Faith 2 Years 2 Months

Nanny got smart and asked Faith if she wanted to sleep in a big girl bed. She of course said yes. We put a folded twin sheet on her bed and used her crib comforter and a blanket and now she is happy to have blankets in her bed. We no longer have to double-up her pjs and she stays plenty warm. This, along with a few really rough nights of insisting she sleep in her own bed really helped. Now the rule is she can only come in our bed for cuddle time in the mornings. She still wakes up around 5 am most mornings screaming, "Mommy come get me", but I make her lay back down and she goes to sleep without much fuss.

Faith is fairly hit and miss with potty training. She rarely goes poop in her pull-ups, but pees often in them. This is partly our fault as we haven't been very diligent in taking her to the bathroom. There has even been times when she'll tell me she has to go and we'll be out or really busy and I'll tell her to just pee in her pull-up.

Faith has really been enjoying playing with her baby dolls. She continues to change, feed, burp, and soothe them when they cry. She even makes pretend crying noses then tells the baby its ok, shh.

Faith has started to become very into doing things on her own. She wants to climb into the car and buckle her own seat belt, get dressed (this includes picking out her own clothes), brush her own hair and teeth, wash her own hands, etc. While sometimes this is wonderful, letting her do these things can take a long time, and the end result is sometimes very interesting. She likes wash her hands in the "cold sink" (the water in the downstairs bathroom takes a long time to heat up) by herself. This would be just fine if she didn't use multiple squirts of soap, drip water all over the floor and counter, and throw the clean towels on the floor when she is finished. When you ask her about the mess she says, "It happens" and shrugs her shoulders like its no big deal.

Her vocabulary continues to amaze me. She has mastered concepts that many 3 and 4 year old don't have down correctly. She also is trying to write letters already. While none of the letters actually look like letters she writes in the lines and goes from left to right using both of her hands equally well.

Faith is down to just one nap a day. She had been taking a morning nap a few times a week, but with the busy holidays, I cut her down to just her afternoon nap. Sometimes she is still a little fussy, but she can make it until after lunch.

2nd Annual Holden/Clapper Family Gathering

Merilou and Jack had all of their kids and the Holden family to a house out in Stinson Beach. Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and it rained most of the time we were there.

Even with the rain we all thoroughly enjoyed our visit. A few of the older kids went swimming in the pool, but Bryce and Faith just put their feet in the spa. We didn't even go down to the beach because of the rain. The adults spent most of their time sitting indoors chatting.

We had a wonderful lunch catered by Comforts, a delicious restaurant/cafe in San Anselmo.

Sally brought the kids a very cute game called Snail's Pace Race. They love it. We've played it many times already.

Christmas Tree

Faith took a late nap so we didn't leave to get our tree until close to 4 pm. By the time we got to Frosty Mountain in Sebastopol it was almost 4:30 and getting a little dark.

Faith was tired and cranky and the to make matters worse she fell in the mud as soon as we go there. She cried most of the time.

Bryce had a good time helping Nathan to cut down and carry the tree.

We didn't decorate the tree until the following evening because it was late when we got home and the tree was wet.

Bryce helped Nathan to bring in and set up the tree. Both kids got their annual ornament from Nanny. Bryce received a dragon bell and Faith a ladybug, which was perfect since this is what they each were for Halloween. After decorating the tree, Bryce and Nathan set up the train.

The Nutcracker

Nanny and I took Bryce and Faith to the MicroNut, a shortened production of the Nutcracker. It was put on by Sebastopol Ballet. The Director of Sebastopol Ballet was my first ballet teacher until I was 14 years old. It was very nostalgic to see the show, as much of the choreography from when I was Clara was the same.

Bryce and Faith sat completely still for the entire hour long show. They both loved it.

Bryce 4 Years 5 Months

Bryce is continuing to do really well at Brush Creek. He is happy to go and doesn't want to be picked-up most of the time. When I arrive to pick him up I often hear, "Why did you come so early" even if I'm there at the normal time. I'm really glad he is thriving there.

