Faith 18 Months

Faith is talking up a storm. Her favorite work is "No." This is often said with a lot of attitude behind it. She can say pretty much anything you ask her to, although often the words don't sound much like the actual word. She is also putting short sentences together.

She is getting to be very independent. She wants to do things for herself without any help. For example, she likes to climb up into her seat and buckle herself in without any help. If you try and help her she yells, "no."

She has become extremely attached to her lovey "Yae-yae" and wants to have one all the time. She has a number of them, and in a pinch any will do, although she particularly like a pink one with a teddy bear on top. She also wants her binky all the time. This started about the time she had the flu. I allowed her to have them whenever she wanted for a little over a week. Now I'm trying to enforce them as being only for nap, bedtime, and the car. Sometimes she chooses to stay in her crib after she wakes up rather than get up without her lovey and binky.

She is starting to get timeouts. She has exhibited that she knows exactly what she is doing and that she shouldn't be doing it, so we started timeouts. For example, at dinner last night she refused to eat anything but bread and butter. When I wouldn't give her more she sat there screaming at the top of her lungs. When I told her I was going to take her up to her bed for a timeout she immediately told me sorry without being prompted and stopped screaming. After going back and forth like this a couple of times I finally removed her from the table and gave her a time out.

She is really liking art. She will color for a long time and likes to do other art projects. She also still likes her baby dolls, Bryce's cars, and music. She loves to dance and sing to music. If you say "la, la, la" or some other sound she can repeat it in the same tone back to you.

She also loves talking on her "hi." Her favorite person to call is Auntie Juli. I wonder if this is a glimpse into what she is going to be like as a teenager.

Easter

Each year we go to Grammy's work for their annual Egg Hunt. The kids had a great time decorating cookies, seeing the Easter Bunny, and hunting for eggs. Faith would not sit on the Easter Bunny's lap. She started crying when I walked her over to him. Bryce was delighted to sit with him. He thought it was funny that the Easter Bunny had shoes on. This year, the egg hunt was set up differently then in the past. After the kids collecting their eggs, they exchanged their eggs for a goody bag. This meant that all the kids got the same amount of candy and other prizes, regardless of the number of eggs they collected. This was great, especially for the little ones. Bryce ended up with the most eggs, then Mason, followed by Faith - it was perfect.



The kids decorated eggs the day before Easter.


Unfortunately we were all sick with the flu for Easter. We missed out on going to church and the rest of the day was spent resting. I did manage to prepare an Easter dinner, but Juli, Clay and their kids were the only ones that enjoyed it.

We are hoping this is the last holiday that is spoiled by illness. Last year every holiday from Easter - Nanny's birthday were spent worried about Pawka. Then Pawka died on July 4th. Thanksgiving Faith was very sick and we weren't able to go to Grammy and Gramps'. Christmas Amanda was very sick, now Easter and we were all sick. Maybe this was God's way of not letting us have normal holidays which helped us not to focus so much on the fact that Pawka isn't here to enjoy them with us anymore. I do sure hope we are through with illnesses over holidays for a while.

The kids still got Easter baskets and hunted for eggs. The Easter bunny gave Bryce a new Buzz and Woody swim suit, two new Car movie cars, jelly bellies, and chocolate. Faith got a My Little Pony, a bathing suit, jelly bellies, and chocolate. Nanny got each of the kids an outfit or tee-shirt. Faith also got some chalk and Bryce got a Veggie Tales flower growing kit.

Pops and Grandma Julie also sent the kids Easter goodies. They opened these a couple of days after Easter and were able to fully enjoy them, as they were feeling much better.

Bryce 3 Years, 9 Months

Bryce is definitely approaching 4. He looks so big to me now. He can do more and more things for himself (when he chooses to) like get himself totally dressed, comb his hair (at least the front), and much more. He has also outgrown most of his winter clothes. I hope Spring comes soon so I don't have to buy him new cold weather clothes.

He is doing super with his letters and numbers. He has been enjoying watching Leap Frog's Math Circus, Letter Factory, and Word Factory. He is starting to get the concept that when you put the letters together with their different sounds it makes words. He has even been trying to sound out words. He also is understanding addition and subtraction. These Leap Frog movies are great. I try to reinforce what he sees in the movies, but he isn't always receptive to learning from me.

Over the past month Bryce was a sick a lot. He had a bad cold that turned into a sinus infection. He went on antibiotics for the first time for this. A few days later he was back at the doctor's because his eyelid was purple and very swollen. They said it was an eye infection and gave him eye drops. He hated the eye drops because they really stung. I felt so bad having to put them in multiple times a day.

Bryce is still handling tax season fairly well. I'm definitely noticing that he is missing Nathan, but the acting out isn't bad like last year. I think he understands a little more that tax season doesn't last forever and that things will be back to normal soon.

Bryce has started playing with his trains a lot again. He hadn't played with them for several months and now plays with them daily. He is also playing Cars more and Toy Story and Peter Pan less. He has earned a few new Car movie cars for good behavior. Each time he earns a new car he likes to play with them for several days.