There are some new pictures of the kids up on our picture blog (link in the sidebar). Email me if you need an invite.
-Jess
Monday, July 13, 2009
Sunday, July 05, 2009
Here is a very delayed update on the kids, mostly for the baby book, but also for any interested grandparents and friends. :)
Brigid: Brigid and I have started reading chapter books together; we're going back and forth between the Little House books and the Betsy-Tacy books. We both really enjoy it. She's also beginning to really enjoy kids' science books - books that tell you all about penguins maybe, their habitat and life cycle. Or about the inside of the human body - about bones and tendons and muscles. I love watching her learn.
-When we went camping, Brigid had a BLAST with the other kids, especially Becca. They sat in the hammock together for hours, talking, or having Becca read to them both.
-When I watch Brie playing (and she and Sam and Jane and Kate play together for hours every day), it's easy to remember what a cheeful, excitable baby she was. Now, at five, she'll sit still to color or read - but when she's playing, she still bounces. :) She runs from here to there, making up stories, coming up with ideas, acting them out, climbing and jumping, and drawing all of her siblings into her imaginary worlds. Love watching that.
-Brie's always loved climbing, but she's getting better and better at it. The grandparents B. got her a trapeze and rings for her birthday, and you should see that girl turn flips!
-Brie's also learning to communicate her ideas better and better - I love hearing the analogies she comes up with!
-It is a great gift to have Brigid as the oldest, because she is so good with her siblings. She's kind to them, and (usually) when they imitate her, it's good habits that they're imitating. Also, she just sparkles with imagination, and leads the troops merrily through many fantastic games and adventures.
-Brie's starting kindergarten next month, and we'll be homeschooling her. I don't remember if I blogged about this before, but there's no half-day kindergarten in our area, and neither Adam nor I liked the public school option here. (In addition, California has crazy truancy laws. I remember looking into them and thinking, "so if, say, Brie's grandpa came out from Nebraska for the week, I wouldn't be allowed to keep her home to hang out with him? That's crazy!" But true. In CA, you're not allowed to have kids out of school for anything other than medical reasons. Good grief.) There are other reasons we're going this route, but they're too long to get into here. I'm still a little surprised that we're homeschooling, but the more I look into it, the more excited I'm becoming. I think it's going to be a really good thing for our family. And Brigid's very excited about it. I can't help thinking she's going to LOVE reading.
Samuel: Sam gave up his nap a few months ago, when we moved him to the bottom bunk of the smaller bunkbed. But since then, he's taken to sleeping in. Today he slept till 11 a.m.! But it's a good thing, I think. From what I can tell, he does better on the days he gets an hour or two more of sleep. I think he still really needs the extra sleep his afternoon nap gave him, and sleeping in fills that need for him. Sleeping in = cheerful Sam. Very fair trade.
-When we went camping, Sam seemed to really enjoy making sand castles down by the river. And sitting with Cyndi and throwing big rocks into the water.
-Poor kiddo got carsick going both into and out of Kings Canyon. But oh, I wish you could have seen what a trooper he was. As soon as he was done being sick, he was cheerful. And he was helpful in catching it in a bucket (once we learned that he needed one) and keeping a towel on himself so that it would be easier to clean up if it happened again (which it did) and all sorts of things like that. We told him (from a kids' book we're reading these days) "Sam es valiente!" Because he was: so brave. This kiddo may throw fits about little things, but when (kid-sized) emergencies hit, he keeps his head. I hate that he got motion-sick (oh, I remember doing that as a kid!), but it was amazing to see how well he handled it.
-Samuel loves rhymes, and makes up many poems. He seems to have his dad's gift for wordplay.
-Sam's finally potty-training, and though it's slow-going, it's actually going. My new favorite potty-training tip is: wait till they're ready. The difference between how he's responding now, and how he responded five months ago is vast.
-Sam concentrates very hard on what he's doing. (This, btw, is part of why potty-training is slow for him: if he's intent on his play, he doesn't notice that he has to pee.) Sometimes I think he'll make a good academic someday, because he has that combination of intensity and stubbornness and imagination that a good academic needs.
-Sam's also still super-snuggly, and asks frequently to be carried - not so much because he doesn't want to walk, I think, but because he wants the hug. He is such a boy (oh boy) but he is so very sweet.
-Pray for Samuel, when you think of it, that he will come to know and love the Lord Jesus. Sam is full of many very strong parts, and it feels right now like he is trying to grow them all into a whole person. I think he got a bit derailed in that hard year when the twins were born, and he's doing a lot of growing right now to make up for it. Please pray that the Lord blesses him with grace in his growing, and peace in his heart, and that he grows in the knowledge and love of the Lord.
Jane: When Katie fell down yesterday, Jane went and got a stuffed animal, and brought it to her to make her feel better.
-Jane is, I think, a bit of an introvert. I'll often find her sitting by the bookshelf, happily paging through books by herself. She's slightly hyper when around our family, but when she's around strangers, she clams up. I can tell already that she's got her own quirky view of the world, and she'd rather interact with it on her own terms, thank you. And those terms are a funny mix of wildness and reserve. She's very wired and she very much needs her space - except she very much needs her people too. Jane seems always to be dancing on the inside, looking from one thing to another, and sometimes, it seems, just needs a bit of space to take it all in, because she pays attention to EVERYTHING.
-Jane has taken to walking around the house wearing a backpack and boots. It's hilarious. She's this little tiny pixey of a girl, and she's wearing her sibling's Bob backpack, and Brigid's hot pink Crock boots, which are huge on her. She comes to me with the backpack asking, "on? on?", but she puts the boots on herself.
-Jane also puts on every other shoe she can find - but she insists that I remove them for her before she sits down to eat.
-Jane has started - in addition to her comprehensible words - babbling "gollygollygolly" all day long. It's clearly a stand-in for the words she doesn't know, because she'll do things like grab a book and come over and say, "gollygollygollyBOOKgollygolly."
-Jane's first sentence, "Bye-bye, doggie!"
-Jane REALLY does not like loud noises.
Ekaterine: First sentence! "There's Dad!" She and Jane have been saying "there he is" and "there she is" for quite awhile yet, but the sentence has been said as one word, if that makes sense. This was the frist time she purposefully put a couple of words together on her own.
-Kate loves to sing and dance. She's always the first kid to sing along with me if I'm singing and to dance if I put music on. She puts both hands above her head and quick-steps with her feet.
-Kate loves to find circuits to run. Around the pew in church or up the sidewalk steps and down the grass hill and 'round again just outside our condo.
