Happy 21 Months Luke!

I missed writing your 20 month post! You turned 20 months old during Focal Point, and we left for Paraguay the next week. With all of that going on, by the time I had time to really write your post, you were almost 21 months, and it was hard to distinguish the months. Sadly, I never even brought my real camera out this month, so cell phone pics will have to do. With all that, here's your 21 month post!

You continue to be a busy, busy little boy. You love to run and play with your siblings (especially Ella). Sometimes you and Troy don't get along well - but I'm hopeful this will change over time. I think most of the time when you don't get along it has more to do with you still being little and not understanding what's going on. And, though you like to play with your siblings, I think I can see some of my personality coming out in you - in that I like to have my down time, and don't have to constantly be surrounded by others. There have been a few times lately when, especially if you are tired, you'll find a spot to sit by yourself.

You say lots and lots of things, and continue to add more Spanish words to your vocabulary. There are times when you come up to us looking very serious and say something (sometimes you say it over and over) that we can't understand. I wonder what is going on in that head of yours! You also continue to love singing and dancing. Some of your favorite songs right now are "Read Your Bible and Pray Everyday," "My God is so Big," and "In the Beginning." You also sing along with "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" that the kids' stuffed frog plays.

Although you are by far our pickiest eater at this age, you've done really well with the food in Paraguay. I was a little worried that you wouldn't eat much here, but it has been quite the opposite. Plus, we can get yogurt at the grocery store and I think you might live on yogurt if we let you. Several mornings you have eaten 4 or 5 containers of yogurt for breakfast! You've continued to do a good job using your utensils, and you even do a good job eating cereal (with milk) with a spoon. You look so BIG when you are eating your cereal.

You've also been showing off how big you are when you play at the playground here at our place in Paraguay. It didn't take you long to become brave enough to climb up the brown ladder, and slide down the slide by yourself. You've also really been enjoying the swings.

For a little while now you've done a good job repeating after us to "say" a prayer. But lately you've also been saying things you think we need to pray for while someone else is praying. You often start hollering "Gigi! Pop-pa!" during the prayer. Sometimes you also point out everyone in the room during the prayer as well which is very precious.

You continue to be quite stubborn and opinionated. You definitely know how to get your point across if you do or, more often, don't like something. This seems to really happen a lot when you are playing with your siblings. You are at a transitional (and tricky) age when it comes to playing with your siblings because you don't understand the concept of sharing, but you are needing to learn about it (not fun for you!).

I wrote about it in our Paraguay update as well, but you took quite a fall this past month from your highchair. You busted your lip, chipped your top two teeth, and your bottom teeth went through the skin right below your bottom lip. It has been about three weeks since you injured yourself, and you are healing really well. I'm actually shocked at how well you've healed to this point.

Luke playing with frog

Luke climbing at playground

Signs you do: more, finished, thank you, hungry, thirsty, please, sleepy, bath

Body parts you can identify: nose, ears, mouth, eyes, tongue, teeth, hair, face, hands, feet, belly (You can also identify many body parts by their Spanish name)

Animal noises you make: cow, duck, dog (I think you can do more, but I didn't take good note. . . .)

Favorite foods: Yogurt, chicken (especially chicken nuggets/strips), nutrigrain bars, donuts, mac and cheese, and foods you get to eat with a fork

Favorite activities/toys: Books, balls, little figurines (like Mickey Mouse), cars, buckle stuffed lion. You love to "put things in things" as well as throwing. You also love to play chase with the other kids. You also enjoy shutting doors and drawers. You also love to play peek-a-boo! You really love singing as well! One of your favorite things to do is to "wrestle" with your dad and siblings.

Words you say: I cannot keep up with the words you say anymore! You say so many things (in English and Spanish)!

Luke @ 19 months
Ella @ 21 months
Troy @ 21 months

Happy 21 Months Troy!

Every month seems to sneak up on me, but I feel like it was just yesterday when you turned 20 months old. In fact, I didn’t even think about you being 21 months old until the very end of your “month day.”

Although you and Ella can definitely get onto each other (particularly when you are laying on her), you really do enjoy each others company. I love when y’all start doing something goofy together and you make each other laugh. You are really funny when you spin around in circles in the living room together or when you chase each other around the kitchen.

