Rowan: 4 yrs. 2 mo.

Rowan, Rowan, what do I say about her?!  She is a tough little cookie.  At times I feel like she is more mature than her brother at the same age, other times I feel like she is less mature.  And even sometimes I forget that she is 2 yrs younger than Liam, because often times she is trying to be just like him!  She is quite stubborn, and knows ALL my buttons to push at any given moment.  I really wish I could be more patient with her. She is doing really well at school, although recently she has been testing her teacher and not being the best listener in class.  She has taken a liking or rather love to art, and she paints and draws VERY well too, especially for her age.  She continues to enjoy her dance class, although we were pretty embarrassed at her dance recital at Christmas time when she decided to pull her skirt down while she was dancing.  When they told us that the recital at the end of the year costs $50, but to participate was optional, we opted to not do it.  We thought she could use another year of maturing before we do that.  She is mostly a picky eater, although we were very thrilled that she tried and liked an Indian meal, Coconut Korma, that Mike made.  

One phase that we are very glad is mostly over now (knock on wood), is she kept waking up in the middle of the night and would insist that we sleep in her room, or she would sleep in ours.  She also would not go to sleep at bedtime without one of us in her room.  It lasted at least a month + and we even asked her Dr. about it. She said we had to be very firm about her staying in her bed, and us in ours.  Finally, she got past that phase (hopefully) which we are very glad about. Although bedtime is still crazy, her not wanting to go to bed, getting out and being loud so Liam can't sleep...I still will take that over her insisting we are there till she falls asleep.

Shortly after her 4 year check up, we had to take her back to the Dr.s for an infection on her flumb (as she calls it). She was playing with some winter gloves, and I asked her to take them off, and she told me that she was using it to make her hand feel better because it hurt.  The room was dark, and at first glance I thought she had wiped her nose and had a booger on it. Then I realized that her thumb was all swollen and looked very infected.  It appeared to have swollen up over night because it didn't look that way the day before!  I called the Dr. right away, and they got her in.  They drained it, took a culture and bandaged it up, and she was on antibiotics for 10 days.  All I can think that happened was it got infected after I trimmed up a hangnail.  But, the Dr. said kids hands get so dirty and it could have been from anything.  The test actually came back positive for Staph and Strep! Really glad we got the 'White Boo Boo Mystery', as Liam named it, treated ASAP.  When she was at her 4 yr check up on 11-27-13, she weighed 31.8 lbs (23%), and her height was 37.5" (9%) 

comment by Gramdma B on 02/14/2014
Rowan is such a sweety! She is all girl though, with all the crazy stuff that goes with that, I still haven't figured it out:) We love her like crazy.

Liam: 6 yrs. 2 mo.

Well, Liam turned 6 a few months ago. He still loves going to school, and we just had his first parent/teacher conference last week.  The teacher told us that they expect the kids to be reading at level 2 by the end of January, and at level 4 by the end of the school year.  She said he's at least level 12, which is the highest level they are allowed to test at in Kindergarten.  We were pretty proud of that. At the start of the year, they sent home a reading program that is online called Raz Kids.  He started out very motivated doing the reading and quizzes very quickly.  Although, he kinda burned out on them as they got harder, but is somewhere near the last of the first grade levels (Level J).  We don't want to push him too hard so that he doesn't like to read, so we are having him read paper books to us at night again, like he was doing in pre-school.  We started the Complete Collection of Curious George a few days ago, and hope this helps getting him to enjoy reading again.  One of his Christmas gifts this year was a new tablet because his old cheap one fizzled out just after a year of use, but unfortunately he has become very hooked on his games lately. Somehow we will need to encourage more reading and playing with toys and less game time.  I think having warmer weather soon will help, I think everyone is getting a little stir crazy this winter.  At his 6 year check up (12-10-13)  we actually started to see a new Dr. that is closer to home.  Her name is Dr. Vargo, and so far we really like her.  His weight is 43.4 lbs. (35%), Height 3 ft. 8.5 in (31%).  

comment by Grandma B on 02/13/2014
He is such a sweetheart. I think he will be excited to be able to be outside playing again too.

Liam: 5 yrs. 9 mo.

So Liam has been in Kindergarten for a few weeks now.  He is doing really great-even though the stuff he is learning he learned 2 yrs. ago?!  It is strange to have our kids that are 2 years apart learning the same stuff at school.  He came home today saying 'The A says Ah'....Poor kid is going to be so bored!  But, he is meeting new kids that live around our area, so that is good.  He talks about the different kids in his class. There are a couple boys that he mentions more often, so I think it is just a matter of time till he is making some friends.  Mike and I both went to Liam's K. assessment.  He pretty much Aced it!  I think the teacher was a little surprised how far along he is.  She pulled us aside afterwards and said that she could give him a little something different to do when they are learning how to blend sounds, he can make a sentence with the word. She also said he could start the reading program they have where they take books home to read, like they did at KV.  They also have some electronic devices where he can play learning games on. Having her tell us that did relieve us, although on the other hand, we haven't heard of it happening yet...it has only been 3 weeks or so, but hopefully soon.  He had the PTA carnival/ Fund raiser last week. The kids had a great time.  They had games there, and a bounce house which of coarse they loved.  They also had a silent auction, where we won about 35 books for just under $50.  We were pretty happy about that!  He started a golf class yesterday after school that runs once a week for 4 weeks.  He really seemed to enjoy that.  We figure if he won't be learning much at school, we can keep him growing in other areas.  Plus we will continue to do reading and worksheets at home too.  The hard thing lately about him has been his meltdowns after school.  They don't have snack time, so when he is out of school he is really tired and hungry.  The trick is to get him home in a good enough mood that he will eat, and be OK....it has been tough though.  His meltdowns are exhausting, frustrating, and depressing.  He gets on a 'I hate you-you hate me' kick, and it's very hard to turn it around.  There is going to be a parent teacher group meeting coming up soon, and they will be talking about how to avoid the meltdowns after school, which I look forward to learning about!  Anyway, overall he is doing great, and really loves going to Kindergarten!

comment by mom/grandma on 09/19/2013
He seems really positive about it when he tells me about school too. Hopefully they will get some enrichment going soon.

Rowan: 3 yrs. 9 mo.