-Kate is grounded. I don't think her world rocks very much, except maybe a bit when she gets hurt. She likes to mimic and make funny frowny-faces, but she always thinks that it's a great joke. Katie is peaceable inside. That might sound dull, but it isn't. She's funny, she's a crazy runner and dancer, but she is also at home with herself, I think.
-another sentence from Kate, after I gave Jane a turn with their water bottle: "No, no, no, no, no! ME bottle! No!"
-Katie bounces when she's happy - she walks with this extra spring every other step. It's so cute.
Twin stuff:
-It's been interesting, as the girls learn to talk, to hear how they learn mostly the same words, but sometimes say them differently. For instance, for "peek-a-boo", Jane says "bee-bo" and Ekaterine says "ba-bay".
-I can tell we're about to hit the "word explosion". They're picking up new words by the day, and it's exciting. Love hearing their thoughts come to life!
-they're learning to run, and to climb stairs holding onto the rails
-They're getting easier to tell apart (I think). It's funny: every once in awhile they'll have what I call "identical days" when for some reason they look even more alike that usual. But it really seems true to me that the older they get, the more their personalities show in their faces.
It's also true that I never realized how much I relied on easy exterior clues (gender, height, hair color) to tell my kids apart until I had Jane and Kate, and had to find other ways to do it. I never would have known what a crutch those outside clues were unless I'd had MZ twins. In some ways, it feels like I'm getting to know Ekaterine and Jane better, sooner, because I can't just know what they look like. I have to know what they feel like inside, how they act, what their hearts are like. In some ways, it's a very cool experience.
Below is a list of the words Kate and Jane know; though I'm pretty sure it's incomplete.
Twin word list:
-Daddy
-Mommy
-Brie
-Sam (this one is tricky for them)
-there he is!
-peek-a-boo
-yummy
-more
-down
-on/off (same word, associated with the light switch)
-water
-smoothie
-no (or, more accurately, nonononono! for Jane)
-"vroom"
-"roar"
-"bark"
-"meow"
-baby
-grandma
-grandpa
-ball
-dolly
-bucket
-Me! (Kate)
-click
-diaper
-hi
-bye
-banana
-night-night
-nice
-shoes
-belly-button
-uh-oh
-down
-Jane ("jay-jay") (Jane)
-Katie ("day-dee")
-all done
-watermelon ("waa-meh") (Kate)
-hat
-balloon (Jane)
-doggie
-kitty
-bottle
-"the end"
-read
-dip
-up
-down
-water ("walawalawala")
-cracker
-cookie
-eyes
-nose
-teeth
-look!
Brigid: Brigid and I have started reading chapter books together; we're going back and forth between the Little House books and the Betsy-Tacy books. We both really enjoy it. She's also beginning to really enjoy kids' science books - books that tell you all about penguins maybe, their habitat and life cycle. Or about the inside of the human body - about bones and tendons and muscles. I love watching her learn.
-When we went camping, Brigid had a BLAST with the other kids, especially Becca. They sat in the hammock together for hours, talking, or having Becca read to them both.
-When I watch Brie playing (and she and Sam and Jane and Kate play together for hours every day), it's easy to remember what a cheeful, excitable baby she was. Now, at five, she'll sit still to color or read - but when she's playing, she still bounces. :) She runs from here to there, making up stories, coming up with ideas, acting them out, climbing and jumping, and drawing all of her siblings into her imaginary worlds. Love watching that.
-Brie's always loved climbing, but she's getting better and better at it. The grandparents B. got her a trapeze and rings for her birthday, and you should see that girl turn flips!
-Brie's also learning to communicate her ideas better and better - I love hearing the analogies she comes up with!
-It is a great gift to have Brigid as the oldest, because she is so good with her siblings. She's kind to them, and (usually) when they imitate her, it's good habits that they're imitating. Also, she just sparkles with imagination, and leads the troops merrily through many fantastic games and adventures.
-Brie's starting kindergarten next month, and we'll be homeschooling her. I don't remember if I blogged about this before, but there's no half-day kindergarten in our area, and neither Adam nor I liked the public school option here. (In addition, California has crazy truancy laws. I remember looking into them and thinking, "so if, say, Brie's grandpa came out from Nebraska for the week, I wouldn't be allowed to keep her home to hang out with him? That's crazy!" But true. In CA, you're not allowed to have kids out of school for anything other than medical reasons. Good grief.) There are other reasons we're going this route, but they're too long to get into here. I'm still a little surprised that we're homeschooling, but the more I look into it, the more excited I'm becoming. I think it's going to be a really good thing for our family. And Brigid's very excited about it. I can't help thinking she's going to LOVE reading.
Samuel: Sam gave up his nap a few months ago, when we moved him to the bottom bunk of the smaller bunkbed. But since then, he's taken to sleeping in. Today he slept till 11 a.m.! But it's a good thing, I think. From what I can tell, he does better on the days he gets an hour or two more of sleep. I think he still really needs the extra sleep his afternoon nap gave him, and sleeping in fills that need for him. Sleeping in = cheerful Sam. Very fair trade.
-When we went camping, Sam seemed to really enjoy making sand castles down by the river. And sitting with Cyndi and throwing big rocks into the water.
-Poor kiddo got carsick going both into and out of Kings Canyon. But oh, I wish you could have seen what a trooper he was. As soon as he was done being sick, he was cheerful. And he was helpful in catching it in a bucket (once we learned that he needed one) and keeping a towel on himself so that it would be easier to clean up if it happened again (which it did) and all sorts of things like that. We told him (from a kids' book we're reading these days) "Sam es valiente!" Because he was: so brave. This kiddo may throw fits about little things, but when (kid-sized) emergencies hit, he keeps his head. I hate that he got motion-sick (oh, I remember doing that as a kid!), but it was amazing to see how well he handled it.
-Samuel loves rhymes, and makes up many poems. He seems to have his dad's gift for wordplay.
-Sam's finally potty-training, and though it's slow-going, it's actually going. My new favorite potty-training tip is: wait till they're ready. The difference between how he's responding now, and how he responded five months ago is vast.
-Sam concentrates very hard on what he's doing. (This, btw, is part of why potty-training is slow for him: if he's intent on his play, he doesn't notice that he has to pee.) Sometimes I think he'll make a good academic someday, because he has that combination of intensity and stubbornness and imagination that a good academic needs.
-Sam's also still super-snuggly, and asks frequently to be carried - not so much because he doesn't want to walk, I think, but because he wants the hug. He is such a boy (oh boy) but he is so very sweet.