Bryce is trying to do more and more "school" work, which includes cutting, gluing, stickers, writing his letters, etc. I'm really trying to work on his fine motor skills. He is also continuing to advance in his reading/spelling skills. The other day as we were reading he sounded out 5 or 6 three-letter words all on his own. He doesn't like help with anything learning related, so the trick is to help him without him realizing he is being helped.

Bryce went for about 4 weeks without an accident at night. This is the longest stretch without an accident he has ever had. Prior to this he would make it two or three weeks without an accident. Hopefully the next stretch will be even longer than 4 weeks.

Bryce is continuing to play soccer with Lil' Kickers. He is very coordinated and seems to be having a great time with it.

Bryce starting singing with the Son Light Singers at church. It took a lot of convincing to get him to go, but once we got there he was very excited. Mary Durham (his first crush) and Sarah Cobb are the teachers. When it was over he asked me if I could sign him up so he could go every week. Yeah - success at something new on the first try. He doesn't normally do so well with new things or changes. I hope next week goes just as smoothly.

Bryce is going to be an angel in the Christmas show next week. He is very excited and keeps telling us that angles are very important. He is also very concerned about having a halo. He wants to make sure he will have once since all angels do.

Faith 2 Years 1 Month

Faith's mind has started to go faster than she can form the words. Just a few weeks ago her sentences were very clear without saying "um." Now when she talks, especially if she is excited or has a lot to tell you, she says, "um, um, um" many times while she is trying to spit the words out. I know that all kids go through this, but it is so funny since she used to talk so clearly.

Faith is enjoying going to Patty and Jackie's. She normally cries when I leave, but stops just a minute after. It is mostly for show. She gets excited when I tell her she gets to go and is always happy to see me when I pick her up. She likes the kids that are younger than her. She likes to take care of them.

She is really enjoying playing with her dolls. She likes to change them and wipes their bums when they go potty. She nurses them, feeds, them, and plays so sweetly with them. Most of the time her babies' names are Cole and Kira.

Faith has started to go to the bathroom on the potty more frequently. I've let her wear training panties around the house a few times, but she has accidents a lot. I think mentally she might be ready for potty training, but I'm not sure her bladder is ready. Even when she goes pee on the potty she only pees about a Tbsp and then has to go again in 10 or 15 minutes or has an accident.

She started this new thing where she grabs a church directory out of the drawer and a piece of paper and something to write with. She looks at the directory and runs her finger under a line of text them pretends to copy what she sees onto the paper. She looks back and forth between the directory and her paper as if she is very intent on copying it just right. She says she is doing her email work. She holds her pencil correctly when she does this.

It seems like Faith is waking up at least half of the week in the middle of the night. Once she wakes up it is very hard to get her to go back to sleep in her crib. This is partly our fault since we don't like for her to cry for fear that she'll wake up Bryce. For a while she was doing so well with sleeping. I think she might be waking up now because she is cold. Without heat upstairs it gets very cold at night, especially since we keep the kids' door shut at night. Faith will not allow blankets in her bed so we double up her pjs, but her hands are still ice cold when she wakes up in the middle of the night.

Halloween

We had planned on going to the pumpkin patch after Faith's birthday party, but it was pouring rain. Instead, we waited for a slight break in the rain later in the week and just went down to Punky's at the Wells Fargo Center. Faith wasn't feeling well and it was wet and cold so we were only there for a few minutes. Nathan didn't get to go with us because he was working. The kids still had fun, aside from Faith touching the stem and getting tiny throns in her hand, even though we didn't go to a place with a maze, tractor ride, etc.

Nathan carved pumpkins with the kids. Bryce said he wanted a Jack-o-lantern face on his. He didn't quite understand that any pumpkin with a face was a Jack-o-lantern. What he meant was that he wanted the traditional face - triangle nose and eyes and a smily face. Faith had no problem digging right into the "guts" and cleaning out the inside. Bryce took some coaxing before he would touch it, but I'm proud that he did.