Rowan has been doing really well in her new school.  She really loves going to her dance class too!  It has been a great relief to have both their schools closer to home.  They both were going to Kids Village for the last couple of weeks in August, and the commute every day was exhausting.  We will miss KV because it was a great school, and the teachers were always so nice, but since I am not working nearby it just wasn't convenient anymore.  KV was nice in that it had many different classes; music, art, science, and cooking...but I think that it did take away from some of the core learning time.  Her new school has one teacher, which so far I think is nice.  I think we will get better feedback on her progress...Before when they had teacher conference at KV, we had to talk to 5 different teachers, and their feedback was so general, and not very specific. We have already had a progress report sent home just after 3 weeks at her new school!  Also before school started they did individual assessments for all the kids, which I thought was good too.  The teacher told me when it was over that Rowan was where the kids will be at the end of the school year.  So she may be a little ahead knowing all her letters and sounds, but I do think the handwriting practice will still be helpful...also she needs some work on her numbers.  She comes home talking about what she learned, which neither kid really did at KV.  So I thought of a few of the words she says that is so cute: Pack-Kack for Back-Pack, she still says Lellow for Yellow, Chick Balls for Chick Peas, Yorget for Yogurt...I know there are more, so I still need to pay attention and write them down as I hear them.

comment by mom/grandma on 09/19/2013
She is such a cutie! She seems pretty excited about her dance class. So much fun, I bet she is a cute dancer.

Liam: 5 yrs. 8 mo.

Liam started Kindergarten today.  He actually doesn't start public school for another week and a day because they are doing assessments this week.  We are looking forward to talking to his new teacher 'Miss Shedden' on Friday morning.  Since we already paid for the month of August at Kids Village, the kids will be going there for 2 weeks.  He is in Miss Kelli's class, who we really love.  He had her for 1/2 the school year after his first Sweet Pea teacher left.  Miss Kelli was the one that recognized that he was ready to start reading, and got him on the reading program.  Sadly, the teacher he had the following year didn't even know he was reading.  And after talking to one of his friends mom who was in the same class, we realized we had the same complaints about that teacher.  Real bummer, since that was his last full year there.  We have heard that Kindergarten is learning letters, and sounds, and that is pretty much it!!  We are really concerned about him being so bored!  Although, we hope he does better about doing school work than he has been about doing the work books with us.  He started out really happy and excited to do them with us, then as the summer went on, he got more and more upset when we wanted to do them with him.  Hoping that his attitude about learning will improve!  Thankfully he did very well with his swimming lessons over the summer.  He listened pretty well, for him, and made some great improvements.  He started diving to the floor for toys, and often picked up more than 5 toys in one dive.  He worked on his breathing coordination with the swimming strokes.  He started doing the front stroke and back stroke, and floated on front and back.  He is so comfortable in the water now, I think it is just a matter of maturing a little more till he is swimming across the pool on his own.  Anyway, I look forward to picking him up from his first day today too, and hearing all about it!

comment by mom/grandma on 08/22/2013
He is such a sweety! I can't wait to hear all about his first weeks at school. We are all missing him.

Rowan: 3 yrs. 8 mo.

Rowan finished up her swim lessons last week, and today she started her 2nd year of Pre-school.  Since we had signed up the kids for Kids Village, and could not get our money back, they worked it out with us for the kids to attend for the month of August.  So Rowan is going to Kids Village MWF with Miss Korbi, and will go to her new school, Avondale, T and TH with Mrs. Ashdown.  It will be a crazy 2 weeks for sure!!  She loves to wear dresses now, and insisted on wearing one to her first day of school.  One of the cute words she made up over the summer is 'Pumper'.  I got them a suitcase to use for sleepovers at Grandma's house, and she decided it should be called 'Pumper' because the handle goes up and down.  We thought it was so cute we decided to keep calling it that.  Another word she says is Ibuprofie, for Ibuprofin.  There have been some other words too, but I will have to add them later since I can't remember them all.  So back to her swimming...for her age she did pretty well.  She is pretty stubborn and wants to go at her pace, and do her own thing, so it was a bit of a slow process.  She did learn to go under the water, and do some of the breathing, so that in itself is a great improvement.  She used to hate to get her face wet, but now she is really comfortable with it.  She got to go to a bunch of splash pads over the summer, and really was great with getting splashed on.  When I was let go at work, Rowan tended to get up pretty early in the morning, and she would sit on the top of the stairs and yell 'I want to get dressed now'.  It was pretty frustrating because she would often wake up Liam, who liked to sleep in.  After several weeks, we finally convinced her to come down the stairs quietly, and hang out with us in our room.  Another great improvement that happened in the last week, is she has decided to try some new foods!  In one week she tried 'Szechuan Tempeh', 'Eggplant Parmesan', 'Southern Stir Fry Pasta', 'Sloppy Joes' and Corn on the Cob....she decided that she loved all the new foods...Who knows how long this will last, but we were very surprised and happy about her willingness to try new things!  She has made a new friend this summer, named Meika, who is a little girl of one of my past co-workers.  They don't have many friends around here the same age, so we decided to get them together for play dates.  It has been fun, and hope to continue it over the school year too.  Anyway, I look forward to picking her up from her first day, and hearing all about it.

Liam: 5 yrs. 7 mo.

Been a long while since my last update on Liam, and lots of changes too. Not only with him, but also with our lives.  He has finished his 3rd year of preschool, and is reading so well!  He is also starting to do math in his head.  I keep telling him he has his dad's math brain.  Mike purchased several Sylvan Learning work books at Costco near the end of school, and Liam has been doing the 1st grade language book with ease.  We hope he isn't too bored in Kindergarten, but mostly it will just be getting used to bigger classes and going to school everyday.  Speaking of Kindergarten,  he will most likely be going to the school near our house instead of the one by Grandma's house because I recently lost my job which was in Orem (near Grandma's). 

We decided to continue with swim lessons over the summer even though it is a drive, and we are trying to cut down on our spending.  We feel that swimming is a very important skill to know, and can save a life too.  He is really excelling this summer with swimming.  He is getting very good with the breathing, and learning to float and all the strokes too.  We are very proud of how well he is doing! 

The biggest issue I have about staying home is all the bickering the kids do.  Both kids have dominant personalities which makes for lots of fights.  It drives me insane!!  I know I need to plan more things for them, but I have found it hard to do since they have swimming lessons everyday (Mon-Thurs), and it is right in the middle of the day so it's hard to plan play dates around....but I am trying!!  There is only 3.5 weeks left of swimming and then school starts shortly after....the summer has flown by so fast!  My hope is with school is we can establish a better schedule, and I will have a little 'me time' to get some things done during the day, which will be nice. 

