Jan & Feb 2014
Last month I skipped the developmental piece for more of a “what we did” update, so this time around, I’m going to flip it (especially for Archer, who has totally grown since the last time I updated!)
Archer, your single words are really coming along. In the fall, you added keys, apple (app or app-uh), truck, bike, chicken (chick-uh), sit, puff, motorcycle (cyc-uh), pumpkin, cup, hat and bubble. Doggies are (and say) “huh-huh!” and you point at every truck, car, dog, bus, pumpkin and bike that we see. By February, you could also say helicopter, car, ok, dance, music (sic!), ball, burger, ketchup, grapes, cracker, cookie, water (wa-wa), cup, cheese (ghee), hot, papa, all done, socks, shoes, ba, duck, frog (gob) and cat… and probably a whole lot more. You’re not quite putting together two words yet, but I think you’re getting close. You point to us and say mama, dada and Sebastien (sbas-cha) and are always searching for “Coach Nick” at FUSE even though when you actually see him, you are terrified.
Between November and January, you got all four canines – your upper left on 11/5, upper right on 12/3, lower left on 12/31 and lower right on 1/6. Then, immediately following the last tooth and yet another cold, we decided it was time to get you sleeping better. From the point when I got pregnant, you had been less and less interested in milk, and even though you were still waking up at night, most times you would nurse for a minute or two and then give up. We moved you to your crib in Sebastien’s room and after a night or two with daddy waking up with you and offering water instead of milk, boom, you were sleeping through the night. You have an occasional wake up when you’re not feeling well or suddenly super thirsty in the middle of the night, but 90% of the time, we put you down at 8pm and we don’t hear from you again until 7am. I have to say, after nearly 18 months of constant wake-ups, it was a welcome change! (That was also the end of nursing for you – once you started sleeping through the night, you didn’t want to nurse before bed either.)
You had your 18 month check-up, weighing in at 25lbs 7oz and measuring 32.5in. (This compares to Sebastien’s 18 month size of 28lbs and 33in.) You love walking around outside, although this has been a super cold winter so admittedly we haven’t been out too much. You stomp your feet in any and all piles of leaves or snow and immediately run away from us the second we set you down. You went through a long (long…) period of destruction where you were constantly overturning any and all puzzles, bookshelves, boxes of blocks, etc. and the house was a complete disaster all the time, but at 19 months, that seems to have settled down a bit and you are more content to play than dump. You are also SUCH a climber and were constantly climbing on all chairs, couches, even the dining room table, but that seems to have calmed down a bit too. You like to unzip your own coat, do your own carseat buckles and walk up and down the stairs independently but you always want “up” when I am in the middle of cooking dinner in the kitchen. You are definitely in the stage of knowing what you want but not quite being able to communicate it, which is super frustrating for you and results in a lot of whining. But you’re awfully cute too, waving hello and goodbye to everyone and blowing kisses to daddy when he leaves for work. The current cutest thing you do is randomly walk up to me, lift up my shirt and kiss my belly with a big “mwah!” I can’t imagine you really understand that there’s a baby in there, but it’s pretty adorable.
Sebastien, you have had a big surge in independence lately too. You like to get undressed and dressed on your own now and instruct us, “Mommy, when I’m all done, you have to smile and make a proud face.” You still have a bit of trouble with your socks and occasionally your shirt, but you can mostly do it all on your own. You are very interested in picking out your own clothes (mostly preferring sweatpants because you are freezing all the time and usually wanting a sweatshirt or a cardigan to wear over your shirt). This is fine, except when we are trying to get out of the house on time for school and you take 20 minutes to find the perfect shirt. You often don’t quite match, but I try to let that part go so that you can continue to grow in your independence. (This is realllly hard for me and I almost feel compelled to tell everyone that you are picking out your own clothes. But I don’t. 🙂 )
This is going back awhile now, but you gave up your pacifier in October. You had still been using it for bedtime and naps, but one day you woke up with a little sore on your chin. After the next nap, it got even more sore and I explained that it was from your pacifier and maybe you were getting too big for it now. That seemed to be a concrete enough answer for you and you decided after that bedtime, you would be all done using it and we agreed we could trade in our pacifiers for a toy at the toy store. We brought them in a bag and gave them to the cashier and you picked out a John Deere digger as your prize. And you never looked back – amazing. You also gave up your nap around this time and I have had to fight you a bit to instill a “quiet rest time” instead so I have an hour or so in the afternoon to get stuff done. You watch videos on the iPad in my room and how long you’re willing to stay up there on your own varies day to day. You know lots of interesting facts about animals these days, mostly due to a nap time obsession with Wild Kratts. (You’ve also been into Phineus and Ferb, The Magic School Bus and Dirty Jobs lately.)
You’re doing more pretend play and doing so well at school that Erica has started to scale back her hours there considerably. This was the first year you were really looking forward to your birthday party, a gymnastics party at TumbleKids. We invited your class from FUSE and all the boys in your class from CNS and you had a blast. You were certain that you turned 4 at the moment the kids sang happy birthday to you and you blew out the candles, and would not accept that your party was not on the actual day of your birthday. You constantly tell me everything is “taking so lonnnnnnng” and you are still sort of a pain at dinner time, moving your plate and fork away from the table, whining that you’re not eating and then deciding to eat two minutes later. When you use a super whiny voice, we make a joke that, “Oh no! You turned into a trumpet!!” and that usually breaks the mood enough to snap you out of it. You have been more willing to help out lately, cleaning up toys, helping Archer and passing things to me when I need them, instead of just saying “no” or “I can’t.” You did great at your most recent dentist appointment and when we had to get blood drawn, and the days of me needing to make a social story or talk extensively about every step of our day to make you comfortable seem to be over. You are working really hard at tracing capital letters and you can count up to 8 things (or so) pretty confidently. You have been asking lots of questions about the new baby and wanting to see pictures and videos of what the baby looks like in my belly. For awhile there, you were sure it was a girl and we were going to name it Stevie, but (thankfully) you seem to be willing to entertain other names now!
I’m sure there are more things I’m missing for both of you, but at least I am mostly caught up – and hopefully I can get a good March update in with lots more details next time!
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