-Pray for Samuel, when you think of it, that he will come to know and love the Lord Jesus. Sam is full of many very strong parts, and it feels right now like he is trying to grow them all into a whole person. I think he got a bit derailed in that hard year when the twins were born, and he's doing a lot of growing right now to make up for it. Please pray that the Lord blesses him with grace in his growing, and peace in his heart, and that he grows in the knowledge and love of the Lord.
Jane: When Katie fell down yesterday, Jane went and got a stuffed animal, and brought it to her to make her feel better.
-Jane is, I think, a bit of an introvert. I'll often find her sitting by the bookshelf, happily paging through books by herself. She's slightly hyper when around our family, but when she's around strangers, she clams up. I can tell already that she's got her own quirky view of the world, and she'd rather interact with it on her own terms, thank you. And those terms are a funny mix of wildness and reserve. She's very wired and she very much needs her space - except she very much needs her people too. Jane seems always to be dancing on the inside, looking from one thing to another, and sometimes, it seems, just needs a bit of space to take it all in, because she pays attention to EVERYTHING.
-Jane has taken to walking around the house wearing a backpack and boots. It's hilarious. She's this little tiny pixey of a girl, and she's wearing her sibling's Bob backpack, and Brigid's hot pink Crock boots, which are huge on her. She comes to me with the backpack asking, "on? on?", but she puts the boots on herself.
-Jane also puts on every other shoe she can find - but she insists that I remove them for her before she sits down to eat.
-Jane has started - in addition to her comprehensible words - babbling "gollygollygolly" all day long. It's clearly a stand-in for the words she doesn't know, because she'll do things like grab a book and come over and say, "gollygollygollyBOOKgollygolly."
-Jane's first sentence, "Bye-bye, doggie!"
-Jane REALLY does not like loud noises.
Ekaterine: First sentence! "There's Dad!" She and Jane have been saying "there he is" and "there she is" for quite awhile yet, but the sentence has been said as one word, if that makes sense. This was the frist time she purposefully put a couple of words together on her own.
-Kate loves to sing and dance. She's always the first kid to sing along with me if I'm singing and to dance if I put music on. She puts both hands above her head and quick-steps with her feet.
-Kate loves to find circuits to run. Around the pew in church or up the sidewalk steps and down the grass hill and 'round again just outside our condo.
-Kate is grounded. I don't think her world rocks very much, except maybe a bit when she gets hurt. She likes to mimic and make funny frowny-faces, but she always thinks that it's a great joke. Katie is peaceable inside. That might sound dull, but it isn't. She's funny, she's a crazy runner and dancer, but she is also at home with herself, I think.
-another sentence from Kate, after I gave Jane a turn with their water bottle: "No, no, no, no, no! ME bottle! No!"
-Katie bounces when she's happy - she walks with this extra spring every other step. It's so cute.
Twin stuff:
-It's been interesting, as the girls learn to talk, to hear how they learn mostly the same words, but sometimes say them differently. For instance, for "peek-a-boo", Jane says "bee-bo" and Ekaterine says "ba-bay".
-I can tell we're about to hit the "word explosion". They're picking up new words by the day, and it's exciting. Love hearing their thoughts come to life!
-they're learning to run, and to climb stairs holding onto the rails
-They're getting easier to tell apart (I think). It's funny: every once in awhile they'll have what I call "identical days" when for some reason they look even more alike that usual. But it really seems true to me that the older they get, the more their personalities show in their faces.
It's also true that I never realized how much I relied on easy exterior clues (gender, height, hair color) to tell my kids apart until I had Jane and Kate, and had to find other ways to do it. I never would have known what a crutch those outside clues were unless I'd had MZ twins. In some ways, it feels like I'm getting to know Ekaterine and Jane better, sooner, because I can't just know what they look like. I have to know what they feel like inside, how they act, what their hearts are like. In some ways, it's a very cool experience.
Below is a list of the words Kate and Jane know; though I'm pretty sure it's incomplete.
Twin word list:
-Daddy
-Mommy
-Brie
-Sam (this one is tricky for them)
-there he is!
-peek-a-boo
-yummy
-more
-down
-on/off (same word, associated with the light switch)
-water
-smoothie
-no (or, more accurately, nonononono! for Jane)
-"vroom"
-"roar"
-"bark"
-"meow"
-baby
-grandma
-grandpa
-ball
-dolly
-bucket
-Me! (Kate)
-click
-diaper
-hi
-bye
-banana
-night-night
-nice
-shoes
-belly-button
-uh-oh
-down
-Jane ("jay-jay") (Jane)
-Katie ("day-dee")
-all done
-watermelon ("waa-meh") (Kate)
-hat
-balloon (Jane)
-doggie
-kitty
-bottle
-"the end"
-read
-dip
-up
-down
-water ("walawalawala")
-cracker
-cookie
-eyes
-nose
-teeth
-look!
Friday, May 22, 2009
los squiddos
Sam and Brie are playing a game - I don't know what it's called, but the game before this was called, I am informed, "Piggers and Sleepers" - that involves one of them dancing around singing, "Goo-goo-ga-ga-goo" while the other yells, "BABY, GO BACK TO BED!"
Katie, of course, has climbed up on a chair and is yelling because she doesn't know what to do next.
Jane is wandering about, smiling at everyone.
These days Jane seems to be the one with all the words - like "thank you" - and Kate the one who wants to see how high she can get. Sometimes I find that she's climbed up on the table and into her clip-on chair as soon as she sees me start to make her lunch. Kate makes funny faces - she'll squinch her eyes up and look at you suspiciously, and then burst into laughter when you make the face back at her. Jane likes to shake up all the food on her tray, as if she were head-banging at a rock concert, and then grin at you when you scold her.
Now all four kids are reading a book together.
Now it's over, and Brie has told "John" to go to bed and not sing his "tootle-oo" song again. And Sam is up, singing "tootle-oo." And the babies are still looking at the book.
The living room floor is covered with toys.
Last night, when I was nursing the babies to sleep (have I mentioned they sleep through the night now?), Kate reached up and pulled off my earring. In the dark, I found the back, but not the earring itself. I figured it'd fallen in between the couch cushions. This morning, when I came upstairs to get her out of her crib, she was standing up and holding my earring out to me. I'm not sure but what she kept a hold on it all night long. A little scary but . . . what a smart baby.
This week Brigid made herself a laptop. She glued several pieces of paper together, with a cover (with an apple drawn on it) and a screen and a frame around the screen and a keyboard complete with mousepad. She brings me "long books" to read when her siblings are napping.