Anyway, I wish I remembered all the little things Liam has done over the last several months, but he continues to be such a great kid.  One thing I do know is that his eating has improved vastly!  He LOVES spicy food.  He has tried and loved one of our pasta dishes called 'Fiery Fusilli'.  Now that I am home, I have been planning and cooking meals more often during the week.  It took him a while to accept the fact that I can actually cook (since usually dad is the one).  The other day I made an Asian Chickpea salad. He usually will not eat salad, but he tried it, and loved it!  He likes to mix up spices, and makes up recipes and tells us about it. He has been talking about having a cooking contest which we think is just adorable!

comment by mom/grandma on 07/25/2013 Watch out! He just may win a cooking contest, he has an amazing ability to put things together.

Rowan: 3 yrs. 7 mo.

Rowan absolutely LOVED her first year of preschool.  Her teacher Miss Marjan was wonderful, and Rowan still talks about her a couple months after school ended!  We are very sad that she will not be going to Kids Village for 2 more years, but hopefully her new preschool closer to home will be great too!  The tuition is actually less money, even with adding a dance class after school.  She always starts dancing anytime we put a skirt or dress on her.  We think she will LOVE it! 

She tries to keep up with her brother all the time, sometimes we forget that she is 2 yrs. younger.  While Liam is excelling in swimming, she seems to have reached her max this year.  She has learned how to go under the water, and blow bubbles which is a great improvement, but she has a hard time following instructions because she is distracted playing with toys and with bugs in the water.  We know this is normal for a 3 yr old, so we decided to scale back her time in the lesson and give Liam more time.  She doesn't seem to mind or notice, and we figured it was a better solution than stopping her lessons. 

Rowan is such a snuggle bunny, which we feel very lucky about. She is very loving, and is very serious about giving hugs and kisses.  She wraps her arms around your neck and squeezes pretty tight, and then makes sure to plant a firm kiss on your cheek.  While Liam continues to try new foods, she on the other hand is in her Hot Dog phase.  Thankfully, she likes the tofu ones, which are probably not the best thing, but beats whatever is in the 'meat' ones.  I mentioned the Asian Chick Pea Salad that Liam loved in his update....she actually tried a little of it, which is at least an improvement, and gives us a little hope that she will enjoy other foods when she is older. 

Anyway, once school starts, I am sure I will have more to write about!

comment by mom/grandmab on 07/25/2013
She has done amazingly well at swimming for her age. And she really does give great hugs and kisses, even to Koko!

Liam: 5 yrs. 2 mo.

So my last update for Liam was right before Christmas.  He had a great Christmas, and we all enjoyed some time off at home together.  Last month we went to Parent/Teacher conference.  Liam is doing really well in school.  His teacher, Miss Kathleen, was talking about how the kids are learning to blend sounds together to read words.  They have a reading program at school where they send home books to read.  It is meant to encourage parents to read with their kids every day.  We assumed that all the kids in his class were reading the books sent home, but I guess not all of them are.  He's been reading for a year now, so that made us pretty proud of him.  

Liam lost his FIRST tooth.  It started to get lose on Christmas Eve, and I joked that Santa and the tooth fairy would have to come in the same night.  But, it was just barley lose, and he was way too scared to let mom or dad try to pull it out.  Then Friday it was bent out, but he still was too scared to let anyone touch it, but we knew it was on its way out.  He spent the day wiggling it.  By afternoon, I drifted off on the couch while he was playing.  All of a sudden he woke me up shouting my tooth came out. I thought for sure we would have to pull it, and was a bit bummed since I was going to take a video...but, oh well, he did it on his own, and that is pretty grown up for his first tooth. We really didn't expect it to come out just after he turned 5! Both me and Mike were at least 6.  That night Liam asked me if the tooth fairy would know if he's asleep if the lights were on. I told him she would because she would hear him snoring.  He started to go back to his room, then came back and told me 'I don't snore'.  We thought that was pretty funny. 

We have noticed lately that Liam is absorbing more information around him, even if it isn't directed at him.  Mike and I have been working out the last couple of months, and I guess I mentioned to Mike how much weight I lost, because yesterday when I told the kids I lost another pound, Liam says 'So you lost 11 lbs?'  I didn't realize he heard me tell Mike, and I asked him how he knew that?  He then said to me 'I know things'...which we thought was pretty funny!   

So not much else has been going on the last couple of months, the kids, especially Liam, are very excited for Winter to be over so we can do fun stuff outside.  He really misses riding his bike and just running around outside!  And now that I am in a lot better shape, I'm pretty excited to get a new bike and ride with him too this Summer!

comment by mom/grandma on 02/09/2013
Liam is such a great kid. He and Daniel had a blast riding bikes Thursday, and it was perfect because he was really missing his cousins!

Rowan: 3 yrs. 2 mo.

Rowan had a great Christmas too.  She got lots of new dolls and a really cool Little People Castle.  We went to Parent/Teacher conference for the first time for Rowan.  Her teacher Miss Marjan said that Rowan has come out of her shell, and has really blossomed.  We were really surprised when she told us at the Christmas party that she was the quiet/shy one in the class.  She is the spit-fire in the family, but I guess they always are different around other people, but it sounds like she is more comfortable now, and being herself at school now. 

Rowan is now in her BIG Girl bed!  She is a whole year younger than her brother was when he graduated from the toddler bed, but such is the benefit of being the 2nd kid, also she is much less of a mover when she sleeps. She has adjusted quite well to the bed, and it has helped a little with her wanting to nap and go to bed at night.  She likes to have everything in its place, and will organize her dolls, and toys just the way she wants them on her bed.  She keeps her bed very tidy, and she loves having all her cozy pillows and blankets too.  And a couple months later she is still LOVING her big girl bed.  She sleeps very well at night, and is even starting to sleep in a little on the weekends.  Not sure if it was the time change in November, but she was up EVERY single day of our Christmas vacation by 7:15 AM. She started to come down stairs on her own, and want to snuggle in our bed.  It was nice, but wish it wasn't that early. 

