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!
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