Jane and Kate both wave "bye" and "hi" now and are growing out of their 12 mo. clothes.
Sam is potty-training with the old trick of Cheerios in the toliet (he puts out the fires on the "Cheerio boats") but it's still a far-from-done thing.
Brie and Sam have, since Easter, been playing "Jesus rising from the dead" in our bedroom closet, with its helpful sliding doors. Apparently that makes for a great tomb. But I love how awed Sam is by the Resurrection. It's very clear in his mind that Jesus rose from the dead because He was "so strong". I think the resurrection should be that amazing in our minds - it reminds me of "The Dream of the Rood"'s description of Christ as the "young hero" who climbed onto the cross of his own accord.
I am trying very hard to find a way to keep the twins' hair back from their faces while we grow out their bangs - find a way, that is, that doesn't include them pulling the barrettes and pony-tail holders from each other's heads and eating them.
"Goo-goo-ga-ga-ga-loo" is still going strong.
Jane now gives kisses. It's very sweet. My little blue-eyed girl. She will also enthusiastically point out her belly button if you ask her, and is working on eyes and teeth and nose. Kate knows most of those too, I think, but would rather be climbing. Yet Kate is, I think, more confident with strangers, whereas Jane gets quiet in public.
Okay, just confirmed: Kate indeed knows what a nose is, and even can say "nooo--sss."
I am losing track of how many words they know, because they keep learning more. I love hearing them call Adam "Daddy".
They love shoes. The other day, Adam told Jane he was going to get her shoes on, and she went and sat down next to the shoe basket and stuck out both of her feet.
More later, must go save the babies.
love,
Jess
Katie, of course, has climbed up on a chair and is yelling because she doesn't know what to do next.
Jane is wandering about, smiling at everyone.
These days Jane seems to be the one with all the words - like "thank you" - and Kate the one who wants to see how high she can get. Sometimes I find that she's climbed up on the table and into her clip-on chair as soon as she sees me start to make her lunch. Kate makes funny faces - she'll squinch her eyes up and look at you suspiciously, and then burst into laughter when you make the face back at her. Jane likes to shake up all the food on her tray, as if she were head-banging at a rock concert, and then grin at you when you scold her.
Now all four kids are reading a book together.
Now it's over, and Brie has told "John" to go to bed and not sing his "tootle-oo" song again. And Sam is up, singing "tootle-oo." And the babies are still looking at the book.
The living room floor is covered with toys.
Last night, when I was nursing the babies to sleep (have I mentioned they sleep through the night now?), Kate reached up and pulled off my earring. In the dark, I found the back, but not the earring itself. I figured it'd fallen in between the couch cushions. This morning, when I came upstairs to get her out of her crib, she was standing up and holding my earring out to me. I'm not sure but what she kept a hold on it all night long. A little scary but . . . what a smart baby.
This week Brigid made herself a laptop. She glued several pieces of paper together, with a cover (with an apple drawn on it) and a screen and a frame around the screen and a keyboard complete with mousepad. She brings me "long books" to read when her siblings are napping.
Jane and Kate both wave "bye" and "hi" now and are growing out of their 12 mo. clothes.
Sam is potty-training with the old trick of Cheerios in the toliet (he puts out the fires on the "Cheerio boats") but it's still a far-from-done thing.
Brie and Sam have, since Easter, been playing "Jesus rising from the dead" in our bedroom closet, with its helpful sliding doors. Apparently that makes for a great tomb. But I love how awed Sam is by the Resurrection. It's very clear in his mind that Jesus rose from the dead because He was "so strong". I think the resurrection should be that amazing in our minds - it reminds me of "The Dream of the Rood"'s description of Christ as the "young hero" who climbed onto the cross of his own accord.
I am trying very hard to find a way to keep the twins' hair back from their faces while we grow out their bangs - find a way, that is, that doesn't include them pulling the barrettes and pony-tail holders from each other's heads and eating them.
"Goo-goo-ga-ga-ga-loo" is still going strong.
Jane now gives kisses. It's very sweet. My little blue-eyed girl. She will also enthusiastically point out her belly button if you ask her, and is working on eyes and teeth and nose. Kate knows most of those too, I think, but would rather be climbing. Yet Kate is, I think, more confident with strangers, whereas Jane gets quiet in public.
Okay, just confirmed: Kate indeed knows what a nose is, and even can say "nooo--sss."
I am losing track of how many words they know, because they keep learning more. I love hearing them call Adam "Daddy".
They love shoes. The other day, Adam told Jane he was going to get her shoes on, and she went and sat down next to the shoe basket and stuck out both of her feet.
More later, must go save the babies.
love,
Jess
Friday, May 08, 2009
Jane things and Kate things . . . and a Sam thing
First, words they've learned:
-"Mommy" - finally!
-"vroom, vroom!"
-"bye-bye"
-"tickle, tickle!" ("teek, teek!")
-"shoe"
-"grandpa"
-"kitty"
-"belly"
And then things I want to remember about each of them - for the baby book, folks:
Jane stuff:
-"Jane in a box" - Jane has a prediliction for finding small spaces and crawling in them. I find her on top of Brie's picture box, caving in the top and making it a little nest; I find her sitting in the bottom of bookshelf, in a small space between the side of it and the box of earthquake-supply water bottles; I find her in the giant box the toliet paper rolls from the club store came in. Jane and her nests.
-Bear hugs: Jane coming over to me and wrapping her arms around my leg and pressing her cheek against my knee - the closest a very little person can get to a bear hug! And then holding on and walking with me as I walk. So sweet!
-the GROWLING. No, really. Jane is convinced that every animal in creation GROWLS. Dogs? they growl. Cats? They growl. Ladybugs? They growl. And it's this amazing, low, DEEP little growl she has. It makes everyone who hears it crack up, because it's just such an unlikely noise from a tiny little girl.
Ekaterine stuff:
-Kate has had fun learning to spin. It's more running around in circles, turning and turning and making little sing-song noises. Such a happy, cute little habit.
-Kate tickling Adam and saying "teek, teek!"
-Kate the clothing gnome. When we bring down clothes for the kids to change into, Ekaterine delights to pick them up and steal them. She and Brie have fun with this, because Kate will take Brie's clothes, and Brie will snatch them back, and there is much giggling.
-The climbing. Ekaterine is climbing on EVERYTHING. Yes, she's made it on top of the dining room table. Eeek!
-Kate likes to hold out her hand with one finger pointing towards you, and wants you to touch her finger with yours. It makes her laugh and shake her head.
