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!

Liam: 3 yrs (8-11 mo)

The first part of the school year was a little rough at first.  Liam kept saying he didn't want to go, but then when I picked him up, he had a great time.  The kids seem to be less physical this year.  Perhaps it is a matter of maturing a year, but he hasn't complained of kids hitting him as much this year. Although, he did mention one of the boys hit him recently, and I asked him if he told him he didn't like that....he said no.  But then he said he hit him too!!  I wanted to explain to him that it's not nice to hit others because it's not nice to be hit...but then he said that he likes to be hit?!  Silly boy, not sure how to explain that one to him, if he likes it.  Anyway, there is a particular girl in his class that he likes.  And when we met her mom at the Halloween program, she said that her little girl talks about Liam too.  He had his school pictures taken in Sept.  A couple days before he was fighting me getting in his car seat...he grabbed my shirt and pulled it down. I grabbed my shirt back and, accidentally scratched his face right above his lip.  They were able to touch it up for a little extra money.  They did a pretty good job too, although I wish he wasn't doing his goofy smile...Oh well, we still think he's cute!!  He decided he wanted to be a skeleton for Halloween this year.  I was able to find a really cute set of PJ's at Kohl's that had a skeleton print on it. It's nice since after Halloween he can still wear it for bedtime. I took him to the Halloween store, and he found a Skeleton mask.  He only wore it for fun around the house, and for some pictures.  He kept saying, I don't want to wear it because I don't want to scare anyone.  Rowan was pretty scared of it after Dad exclaimed fright when he saw it...she was looking away when he 'screamed', and she jumped and cried...she now thinks the mask is too scary.  

Last month Liam had a bit of a scare when he fell and hit his head at Grandma's house.  His head was bleeding all over, and I rushed him over to the Dr's office. He was super brave, and let them clean it up and examine him. Thankfully it was small enough that he didn't need stitches!!  They would have had to put a staple in it.  That day he actually bumped his head earlier in the day when he pushed his chair out.  That night he told dad that he got a boo-boo here, and a boo-boo there, pointing to them....then he said 'If I get any more boo-boo's we should fire Grandma'.  We thought that was pretty funny, but also were shocked that he even knew what firing someone meant?!  When we were young kids, probably even older than he is now, we thought firing someone meant that you set them on fire.  

Around the start of August Liam announced that he had new friend, and we gathered from his description of her that she was imaginary, and her name is 'Ainey'.  Since then he's added several friends to the menagerie, there is Vic, and Johnson, and some others.  Most of them live in Highland, on the mountain.  He will incorporate what is going on around us to what is going on with them. Like if someone fell down, he would say, Ainey fell down too,she hurt herself and had to go to the hospital. He will also make up total fiction stories about them...Some of the stories are pretty dark and disturbing, and we have no clue how or why he gets so macabre.  We are just hoping it's just a matter of him having a really active imagination, and not anything more than that!!

Well, the last thing I wanted to mention, was that we had the kid's birthday party this last Saturday.  We rented a room at Noah's in Lindon, and a HUGE bounce house.  His cousin's, grandparents, aunts/uncles as well as our friend Landon and his family came to celebrate.  We had sandwiches, and Cake and Ice cream, and great gifts (Thanks Everyone!) And the kids bounced and slid down the slide for 4 hours!!  We can't believe that another year has flown by, and he will be 4 in a couple of weeks?!  We will miss 3, but look forward to year 4 : )  We love you LIAM!

