Faith 16 Months

Faith is starting to "talk" more and more. She has gone from making the same few sounds and her very small vocabulary of just a few words, to making all kinds of different sounds. She is now saying thank you, binky, ball, lovey, Bryce, Kona, and a few other words too. While none of them sounds quite right, we know what she is saying. She will also try and repeat words when you ask her to say something. In the past when we asked her to say a word that she knew the sign for, she'd just do the sign. The other day, I said, "say thank you", expecting her to sign thank you, and she said, "tank oo" without any prompting or ever having said it with her words before.

She understands absolutely everything we say to her. She can respond to most questions by shaking her head yes or no, or by pointing or showing you something. I love that we can communicate better with her now.

She still loves playing with her dolls, music toys, Little People's animals and people, and of course loves anything that Bryce doesn't want her to have - Duplo Blocks, Toy Story or Peter Pan figurines, etc.

She likes to climb up on to the kitchen chairs, which makes me crazy. She has taken a couple of good falls from them already. She also likes to stand on a little stool in the kitchen to watch me cook. Hopefully she'll enjoy cooking so that I have someone to do food projects with. Bryce has never been interested in helping me. If her eating is any indication, she's going to love cooking. She still eats whatever we give her, including spicy things like black bean soup. In fact, soups of all kinds seem to be a favorite. The only thing she won't eat or drink is milk from a cup. I've tried all types of milk and she wants nothing to do with it. I'm still trying to wean her and she isn't going for it. Most days I have her down to 3 times a day, but she walks around all the time signing milk. When I say no she throws herself to the ground and starts crying.

She is still napping twice a day, however if she misses her morning nap she survives until the afternoon. It does seem that afternoon naps are worse when she misses her morning nap. They do say that sleep begets sleep - I guess it is true.

She is starting to look more and more like a little girl and not a baby. Her hair is getting longer and fuller. In another couple of months it might be long enough for a real ponytail. She'll definitely need her bangs cut soon.

Faith went potty in her little potty for the first time a week ago. We had just brought in her little potty a few days before. She was doing the sign for potty, so I put her on it and told her to push her poo-poo s out, and she did.

Bryce 3 Years, 7 Months Old

We finally moved Bryce out of his toddler bed into a twin bed. He got to pick out his new sheets and surprise, surprise, he picked out Buzz and Woody sheets. I also bought him a plain navy blue duvet cover so that as he grows and is into new things we can just get different sheets and pillows and the duvet will still match.

His new phrase is, "But, what will happen" or "but, what if." He says this 100 times a day. When you tell him something as simple as "we are going to sign up to bring snack to school", he responds with something like, "but, what if they don't know we signed up." Then I explain that there is a sheet I can write on that the teachers will look at. He then continues, "but what if someone else brings snack." I tell him that no one else will because they will see that we are signed up. The conversation goes on and on this way. I know he is just trying to figure out how everything works, but it can be exhausting.

A few weeks ago Bryce had a week of terrible behavior. He went from being extremely sweet to over reacting about everything, yelling, not listening, throwing fits, etc. I felt like he was on timeout constantly and having lots of negative consequences. At least we weren't having to resort to timeouts in the car. A consequence, like no movie for the day, or taking a favorite toy away helped to not require us to put him in the car. He did have a couple of spanking during this week. When he would get a spanking he would ask if I could give it to him rather than Nathan. Apparently he is a quick learner and figured out that Nathan's spankings are harder than mine. Of course we didn't let him choice, instead, what ever parent said he was getting a spanking was the one to give it. Even though he has had a few spankings, it still breaks my heart every time we have to give him one. I just keep telling myself that it is for his own good. Better to learn good behavior, respect, self control, etc. now, than to grow up without these boundaries.

He is only napping one or two afternoons a week. It makes the evenings nice since he goes to bed by 7:30, but it makes for long afternoons. Even though he has to have quiet time, I don't get an uninterrupted break, as there always seems to be something he needs during quiet time.

Bryce is no longer playing with Dax and Garrett at school. We've had lots of talks about choosing friends that play nice and not have potty talk. Apparently these two little boys are the ringleaders for trouble, and Bryce is really attracted to them. He knows that he is supposed to play with the kids that have good behavior and that when other kids act naughty he shouldn't follow their lead.