We participated in Trunk and Treat again this year. Bryce was a Dragon Monster and Faith was a Ladybug. I at first wanted to put her in a Pig costume since she loves pigs, but when I showed her the pig costume online she through a fit and said with no uncertainty that she would not be a pig. After she had settled on a ladybug costume, she then told me she wasn't going to be a ladybug that she wanted to be a pig. Thankfully I got her to get into the ladybug costume idea since I had already ordered it. Bryce picked out his Dragon costume and thought it was pretty neat.

Bryce had a great time hanging out with Alex and Emilee Thomson at Trunk and Treat. He sang and danced with Pastor D. and went from trunk to trunk several time. Even though he had a ton of candy, he only ate one piece the entire night.

Faith had a good time collecting candy, but she mostly wanted to sit in the back of the Highlander and eat it. She had 3 or 4 suckers, milk duds, popcorn, and possibly more. I lost count.

Bryce 4 Years 4 Months

Bryce's behavior has been very good lately. It has been over a month since he has had behavior that warranted a spanking. I hope this lasts, as he is so much more pleasant to be around when he is behaving well.

Bryce has started to take an interest in learning to write his letters and numbers. He has a practice board that uses dry erase markers on a clear plastic sheet with work pages that you can switch behind the plastic. He has been doing remarkably well, but he is such a perfectionist that anytime he makes event he slightly mistake he gets very upset. We are trying to help him to hold his pen correctly, but he won't allow us to help him very much.

Bryce is doing really well in his Little Kickers soccer class. He is following directions, learning to dribble with both feet, learning balancing skills, and other techniques. It has been fun watching him. Anytime he does something well, he looks at me and gives me a thumbs up sign. Jackson Hermsmeyer is in the class with him and Hunter Mueller is in the class next to his, so that has been fun too.

Bryce has gotten away from his Franklin craze. Now he is really liking Little Bear and his Leap Frog Letter movie. He has pretty much mastered the basic sounds all the letters make thanks to this movie. He has also started playing his Boggle Jr. game and wants to sound out simple words. I love that he is starting to want to learn more and that he is willing to branch out and play different types of games.

We are in the process of looking into Kindergarten's at public and private schools for him next year. This is so difficult. We see pros and cons to public and private schools and just want so badly to make the right choice for him. We also worry because he had such a rough time adjusting to being back at Brush Creek this year and worry about his new teacher and their ability to handle it if he has the same issues with going to Kindergarten.

One afternoon while Nathan and I were out and Nanny was watching Bryce, he said something very funny. He was having trouble going to the bathroom and was complaining that his poop wouldn't come out. Nanny told him to sit there for a little while. When she went back he had done his business and he told her, "I figured it out. There were two poops that were trying to come out at the same time. They realized that they had to take turns." So funny!

Faith 2 Years Old

I can't believe Faith is two, yet when I see how advanced she is in so many ways, it seems like she is beyond two.

She understands concepts that a lot of three year-old kids don't grasp. She understands the basic concept of time and uses words like I used to do ______, or I will do _______ later, or maybe next time we go/do/I have ______. She understands and uses pronouns correctly. She is already started to dress herself and put her own shoes and socks on. She can count to 10 without much assistance, holds her pencil correctly (with both her right and left hand), and can use scissors. She knows a few colors - her favorite color is pink.

She is starting to be a little picky about what she eats. She now doesn't eat every veggie I put in front of her. She also took bites of black bean soup, which she loved last year, only to spit them out and refused to swallow.

Faith had a wonderful birthday at My Gym. It was so stress free for us. All I had to do was bake cupcakes, buy paper products, and get stuff for the guests' party favors. All the kids and adults really enjoyed themselves.

On Sep. 27th her second lower 2-year old molar starting coming through.