Rowan: 21-22 months

Rowan is 23 months today, and I can't believe that a month from now she will be 2 years old?!  When Liam was this age I was just about to give birth to her too.  Time really does fly, doesn't it?  Rowan has really changed a lot over the past couple of months.  Her language skills continue to amaze us.  She really is starting to be able to express herself by telling us exactly what she does or doesn't want. And she is able to express her feelings too.  It is really adorable when I tell her something, she will reply with 'Yes Mama' or 'OK Mama'.  The communication is becoming a lot more of a 2-way street lately, which makes things a lot easier.  She loves playing with Liam.  Although the toys still continue to be a hot spot between the two.  It seems it doesn't matter what she picks up, Liam wants it.  And if he rips it out of her hands she will let him know with a loud scream that she is NOT happy.  She has gotten a ton better about getting dressed, and will even hug me after I'm done changing her.  She also likes to give kisses too after her hug.  Her hugs are adorable, she tilts her head and rests it on your shoulder, and then she will pat your back with one of her hands.  She has been really good about eating lately too.  And we have also gotten in the habit of giving them a very small portion of ice-cream after dinner a few nights a week.  She now will ask for ice-cream for dinner, and all meals really.  It's funny because when she was a baby, I bought a shirt for her when she turned 2 that reads ''I want chocolate ice cream and cookies (for dinner)'.  And now she does!!  She loves pointing things out to us, one example would be the moon.  She has been very enamoured by the moon lately, and she will point to it whenever she sees it.  It has been in the day sky over the last couple of months, so it was quite often she would point to it, as well as airplanes.  She loves to paint, and play with cars, tools dolls.  She really doesn't have a preference between boy or girl toys really, she just LOVES playing!  Although, this past weekend she really has taken a liking to one of our Halloween dolls which is Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas.  She wants to play with her all the time now.  I had to make Sally a bed with a box and blanket to get her to put her down when we need her too. She quite likes that game.  Rowan loves reading books too.  And we have now added that more regularly to our night time routine.  She was having some sleeping issues lately, and both me and Mike ended up having to stay up with her for the whole night!  It was pretty rough for all of us.  We decided that she was old enough for a firm pillow and blanket in her crib.  We are unsure if that was the issue or not, but so far she has been sleeping much better, and also not protesting bed as much either.  I will lay her on her pillow now, and she asks for her blanket, she smiles really big and then asks for a 'Liam Kiss'.

One more thing I wanted to mention was getting her to stop sucking her thumb. She has started to get little sores on her poor thumb.  Her dentist was pretty adamant about getting her to stop asap.  Her pediatrician,and most the stuff I've read online says we shouldn't worry until she starts to get her adult teeth.  Also most of the advice to get them to stop is for older kids....so I asked the periodontist that did my surgery, and he said the sooner the better.  So, we are going to be more proactive about getting her to stop.  Every time we remind her, she puts her other four fingers in her mouth...the ultimate rebellion!!  But, I do think it's helping, and she will take them out, and we praise her for being a big girl. I'm hopeful that it won't take too long.

I'm always so torn about the kids growing up. On the one hand a lot of things get easier, but on the other hand it's hard to know that they will never be a little baby again.  We just need to savor each age as much as we can because before we know it they will be teenagers, then adults!! 

Comment by mom/grandma on 10/26/2011
You are right about them growing up too fast, just keep enjoying them and keep up the blog, then when they are older you can escape back to the good old days when they were little:)

Liam: 3 yrs (6 & 7 mo)

Well, I've been a slacker this summer with the kids updates...But, I just wanted to write up a quick one before Liam returns to school tomorrow.  I can't believe the summer break is already over!!  I really am not ready for Liam to go back yet. We have had a pretty fun summer, and I'm not looking forward to him coming home sick again. But, I'm hopeful that we were exposed enough last school year, that our immune system is better equipped this year.  

Anyway, our spring/summer started off with raising some butterflies and ladybugs. It was so amazing watching how quickly they grew.  We took the butterflies over to Thanksgiving point to release them. With the second batch, Liam helped one of them out, and he was very gentle with him.  

 

The kids have really enjoyed their swing set and bounce house too this summer. It will be hard to give that up in the winter!  (Although, I do think the bounce house can be set up inside). Liam has enjoyed a couple of visits to the aquarium.  Once with mom and dad...and another time with our friends Julie, Justin and Landon.  He also got to go to the zoo with Rainier.  He enjoyed several visits to Thanksgiving point too.  One where we got to dig for fossils too!! While we were digging, he saw the horse carriage go by, and he decided he wanted a ride too.  So after that, I took him over to the Farm for his first ever ride on the carriage.  He was always too scared before, but it seems our little boy is growing up!  

 

We have worked on his letters, sounds and numbers this summer, although not as much as I would have liked. It seemed that his bedtime kept getting later as the summer went on, and so I tended to skip the flashcards if it was really late. But, I do think he is starting school with a better grasp on everything.  He can write, spell and recognize his name.  He LOVES to color, and has colored stacks of Thomas pictures over the summer.  He knows the names of ALL of the trains too. His obsession with Thomas has been less as of late though, ever since he discovered Phineas and Ferb! He has a crush on Isabella from the show, and wants the kids from the show to come play with him.  He had a total meltdown one night when dad broke the news to him that they did not live in our neighborhood. 

