Liam: 3 yrs. 2 mo.

Liam turned 3 yrs and 2 months on February 7th.  Yes, I know I am behind AGAIN!!  But, even if it is a little late, I am very glad I have kept up month to month on their updates.  All the days tend to blend together, and when I look back on it, I am always glad I took note of what they are doing and saying at that moment in time.  So speaking of some of the things Liam is saying, here are a few....'good idie', for good idea , 'I got a question', even if he's just making a statement, when we ask him to do something he doesn't want to do, he says 'I'm busy', and sometimes gets really mad.  One time Dad found something for him, and he said 'You saved the day'.

 

He has totally been into Thomas lately, more than we've ever seen him.  He knows most, if not all the names on the different shows.  He even knows who is in each one, and will say I want to watch the one with 'So and So' and we usually don't have a clue which episode it is, so we will have him point to the right one on the Roku.  He will do all the different faces of the trains, and one night I had him tell me a story about the trains while I took a video, it was really cute!

 

He loves playing with all his trains too, and carries them around all the time.  He knows exactly which ones he has and knows if any are missing, and names all of them off all the time.  Dad took him to the train show at the end of January and he got a bunch of new trains for him to use as a reward if he goes #2 in the potty.  We had them for a few weeks, and he'd always say, I can get so and so if I go poo in the potty.  He knew exactly what he needed to do, but he is just so darn stubborn he would not do it.  Anyway, last week I happened upon a site from someones blog, and found the secret to potty training our stubborn 3 yr old. We knew he was ready for it, but we just needed that extra tool to figure it out.

The site is: http://www.3daypottytraining.com/

It is an E-book, and there are some copyright issues, so I can't share too much publicly about it, but we are just thrilled with how well her information worked with Liam. After reading it, I have to admit I was a little skeptical and a little upset we had just paid $24 for an E-book, but being able to potty train him in about 4 days all but makes up for the diapers we are going to save!!

We did a variation of her method, and since we didn't have 3 entire days in a row to work on it ourselves, we decided we would just test it out, to see how well it worked and go from there. We also have decided to not worry about night time right now, and let him wear a diaper. We also were unsure what to do about preschool since he has multiple teachers throughout the day, so we decided he could wear a pull-up until we are all confident that he is comfortable asking to use the bathroom there.

So we started our 'Potty Party' on Friday morning. He had pooped in his diaper that morning, and I was ready to begin!! On went the big boy underpants, and shortly after that he told me that he had to pee in the potty!! I was shocked how quickly it worked?!?!

Day 1: He did all his pees in the potty! Had some #2 accidents though.
Day 2: He had one pee accident, and 1 #2 accident, and did 2 #2's in the potty
Day 3: Tricky day since we had prior plans and had to send him to G'ma's he did really well with pee's but not so well with #2
Day 4: Back on track, had ZERO accidents!!!
Day 5: Went to G'ma's again, and had school, NO ACCIDENTS

We are currently on Day 6, and I got a text from G'ma that he told her he needed to go #2 for the first time! I dare say our little boy is potty trained, for the most part. I expect he will have a few set backs here and there, and we will need to work on night time later, but we are just super happy with the results. So if anybody out there is needing a little help with this, I do recommend this plan.

 

Anyway, our little boy is growing up to be such a 'Big Boy', we are just so proud of him!!

Rowan:14.5 Months

A few days after I wrote Rowan's last update, she started to stand & walk!  It was on January 7, 2011 when she was about 13.5 months old.  It seemed to happen overnight. Once she started to walk more than 5 or so steps, she was walking half way across the room, then all the way across the room, then she just stopped crawling all together. Then she turned 14 months old on January 26th...and again I need to hurry and write up her update because she is just growing and changing so much!!  She is now an expert walker, and even was running yesterday?!?!?  She was home with Liam and Dad and she grabbed one of Liam's cars and ran across the room.  They were both very surprised to see her take off like that.  This past month she also has been sick. First she got a little cold, then when she seemed to be better she came down with a fever and cold, and Liam had a fever too...but after hers broke after about 5 days, she had a little rash so we think she had Roseola. Plus on top of that all, she was teething, so she was not very happy for about a week!   She has been loving trying new foods.  She has tried Kiwi, Mango, Orange and loved them all.  She pretty much loves anything we give her, and even if she doesn't seem to like it, she will eat it anyway. We usually know when she really likes something when she says 'Mmmmmm' .  We know one day she will probably start to get picky, so we are enjoying this phase while it lasts.  Some of her new words lately have been 'Night Night', 'Wow', 'Book'.   She makes growl sounds a lot, and roars at her riding Lion toy.  She says 'bye bye', and blows kisses, even with the kiss sound now.  We think she is going to be a bit of a tomboy.  She LOVES Liam's toys, especially his Thomas trains.  Thankfully, Liam is learning to share because she is starting to get a bit of a 'tude' now.  That is our word for attitude, but think 'tude' is a cuter way to describe it.  She is so easy to make smile, and she has such a funny sense of humor too.  She comes up to us now and tickles us, and says 'Tickle, tickle, tickle'.  She also thinks her farts are funny because after she farts, she laughs like a hyena...just like her mom ;) She also loves to dance, which is a totally new thing to us because Liam never started doing that till after he was 2, and even then it's more like running around.  We had a little dance party one night, and she made us laugh so much dancing to 'Jungle Boogie'.  We love her so much and constantly feel so lucky at what a good baby/kid she is!!