She has done quite well with her potty training over the last few months. Once in a while if she is really into her playing she will forget to tell us she has to go, and has a little accident.  And sometimes I had wished we waited for her to mature a little more because she will use the potty to insert her control.  But perhaps that is just more a girl thing than an age thing?  It happened one time when we went out to dinner with a friend, and she kept saying she had to pee, but she really didn't need to go, but it seemed like she enjoyed making me leave my dinner to take her to the bathroom.  

Sometimes she will sit on the potty way longer than she needs to.  She also uses the potty to delay bedtime which is a big pain in the rear.  But, for the most part it has been a great thing to have her trained, and I'm sure with time potty time will improve. 

She loves dancing, and when she puts on her tutu she turns into a ballerina.  I have no clue where she learned some of her moves, but maybe it's just innate for girls.  She then tells us we should take her to a dance class.  So that is something we will have to look into in the near future.  Another cute thing she does is make up costumes.  At Halloween time when she had her princess dress on, she grabbed Liam's skeleton mask and made a funny combo 'Princess-Skeleton' costume.  Most recently she had her tutu on and then found Liam's Spiderman mask, to make her 'Ballerina-Spidey' costume.  The girl cracks us up, she is such a ham.

comment by mom/grandma on 02/09/2013
She is quite the dancer here too. So cute. She comes up with the cutest things, she keeps us laughing all day:)

Liam is 5!

Liam is 5 now!  It is hard to believe!!  I was putting him in his car seat this morning, and said to him 'You are 5 now'.  And it just sounded so crazy, but it's true.  He has grown up so much over the past year.  He loves super hero's now.  It started with Spider Man.  He was introduced to Spider Man from his best neighbor friend at Grandma B's house, Daniel.  It was his first friend influence that got him into something new.  He also likes Bat Man, and Green Lantern, and a bunch of other Super Hero's.  Dad also introduced him to a show called 'Teen Titan's'.   He loves playing games on his phone...although we swore we wouldn't go down that road after seeing how much kids can become addicted to them!  We really try to limit the time he is on it, and also make it a reward for good behavior.  He is quite good at games, and realize it does provide some benefit to coordination, and some learning.  I do prefer the learning games though, and hope we can steer him in that direction with the tablets that Mike got the kids for Christmas.

He has become pretty enamored with zombie's over the last several months.  Not sure exactly when it started, but it might have been when dad installed a zombie game (that isn't too scary) on his phone.  He talks about zombies all the time, and even asked for a zombie shirt.  We were able to find a 'plants vs. zombies' shirt on Ebay, and it is cartoon-ish, so not very scary either.  Although, all the talk of zombies does end up in some bad dreams every so often.  Even Rowan, gets into the whole topic too.  She came up with the term 'Pickle Zombie' recently from an episode of 'Martha' on PBS.  We thought it was pretty funny, and saw the resemblance to zombies after she mentioned it.  Even though he it totally into Zombie's Liam decided he wanted to be Spider Man for Halloween.  Rowan was a purple fairy, although dad thought her 'Princess Skeleton' costume was pretty great!

Liam is enjoying school this year.  He loves loves loves having Rowan go there with him.  Before this year, he always wanted me to bring him to his classroom.  And this year, he wants to me to drop him off in the back, so he can be big brother and take Rowan to her class.  Sure saves me some time in the morning, so I am happy about it.  Liam's reading and writing has improved a lot since he started school.  It is amazing how quickly he rebounded after our lull in the summer.  We are pretty determined to not let that happen this summer.  So speaking of school, we are so up in the air as to what to do for Kindergarten next year.  We need to go and talk to the public school teacher's very soon!!  I already talked a person at his current school about him going public next year, and what to do if it just isn't working for him.  She advised to enroll him, and pay the $100 fee to save a spot for him, just in case, and we thought that was a good idea too.  Only time will tell, but we will do what we need to make sure he is happy and adjusted regardless where he's going.

He had his 5 year check-up recently and his new stats are:  38.14 lbs. (34.2 %), 43 inches (57.46%), 14.5 BMI   (18.42)...so as you can see he's tall and very skinny, which makes it difficult to clothe him as of late.  His 4T pants are getting short.  And I didn't realize this at the time, but the brand that I generally buy him only offers 5/6 size.  Anyway, it will make for a few awkward months, but hopefully he will catch up soon.  He had a great birthday party this year, and we are glad we can still 'get away' with a combined birthday party.  He was especially happy this year because not only could he invite his cousins, he was also able to invite a friend from school, and a couple of his best buds from G'ma's neighborhood!  They all seemed to have a wonderful time sliding over and over. They made up games too as the party went on, like making trains to go down together.  

He loved all his gifts from everyone, so thank you again for all that came and celebrated our kids turning 5 and 3 : )  He still is into his cars and trucks, and he loves all his super hero stuff. And even if he takes a break from his Thomas trains, he tends to keep going back to them.  He keeps asking for these obscure, hard to find ones for Christmas...but unfortunately, he only started asking when it was too late to really get them. Hopefully, he will be happy with the couple that he asked for a LONG time ago, and were able to get.  Another thing he has done within the last month or so, is he decided he LOVES this little stuffed gorilla that I got him several years ago.  He never paid much attention to him, but all of a sudden he has given him the name 'Boo Boo', and he brings him all over the house, and makes stories up about him.  A little odd, but still cute.  And speaking of cute, I will end his update with something he told Mike a few weeks ago.  He told him that he wanted to go back in time to when Mike was his age, so that they could play together as kids, and be best friends.  Mike thought that was one of the sweetest things he has ever heard, and I thought so too.  Happy 5 years 'Little Man'- We LOVE you!!

comment by mom/grandma on 12/24/2012 That is so cute, he is such a sweet loving boy. He and Mike would have been best friends for sure, after all, they are now!

comment by Gaylene on 12/24/2012 That is one of the sweetest things ever, Liam is naturally sweet...and 5 does sound so much older. I never thought the boys first year went fast, but it certainly did this year. Thanks for the fun updates.

Rowan is 3 now!!

Rowan turned 3 on November 26, 2012!  She is loving Pre-School.  She doesn't talk a whole lot about it, but she mentions her teacher's name 'Miss Marjan'.  And one day when we were in the Dr's office waiting for the kids Well Check-Up, she saw a girl walk in, and she said "That girl lives in my classroom".  I wasn't positive because I haven't seen all the kids in her class, but when the other girl said, "That is Rowan". I knew she was right.  She is very good with her ABC's, and loves to learn them.  