-The frowns. Kate has learned how to glower, brows drawn down. If you glower back, she'll crack up.
And a Sam story:
Adam was helping the kids clean up. He was being very specific, you know, "Sam, pick up that book and put it on the shelf. Okay, I have another special job for you: pick up the balls and put them in the ball tub. Okay. Now I have another job for you . . ."
And after it was all over, Sam ran into the living room, grabbed a favorite picture book and yelled, "Daddy, I have a special job for YOU!" He wanted Adam to read to him. :) (Adam did, of course.)
-"Mommy" - finally!
-"vroom, vroom!"
-"bye-bye"
-"tickle, tickle!" ("teek, teek!")
-"shoe"
-"grandpa"
-"kitty"
-"belly"
And then things I want to remember about each of them - for the baby book, folks:
Jane stuff:
-"Jane in a box" - Jane has a prediliction for finding small spaces and crawling in them. I find her on top of Brie's picture box, caving in the top and making it a little nest; I find her sitting in the bottom of bookshelf, in a small space between the side of it and the box of earthquake-supply water bottles; I find her in the giant box the toliet paper rolls from the club store came in. Jane and her nests.
-Bear hugs: Jane coming over to me and wrapping her arms around my leg and pressing her cheek against my knee - the closest a very little person can get to a bear hug! And then holding on and walking with me as I walk. So sweet!
-the GROWLING. No, really. Jane is convinced that every animal in creation GROWLS. Dogs? they growl. Cats? They growl. Ladybugs? They growl. And it's this amazing, low, DEEP little growl she has. It makes everyone who hears it crack up, because it's just such an unlikely noise from a tiny little girl.
Ekaterine stuff:
-Kate has had fun learning to spin. It's more running around in circles, turning and turning and making little sing-song noises. Such a happy, cute little habit.
-Kate tickling Adam and saying "teek, teek!"
-Kate the clothing gnome. When we bring down clothes for the kids to change into, Ekaterine delights to pick them up and steal them. She and Brie have fun with this, because Kate will take Brie's clothes, and Brie will snatch them back, and there is much giggling.
-The climbing. Ekaterine is climbing on EVERYTHING. Yes, she's made it on top of the dining room table. Eeek!
-Kate likes to hold out her hand with one finger pointing towards you, and wants you to touch her finger with yours. It makes her laugh and shake her head.
-The frowns. Kate has learned how to glower, brows drawn down. If you glower back, she'll crack up.
And a Sam story:
Adam was helping the kids clean up. He was being very specific, you know, "Sam, pick up that book and put it on the shelf. Okay, I have another special job for you: pick up the balls and put them in the ball tub. Okay. Now I have another job for you . . ."
And after it was all over, Sam ran into the living room, grabbed a favorite picture book and yelled, "Daddy, I have a special job for YOU!" He wanted Adam to read to him. :) (Adam did, of course.)
Friday, April 24, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
twinness and nodding off
Jane, as I think I've mentioned before, is much enamored of small spaces, especially various sorts of boxes. Yesterday, she was sitting in a dish tub (not the one we use to wash dishes in), happy as a small, plastic-encased clam, on the kitchen floor. And in trying to get out, she fell, giving herself a fat lip.
We, of course, picked her up, made sure she was okay, and comforted her. She stopped crying, but still wanted to be held, so I sat on the couch with her in my lap, just hanging out and letting her continue to sniff and calm down. I noticed that she had a little bit of blood coming from her nose from the fall too, but not much, and could tell that she was fine. (And she was, btw. You wouldn't even know today that yesterday she fell down.)
The funny part was when Kate decided to come sit on the couch by me and Jane. Kate noticed that Jane had a bloody nose. "Ooh!" she said, pointing at her sister's nose. I tried to convince Kate that the last thing her poor twin needed was to have a finger stuck in her bunged-up nose by another one-year-old. To no avail. "Da!" Kate insists, still pointing at her sister's nose.
And then it got even funnier. "Da!" says Kate, pointing. "Da!" Jane agrees, perking up. "Da!" "Da!" one to another. You could tell, if the conversation had been conducted in English rather than in in Toddler, that it would have gone: "Dude! you have a bloody nose!" "Yeah!" "So cool!" "I know, right?"
It was really, really cute, and especially fun because it was the first time I've really heard them have a conversation with each other. They talk to the older folk in the house all the time, but not to each other. I'd never really believed all that stuff about parallel play in babies till I had twins; but now I know that if you have two kids of the same age together, they really will play NEXT to each other rather than WITH each other. When you have two kids of different ages, it does look like real play because the older one really is playing, and the little one is imitating. Jane and Kate follow each other around the house and play with the same things, but they don't interact with each other like they interact with Brie and sam. So watching this interchange where Kate noticed Jane and talked to her, and Jane talked back, was really fun. Despite poor Jane and her owies. (Again, she really is fine, and was obviously going to be okay even then, or I'm sure I wouldn't have found it quite so cute! And it seemed like Kate's compliments on her wounds cheered her up!)
It's fun to watch them begin to be consciously aware of each other, especially since they have been so clearly unconsciously aware of each other for so very, very long. I think I'm going to enjoy watching them learn to play together.
the other funny thing that happened yesterday is that Samuel fell asleep AT THE TABLE. It was so weird; at first I thought he was pretending, and then I thought something was wrong with him. But no, he was just really tired. I know we've all seen people "nodding off" on film, but seeing it in real life is a little freaky. The drooping head that keeps jerking back up, and then drooping down again. Poor buddy. I carried him over to the couch and he snuggled right up and didn't wake up for an hour and a half. (I admit, I was so weirded out by having him fall asleep at the table that I wanted to have him somewhere where I could keep an eye on him, to make sure he was okay!) It was naptime though, so I guess it makes sense!
All four kids have gone to the dentist this week and, praise God, NO CAVITIES! I am especially grateful for this because Jane and Katie both have brown spots on their teeth and I was so sure that they had tooth decay. But no. They have weak enamel - which apparently could have been caused by some of the medications they had in the NICU - and that weak enamel got stained by the iron vitamin drops they took when they were little. I am so, so, so grateful to God that we don't have to go through dental work at such a young age.
-Jess
We, of course, picked her up, made sure she was okay, and comforted her. She stopped crying, but still wanted to be held, so I sat on the couch with her in my lap, just hanging out and letting her continue to sniff and calm down. I noticed that she had a little bit of blood coming from her nose from the fall too, but not much, and could tell that she was fine. (And she was, btw. You wouldn't even know today that yesterday she fell down.)