comment by Gaylene on 02/18/2011
So adorable! Love "tude" also...can't hardly wait to see how they've grown next month

Liam: 3 yrs. 1 mo.

Liam had a great month and holiday.  We all had about 2.5 weeks at home, and he had some time to sleep-in in the morning.  We figured he was catching up on all his sleep debt.  It was a little crazy because he and Rowan woke around the same time everyday,around 9am.  But on the flip side, he also had a really hard time getting to sleep at bedtime, and it didn't make much of a difference if he had a nap or not.  We think part of the issue is he insists on having his big light on at night.  He was really excited for Christmas, and had a great time singing with the other kids at his school's holiday party on Dec. 8th.  We don't think he really knew what Christmas was all about until he saw the presents on Christmas morning.  He loved opening up the gifts, and kept asking for another one for him.  He helped Rowan open hers, and still couldn't get enough!  So spoiled!!  At the start of our time off, he was really into the potty training.  We offered him a penny for a pee, and a nickel for a poo.  He earned lots of pennies, and even several nickels, but then kinda gave up after about 3-4 days.  We don't want to push the issue, but at the same time we hope he will get motivated soon!  He has had a new found love of Thomas the Tank Engine lately too. He knows all the names, and will name them off when they roll the credits between the episodes.  He is also pretty picky which episode he watches.  We have a ton on the Roku, and we can't just play just any ol' episode, he has to pick just the right one!! Even Rowan loves watching it now, and gets excited and points at the screen when we are picking one out.

We took Liam to his very first play on December 12th.  It was called 'If You Give A Mouse A Cookie'.  We had purchased the book before hand to familiarize him with the story, and to get him excited to go.  He was very attentive for about the first 15 to 20 min., but then he wanted to run around the theater.  He tried going up on stage, and down the side isle.  He started talking, and would NOT sit still.  We kept giving him different snacks to try to keep him quiet. Mike had to hold him for most of the time, and get him some juice from the car.  It was a super cute play, but it was one very long hour!  Hopefully next year he will be a little more mature and able to sit still for it.

On December 16th, he had his 3-year well visit.  He did amazingly well, and sat still and listened to the nurse while they did an eye exam.  He passed his 3-year questionnaire with flying colors!  He now weighs 28 lbs. 7.5 oz (16.54%), he's 37.5 inches tall (52.99%), and they didn't do his head this time, but did do his BMI which was 14.22 (3.72%).   He was the same weight as he was at a visit that he was at a couple months earlier and figured that he lost some from being sick twice with a tummy bug.  But he sure has grown a lot over the year, 2 whole inches!!  He has been a little more willing to try new foods lately, which has been a great relief to us.  He is starting to try some of the meals that we eat too. 

He also loves talking about all the different types of food.  He has shown a great interest in cooking, and Mike especially looks forward to having him help make some meals in the future.  Another new development he's had in the last week or 2 is he has decided that he isn't afraid of Gretchen any more and absolutely LOVES her now.  He wants to play with her all the time now, and calls her his friend.  He thinks it's funny when she licks him, where he used to get mad at her.  Gretchen is loving it too, and is now getting worn out by playing so much. Liam's school has their registration for next year going on now.  We debated which time would be better for us, better for him, and my work schedule.  We originally went with the same afternoon time, but the other day, he was commenting how tired he was on the way to school. I went in to talk to his teacher, and she did say that her morning time kids are more awake and refreshed.  Also she mentioned that she only teaches the morning class for his age group next year, and we really love her, and would like for her to be his teacher again.  So, the woman who takes care of registration told me that it would be much easier to switch to afternoon if needed, and recommended that we try the morning time first.  So, I guess we will see how that works next school year. One thing that Liam has known for quite a while now, that I keep forgetting to mention in his updates is that he knows the difference between his left side and his right side. He also has an amazing sense of what we try to tell him, that is if he's listening.  He will process what we say and either say 'Oh, OK.' or he will say something back to us that indicates that he has a profound understanding.  I will show him a picture of Sequoia, and he will say her name correctly now, and says he remembers her, and knows that she is dead.  We never really talk about death to him because he is so young, but he seems to have some level of understanding of it, and knows that it is a sad thing.  He still remembers the dead bunny in the road, even though we just drove by it, and he never even saw it!  The kid ceases to amaze us, and we are always telling him what a wonderful boy he is, we must also tell him he's cute too because over the holiday Liam kept saying 'I'm Cute', it was pretty funny and cute! 

