let things go, not obsess over to-do lists and enjoy the present.
• More decisive actions...that ranges from the big things, to the smaller things like shopping/returning! 
• More praying and reading the Bible as a family.  This will directly affect all of the above!