Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Odds and Ends

Particularly with my blogging slow-down of late, I've been anxiously watching developments and achievements of note go by without mention or record for posterity. Sometimes its because I didn't blog about them in a timely manner, and then couldn't think just when to fit them in, sometimes it's because they escaped my notice for long enough that I was no longer sure when they began. Some, I've been keeping a tally of in my head in the hopes that someday I'll figure a way to work them in.

Here's my best solution. I can't claim to be the best at keeping track of what the kids are up to all of the time, but at least I can say I wrote this stuff down somewhere, right?

Without further ado, here's my best summary of where the kids are at and what they've been up to:

Abby:

She's really good with both letters and numbers. She can count to at least twenty, sometimes beyond with assistance. She is able to recognize every letter by sight and knows most of the sounds that each makes as well. Though she's not catching on to the concept of sounding out words, certain ones she does recognize reliably, like her own name.

There's practically nothing she can't articulate, and no question she won't ask. In fact, she's just begun a new and exciting phase of asking some very sensitive-type questions (complete with sensitive-type terminology) at completely random times. I'm just waiting on the day that she does so in public, or in front of someone who might potentially be embarrassed, or just embarrassed for me...

Potty training days are far behind us now, and though she's never been tested in a large public restroom, she's proved herself in a one-person room at the doctor's office, and at other people's homes, whether there's been a seat available for her or not. If I were giving tokens for days gone without an accident, she'd have earned two months plus by now.

Michael:

He's still slow to use actual language to communicate, preferring instead to grunt, signal, and- when necessary- scream. However, he has worked certain ones into regular use, the most notable currently being "no." I caught him today attempting the word "don't" amidst his peers, as well. Though he doesn't speak much, he understands quite a bit, and has a broad knowledge of many things. He's been slow to pick up on identifying colors, but he can point to various body parts, and is very good at following instructions (when he so chooses).

He's working hard on those two-year molars, and I can confirm the emergence of the bottom two thus far. He's got one mostly out and one about halfway. Don't ask me exactly when it all started, though. I'd guesstimate about two months ago. Same goes for jumping and kicking, which he can now do and has been demonstrating the mastery of for some time now.

He's also in a bit of a personal exploratory/ I'd really rather go pants-less phase, likely related to potty-readiness. We've had four incidents of hand-stuck-down-soiled-diaper, but thankfully though the first resulted in poo smears all over the crib and sheets, he quickly learned his lesson and began to come to us right away when he made the mistake of sticking his fingers where they shouldn't be. However, since washing poo off of anyone's hands is no pleasant task, I've curbed the problem by putting him back in onesies. Next step: potty-training for realsies.

Most excitingly, he can now be trusted with any book, and will no longer try to eat, rip, or disassemble it. I've witnessed a slow progression over the last six months or so, and suddenly, it just is. He's coordinated and careful as he cradles the cover and turns the pages of every kind of book that we own. His little sister, though, is her own kind of enemy to books at the moment, so it's still a battle trying to keep them intact.


Amelia:

Somewhere along the line, she figured out how to crawl with her tummy up off the floor. She's fast and she's steady, and though I wish I knew just when that started, I'll have to claim ignorance once again. I'm pretty sure that it happened in the last two months, however.

She's by far my best eater of the three (not yet having reached that lovely picky stage that toddlers are so famous for), preferring fruit purees over veggie- with the exception of squash and sweet potato- but she's game for any table food I put in front of her on her tray, from tuna to mushrooms. She's also finally taking bottles, and now regularly takes a six-ounce one each afternoon.

Most recently, she's begun to talk, and she seems to derive inspiration from whatever it is her brother has to say. Though her first word beyond Mama and Dada was bottle, she quickly picked up "no," which is one of Michael's favorite things to repeat.

Not too much else new has happened with her that I've ceased to mention, except for one: this evening, after noticing how tightly the feet of her sleeper were encasing her little toes, it occurred to me to try her in the next size up (18 months). Though I willed it not to, especially after eyeing how  big it looked held up in front of me, it fit almost perfectly (just a little room to grow). There's no going back, now. I'll be packing up her 12-month size outfits, one at a time, over the next few weeks.

I suppose the timing is appropriate, since she's about to put those first twelve months behind her for good.

It's a pretty certain bet that even though I've devoted an entire post to catching what I missed, I forgot a good half of it in my attempt to get it down. No worries, I suppose. That will be the stuff of some other similar-type post on another low-inspiration evening just like this one.