Happy New Year!
2015 came and went! This past month was especially filled with lots of family time, celebrating birthdays, Christmas, and vacationing in Aruba (equal parts relaxation and hard work with the kids). Despite the stress that comes with closing out the year, I hang onto the sweet memories we made. Here's a look at some highlights from December 2015 and my #2015bestnine, according to Instagram.
Samantha - 21 months
This little lady continues to surprise us daily. She's stealthy and scrappy...always observing, going about her own business, and defending her place when needed. And just like most 2nd children, she often gets deprived of the attention and rigor that Josiah got being the 1st. Yet still, she figures it out...has picked up her own shoddy rendition of the alphabet ("yum yum yum...P....woah woah woah...with me"), sits on the potty on her own, takes my phone (and often resets my password) and steals and hides toys from her brother. These days, all the fights are about their minion toys.
She's pretty quiet until provoked, and screams "hey!" or "share!" in a deep voice. These days she's been smacking Josiah in the face too, which gets her in trouble. She keeps a stoic and smug face for a few second and then bursts into tears. And then her fingers go right into her mouth to self-soothe, which we've been trying so hard to stop! But her stubbornness is winning out.
Samantha says things here and there, but not at all where Josiah was at that age. But you can tell she understands everything. She tends to mispronounce words (often replaces first letters of words with P - "pookie" (cookie), "picup" (cup), "poo" (soup), "pickup" (check-up). I wonder why that is? We often catch her singing the Veggietales theme song but she only sings like every 5th word, so it's spastic and hilarious. Just like Josiah, she loves music and gasps when she hears "Uga" (Sugar by Maroon 5). She also wants to do everything her brother "Siyah" does, so she climbs into his chair, says "do it" whenever she wants a turn, and fiercely nods and says "yesh" when we figure out what she wants. She now proudly says her own name, "Peeta" :)
In Aruba, Samantha loved the water! While she was tentative at first at the cold temperature of the water, she quickly got into in and could not be dragged away. When we put her floaties on, she kept pushing us away to let her swim on her own. Maybe she'll be a fish like me? Other random things - she loves babies and scrunches up her face and says "cuuuute" as she smothers them with kisses (and occasional hits), she dances to music with her fingers in the air (like fobby style), and has real bangs in her hair! I never knew bangs to be natural, so it's kinda interesting.
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Josiah - 42.5 months:
The most eventful change for Josiah this month was embarking on potty training. I'm going to dedicate a post to that experience alone, because it was pretty difficult and continues to be a challenge. Let's just say it was NOT the 3-day cure I had hoped for, it drew out lots of emotions and stress from all of us, and was a pretty eye-opening look at my parenting style...some of which I definitely want to change before too late.
Another big change was taking him out of daycare since we are preparing to move by the end of January. While not the biggest change out of those we were going to experience with the move, I was still worried about how he would take it. Interestingly, he hasn't really shown any emotion toward leaving nor acknowledged school at all. That's both a relief and a bit of a strange response to me...he rarely mentioned friends there or anything he did at school, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Let's hope he bonds more at his next school and handles saying goodbye to his nanny (gulp) in a healthy manner.
Not a ton of developmental milestones this month, just funny Josiah-isms that I've observed. He still loves music and is all about the Veggietales Worship CD (funny to hear him yell "my chains are gone, I've been set free!" at the top of his lungs). He also loves the minion rendition of "Y.M.C.A" and likes to dance and do conga lines to it. But, as loud and theatrical as he can be (always talking with wide arms and wild expressions), I think he's pretty introverted and loves playing with his toys by himself (or sometimes with us). He loves playing with his minion characters, making up stories and voices to go along with them, or pretending to go on picnics. He love stories in general and is constantly asking me, "are you tell me a story?", often requesting Goldilocks and Humpty Dumpty. He likes predictability so doesn't like it when I go too off-script or mentions anything "scary". He got back into books during our potty training days isolated in the bathroom with only books to keep us company. It's amazing to say but we watch very little TV these days!
His phrases and explanations have been getting more and more sophisticated and funny. He's that kid that is constantly chattering and stuttering to get out long trains of thoughts "excuse me? um...but...because...otherwise..ok?". Some recent phrases: "I so proud of you Mommy because you play with me everything", "Samantha is too grouchy", "Oh my Lord", "why does this always happen to me?", "I not doing anything" (when accused of something), "I suppose". And his most frequent line is "but that's ok!" when he's just done something to disappoint us, like pee on the floor. The funniest thing was when he told us, "I'm going to marry Samantita! We all going to get married!" I know every kid says this at some point, but it's still so funny.
Not to get too introspective, but there are some things about Josiah that I can't help but feel guilty about passing along to him. I hope he grows out of these things...or at least we can help each other work through them together! For example, he's very insistent in doing things a certain way. Even when listening to a song, he wants it sung a certain way. He's gets upset if I sing a part he was meant to sing, etc. Also, he's pretty OCD, always wanting his toys a certain ways, screams when his fingers look pruney after the bath, and freaks out when water gets in his eyes or when there is any sort of mess at the dinner table. I know I may be blowing up silly examples, but it's something I think about and want to focus on (without being too psychoanalytical).
Another big change was taking him out of daycare since we are preparing to move by the end of January. While not the biggest change out of those we were going to experience with the move, I was still worried about how he would take it. Interestingly, he hasn't really shown any emotion toward leaving nor acknowledged school at all. That's both a relief and a bit of a strange response to me...he rarely mentioned friends there or anything he did at school, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Let's hope he bonds more at his next school and handles saying goodbye to his nanny (gulp) in a healthy manner.
His phrases and explanations have been getting more and more sophisticated and funny. He's that kid that is constantly chattering and stuttering to get out long trains of thoughts "excuse me? um...but...because...otherwise..ok?". Some recent phrases: "I so proud of you Mommy because you play with me everything", "Samantha is too grouchy", "Oh my Lord", "why does this always happen to me?", "I not doing anything" (when accused of something), "I suppose". And his most frequent line is "but that's ok!" when he's just done something to disappoint us, like pee on the floor. The funniest thing was when he told us, "I'm going to marry Samantita! We all going to get married!" I know every kid says this at some point, but it's still so funny.
Not to get too introspective, but there are some things about Josiah that I can't help but feel guilty about passing along to him. I hope he grows out of these things...or at least we can help each other work through them together! For example, he's very insistent in doing things a certain way. Even when listening to a song, he wants it sung a certain way. He's gets upset if I sing a part he was meant to sing, etc. Also, he's pretty OCD, always wanting his toys a certain ways, screams when his fingers look pruney after the bath, and freaks out when water gets in his eyes or when there is any sort of mess at the dinner table. I know I may be blowing up silly examples, but it's something I think about and want to focus on (without being too psychoanalytical).
What's Ahead:
If all goes well with our house process (which is nerve-wracking at the moment), we will be officially suburbanites in just 2 weeks! I'm excited/nervous/anxious/in denial/etc. about the snowball effects of this change on our lifestyles, but I'm trying to deal with change in a much more productive way than I have in the past! Knowing our kids are watching us and relying on us to handle change and unpredictable turns with faith and grace, is my motivation to keep growing in this way!
If all goes well with our house process (which is nerve-wracking at the moment), we will be officially suburbanites in just 2 weeks! I'm excited/nervous/anxious/in denial/etc. about the snowball effects of this change on our lifestyles, but I'm trying to deal with change in a much more productive way than I have in the past! Knowing our kids are watching us and relying on us to handle change and unpredictable turns with faith and grace, is my motivation to keep growing in this way!
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