When I suggest that we put in a Leap Frog DVD, Liam will complain because I think he's bored with it, but Rowan is excited and agrees that she needs to learn her letters.  She sometimes will say the sound they make rather than the name of the letter, which we think is adorable.  At the Dr's ofc. we learned that she weighs 29.76 lbs. (41%), she is 35.25 inches (13.07%), and 16.84 BMI (79.21%)...guess they don't do head measurements anymore.  Her poor brother had to have 4 shots!! And she got lucky, and didn't have to have any, which is good because after he had his, she was pretty shook up.  This was the first time I took them both for their well-visit at the same time.

She is pretty much 100% day time potty trained now.  It kinda happened on a whim.  I was planning to potty train her over the Christmas break, since we would both be home to work with her. So mid-November, I was curious, and put on some underpants just to see how ready she was.  She peed through exactly 5 pairs in a row.  She HATED the feeling and would scream.  After a while we realized the scream was becoming her warning signal that she had to go.  And ever since that day, she has just improved.  We were really surprised it was that easy with her because anytime we mentioned potty training, or going to the bathroom in the potty, she would just grin and say, I will just go in my diaper. Anyway, we are more than pleased that we can save money on diapers now (at least for the day time).

We had the kids birthday party on November 17th.  We tried to think of a different activity than last year, but with it being cold, and needing to be inside, our options are pretty limited.  We decided if we couldn't think of a better option, that the bounce slide would be our back-up plan.  I think it worked out great though.  The thing I like most is that it is a private party, and we don't have to worry about the smaller kids being knocked over by a bigger kid, like you see at the public bounce house places.  We went to Kangaro Zoo with cousin Rainier over the Thanksgiving holiday, and it was super fun, but pretty busy, and would hate to see what it is like on a Saturday.

Some say 3 is harder than 2, and some days I totally believe it.  She has been super hard to please lately.  She will ask for something, and you bring it to her, and it's not the right way, or on the right plate, or she simply decided she doesn't want it anymore, which can be pretty frustrating at times, especially if you went to the trouble to make (or bake) something.  She also has discovered that she can get out of her bed and play after we tuck her in.  For the longest time she never got out of bed, but I think that partly is because she is having a hard time going to sleep at night.  She is in that stage where she still needs a nap, but the nap makes her well rested, and she's not ready to sleep at bedtime.  It will be a rough year in that regard. 

She loves to give hugs and kisses.  And she loves to play with her 'Little People' toys.  She loves her Jack (from Nightmare Before Christmas) and has him and Sally in her bed every night.  She thinks that Santa is Jack in a Santa suit, and also called the bald baby Jesus ornament 'Baby Jack'.  She also has to listen to the music EVERY night!!  She also loves playing with cars and trucks.  She loves to be called 'sweetie pie'.  While we were potty training her, we would ask 'Are you dry?', and she would say 'Yes', and then we would say 'Let us know if you need to go pee or poo', which would sometime be shortened to 'go potty', and then she would reply 'Pee or Poo'.  Sometime she would reply 'Yes, I'm dry and clean and adorable!'  And that she is!!  We love you Rowan!!

comment by Gaylene on 12/13/2012 She IS adorable! Oh I'm so worried about the inevitable with the boys. It'll try my patience for sure. I think your party place sounds perfect. Happy belated to both of your cuties!

comment by mom/grandma on 12/12/2012 She is adorable. It's fun to see that she is pretty much the same here as at home. We love her too!

Liam's Summer 4.5 yrs.

Liam has had an eventful summer!  Unfortunately we dropped the ball on his reading and writing, but he has learned a lot of other things!  He had swimming lessons at the Legacy center with his teacher Jordan. And also 3 weeks of lessons near Grandma's house with Krista!  He went from being so scared to go under water, to going under with ease, and even going down the BIG water slide with me at the center.  He had a total of 4 lessons with Jordan, and by the last one he was so surprised at all the things he could do.  All I could hear from that lesson was Jordan saying 'WOW'!  I probably should have gave him a heads up about his other lessons, but Liam wanted to surprise him.  We are going to continue lessons, maybe one per month for the next few months and see how that goes for now.  Liam also learned how to ride a 2 wheel bike!  The trick for him was learning how to balance on a scooter.  He also practiced with his training wheels most of the summer, but now he rides like crazy with no training wheels.  The downside though is he has no fear!! And he does some pretty crazy things that scare me all the time.  Anyway, he has had a great summer, and I just wanted to say a few things about it before I go pick him up from his first day of school.  This will probably be his last year at Kids Village because we are going to try to have him go to public Kindergarten by Grandma's house next year.

Rowan's Summer 2.5

Rowan has also had an eventful summer.  She too took some swimming lessons.  We were going to wait till next summer, but there was an opening right after Liam's lesson, so we let her try it out, and she really loved it.  Mostly it was just getting her used to the water, but she did pretty well for only being 2.5.  She has grown up so much this summer, she really is blossoming into a wonderful sweet girl.  She wants so much to keep up with Liam, she often seems like she is more like 4.5 rather than 2.5.  We get so many comments on how advanced her verbal skills are too.  We have been talking about her going to school all summer, and she has been so excited to go.  Last week we went to meet her new teacher Miss Marjan.  She loves it at night when I tell her the 'story' that she is going to go to school and meet her teacher, and meet some new friends.  She says 'tell the story again'.  So I repeat it a few times, and she is just grinning ear to ear!  Speaking of bed time, a few weeks ago, we changed her bed to a toddler bed.  She has been ready for one for a long time, but we were concerned about her staying in her bed and climbing on things....but thankfully, that has not been an issue at all.  For the most part she will stay in her bed once we tuck her in.  Anyway, I wanted to write a little bit about her summer before I go pick her up from her very first day of Pre-School!

Liam: 4 yrs. 6 mo.

Liam graduated school about a month ago.  He is enjoying his summer so far, although it's funny because when he was in school it was always a struggle to get him to go in the morning.  He always had a good time, but it felt I had to make him go.  Then when school was out, he was missing it, and wanted to go. He will have a chance to attend a week of summer school at the end of this month though, so that should be fun for him.  He is also pretty excited to have his sister attend his school in the fall!

Liam seems to have moved on from his train obsession, and is now really into cars....specifically the pipes on cars.  We took him to a car show at Thanksgiving Point a couple of weeks ago, and he had to see all the pipes on the car, wasn't too interested in the rest of the car, just the pipes.  Not sure where that came from, but it's kinda funny.  Although can be annoying from the back seat while we are driving because he wants us to slow down /speed up, or turn around so he can see the pipes on certain cars.  Silly boy!  