The funny part was when Kate decided to come sit on the couch by me and Jane. Kate noticed that Jane had a bloody nose. "Ooh!" she said, pointing at her sister's nose. I tried to convince Kate that the last thing her poor twin needed was to have a finger stuck in her bunged-up nose by another one-year-old. To no avail. "Da!" Kate insists, still pointing at her sister's nose.
And then it got even funnier. "Da!" says Kate, pointing. "Da!" Jane agrees, perking up. "Da!" "Da!" one to another. You could tell, if the conversation had been conducted in English rather than in in Toddler, that it would have gone: "Dude! you have a bloody nose!" "Yeah!" "So cool!" "I know, right?"
It was really, really cute, and especially fun because it was the first time I've really heard them have a conversation with each other. They talk to the older folk in the house all the time, but not to each other. I'd never really believed all that stuff about parallel play in babies till I had twins; but now I know that if you have two kids of the same age together, they really will play NEXT to each other rather than WITH each other. When you have two kids of different ages, it does look like real play because the older one really is playing, and the little one is imitating. Jane and Kate follow each other around the house and play with the same things, but they don't interact with each other like they interact with Brie and sam. So watching this interchange where Kate noticed Jane and talked to her, and Jane talked back, was really fun. Despite poor Jane and her owies. (Again, she really is fine, and was obviously going to be okay even then, or I'm sure I wouldn't have found it quite so cute! And it seemed like Kate's compliments on her wounds cheered her up!)
It's fun to watch them begin to be consciously aware of each other, especially since they have been so clearly unconsciously aware of each other for so very, very long. I think I'm going to enjoy watching them learn to play together.
the other funny thing that happened yesterday is that Samuel fell asleep AT THE TABLE. It was so weird; at first I thought he was pretending, and then I thought something was wrong with him. But no, he was just really tired. I know we've all seen people "nodding off" on film, but seeing it in real life is a little freaky. The drooping head that keeps jerking back up, and then drooping down again. Poor buddy. I carried him over to the couch and he snuggled right up and didn't wake up for an hour and a half. (I admit, I was so weirded out by having him fall asleep at the table that I wanted to have him somewhere where I could keep an eye on him, to make sure he was okay!) It was naptime though, so I guess it makes sense!
All four kids have gone to the dentist this week and, praise God, NO CAVITIES! I am especially grateful for this because Jane and Katie both have brown spots on their teeth and I was so sure that they had tooth decay. But no. They have weak enamel - which apparently could have been caused by some of the medications they had in the NICU - and that weak enamel got stained by the iron vitamin drops they took when they were little. I am so, so, so grateful to God that we don't have to go through dental work at such a young age.
-Jess
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
new pictures on the other blog
There are new pictures of the kids on the photo blog, including Easter pictures. The link is on the sidebar ("All Our Children"), and if you need an invitation (it's invitation-only), just shoot me an email.
-Jess
-Jess
I'm sure most people who read this blog already know, but Adam's paternal grandfather passed away on Good Friday. Adam just got back from the funeral in Texas this afternoon. I'm so glad he got to go, to be with family, to say goodbye, and to hear all the amazing things that were shared about his granddad. Please keep Adam's family, especially his grandmother, in your prayers.
love,
Jessica
love,
Jessica
Friday, March 20, 2009
a baby update
Jane and Kate are walking everywhere now, and only very rarely go back to crawling. They're even starting to do some walking when we go on our mail walks - it's slow, but they get there! And they're especially motivated when Brie and Sam run ahead of them; they want to catch up!
I thought I should make a list of words they have at this age, so I'd remember:
-Brie (ba)
-Sam (ess-ess)
-Daddy (da-da)
-all done (nn-da)
-milkies (en-na)
-yummy (num)
-cracker (ga-ga)
-hi (hi)
-more (mmm)
-ball (ba)
Jane also has an animal noise - but it's the same noise for every animal. And it's a growl. Seriously. "What does a duck say, Jane?" "Grrrr-RAAAAAAAR!" It's adorable. She's such a sweet little pixie-looking thing, but she has this deep, fearsome growl that she delights in making. Especially because every time she does it, it makes us laugh, so then she does it again.
I'm sure I'm probably missing some words up there, but it's a start!
Jane and Kate track really closely together developmentally, but Jane tends to get new words or sounds about 4-5 days ahead of Kate, and Kate tends to get new physical abilities about 4-5 days before Jane. For example, Kate learned to climb up on the couches and then about a week later, Jane learned to do the same thing.
These also, I think, are going to be very patient girls. They get a bit upset about it, but they're really very good at waiting their turn when we're helping them with things that can only be done one at a time, like getting them down from their seat, or feeding them. I think it's going to end up being a strength for them. They have the patience to wait, and the faith to know that they're going to be taken care of, even if it takes a moment. I think some adults don't have that! But these little one year olds do.
These two are also more musical than their older siblings. They respond instantly to music - recorded or sung, and start bouncing up and down (Kate does deep knee bends, which is pretty hilarious) and singing along. They love the songs from "Enchanted" that we play during our clean-up times, and as soon as they hear the opening chords, they start singing, "Aaaaa-aaaa-aaa!" in anticipation of Giselle's voice. So cute!
They also try to help with clean-up. Katie especially likes tossing blocks in the tub and trying to wash the mirrored closet doors along with Sam and Brie (Sam and Brie love washing mirrors - and I made a vinegar-and-water cleaning solution so that they could do it non-toxically).
Jane, I think, is a little bit of a nut. She's very into fishing for reactions, trying new things - like the growling, or like tilting her head to one side - to try to see if she can get you to play along.
Katie, I think, is a bit more studious, more likely to watch what's being done, and then see if she can do it herself.
It's hard to make contrasts though, because they do the same things. It's not so much what they do that makes them different, it's how they do it, and how often, and with what expression on their face. Hard to describe, very easy to see, if that makes sense.
So that's where our littlest ones are at!
(And, at about 24 lbs. each, they're not so little anymore!)
I thought I should make a list of words they have at this age, so I'd remember:
-Brie (ba)
-Sam (ess-ess)
-Daddy (da-da)
-all done (nn-da)
-milkies (en-na)
-yummy (num)
-cracker (ga-ga)
-hi (hi)
-more (mmm)
-ball (ba)
Jane also has an animal noise - but it's the same noise for every animal. And it's a growl. Seriously. "What does a duck say, Jane?" "Grrrr-RAAAAAAAR!" It's adorable. She's such a sweet little pixie-looking thing, but she has this deep, fearsome growl that she delights in making. Especially because every time she does it, it makes us laugh, so then she does it again.