 

A phrase Liam has used lately is 'Do you remember when...'  He also told me one time when I wasn't feeling well, 'Don't worry Mom, when I grow up, I will give you some medicine'.  Sooo cute and sweet.  He is also very concerned with Rowan, and how she is doing.  Although, sometimes he does get jealous, and is not so nice. Perhaps the sibling rivalry is starting to flare up...but I would say, for the most part, he still loves his sister, and even wants another one....named Penny.

 

So that is our summer in a nutshell.  It will be interesting to see what the new school year will bring. We look forward for him to have a new teacher and new friends.  Here is to hoping there aren't any kids to push him, or bite him!!  When we went to meet his new teacher last week, it seemed a bunch of his previous teachers commented on how much he grew over the summer. I guess it's harder for us to notice since we see him every day, but we have noticed that he feels heavier!!  We weighed him on our home scale, and I think it was around 33 lbs, which is up 5 lbs. since his 3 yr. check up last December.  He hasn't grown too much out, so he really must have grown taller!!

Rowan: 19 & 20 months

Rowan has changed a TON since the start of summer!  She is a whole new kid now.  When we started to take her outside in the spring time she clung to me and would scream if we tried to put her on the grass or tried to swing her.  She slowly warmed up to the idea of outside, and now she asks (more like demands) to go outside all the time now.  She was pretty good with the slide, but never wanted to swing until one day about mid-way through summer she asked to swing....now she LOVES it!!  Although about a week ago she discovered she could climb the rope ladder, and now she is more interested in climbing to the top of the clubhouse and hanging out up there...only problem there is we have to be up there too!!  She does not understand edges and falling off yet.  She runs a little now, although thankfully is more cautious than her brother was at this age and mostly walks around.  She loves the bounce house too now, and gets so excited when she hears even the mention of it.  We have to spell it out, or use code words, but then Liam catches on to it and says it out loud, and then the cat is out of the bag, and we HAVE to put it up : )  Same goes for stuff like going for a walk, going outside, bath...all things she loves!!  Speaking of things she loves, she absolutely LOVES Liam.  She says his name all the time now.  She actually says it better than he did at 2.5 ;)  One time as I was picking the kids up at Grandma's house after work, we were waiting for Liam and the sun was right in her eyes, so I backed out of the drive way, and she totally lost it!! She started crying and saying Liam's name.  I think she thought we were leaving without him.  I don't know how soon sibling rivalry starts, but I am loving that they adore each other so much.  She loves babies too.  Whenever she sees a baby on TV or at the store, she smiles and says 'Baby'.  Her twin baby cousins came for a visit in June, and she was so sweet to them.  She kissed and hugged them, and brought them toys.  She was so adorable with them.

 

She is starting to say so many words now!!  She will say 'it's hot' and 'it's cold', although I don't think she quite knows the difference all of the time.  She asks to wear her Elmo shirt...If I pull out a different shirt, she will look at it, realize it's not Elmo, and say 'Whoa'.  It's pretty funny. If it is an Elmo shirt she squeals with happiness.  She says 'Oh dear' all of the time.  She loves watching Elmo, although lately she has been asking for Thomas.  Liam seems to be done with Thomas (for now) and loves watching Phineas and Ferb.  She enjoys the show too, and calls them 'Berb'.  She has said Phineas a couple times though.  And she calls Isabella, 'Bella' and we love how she says 'Parwee' for Perry.

 

It's been a really fun summer watching her change so much!!  It's hard to believe that she is going to be 2 years old in just a few months!!  It is just crazy how time has flown by?!  It just doesn't seem that long ago that I was planning Liam's 2 year birthday party, and was pregnant with her.

Rowan: 18 months

Rowan turned 18 months on May 26th.  She is quickly changing from our baby to a little girl.  I stopped pumping around 17.5 months, and she had her last frozen milk a few days ago.  It was bitter/sweet to stop pumping.  I was sad that I couldn't make any more milk for her, but happy to have my time and body back.  Rowan is starting to get picky about food.  She used to like hard boiled egg whites, cheese, and some other things, and now she doesn't like it.  We were so enjoying the super easy eater, but alas she is now telling us what she does and doesn't like...and not just involving food.  She now tells us what she wants, and if she doesn't get it, she gets a huge tude and/or has a temper tantrum.  Thankfully they are short lived and we usually can distract her with something else.  She has a maniacal laugh sometimes, and she is also talking up a storm.  She adds several words a day to her vocabulary, and I have lost count.  She is talking in 2 and 3 word sentences.  The moon has been in the day sky lately, and she will point and say 'Moon' and 'Sky'.  If she sees the stroller she asks for a 'walk'.  She always asks to 'Go Outside'.  She is starting to drop a nap, so some days she gets 2, and other days just 1.  She has really taken an interest in her foot and toes in the last couple of days, and know the words for each.   She has started to 'play house'.  She takes her Elmo doll and puts it in the high chair and will feed him.  She also will put him to bed.  She LOVES Liam's bed, and knows exactly what it's for.  She likes to lay on the pillow, and put the blankets on top, and she will roll over and say 'Night Night'.  It took Liam about a month to sleep in his bed when we transitioned him to the toddler bed, but when it's time to move her, she will know exactly what to do.  Her hair continues to get more curly as it grows.  She also loves to pose for the camera, she loves the attention, and somehow knows that she's supposed to ham it up when we are taking pictures.  Her personality just gets cuter by the day, and we are so grateful she is part of our family!!