We took the kids to see Thomas the Train a few weeks ago.  He had a pretty great time, and was happy to have Rowan along for the adventure this time.  A couple weeks later he had his first swim lesson, and also first time ever going in a pool. He had such a great time, we stayed for 2 hrs. playing and swimming, it was hard to get him to leave!  I got the bright idea to celebrate the sale of the car by going to Alta lodge for an all you can eat brunch with the kids.  And it just so happened to land on Fathers day too.  We got up to Alta Lodge around 10am for our reservations.  Liam wanted to eat inside, which was probably best since it was a bit breezy, but the view was still beautiful out the window.  

Rowan actually did much better than Liam, which was a little surprising.  She especially loved the bran muffin they had, but was NOT a fan of the Pate which she thought was hummus, or the cheese cake.  She made the best disgusted faces we've seen!!  Liam did OK, but had a hard time listening and sitting still.

After brunch we drove down to Snowbird, they had a festival going on, so there were lots of fun activities for the kids.  We took them down the Alpine slide for the first time.  And after that we let them play on the bounce house for almost an hour.  We had to bribe them with ice-cream to get off!  We didn't find any ice-cream, but did find some shaved ice, which they really liked.  Mike did find an ice-cream shop in one of the buildings when he took Liam to the bathroom, so next time we will know!  We were only up there 4 hrs. but we totally wore the kids out, and ourselves.  But we ALL had a really great day! 

Rowan: 2 yrs. 6 mo

I have been really behind lately with the kids updates...Working and taking care of 2 kids and a house gets pretty time consuming....but, I do have to say that I am glad I have kept up with it this long. Even if it's every few months, I think it is better than none at all.  Anyway, Rowan again has grown so much since her last update.  She is now 2.5 yrs. old!  She loves to play outside, and she can climb up the swing set on her own now, although we like to spot her in case she slips!  She loves doing anything that Liam is doing, digging in the dirt, riding bikes, playing with cars and trucks.  She also loves when I put a dress on her.  She feels so 'girly' when I do, she will start dancing around and saying things like 'I'm a princess'.  We are going to the princess festival next week, and she is very excited about that!!  She has been a lot better about listening to us, although one of the difficult things lately has been her being such a slow poke.  When we try to take her upstairs she tries everything to be distracted and not go at a pace that we prefer.  We are pretty impressed with her language lately too.  She seems to understand everything we say, sometime a little too much!  And we can understand most of everything she says.  It is amazing how their language evolves, and you can have a 2-way conversation with your child.  

A few weeks ago we took the kids to ride Thomas the train.  It was Liam's 3rd year going, and her first! She absolutely loved it.  It has been a lot easier lately to take the kids places, since she doesn't always need to be in a stroller.  Her attention span is much better too, so it makes going places much more enjoyable.  She is really excited about going to preschool in the fall too!  It's so hard to believe that she is old enough to go.  She is definitely growing up too fast!  She has started to say 'I love you too' , when we tell her we love her, it is the cutest, sweetest thing.  She kinda still has a squeaky baby voice still, so she still feels like our baby, even though she is 2.5!  But she will always be our baby, whether she likes it or not ;)

comment by mom/grandma on 06/14/2012
Rowan has the cutest voice and says the cutest things, she and Liam make a fantastic pair!

Liam: 4 yrs. 4 mo.

I figure I need to hurry and write Liam's update before much more time goes by. He turned 4 years, 4 months old on April 7th. He is doing really well in school. His teacher that left in January gave us some advice at his first parent/teacher meeting. She said to get the DVD from Leap Frog titled 'Letter Factory'. This particular video made ALL the difference for him. He perfected all of his letters, and sounds, and a few weeks after watching this video he was starting to read. His new teacher Miss Kelli started him on a reading program that they do at his school, where they take a book home, and read it till they are really good, and then return it for a new one. He's on the 2nd book now, and is doing amazing so far. He is on Spring break now, but he just had his graduation pictures done last week...we hope that he smiled good for them because he's in his goofy smile phase when we ask him to smile. Amazingly, we were able to get a great family picture done at the Easter party. Erica said that he kept doing goofy smiles, so we didn't expect that one turned out, but it did, and we are very happy about it...it has been a year since all 4 of us have been in the same picture. So, anyway, Liam is also learning his numbers and a little math too. He can count to 100, and probably beyond that too. He quantifies his love and our love...he will say I love you 'twenty forty'...how much do you love me? It's pretty funny, and he has Rowan saying it too. He has learned a new game that one of Mike's co-workers created...It is a timed game to see how many spiders you can squash. He's pretty good at it, and he mentioned to dad that he wanted to have a count of how many he got, and Mike mentioned it to his co-worker, and he added that feature in. It has been a great way for him to learn his numbers above 100 too.

We opened up a savings acct for the kids the other day, and when I told Liam that we opened up a savings account for him to save for college, he got really sad, and said he didn't want to leave us. He wasn't even sure what College was, just that all the toys from Toy Story 3 were so sad when Andy was going away to college. Another cute thing that happened recently was one night Mike went in to turn off Liam's light after he fell asleep. Liam woke up, and Mike tried to convince him he was just having a dream. Liam said 'I am?' and Mike said 'Yes, and you should tell your dad about it in the morning'. As Mike was leaving the room, Liam said 'Hey dream Dad, I like my light on'.

Knock on wood, he has become a much better eater lately. We can usually convince and/or bribe him to at least try something. And more often lately he is actually liking more things. Which has been a welcome relief, since Rowan has swung in the opposite direction!! I don't think we could handle two picky eaters at the same time...it's frustrating enough with just one!! He has been LOVING Mike's smokey potatoes lately...Which actually kinda surprises us because they are a bit on the spicy side. He tried Mike's made up pasta which had red bell peppers, and asparagus, tomato sauce and a quorn (fake chicken) in it and he loved it, and ate it all too. Although we do have to catch him in a good mood and not too tired, or it's game over.