I'm sure I'm probably missing some words up there, but it's a start!
Jane and Kate track really closely together developmentally, but Jane tends to get new words or sounds about 4-5 days ahead of Kate, and Kate tends to get new physical abilities about 4-5 days before Jane. For example, Kate learned to climb up on the couches and then about a week later, Jane learned to do the same thing.
These also, I think, are going to be very patient girls. They get a bit upset about it, but they're really very good at waiting their turn when we're helping them with things that can only be done one at a time, like getting them down from their seat, or feeding them. I think it's going to end up being a strength for them. They have the patience to wait, and the faith to know that they're going to be taken care of, even if it takes a moment. I think some adults don't have that! But these little one year olds do.
These two are also more musical than their older siblings. They respond instantly to music - recorded or sung, and start bouncing up and down (Kate does deep knee bends, which is pretty hilarious) and singing along. They love the songs from "Enchanted" that we play during our clean-up times, and as soon as they hear the opening chords, they start singing, "Aaaaa-aaaa-aaa!" in anticipation of Giselle's voice. So cute!
They also try to help with clean-up. Katie especially likes tossing blocks in the tub and trying to wash the mirrored closet doors along with Sam and Brie (Sam and Brie love washing mirrors - and I made a vinegar-and-water cleaning solution so that they could do it non-toxically).
Jane, I think, is a little bit of a nut. She's very into fishing for reactions, trying new things - like the growling, or like tilting her head to one side - to try to see if she can get you to play along.
Katie, I think, is a bit more studious, more likely to watch what's being done, and then see if she can do it herself.
It's hard to make contrasts though, because they do the same things. It's not so much what they do that makes them different, it's how they do it, and how often, and with what expression on their face. Hard to describe, very easy to see, if that makes sense.
So that's where our littlest ones are at!
(And, at about 24 lbs. each, they're not so little anymore!)
Happy Birthday, Samuel!
A week ago, our Samuel Wisdom turned 3 years old! The next day we had his birthday party, and it was awesome.
I asked Sam beforehand who was coming and he said, "Everyone!" And, in his little world, it was. And even the out-of-state relatives made it by phone - he was tickled to get the phone, and then hear Happy Birthday sung on the answering machine, because the phone calls and messages usually aren't for him. And at his party, he crawled from one person's lap to another, just basking in being loved and having all the attention, I think. It was very sweet.
Our Sam is so sweet. He spends lots of time playing with trucks, both up on the landing (where his matchbox cars are safe from his little sisters) and out on the patio in the sand. And in the dirt of the landscaping when he can do it without getting caught!
He plays pretend with Brigid a lot (a favorite is chasing after her with a sandal yelling, "hey, wait, come back! I don't even know your name!" - pretending to be the Prince from Cinderella, of course) and laughs at Jane and Kate, calling them "little jumpadees" (his own nickname - don't know where it's from). He's learning memory verses easily and can sit down and "read" whole books - he has his favorites memorized.
He's getting tall and has lost his baby pudge in every place except his cheeks, which still bounce when he runs. But other than that he's all legs and arms and (still) square shoulders.
Sam is also snuggley, and is most likely of all our kids to want to just be held - not because he's upset, but just because he likes being physically close to us. It's pretty sweet.
Happy Birthday, dear boy, we love you!
I asked Sam beforehand who was coming and he said, "Everyone!" And, in his little world, it was. And even the out-of-state relatives made it by phone - he was tickled to get the phone, and then hear Happy Birthday sung on the answering machine, because the phone calls and messages usually aren't for him. And at his party, he crawled from one person's lap to another, just basking in being loved and having all the attention, I think. It was very sweet.
Our Sam is so sweet. He spends lots of time playing with trucks, both up on the landing (where his matchbox cars are safe from his little sisters) and out on the patio in the sand. And in the dirt of the landscaping when he can do it without getting caught!
He plays pretend with Brigid a lot (a favorite is chasing after her with a sandal yelling, "hey, wait, come back! I don't even know your name!" - pretending to be the Prince from Cinderella, of course) and laughs at Jane and Kate, calling them "little jumpadees" (his own nickname - don't know where it's from). He's learning memory verses easily and can sit down and "read" whole books - he has his favorites memorized.
He's getting tall and has lost his baby pudge in every place except his cheeks, which still bounce when he runs. But other than that he's all legs and arms and (still) square shoulders.
Sam is also snuggley, and is most likely of all our kids to want to just be held - not because he's upset, but just because he likes being physically close to us. It's pretty sweet.
Happy Birthday, dear boy, we love you!
Friday, March 06, 2009
winter's almost over
And according to our doctor, RSV season is over in our area at the end of March! That means we're just three weeks away from the end of our quarantine! I'm looking forward so much to getting out more with the kids and to going back to our regular service at church and to seeing our friends again!
In other news, Jane and Ekaterine are doing beautifully; they're in the 50th percentile for weight and height and on track developmentally. Yay! Praise God!
-Jess
In other news, Jane and Ekaterine are doing beautifully; they're in the 50th percentile for weight and height and on track developmentally. Yay! Praise God!
-Jess
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
Saturday, February 28, 2009
God be praised!
Great news! Adam's biopsy results came back abnormal!
. . . which really is great news, honest. :) Abnormal is pre-cancerous, NOT cancerous already. The biopsy itself should be sufficient treatment. Of course, this was a second biopsy on the same spot, so it's obviously something to keep praying for . . . his skin sure does want to go the wrong way here, BUT . . . right now, there's no more cancer.
For which we are very, very grateful to our Lord. He is kind to us.
Thank you all for your faithful prayers.
love,
Jess
. . . which really is great news, honest. :) Abnormal is pre-cancerous, NOT cancerous already. The biopsy itself should be sufficient treatment. Of course, this was a second biopsy on the same spot, so it's obviously something to keep praying for . . . his skin sure does want to go the wrong way here, BUT . . . right now, there's no more cancer.
For which we are very, very grateful to our Lord. He is kind to us.
Thank you all for your faithful prayers.
love,
Jess
Monday, February 23, 2009
"quoth" quoth the Brigid
On a recent evening walk:
"'Wait for me!' she screamed, as she ran across the grass."
Yes, Brigid provides narration for her own exclamations.
It's really very cute.
Do you think we read to that girl enough?
:)
-Jess
"'Wait for me!' she screamed, as she ran across the grass."
Yes, Brigid provides narration for her own exclamations.
