We've embarked on another new adventure. The adventure of daycare, also known as school at our house. Today was Raelyn and Max's first day at full-day school. They are attending the same place where Raelyn has gone to Mom's Day Out for the last two years. We love it there, Raelyn loves it, and Max at least recognizes it.
We took a few photos before leaving the house this morning to commemorate the big day.
Raelyn assured us that she was going to take care of Max at "her" school. When we arrived we snapped a few more photos before entering the building.
We showed Max his room and put his bag in his cubby. (Maybe tomorrow I'll get a picture of his cute name tag.) He quickly found some toys that interested him. Then we showed Raelyn her room and put her bag in her cubby. Again, Max found some toys that interested him. ;) Then we took them both to the breakfast room where they sat down together and were offered milk or orange juice and a 1/2 bagel with either peanut butter or cream cheese. Raelyn chose the peanut butter with orange juice and Max chose the cream cheese with milk. Raelyn asked Mark and I for hugs and kisses and noses and then she was ready for us to go. Max followed her lead and seemed totally fine!
I wondered throughout the day when I would get a call that Max was crying hysterically. Would it come when they went to their separate classes? Maybe they would call when he refused to nap? No call. He did just fine without us and in a new environment. We're very proud of both kids!
Raelyn had lots of information to share tonight:
"Max spilled his milk, mommy, when I ate my peanut butter snack."
"I opened my lunchbox by myself AND put my lunch on my plate!!"
"I took a big nappy today."
"I went down a big slide!"
"I love the bikes at school."
"I learn my new friends names tomorrow."
I'm looking forward to many more conversations about the day with these two! I love them so much!!
Today was Raelyn's last day of the "school year." This was her 2nd year in the program at ECC and she went one day a week from 9am to 1pm. She was in the 2's class and her teacher was Miss Ginger. She loved her teachers, her friends, and all of the fun activities! Next week she and Max start the full time program at ECC.
I just realized that we only have one month left of age 1. Max will be 2 in 4 short weeks! This year has gone by so much faster than his first.
His speech has really taken off in the past few months. He tries just about any word that we ask him to repeat and he loves putting two word combinations together. Mostly a name and then a word. For example, "Mom shirt" or "Dad car". He calls me "mom" or "momby" most of the time. Sometimes I still hear a "mama" but lately I've become "momby". He calls Mark "dad" or "daddy" and Raelyn he calls "iss" for sis. A few weeks ago he started calling himself "Ax". It took me a little while to figure out what he was saying but he explained himself by pointing to my arm and saying, "Mom arm" and then to his arm and saying "Ax arm". This morning as I was getting ready for work, he and Mark were hanging out in our bed reading books and talking and he clearly said "Max." We asked him to say Max again and he smiled and said, "Max".
Some of his other favorite words include: read, truck, swirl (squirrel), cat, dog, shoe, berry, sleep, sip, stir, kiss, help and self.
Yes, he's become Mr. Independent and wants to do EVERYTHING "self, self". Climbing and descending stairs? "Self, self!" Taking off socks? "Self, self!" Unwrapping a cheese stick? "Self, self!" He seems to declare he can do just about anything himself and then shortly yells, "Help, help!" He cracks me up!
At some point in the last year and a half most of my closest friends have said, "I need a Kelsey!" To be honest, most of them said it multiple times. I'm sorry to tell you all that there is not another Kelsey in this world (and you can't have ours).
CONGRATULATIONS, Miss Kelsey!! Our favorite college gal graduated from IUPUI Sunday, May 12th. I have no idea how she did it all this semester but she did. She watched our kids 3 to 4 days a week, coached club volleyball, applied for grad school & networked for a GA position (she got it!), and don't forget about classes. She told me her final grades earlier this week and she is a smarty too! (Nothing less than a B+)
THANK YOU, Miss Kelsey!! Thank you for making my transition back to full time work, outside the house a little easier. Thank you for putting my mind at ease knowing Raelyn and Max were in good hands. Thank you for sending me pictures each day of my cute kids. Thank you for planning fun activities and crafts for them. Thank you for being a stickler about saying please and thank you. Thank you for loving them with all your heart.