He has totally been into the Thomas wooden trains lately. He doesn't want anything to do with his metal ones anymore, and he wants to know how expensive they are...and the more rare and pricey they are the more he wants them. He has added a ton to the 'wish list' on Amazon, and also the 'watch list' on E-bay. We actually won a few of them for him on E-bay that were in England...it does seem his obsession is getting a little less as the weather is warming so hopefully having some outdoor time will help distract him from always wanting a new train. We have put a limit on what and when he can have a new one....and we usually save them for when he passes off his stuff at school, and earns a wrist band. Although, even after he earns his new train, he wants the next one...hopefully we can teach him to be grateful for what he has. Speaking of that, one day a commercial for 'Operation Smile' came on. It's an organization for kids around the world that are born with a cleft pallet. I took the opportunity to tell him he should be grateful for what he has, and asked him if we should donate some money to the cause...He was pretty disturbed by the images, but when he remembered it a day or 2 later, he reminded me that I should send them money, so I do think that it is sinking in a bit. He really is a sweet and thoughtful kid, and we just have to keep teaching him when the opportunity arises.

comment by mom/grandma on 04/10/2012
He is such a sweetheart. He is really enjoying Owen & Miles and has been a really good helper. He counted to 320 for me last week, he said he wanted to count to 10,000, but he got tired. When we hunt for tiny balls, he adds them up, he's got all the adding to 10 down. He's a blast to be with and we love him 20 40 infinity:)

Rowan: 2 yrs, 3 mo

Rowan turned 2 yrs and 3 months a few days ago...seriously, where does the time go?  She is growing and changing so quickly, I just can't keep up with her updates!!  She insists on walking down the stairs by herself now.  If we try to carry her, she will say 'Rowan can do it'.  She sometimes will let us hold her hand, but mostly she wants to do it all by herself, so we will just stand in front and just spot her.  Her language has been getting a lot better lately.  We have noticed that she is really good at using pronouns, like she will say 'I'm up here dad'.  Or 'I don't want to eat'.  Although she still calls Liam, 'Miam'...we think it so cute though, that we don't correct it. Another funny word she uses that we don't correct is she calls Lightning McQueen 'Lightning Ice-cream'. One day dad was taking a shower and he came out to where the kids were to ask a question...and Rowan pointed at him and exclaimed 'Snake on Butt'. We all had a pretty good laugh, but then we realized we probably shouldn't walk around naked anymore ;)  She has a pretty good imagination...one time in the bath she was squatting like a frog, and she would say 'I'm a frog, ribbit ribbit'.  She kept doing it, it was so cute and Mike even got a video...(I'll have to get that off his phone).  She also will do a duck 'I'm a duck, quack quack'.  Liam has been watching a lot of Leap Frog video's lately, so she is now singing her ABC's and also learning the sounds.  It's kinda ironic though because she seems behind on learning her colors and shapes, but is ahead on her letters.  Benefits/downside of being a 2nd kid I guess : )   

Rowan had a wonderful Christmas, although we thought she would be more interested in opening the gifts, she let Liam open most of them again this year...he didn't mind.  She loved seeing all the lights and singing x-mas songs like jingle bells and frosty the snowman...she kept singing them several weeks after it was over.  

She has been to a few parties over the months, and she absolutely loves going.  Part of it I think is she loves to be included in things.  The kids were invited to a party this last weekend, and I was just going to take Liam since it was in the afternoon close to her nap...she heard us talking about it, and asked if she could go...I just looked at her, didn't say anything, and she started balling, so we decided she could go and just have a late nap that day.  It worked out OK, she had a great time..she is super outgoing and loves to be around other people. She also was invited to her cousin Rainier's party last month and she had the best time at the Gym.  She loved loved loved running around and jumping!!  She was so excited to go back a week later for the 1 hour open playtime.

Some of the harder things lately has been her 2 year old tude is in full force.  She can be so happy one minute, and the next she is screaming and crying.  She has also become very picky about food, and she has this horrible habit of throwing her food and plates on the floor if she doesn't want it.  She also has discovered that she can decide whether or not to listen to us, so it's been pretty difficult to get her in her chair for dinner time or sometimes she won't lay down to change her diaper.

Over the holidays Rowan finally fell out of her crib. So we decided to get Liam a big boy bed so that we can convert her crib with the side rail we got for the toddler bed.  She is totally ready for the toddler bed, it's just that her room isn't quite safe for her yet...so we turned her crib around to save some time....it's worked pretty well so far.  Although she LOVES Liam's bed and for the first little while she really wanted his bed, and thought of it as hers!!

Her hair was getting shaggy over the last several months...and we waited as long as we could to get it cut because she just screamed the last time she had a trim, but that was over a year ago.  We were unsure how she would react this time, but we were pleasantly surprised that she sat so well, didn't cry once, and let Aunt Gina cut her hair!  She has also started to snuggle again which is very nice for us.  She is definitely growing up!!  And even though the 2's are one of the hardest ages, she has for the most part been a great 2 yr old!!

Liam: 4 yrs.

Wow!  Liam is 4 years old now!!  He has been doing well in school.  Although, we did have his parent/teacher conference a couple of weeks ago, and sadly I wasn't too happy about it.  They did it open house style instead of apt. like last year.  The first time I went over there, there were about 4 people in line ahead of me on the sign up sheet.  It said on the sheet that each family had about 10 min. to meet with the teacher.  Needing to finish up work, I decided I did not want to wait 40 plus min. so I went back later that evening. Then when it was finally my turn, since there was a line behind me, and it would be ending soon, his teacher only gave me 5 min.  She didn't tell me much about Liam, and didn't even know what class he was in :/  Although she did give me some good advice on a learning DVD to buy, which the kids LOVE to watch.  Then a week later we got an e-mail saying that something came up, and that Liam's teacher would not be able to finish up the school year.  I was sad for Liam because he really likes her, and he will miss her.  And I do hope nothing serious happened to her as to why she can't finish up, but part of me is glad for him to have a new teacher.  His new teacher is Miss Kelli, and she has worked at KV for many years with the older grades.  The first day she was there, she knew who Liam was, and was very happy to see him.  She asked how he was doing.  And when I picked him up, she said he did very well.  Don't get me wrong, Miss Raya was nice, but I often felt a coldness from her.  For example, early in the school year we got to school about 3 minutes before it technically started.  We started to go into the room, and she said can you wait a few more minutes before coming in, this is my time to be with my kids.  Ever since then, I felt a little weird around her, and not very welcome.  So anyway, I do wish Miss Raya the best, but I am happy for the new teacher, and Liam seems to be doing very well with the change, especially since it's 1/2 way through the school year.

