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!

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.