WE LOVE YOU, Miss Kelsey!! I heard you. I heard you every day tell Raelyn & Max, "I love you." And I hear them loud and clear. Raelyn with words, "I LOVE Miss Kelsey!" Max with his face lighting up when he saw you each morning, with his smile that shouted "I love Miss Kelsey too", and his tears when you drove away Thursday as if you were driving away for the final time.
WE'LL MISS YOU, Miss Kelsey but we'll SEE YOU SOON!! The kids will miss seeing you every day but we're so glad that you're not leaving town.
"Max is my big siser." No. "I Max's big siser!" Yes. "I wuv you, Max."
Raelyn loves her little brother and loves being the big "siser"! It's so neat to hear the things she says to him.
In the morning... "Good morning, Max! How you doing?"
At dinner... "Max, this is so nummy! Num num num. You eat your chicken too."
During one of his fits... "I wuv you, Max. Don't cry. It's otay."
At bedtime... "Nigh nigh, Max." And then she gives him hugs, kisses, and noses.
Yesterday Kelsey texted me two funny conversations Raelyn had with Max. The first was when he was having a fit and threw a package of wipes. "Don't throw your wipes max! That makes me very sad. Don't ever do it again. Please and thank you."
The second was when they were playing in the backyard and heard the neighbor behind us push a wheelbarrow to the fence that splits our yards. Max and Raelyn both got quiet and she whispered "That's Mr. McGregor!"
I need a washing machine that has arms to move the clean laundry into the dryer and that can reload itself with the next dirty load. And a dryer that can fold, press, and hang once the clothes are dry.
How about a self-cleaning bathroom!
Oh, and a dishwasher that can load and unload itself!
There just isn't enough time in a day, or a weekend.
If you could come up with some whacky mom inspired invention, what would it be?
Raelyn has access to my old iPhone to play a few games, use a flash cards app, look at photos, and she recently learned how to take photos.
She loves going around taking photos and it has been fun for me to see our house and things/people she is interested in from her point of view. I've seen several photos of our floor and many that are too blurry to recognize. I laughed when I saw photos of her feet and a close up of her princess microphone.
I thought it would be fun to post some of her "work". It's a little glimpse into the mind of our 3 year old. I can just imagine how she would caption some of these. :)
This morning I baked the most amazing loaf of bread with minimal effort. The hardest part was waiting for it to cool and not immediately cutting slices to eat! We enjoyed the most delicious pb&j sandwiches of my life. A little too dramatic? Well, try it for yourself!
[Recipe here]
In the last few days Raelyn has really taken to watercolor painting. She keeps telling me, "I want to paint, mom."
How can I say no? 15-20 minutes of sitting still and I can load or unload the dishwasher peacefully or help Max with his coloring or pick up toys without a small one throwing more toys down behind me... I think I love painting time too! ;)
Raelyn turned three January 9th. I have no idea why, but if feels like such a huge jump from two to three. Take a look at the pretty birthday girl:
She wanted to wear her "twirly" dress and after I put her hair in pigtails she ran to the mirror and announced, "I feel pretty!" Oh, baby girl, you have no idea. You are a beauty inside and out each and every day! Before the pigtails though, she had some early morning celebrating to do:
And yes, she has this much energy all day long. She is constantly on the go: twirling, spinning, kicking, running, jumping, tumbling, dancing, falling, rolling, you name it with an -ing on the end! I love my high energy girl, even if I am exhausted by 10 am. She is loud and playful and maybe even a bit bossy at times. ;) I'm learning that she has picked up a few things from both of us and is quick to imitate our behaviors. She is smart and has a great memory. She is athletic too. You should see her hold herself up on the rings and bars at gymnastics class. Have you seen her run? Wow, she's fast! And give the girl a ball and she'll kick it across the yard. She'll have her pick of sports when the time comes. As Aunt Jenny says, watch out for Raelyn because she's going to be an Olympian one day! She's independent but also watches me closely to see that I'm paying attention. She says "I do it" but then says "Help you, Mama" (meaning help me) in the next breath. When she's feeling uncomfortable, shy, or scared she comes next to me and says "Hold your hand" or "Hugs". There is a sweetness about her that brings tears to my eyes. She is the best big sister and always makes sure that Max is included and gets his turn. When she sees him in the morning her face