Matthew

Sorry I haven't posted in almost a month...just feel like I haven't had anything to post, other than the daily routine of life! So here's a little update on the kids, since that's what most people are curious about :) Here are some ramblings about Matthew: Matthew is 3 - that says a lot! He is EXTREMELY extroverted, to the point that it totally exhausts both David and I. I am an extrovert too, but not as much as Matthew. He talks non-stop - really. We think he talks just to hear noise. He can be extremely sweet - and sometimes not so sweet. He loves to read, absolutely loves it. He gets up around 6:30 am (not my choice of awakening time...). He comes out of his room very loud and ready to start the day. There's no easing into the morning. He's ready to go! He often wakes everyone else in the house! He's very eager to learn. He knows his alphabet well and is now really trying to learn letter sounds. We're not doing anything official in the way of homeschooling - just trying to take learning opportunities as we get them. So it's fun to see him try new things. He's often asking how to spell words and tries to sound them out. He loves rhyming words. He's not a big eater, never has been. Bedtime is NOT his favorite part of the day. He enjoys laying down to read with us, often asking us for more books. But once we're done, we have had a hard time keeping him in his room. We're trying to get to the bottom of the issue with this. Maybe it's his extreme need to be with others - he can't handle being alone?? Maybe?? He wants someone to stay with him, he hears a noise, he has a booger, has to go potty - and he has a potty in his room: you name it, he's used it as an excuse. He often comes out at night as well, after we're sleeping. We are working on breaking his habit of screaming for us in the middle of the night. It's just a rough way to be awoken! We have a paper chain, and for each night he makes it without needing us, he gets to take a link off. Every time that happens, he gets something from his treasure box (sticker, etc), and when he gets to the 5th chain, he gets a bigger prize (first time is a basement camp out, second is a car movie car, and third we're still deciding between a few things...stay tuned, maybe we'll eventually get to it!). We've been doing this for about two weeks and we're almost to the first big prize. Slow progress, but at least we're moving in the right direction :) We're open to advice :)

Matthew is loving preschool. We think it has been so great for him. He's making friends and talk about them all the time. I'll post more about that another time :)

Little Helper

Jacob is turning into quite the little helper lately, and it so proud of it! He takes pride in throwing away his diapers (and it always has to be the same trash can in the basement - he will take a diaper that has been changed upstairs, carry it down the stairs, just to throw it away in the bathroom can), feeding the dog, swiffering the floor, filling up sippy cups (he takes them to a sink and stands there until someone comes to fill it up. Tonight at bedtime, he went into Matthew's room, found Matthew's cup, brought it to the kitchen sink to be filled, and took it back to Matthew, all without being asked to!). Here are some pictures of his helpfulness!




Other Jacob updates: He is really enjoying reading books. We have read to Matthew at bedtime ever since he was a little baby. Well, being the second child, we didn't really do that with Jacob - probably just out of exhaustion. We'd get to bedtime and just get him in bed as quickly as we could. Eventually, Jacob figured out that he was missing out - Matthew got to read and he didn't. He, very clearly, let us know his thoughts about it. He would point at his books and squeal, showing us he wanted to read. Eventually we'd ask, "Do you want to read some books?" and we get this little Jacob giggle and grin that he does to show us that we figured out what he was "saying". He is a little bit of a book snob. He strongly prefers Eric Carle books over anything else (author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar). He often pushes other books away until he gets the one he wants.
Jacob is also a very talented eater. He has recently mastered putting food on a fork and eating it, getting soup to his mouth on a spoon, and would like to think he's working on using a big boy cup.
Jacob is definitely not the talker that Matthew is (thank goodness, to be honest :) But he definitely can get his point across, at least to those of us that speak his language. The other day, though, he gave me a big hug and, very clearly, said, "I ya you."
He's a climbing machine - climbs on everything, and, really, does very well. He rarely falls, and when he does, usually doesn't care. He flipped off of Matthew's bed the other day and thought it was funny!
Think that's what he's up to for now...not much exciting to others, but to us, he makes us laugh everyday!