comment by mom/grandma on 06/23/2011
she is such a joy to be around, every day she does something new and cute, today's was a very pointed stink eye at Andie, I almost fell off the sofa laughing:)

Liam: 3 yrs. 5 mo.

Liam has grown up so much over the school year.  I can't believe he graduated this month!!  We were nervous and curious how well he would do at his graduation.   He started out shy like he usually does.  He was sucking on his robe, and wasn't really singing much.  Then after a few minutes, he was the star of the show!  He was right in the front and center and he was singing, and doing the moves with the songs.  What a vast difference from his first program which was for Halloween!  He got separated from the group, and then kept running down the hallway, his teacher kept having to chase him?!  He also did really good with his graduation pictures.  We were kinda nervous about getting them done because lately when we try to get him to smile he does a silly Thomas the train character face.  We were pleasantly surprised at how cute he smiled, and were very relieved!!

 

So many changes over this last month too!!  We got some butterfly larvae, and he has really enjoyed watching the caterpillars grow, and change into butterflies!  We released them at Thanksgiving Point garden, and he chased a few of them down, and we were able to get some really cool pictures of them on the flowers.

 

He has been enjoying his swing set, although it seems he loves to collect Roly Poly's more.  This past month has been pretty rainy, so we haven't had much outside time though.  He loves to do puzzles now, and can do a 24 piece one all by himself.  He wants to dress himself now too, which can be an interesting site at times.  He was sick with a tummy bug a few weeks ago, it was the first time it was coming out both ends.  He was very good about using a bucket, and also using the potty.  We were very glad that we got him potty trained for that one!!  He had a dentist appointment earlier in the month, and he did really well.  He got x-rays of his teeth, and they were able to get all but one set because he kept gagging, oh well.  He thankfully doesn't have any cavities still!!  He also remembered the dead bunny on the drive over, which was 6+ months ago?!  That kid has a great memory when he wants to.  He has been talking in a different language lately.  Usually it happens when he is REALLY tired.  He has been known to talk the whole way home in his own language.  He also will talk in other people's voices.  Mainly in Rowan's voice.  His voice will get high and squeaky, and he will say something like 'I don't want to go to bed'.  or 'I want some food'.  It's pretty funny!  He has also improved on his language, he has started to use the word 'Either'.  And he uses it correctly, like 'I am not feeling good either'.  He also uses the word 'Cute'.  I have been decorating the 2nd floor with decals.  And he will come in and look at them, and say 'Awe Cute'.  He saw me holding a new shirt for myself the other day, and said...'that's cute'.  Or if Rowan is wearing a new shirt he says it too.  He and Rowan absolutely LOVE each other.  Sometimes when she is at my mom's house for the day, and he's at Grandma B's house, he will tell her that he misses Rowan.  They get along pretty well except when it comes to sharing toys : ) 

 

This past weekend, we finally were able to take him to ride on Thomas the Train.  The weather wasn't looking good, but we took a warm coat, and an umbrella just in case.  After about 30 min. of being there the sun came out, and the weather was perfect.  We decided to leave Rowan with Grandma B since it was during her nap time.  Plus we thought it would be fun for Liam to have an outing with Mom and Dad by himself.  He was very excited and had a great time.  After we took a ride, we got a picture in front of Thomas, then we did some of the activities...he did mini golfing for the first time, and we realized that we suck because he's never been before.  He definitely needs some practice with that, but he had fun anyway.  Then we got him a tattoo sticker on his hand.  Then went to the store where he picked out 3 new trains, got both the kids a new T-shirt, and Rowan a hat, and a little Thomas bag to carry everything...They are so spoiled!!  Then we were all ready to head home!