Today Zachary turned 10 months old and in just a few weeks, our "little" girl turns 3. We've spent the past couple weeks discussing ideas and plans for the upcoming birthdays. Helaina seems to fully understand the concept of age. We'll often hear her telling her friends, "Soon Zachary is going to be 1, and I'm not going to be 2 anymore. I'm going to be 3. " The days are getting longer, the temperatures a bit warmer, and spring is around the corner. Seems like the perfect time of year to start another chapter and celebrate the birth day of our sweet kiddos.
Our handsome man finally has teeth, 4 of them and counting. Helaina likes to tell anyone that will listen that her brother has teeth now. In her world, that means Zachary can eat everything that she eats, so we have to watch the two of them closely during mealtime. We continue to see changes in Zach everyday. He's standing on his own for several seconds at a time, cruising quickly along furniture...just days away from taking his first steps. He's into everything, and I mean everything!!! At this age, Helaina did a little better job of listening to "no". Zachary just turns his head, flashes a sweet smile, and keeps on causing trouble. And this child loves the water too! He literally stands next to the tub begging to take a bath and cries when we take him out.
My talented cousin,
Lisa, has been working diligently on themed decor for his "Sock Monkey" First Birthday. Hard to believe that the first year is almost over. We're all looking forward to helping him blow out that first birthday candle though!
Helaina...
These past few weeks/months have been nothing short of interesting. At times, her behavior and attitude have been challenging and other days, she's as sweet as pie. To this point, she has been relatively "easy", but lately, we seem to be navigating new territory. We're chalking it up to increasing independence and obvious growth and development. It's left Randy and me to wonder, what will the age of 3 bring to our family?
She has a bedtime routine that goes something like this
Bath, lotion, pajamas, brush her teeth, mouthwash, read books, time for bed...Helaina climbs in bed with her 2 blankies (one for under her belly/one to hold while sucking her thumb), cover with the other blankets, fix her top Dora blanket so it's straight, two Kleenex on the corner of her bed ("one for her nose/one for her tears"), stuffed animals on the other bed corner, kiss both ears, Helaina says "Goodnight. Don't let the bed bugs bite." We respond, "If they do..." and she follows with "hit them with a shoe." Door shuts and as we're walking away, we hear, "Goodnight! I love you." It's every night, and it's clockwork. If you even attempt to eliminate any of these things or do them in another order, tears will flow!
Most days her naps are getting shorter (1.5 hours), and at night, she would stay up later if we let her. We now have an alarm clock on her dresser and have taught her to read the number "7". She is not to get out of bed in the morning until "7" am. This system is working rather well as for the the first time ever, we were having trouble with her getting out of bed.
She's obsessed with putting on socks, taking off her clothes, and putting on her clothes...all by herself. It's been helpful in getting out of the house a bit faster, now that she can do some of these things on her own.
She graduated swim classes at the beginning of the year. She had definitely outgrown the 18month-3 year old aqua tot class and was given permission to start parent preschool (3-5 year olds). The class time is now 50 minutes and teaches actual swimming/floating movements. The goal is to graduate by swimming w/out a parent in the water, but she's not quite ready to take that next step. We're keeping our fingers crossed that she'll get the hang of it and we can start watching from the sideline.