Rowan: 13 Months

Rowan is growing and changing so quickly I can't keep up!  We had some time off for the holidays, and couldn't believe how much she changed over nearly 2 weeks.  On December 17th she had her first haircut, and she did great!  She turned 13 months old on December 26th.  She says a few words now, but mostly she chatters in her own language.  So far she does say 'Mama', 'Dada', 'Baby','What's Dat?', 'Uh-Oh'.  She points at things she wants or likes which lately have been Cheerios and lights.  She is starting to want what we eat now.  So I will give her bits of it to try. She really loved the hummus that she tried the other day, and she really loves bananas, and squeals in delight when she sees I cut some up for her.  She also loves graham crackers, and had a little tantrum when I tried putting them away after giving her some. I ended up giving her some more, and she is now learning how to get stuff from us, just like Liam?!?!  We are such pushovers ;) But she has learned the sign for more, and will do the sign, or clap which is similar to the sign. 

 

She LOVES the lamp I put in her room.  She was always blinded in the morning when I turned on her big light, and she would sneeze several times from the light...so the lamp has helped a lot and she loves to point at it, and give it her own word.  She also loves the lights on the Christmas tree, and thinks they are candles and tries to blow them out.  She is still very cautious about walking, but over the holiday she started to take more than 2 steps...it's around 4 or 5 now, then she will stop, pat her legs, sometimes dances, then kneels down to crawl.  She is getting braver everyday, and she is so proud of her walking.  She is also learning to stand on her own.  Last night she was able to stand by just using the boppy pillow to hold onto.  She also does this really cute thing where she will do a downward facing dog position with her legs and head, then she will take her hands and put them on her ankles, it's quite impressive, and I hope to capture it on video!! She is also now a climber!  But, she is not as cautious about climbing as she is about walking.  She can climb onto the kid's table if the stool is next to it!  She will pretty much try to climb anything she can reach now, so we do have to watch her more carefully!!  Another thing she loves is giving Liam hugs and kisses.  The best time to see it is at night when they are getting tired and loopy and they will just roll around on the floor in the blankets and hug and snuggle, it's the cutest thing!!  I love watching them play and bond, and am very grateful to have had some extra time to spend with them over our break.

comment by mom/grandma on 01/04/2011
They are so cute together, we are glad to have them here again.

Liam is 3!!

So Liam is officially 3 years old now! We decided to have their party early because some family members would be of town during their actual birthdays. Anyway, we had our party at Arete Gymnastics. We had the whole place to ourselves for 1 hour of playtime, and then 30 min. to have our cake and gifts. The kids had a great time playing!  All his cousins were there as well as one one of my friends little boy.   We had a Curious George theme, and we ordered a monkey cake, similar looking to George, but they did not have the kit to make it. So we had to pick a different design at the last minute, and we ended up with Finding Nemo...so we called this theme 'Curious George Goes Scuba Diving'. We put 2 monkey's on the cake, one for Rowan and one for Liam!  Right before we lit the cake I was looking for Mike to make sure he had his camera to take pictures, and while I wasn't looking poor Liam lost his balance on the bench and fell backwards onto the concrete floor! He hit his head pretty good, and I felt so bad. He cried for a bit, but he was OK thankfully. We sang happy birthday to the kids, and enjoyed some cake. We let Liam open his gifts, but we were pretty pressed for time, so we took Rowan's gifts home to open later. All in all I think the party was a great success!

It's kinda funny to think back a year ago when Rowan was just born, and Liam did not want anything to do with her.  And now, he is such a great big brother.  He loves her so much, and loves to play with her.  He hugs and kisses her and is always concerned about how and what she is doing.  There is a little rivalry mixed in there, but overall he just adores his little sister, and we couldn't ask for a better big brother.