You like to read. Particularly when Ella isn’t around (perhaps because it is quieter), I’ll often come upon you sitting by yourself reading. You also love to come sit in the chair with me or your dad and ask us to read a book. You’ll say, “sit, sit!” to ask to sit with us to read as you climb into our laps. Speaking of climbing, you are proficient at climbing onto just about all of our furniture including our couches and the dining room table chairs.

You’ve always been much more of a hands-on kind of child than Ella. You love to actually play with your toys, like your cars, or your animals. I recently remembered to get some puzzles out (that I’d put away because Ella didn’t play with them much anymore) and you enjoyed playing with them too.

You are not an easygoing child, but you really do have a sweet personality.  You love to say, “no . . o o o” in this super sweet voice with a little smile when you really mean “yes.” When I go to get you up out of bed in the morning (or sometimes from nap) you almost always say either “breakfast” or “couse” (for Mickey Mouse). You love to bring your Mickey Mouse with you out of your bed.You constantly jabber and it often sounds like you are telling a whole story at once. You say so much at one time, and often we can only understand one or two words of it. You also speak in clear sentences at times, though, including things like “I want to sit” or “I like it” (although when it comes to telling us you like something you usually just say “like it, like it” over and over). You also finally said your name this month (we’ve been trying to get you to say it for a long time now).  

Signs you do: more, finished, milk, hungry, thank you, please, thirsty, sleepy, bath

Words you say: No way I can even count or name them! You say so many things!

Animal noises you make: chicken, duck, cow, dog, horse (you’ve been loving horses lately), frog

Body parts you identify: nose, eyes, mouth, ears, hair, head, hands, belly, teeth, tongue (you love to point out your teeth and belly)

Favorite foods: You are a pretty good eater, but you can still be pretty finicky at times (although I think it is getter better). Generally your favorites are cheese, peaches, beans, chicken, and crackers.

Favorite activities: walking, running, and tip-toeing to explore everything, especially following Ella or chasing a dog; reading books; watching Mickey Mouse or Finding Nemo or Cars; taking baths; playing with balls (you love to throw any kind of ball); playing outside; playing with toys, especially talking on the phone or putting things over your head or playing with the kitchen stuff; trying get any electronics or drinks you can spot.

Troy @ 20 months

Ella @ 21 months

Tot School: Week 7

-Ella is currently 21 months old-

Check out what we did in Tot School last week!

Do you ever have one of those weeks where you look back and it went by so quickly you don't even feel like the week existed? I had one of those weeks last week. Needless to say, Tot School activities were a bit slacking in our house last week, but that's ok - it is part of life! And, unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures this week either. :(

We did a lot of work on continuing to recognize the letter "A" this week. Ella consistently identifies the letter "A" now and she is so proud when she points it out. One day she brought me a book and pointed out letter "A"s on the pages for probably 15 minutes. It was so cute! I try to take every opportunity to show Ella the letter "A" as we are going about our daily activities. I think it is good for her to learn to recognize the letter "A" in many different situations. 

Ella loves to play with her pegs and pegboard. I tried to work on sorting colors with the pegs, as well as identifying colors, but this week she was mostly concerned with building the longest stick of pegs possible and saying "tall! tall!"

This weekend we had the opportunity to take Ella to her first University of Texas football game - this was quite the learning experience for her! There were so many things to watch and learn about at the game. She had fun clapping along with the crowd, identifying the longhorns that were everywhere, watching the football game, as well as learning about the band.

Tot School: Week 6

-Ella is currently 21 months old-

Check out what we did in Tot School last week!

One of Ella's favorite things to do over the past several months is to put things into containers, take (dump!) them out, and put them back in again. After I saw this particular idea (straws into a container) I knew Ella would love doing this activity and it would be a great time for her to work on her fine motor skills. I was right - she loved it! She played with this all week long!

Ella is still a little bit too young for me to venture into making cookies from scratch with her (I think she'd get bored with the activity before we finished), but my mom had the idea a while back to make cookies using the pre-made cookie dough. The week after Halloween I spotted these pumpkin cookies on clearance, and thought they'd be perfect for us to make.

Ella loved that they had pumpkins on them since we've been doing a lot of stuff with pumpkins lately.

I turned the light on in the oven, and showed her how to watch for the cookies bake.  Of course, she had to have her monkey with her! :)

While the cookies finished baking, Ella wanted to color. Once they had cooled off, she tasted the cookies, and loved them! (See the huge bite she is taking, lol!)