lights up as she says with gusto, "Hi Max! How're you doing?" Before every nap time she insists that he sit on her bed for one more book and then gives him hugs, kisses, and noses before saying "Bye Max. Nappy time." These are the moments every mother dreams about. Raelyn's vocabulary is huge! She is still difficult to understand at times but she uses words we didn't know she had picked up. Sometimes simple words still amaze us. The other day she said something about the garbage and we looked at each other like, has she used that word before? Her sentence structure is getting more complicated. She still mixes up pronouns, for example she'll say "Mama, help you please." when she actually means "Mama, help me please." She replaces some sounds for others still as well. Like, she says "mimits" instead of "minutes" (ex: "I just playing a few more mimits.") and "wuv" instead of "love". These pronunciations are endearing to me and I'm not in a big hurry for those to get corrected. ;) She knows all the letters. She recognizes each one and can name them. She especially loves "her" letter: R and Max's letter: M. When she see's an R anywhere she yells, "That's my letter! R for Naenyn!" Raelyn is definitely left handed and has started holding a pencil/crayon/pen the proper way, most of the time. She has begun saying she is writing her name and draws a few lines on the paper. The other day, she scribbled something that turned out to look just like the letter M and announced, "I writing Max's name." She can count almost to 20. Sometimes she makes it all the way. Sometimes she stops at 18. And if you ask her to count too many times in a row then she gets sloppy and starts saying things like, " 1, 2, 5, 12, 20." Perhaps I should teach her to count by 5s? ;) Raelyn is pretty much daytime potty trained. Or she was until about a week ago when she regressed on #2. Not sure what that is about but we're working on it again. She definitely still needs a pullup when sleeping. The girl drinks nonstop all day! Water, milk, "apple juice" (cranberry w/water), repeat, repeat, repeat. She still loves to read and we spend hours each day sitting with our books. She and Max take turns picking out which book to read. Her favorite books right now are stories about bunnies. Every bunny is "Pettah Rabbit". She LOVES Peter Rabbit! I can't wait for the new show on Nick to come out in March. She asks for "Pettah Christmas" everyday still. (Nick had a special Peter Rabbit Christmas cartoon that we dvr'd.) I was recently told that 2.5 - 3.5 is the most trying age. So, here's hoping that we are half way through the "terrible toddler" stage. Will she miraculously wake up one day and begin listening and obeying regularly? ha! I want her to keep most of her spunk and sass, just be a tad more obedient and a better listener. The day after her birthday she had her 3 year well check appointment.
Raelyn's stats:
Weight: 27.75 lbs (19%)
Height: 35.5 inches (12%)
BP: 93/58
HR: 101
Perfectly healthy! That's a report we like to hear. I found a fun birthday questionnaire online and decided to give it a whirl. Surprisingly, she answered almost every question. Some answers I was surprised by and others she answered just how I thought she would. It will be fun to see how her answers change from year to year! (Click the image to enlarge.)
Have I mentioned how much I love our girl? I am so very proud of her and I love every moment I spend with her (yes, even those frustrating moments)! I love watching her grow and just ask her not to grow up too fast. One last sweet story about Raelyn. We have our bedtime routine each night that begins with putting on jammies and ends with hugs, kisses, and noses. One of the last activities is saying prayers and she never lets me forget. As soon as we are done singing she says, "Prayers, mommy." We close our eyes and thank the Lord for our day, ask for good sleepy and a few other things and then I say, "And Raelyn says thank you for..." and she says, "Mommy and Daddy and Max and Naenyn and mommy and daddy." After that I give her a chance to add anything or anyone else and the last few weeks she has started adding her teachers "Miss Debbie and Miss Ginger" and sometimes her friends "Kaiya and Rose" and some nights she throws in other family members "Mama and Papa" (which is quickly becoming Gamma and Gappa) or "Gamma Syba" or "Abee", etc, etc. I guess it all depends on which family members the Lord lays on her heart that night (as well as who we have talked about or seen that day). What I love about her prayers are that they are unprompted. I just give her the opportunity to say thank you and she does the rest. And we end with a hearty "We love you Jesus, AAAAAMEN." Oh, she is sweet! Raelyn, we love you more than all of these words can possibly convey.