He loves being read to, and also 'reading' his books.  He hasn't been the easiest kid to potty train, it's still a work in progress because he can not be easily bribed.  But, he will make an excuse to sit on his potty to read a few of his favorite books...already taking after dad!!  He also is loving to help his grandma and dad cook.  He doesn't cut or use the stove yet, but loves measuring and mixing stuff!  And we have also noticed that he is more likely to try something if he has helped make it.  So we will have to make that more of an activity for him.

He's really been into his cars lately. I got him a car suitcase, and he loves to take them in and out to organize them.  He is really excited for Christmas, and had a great time decorating the tree.  In fact, he insisted on re-decorating it for several days after too!  It's kinda funny, a few months before Christmas, we asked him who Santa was, and he said it was Mom and Dad...not sure if he even knew what he was saying, but we thought that was pretty funny, but really didn't want him telling kids at school that.  Even before we had kids, I had been so conflicted about telling our kids about Santa or not.  I really have a problem making up stories (aka lying), so we kinda just decided to let it happen naturally...hearing it from other people, on TV, at school.  We did not tell him about Santa flying in his sleigh, or coming down the chimney.  We just casually talked about him like we would any other character on TV.  I think it worked out well this year.  He got a little magic of Santa without it being a whole elaborate story.  

Other than potty training, our other trial lately has been bedtime.  We have always left one light on in his bathroom, so it's not completely dark, but now he also insists to have his room light on too.  He has been crying and clinging to us when it's time for us to go.  We are guessing his imagination is getting more intense by the way he talks about monsters and such, so it is probably just a phase. Anyway, we take the good with the bad, and are always grateful to have such a wonderful boy in our family!

Rowan is 1 Year Old!

We just can't believe that a whole year has come and gone, and our little baby is 1 year old already?! She turned 1 on November 26th, and we got her a small cake, and sang her happy birthday.  It was in the evening and she was a little tired, so she cried a bit when we offered her the cake.  I put a little of the frosting on her mouth, and she actually decided she liked it!  Liam helped her open her presents.  She got a Fisher Price talking/singing tea set, an Abby Cadabby 'P is for Princess' DVD, and her first doll.  She is constantly doing new things and surprising us, so I had to hurry and write down all the new things she's doing lately before she goes and changes on us again.  She is still not walking on her own,but she is getting close, and she is climbing on everything!  She loves Liam's Cozy Coupe Car, and she can open the door, climb in, close the door and move it backwards.  She LOVES playing in it, and we think it's her favorite toy right now.  She had her 1 year Dr.s visit on December 3rd. and we were a little surprised given that she is more social than Liam was at this age, that she scored low on a few sections. Although we weren't concerned since they always seem to start doing most of them shortly after we fill it out. And sure enough about a week after she started pointing at things she likes or wants like Cherrios, and lights and trying out words for the items.  She now weighs an even 20 lbs., 33.04 percentile, she is 28.8 inches, 41.29 percentile, and her head is 18.25 inches, 84.62 percentile.  A couple of super cute things she's been doing lately is what we call the claw wave, where she will open and close her thumb and pointer finger, kinda like a lobster claw.  And the other one is clapping when we say 'Yay', or clap when we sing a song with clapping in it. Everyday we just marvel at how wonderful a baby she is, and feel so grateful to have her in our lives.  We love you Rowan!

Rowan: 50 weeks/11.5 months

This is such a bitter sweet moment to write this last update on our little baby before she turns 1 years old on November 26th?!?!  Where has this year gone?!  It doesn't seem that long ago that she was born...Kids really make time more relative.  So here is our update on our cute little girl.  She is still cruising a lot, and standing for a few seconds at times.  She has tried a handful of times to take a step, but she is a very cautious baby, which is quite the opposite of how Liam was.  It is kinda nice to be able to just let her play, and not worry too much about her falling yet.  Plus we have never met a baby that is so interested in playing...we think that is part of the reason she isn't in any hurry to walk.  She has started to say 'What's that?' a lot.  She says 'bye' sometimes, and has started to wave and blow kisses with her hands.  She sometimes will mimic on command too, it's pretty funny.  At night time when she gets loopy with Liam she likes to kneel up on her knees and free fall right onto a pile of blankets and pillows on the floor. She doesn't like to keep her socks on, so I think we will need to get her some shoes, since the first pair of shoes I have for Liam are still too big.  We had a combined birthday party for the kids on November 13th at Arete Gymnastics.  She had a lot of fun in the foam pit with dad!  We are going to get her a smash cake and have a little celebration for her on her actual birthday.  I am happy and sad she's turning one already...I just want to keep her this age forever, but I know that is just impossible!  We love you Rowan!!