We continued to do a little work on recognizing the letter A. She loves to say "A for Apple" but hadn't really been recognizing the letter A when I asked her about it, until last night. Last night she identified the letter A several times! We'll continue to reinforce the letter A this week.

We also did some coloring activities with turkeys (since Thanksgiving is coming up very soon, yay!). I hope to do something along the lines of this Thanksgiving turkey activity this week.

Tot School: Week 5

-Ella is 21 months old-

Check out what we did in Tot School last week!

This week we continued to work on learning colors; however, most of our play focused on sorting/matching colors rather than actually identifying colors (although we did do a little work on identifying colors). I made a very simple activity for her to work on. I laminated a blue piece of construction paper and a yellow piece of construction paper, as well as a few shapes in blue and yellow. I had her practice sorting the yellow shapes onto the yellow piece of construction paper, and the blue shapes onto the blue piece of construction paper. This task was very easy for her! In fact, not long after she started, she purposefully would place a shape incorrectly, and look to me to see if I noticed. Such a silly girl!

Ella also continues to thoroughly enjoy coloring. She has been asking multiple times a day to get in her seat to color. I printed several coloring sheets from Crayola's website to use. I'll be hunting down some Thanksgiving themed coloring sheets for her to use this coming week.

Ella loves to be outside, and she had so much fun running around grabbing the "marcorns" (aka "acorns"). She loved putting them in her pumpkin. One day we went to the park, and she enjoyed watching a squirrel run around. She also loved going up and down the steps at the park's gazebo (the second picture is taken at the gazebo).

Teaching Ella about God and spiritual things is incredibly important to me, and I hope to be able to share different things we do each week in regards to spiritual Tot School as well. This week we used these creation cards from Apologetic Press.

Happy 21 Months Ella!

Happy 21 Months Ella!

As I always seem to mention in the beginning of these posts, I'm absolutely amazed at how much you have grown and learned in this past month. This is an incredible time in your life - I find it very hard to believe how much you learn each and every day.

Your personality continues to blossom, and you are one of the friendliest little girls with whom I've ever come into contact. When we go to a restaurant or to the store shopping, you look around to see who you can wave to and talk to. Your smile is contagious! 

You are trying to test your limits more and more these days, and you certainly test your parents' patience at times. You have an opinion about what you want, and when you don't always get it, you do sometimes throw a fit. I suppose it is just part of the growing up process, but we really don't like your fits.

Your speech and language continue to grow exponentially. You use two and three word phrases frequently now. You love to give us directions. For instance, if you want your milk. You'll say, "milk!" point to the refrigerator, and then say "right there!" while shaking your head "yes." You also love to identify all your surroundings. For example, we'll be sitting in the living room, and you'll start identifying everything you know from daddy to purse to chair to monkey.

You continue to be a great, sweet big sister. Whenever Troy starts to cry, you immediately say "paci!" and sometimes even make the "shh!" noise that we do to try to calm him. If you notice his blanket or pacifier are sitting out (we aren't using them), you promptly bring them to me (if I'm holding Troy) or place them on top of Troy if he is in his swing or bouncer. You still love to give him kisses, and you love that he rides in the backseat of the car with you. In fact, when we put you in the car before Troy, you often point to his seat and say "Troy, seat!"

Troy's "seats" (aka swing and bouncer) have brought a new game to your life - playing with the buckles. You are absolutely obsessed with snapping the buckles on his swing or bouncer (or your high chair). I never know what configuration I'll find the straps in when I go to put Troy into one of these things.

Words you say: I can't even begin to name the words you say! In fact, now you are saying two- and three-word phrases!

Animal noises you can make: owl, cow, sheep, puppy/dog, horse, bee, cat, frog, turkey

Body parts you identify: head, hair, nose, ears, eyes, tongue, feet, toes, cheeks, belly, belly button, hands, teeth, knees, fingers, legs, arms, shoulders, chin

Favorite foods: peaches, banana, guacamole, tortilla, eggs, broccoli, noodles (especially with meat and red sauce), chicken nuggets, bread (rolls), crackers, cookies (animal cookies), rice


Favorite activities/games: Anything that involves putting things in things (like balls in a bucket), coloring, puzzles, running around the yard, reading books (like Where is baby's mommy?, Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?, Goodnight Moon, That's How Much God Loves You, and The Foot Book)

Ella @ 20 months

Ella @ 19 months

Ella @ 18 months

Ella @ 17 months