Rowan: 37 Weeks/8.5 months

Oh my goodness...this girl is just like Liam and is trouble with a capitol 'T'.  Now that she is mobile she just wants to go-go-go and get into everything and anything!   She is starting to get stranger awareness, and sometimes will cry with someone new.  We got Rowan's DVD, and the pictures are adorable.  We wanted to get them taken a little earlier in the month, but the photographer was on her honeymoon, but thankfully we got them in the nick of time because she started crawling the day after, and she was starting to get the stranger anxiety when we did the pictures.  I couldn't figure out why she wasn't smiling as easily as she used to....I thought she was just tired, but I also think she wasn't so sure of the new person.  But thankfully, we still got some super cute and pretty pictures of her.  Mike's favorite is the family one where both of the kids are crying!  We bust up laughing whenever we see it, but Liam just gets sad, and says 'Liam and Baby Rowan are crying'.  The pictures are in the mail, and I will post them as soon as I get them.

Rowan's top teeth are coming in now.  Two of them are the side ones, so she probably will look like our little vampire for a while.  I didn't start brushing Liam's teeth regularly till after he was one years old, and it has been a battle, so I vowed that I would start brushing her teeth when she got them...and I have been very good at it.  I use the finger brush, but she has such a bite I can't put it on my finger.  She was pretty unsure about it at first, but now she knows what's up and is really good about it.  I just hope it lasts!  We also started nightly story time with her, and she just loves it.  This is also something we started later with Liam, but are glad to start early with her.  Anyway, our little girl just gets cuter by the day!

Liam 2 yrs, 8 mo.

Liam has been having more temper tantrums lately.  He will want something, then we will give it to him, then he doesn't want it, so we take it back and he freaks out.  It goes round like this for a while until we just give up!  I was reading online about temper tantrums, and a big reason they happen is because around this age the child starts developing different and new feelings, and they don't know how to express or deal with them, so they often freak out and hence the temper tantrum.  Ever since I read that, I have had a lot more patience and empathy when Liam has one.  And it really makes sense now because he has been more sensitive to things, and is starting to tell us his feelings when he is sad or scared.  For the longest time Liam has been pretty much fearless!  He wasn't scared of new places or people, but as of late he has started to get those feelings. He also is starting to make associations with things, like if he sees someone that looks like someone else, he will say something like so and so is kinda like so and so.  He will also say it about things too, like if he sees a bug that is similar to another, he will say 'it's kind of like a roly poly'.  It seems his imagination is coming on line too because we have heard him talk about his dreams over the monitor.  He even told his dad one when he went in to get him after a nap.  He told him the grasshoppers were eating his hair, and monsters were with mom and dad.  He woke up one time and told the monsters to go away, and leave Liam alone.  He has been very good about potty training...he has been going pee in the potty for a majority of his awake time.   I didn't think he'd be ready this soon, but he is very enthusiastic about it, and is just so proud of himself, and we are too.  He has been into trucks and cranes lately, mainly because we see a million of them on our commute to and from work everyday.  I ended up finding a really cute truck book at the store that he just loves!  We are so glad he loves to be read to, and are excited for him to start learning how to read himself...he is going to be starting preschool in a few weeks, and we just can't believe it's so soon!  His teachers name is Miss Emily, and we get to meet her soon.  We hope everything will work out well!