Raelyn received a subscription to Highlights magazine for Christmas (thanks Grandma & Grandpa Repko) and she has poured over every page of this issue. On the last page is a recipe for meatballs and she kept asking me if we could make them. Yesterday we pulled out the ingredients, put on our aprons, and got to work! Raelyn was so proud of herself and we had a lot of fun working together in the kitchen.
For the last year Raelyn has been working with Miss Julie. Last year at this time Raelyn spoke about 15 words and either signed or grunted when she wanted/needed something. Today, we said goodbye with tears in our eyes and a list of words and phrases that is too high to count.
Julie shared with me that Raelyn has been her biggest success story to date. It took several months but finally around December we watched Raelyn's speech really take off. She has more confidence with speaking and is willing to try all kinds of new words.
People have asked, "Do you think Raelyn would have made this progress without speech therapy?" My answer, "Maybe, but I'm glad we didn't try to find out." We are so thankful for the one hour, once a week visits from Miss Julie. The play time she and Raelyn shared and the tips and speech "assignments" she gave to me to work on with Raelyn throughout the week.
We are so proud of Raelyn and the progress she has made. SUCCESS!
Raelyn has made two special friends during her time at her mom's day out program. Both girls, Kaiya and Rose, were in her class last year also. Before Raelyn's speech break through I was clueless until the other mom's started telling me how their girls talk about Raelyn all week. Now that Raelyn is talking a ton I understand what they meant. Raelyn is constantly talking about Kaiya and Rose and if one of them misses a Tuesday at school, we have to pray for them all week that "God will take away their yuckies". And several times a week she includes them in her "Thank you God for..." prayers. (LOVE!)
Kaiya is one day younger than Raelyn and her mom was brave enough to have a birthday party playdate with their neighborhood friends and Rose & Raelyn. It was so neat to see Raelyn & Kaiya run around together and hugging each other every spare minute. I'm so glad my little girl is learning how to build friendships at this early age!
It's a new year and for many that means making resolutions and most likely breaking them. Every year I chose a word to hold close to my heart. I generally scribble it on the January 1 square of my planner and then think about it throughout the year. I've chosen the word REFUEL for 2013.
Somewhere along the line in 2012 I began feeling like I just need to get through the day. That's ok sometimes but I was "just getting through the day" day after day and suddenly it was the end of the year. Now I don't want you to get the wrong impression... getting through the day has a negative sound and I'm not saying I experienced bad day after bad day. I'm just saying I began feeling drained. So, as 2013 rolled into town and I began thinking about that January 1 spot that needed a scribble I realized that I needed a refill. I'm hoping that as I hold the word refuel close to my heart this year I am able to take some time for myself each day doing something that fills my tank. It's going to look like: spending more time in God's word, intentional prayer, reading fiction, writing blog posts, journaling, printing photos for our albums, meeting a friend for dinner, offering fuel to other friends who need a fill up, etc. This year, in addition to my word of the year, I've added verses for the year. I've selected verses to pray over Raelyn and Max. I tried to find a verse for each of them that kind of fits them where they are right now. If this works out like I believe it will, I'll chose a verse for them each year and watch them flourish under the word of God. Motivated by this idea I saw online, I traced each of their little hands and then wrote their specific verse on their hand cut out. I've placed them on our refrigerator where we see them all the time.
The verse I'm praying for Raelyn this year is Colossians 3: 20-21. Obviously she is in the midst of toddler stuff: learning to listen, learning to obey, etc. As you see, I also am praying the verse to remind myself not to be too tough on her. I certainly don't want to crush her beautiful spirit!