So I probably should back up since it's been a while since my last update.  Liam had a wonderful Christmas.  He and Rowan just loved seeing all the Christmas lights?!  We took them over to Thanksgiving point a couple of times to see the lights there. They loved that.  I still am torn about the whole Santa story.  The poor kid is probably pretty confused over it.  We did fall back on the Santa story a couple times to get him to behave...but after I felt really bad about it because it just made him sad and mad.  We did leave milk and cookies out for him the night before...but that is about as far as we took it.  We will never embellish on the story and tell him he goes down the chimney or around the world.  Maybe that takes all the magic out of Christmas, but I just don't like the whole lying aspect of it all.  And after reading some comments on a thread about Santa on Face Book, I was glad to know that we weren't the only parents out there that agree.  Anyway, as he was opening each cool gift, all he was hoping for were those 99 cent match box cars. He has so many, and gets them often, that we didn't even think to wrap any.  I distracted him, while Mike grabbed a few from our room to put in his stocking.  He was pretty excited about that, and we wished we would have saved a bunch of $, and just wrapped those up ; )

So during our vacation, Rowan decided to climb, or rather fall out of her crib.  So we decided that we needed to hurry up and get Liam his big boy bed, so that Rowan can convert her bed to a toddler bed when we need to. We did decide to turn her crib facing the wall to buy us some time, but we figured we should get his new bed anyway.  We got it at RC Willey on a sale, and at first he didn't like the idea of it, but after he saw it, he was super excited!  It is really high off the ground, so we were glad we already had purchased a safety rail.  We ended up getting a body pillow too, to help keep him from falling off. So far (knock on wood), he hasn't fallen off, thankfully!  I bought him about 3 sets of sheets, and he totally loves them, and gets excited when I change them, like getting a new bed all over again.

It seemed he took a few weeks off of his imaginary friends, but they seemed to have popped up again in the last week or so.  He often will say, I have a new friend, his/her name is such and such, and he will make up a silly name or sometimes it's totally normal.  Ainey is the first friend, and she is kind of the ring leader of all the rest.  She is not a very nice friend, and she has kind of a dark side too.  He has said some disturbing stuff to us lately, and we are unsure where this dark side of his is coming from, but sometimes it really worries us, and we wonder if we should take him to a therapist?  Anyway, we are watching it carefully, and will do what we need to help him.

Unfortunately, Liam has started to display behaviors that indicate that we have totally spoiled him, and he feels that he is entitled to a new toy like daily.  I tried to explain to him that money doesn't grow on trees, and that we need to start earning things.  It didn't go over so well, but we are still working on it. Last weekend I had him help me do some chores around the house, and we gave him some money for his piggy bank. He seemed pretty excited about that, and was very happy to help out.  Anyway, that is something that we really need to work on with him.  

So, all in all, regardless of some of the bumps in the road, he has been doing very well these past few months. He continues to love his sister, and help her.  And he's been eating well, and trying new things!  He's got his new bed, he went to the dentist, and did very well with that too.  Also, I did forget to mention that he has started his 4 yr. old 'Why?' stage a few weeks ago.  It was almost like it happened over night.  And some of the questions he comes up with astound us?!  Like, one time he asked me why trees grew on the mountain. There were some others that totally surprised us too, and I can't think of them at the moment, but I will have to be sure to note his more interesting questions in the future.

comment by mom/grandma on 01/26/2012
He's a darling boy. His behavior is pretty typical of little boys and he is super sweet. We love him so much.

Rowan: 2 years!

Rowan turned 2 on Nov. 26th 2011!!  She has been just the cutest little girl lately.  And even though she is 2, and technically a toddler now, I still think of her as our little baby.  I suppose she will always be that in my eyes!!  She's had a lot of things happen over the last couple months with all the holidays and birthdays!! At the first part of October she got to go on her first pony ride at the farm.  We gathered from her huge grin the whole time that she absolutely LOVED that!  She got to go trick-or-treating for the first time too!  Her costume this year was a lady bug.  I thought she might fight me getting it on, but she's a girl, and one thing I've learned about girls is they love to play dress up.  She loved to go to the neighbors house, and ring the door bell.  She got a little shy when they opened the door, but she really seemed to get the whole concept....I bet next year she will be a pro.  After that night, she would say 'Trick-or-Treat' anytime she heard a doorbell.  This lasted up until she got obsessed with the Christmas lights!  She also got to go to her first Halloween party at her cousins house.  She really enjoyed that, and the thing we learned about her that night is she is a ham.  She saw Grandpa J crawling like a crab earlier in the night, so later that evening, she started doing her version of the crab walk.  It was pretty funny, and I was glad I got it on video, because that was first time we'd ever seen her do that, and she doesn't do it very often.  Although one day when Liam was having a meltdown, she started doing it, and I think she was trying to cheer him up, what a sweat heart.

We had the kids birthday party on Nov. 19th. She had a great time jumping on the bounce house, and sliding down too.  She got some really great gifts (Thanks again to everyone who came).  She has totally started playing house now. She loves her dolls, and loves to walk them in the stroller that we got her for her birthday, and rocks them in her rocking chair while she sings 'Rock-A-Bye Baby'.  She also likes to put them to bed, tuck them in, and kisses and hugs them.  It's pretty adorable to watch.

So some other developments have been she is starting to say her ABC's, and numbers.  I have to admit that we haven't been as good about that with her, but I do think she does pick up on a lot with having an older sibling. We turned her seat around on Nov. 25th., a day before her 2nd birthday.  The first place we took her was to see the Christmas lights at Thanksgiving Point.  The second we backed out of the garage, she was grinning ear to ear, and giggling like Butt-Head (from the Beavis and Butt-Head Show).  She has been pretty happy to face forward now, although she has needed the sunglasses because of the position of the sun now.  She won't always keep them on, and sometimes drops them, and she cries, so that has been a little hard...but, I think she is getting better about it since she is learning that I can't stop to help her.  Anyway, she has been very excited about Christmas, and loves all the lights, and trees, and ornaments, etc.  Her head is going to explode on Christmas day when she sees everything wrapped up, and SHE gets to open some too!!  She is at such fun and hard age, but I will take the hard stuff with the fun stuff because I know just how fast time flies!!

comment by Gaylene on 01/22/2012
You guys throw such fun parties, we need to make it there one of these times!