The verse I'm praying for Max this year is Ephesians 3: 17-19. He's still a baby and I just want him to know how much God loves him. To hear over and over how wide, how long, how high, how deep God's love is for him (for all of us).
For myself I'm praying Philippians 4:6-7. And with my new bracelet I'm reminded constantly to pray and the peace of God will take over my heart and mind.
Here's to a 2013 filled with prayer and refueling!
Max had his 18 month check up a few days before turning 18 months.
Max's stats:
Weight: 23lb 2oz (15%)
Height: 32.75 inches (64%) - although this must be wrong because at his 15 month appointment he was measured at 33 inches
The last month has been a difficult one, sleep-wise, for Max and myself. In mid-November he began waking up anytime between 4:30 and 5:30 am. Every.Single.Day. At first, I was feeling tired but he was still taking a nice afternoon nap so was able to rest during that time. Then, in addition to waking up long before anyone should, he began refusing to nap in his crib. He screamed if I put him in there. I tried rocking him to sleep and then placing him in the crib. As soon as his body hit the mattress he began screaming. I tried letting him cry it out and he screamed until I came to his rescue. (Several days I let him scream over an hour to no avail.) Each day after a failed attempt I just let him lay with me on the couch and he napped soundly. I'll admit that I enjoyed the cuddling time but after 6 weeks I had to put a stop to it. And somewhere during all of this I remember saying, well at least he goes to bed easily at night. Ha! He also began to scream at bedtime. For some reason the cry it out method worked for nighttime sleeping (probably because he was so exhausted). He screamed about 20 minutes one night, 10 the next, and then went back to being easy to put to sleep at night. And then for some unknown reason the morning he turned 18 months he slept until 7:30 am. Praise the Lord! I feared telling anyone in case it was a fluke. A week went by and he was sleeping past 7 am each day. And then on day 14 he woke at 4:30 am. He's been waking consistently at 5:50 am, which beats 4:30 but I miss 7:00. ;) His naps are getting better. The week of Christmas I stopped letting him nap on the couch. I sit and rock him and can usually get him into his crib. I'm calling it the 20:40:20 nap. (20 mins rocking, 40 mins in the crib, 20 mins rocking) It sometimes looks like 20:20:40 and also 20:10:50. You get the idea.
To my friends who have had to listen to me whine and cry about his lack of sleeping via email, text, and phone calls: I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you for listening and praying.
His speech is coming along and he adds more words to his list each week. Here is a list of words he can say (* next to words he says often):
up
ahsh (wash) *
open
dada
mama
dis (this) *
ep (help) *
ot (hot)
sew (snow)
ball
no *
cat *
es (yes)
baa (the sheep sound, as evidenced in the video above)
He also has a list of words he can sign. Again, he signs certain words more regularly than others.
more *
milk *
baby *
love
eat
dog *
fish *
Max loves to read books and can read the same books over and over and over again. He LOVES the "How Do Dinosaurs..." books by Jane Yolen. He asks for these books about a million times a day! (He has "Say Good Night" and "Eat Their Food".) I credit these books for his ability to say "No". Each page has a question and he emphatically answers "Nooo!" (The video below doesn't have picture but you can hear him while I read one of these books.)
His favorite foods are cheese, yogurt, oatmeal, toast with sunflower spread, spaghetti, and fried rice. He will not eat meat but will chew on bacon.
Max is still working on his first set of molars and has 8 other teeth.
He loves to try anything that Raelyn is doing. Their favorite before bed activity is to have a "dance party". Raelyn can spin and spin and spin so now Max has started spinning too. He is so funny because he spins a few times and then tips over.
Oh! He is one of those quiet mischievous types. Max will see something he's not supposed to touch or a drawer he's not supposed to open and he gets really close to it and then looks around to see if anyone is watching. If he catches my eye he just gives me a BIG super cute smile and then goes in for the mischievous act anyway. It's so hard to tell him no when he's just so darn cute!
Max is my little snuggle bug. He loves to be sitting in my or Mark's lap any time of the day. I can't express how much I love having him for my son. I am proud of the little boy he is becoming and pray each night about the man he will be one day. We are so blessed!