It's really very cute.
Do you think we read to that girl enough?
:)
-Jess
Saturday, February 21, 2009
around here these days
First, thanks to all of you who let us know you're praying for Adam. We don't have the biopsy results back yet, but he has a nice long line of stitches in his back (as long as my pinkie!). We'll let you know when we get the results.
Yesterday, in between changing the bandaids on it, Sam came up and asked him about his "owie", saying, "What happened, Daddy? Did you get a bonk?" Adam explained about the doctor taking the spots out. And Sam started patting him, almost not touching him, hands just hovering over his arm, being as careful as any little two year old boy could be. And, using his trying-very-hard-to-be-grown-up voice, said, "Oh, Daddy. You're my daddy. You're my special daddy."
Okay, it choked me up.
Yesterday I got sick, and Adam stayed home to take care of me and the kids. I'm so grateful he is able to do that when we need it. I'm feeling better today, but still a little woozy. I'm not sure if it was flu or just a really bad migraine (you know, the "if I'm very, very, very still in a very dark and quiet room I might not throw up" sort of migraine).
I'm working hard on getting the first fifteen pages of my novel ready to enter in a contest (woo!). That's happened because God graciously decided to drop a mentor into my life, and with her encouragement, I'm beginning to see the next steps for me as a writer. It's very exciting, and very exhausting, because finding time to write means getting up early. On the days the twins only wake up to nurse once, that's easy. When it's more than once, it's a lot harder. (We're waiting till the anniversary of their due date to nightwean - I figure if Brie and Sam got a full year of night-waking, so should they. Theirs is just an adjusted full year.)
Because I was sick yesterday, Jane and Kate didn't get to their doctor's apppointment. It's rescheduled, so we'll find out later about the end of RSV season. My guess is we have another month, at least, to go.
Jane and Kate go through periods of looking more and less alike, and right now they look very, very different. It's hard to figure out what it is. Part of it is the shape of their faces: Jane's is much rounder. Part of it is the hair: Kate's is longer and darker. Part of it is size: Kate still has a few pounds on her sister. But a lot of it, I think, is just them.
When Jane knows she's doing something she shouldn't (tipped off by Adam or I coming to investigate with a warning, "Jaaa-aaane . . .") she raspberries with her tongue (to show there's nothing that shouldn't be in her mouth, honest, Mom) and hightails it away, head-down, crawling as fast as she can. It's hilarious.
After a week or so of Katie walking everywhere (I knew she was a real toddler when she started walking to me when she was crying - even when distressed, she walks instead of crawls), Jane's decided this walking thing isn't so bad after all, and is toddling all over the place too.
Both girls are teething their molars . . . droooooool. We're getting more language: Dad, Mom, Brie, cracker, yummy, amen. I'm not sure if they have a sound for Sam, but I might just be having trouble hearing it, since the "s" at the beginning is sure to be something else in baby-speak.
Oh, and "no". They've got that one down pat. Jane even says it when she's doing something she shouldn't. "Nnnnnna-O!" she yells gleefully, as she reaches for the forbidden object, "NNNNNa-O!"
Kate has a cute habit of flopping backwards on everything she can find that's soft enough to flop on. She stands against the couch, throws herself backward on it and griiiiiiins. So cute.
Brigid's doing "crafts" now. The last one she did was a princess. She drew and cut out a face, crown, body, arms and feet, then taped them all together. Pretty cool. She and I are also reading a chapter book together now ("Betsy-Tacy") and I love it! This is something like my ideal image of motherhood: getting to curl up on the couch and share my favorite books with my children. :)
btw, if you see Sam anytime soon, and he looks a little closely-shorn, just know that it wasn't my idea. He discovered that scissors do, indeed, cut hair. What you see now is my attempt to even it out a bit. So sad. He has such lovely thick hair (I think he, out of all the kids, got his hair from my side of the family - why is it always the boys? it's like my brother getting the long eyelashes) and it was at such a cute little-boy length, and now it is very, very short. Oh well. Hair grows.
right. I should got get that second cup of coffee now. love to you all! -Jess
Yesterday, in between changing the bandaids on it, Sam came up and asked him about his "owie", saying, "What happened, Daddy? Did you get a bonk?" Adam explained about the doctor taking the spots out. And Sam started patting him, almost not touching him, hands just hovering over his arm, being as careful as any little two year old boy could be. And, using his trying-very-hard-to-be-grown-up voice, said, "Oh, Daddy. You're my daddy. You're my special daddy."
Okay, it choked me up.
Yesterday I got sick, and Adam stayed home to take care of me and the kids. I'm so grateful he is able to do that when we need it. I'm feeling better today, but still a little woozy. I'm not sure if it was flu or just a really bad migraine (you know, the "if I'm very, very, very still in a very dark and quiet room I might not throw up" sort of migraine).
I'm working hard on getting the first fifteen pages of my novel ready to enter in a contest (woo!). That's happened because God graciously decided to drop a mentor into my life, and with her encouragement, I'm beginning to see the next steps for me as a writer. It's very exciting, and very exhausting, because finding time to write means getting up early. On the days the twins only wake up to nurse once, that's easy. When it's more than once, it's a lot harder. (We're waiting till the anniversary of their due date to nightwean - I figure if Brie and Sam got a full year of night-waking, so should they. Theirs is just an adjusted full year.)
Because I was sick yesterday, Jane and Kate didn't get to their doctor's apppointment. It's rescheduled, so we'll find out later about the end of RSV season. My guess is we have another month, at least, to go.
Jane and Kate go through periods of looking more and less alike, and right now they look very, very different. It's hard to figure out what it is. Part of it is the shape of their faces: Jane's is much rounder. Part of it is the hair: Kate's is longer and darker. Part of it is size: Kate still has a few pounds on her sister. But a lot of it, I think, is just them.
When Jane knows she's doing something she shouldn't (tipped off by Adam or I coming to investigate with a warning, "Jaaa-aaane . . .") she raspberries with her tongue (to show there's nothing that shouldn't be in her mouth, honest, Mom) and hightails it away, head-down, crawling as fast as she can. It's hilarious.
After a week or so of Katie walking everywhere (I knew she was a real toddler when she started walking to me when she was crying - even when distressed, she walks instead of crawls), Jane's decided this walking thing isn't so bad after all, and is toddling all over the place too.
Both girls are teething their molars . . . droooooool. We're getting more language: Dad, Mom, Brie, cracker, yummy, amen. I'm not sure if they have a sound for Sam, but I might just be having trouble hearing it, since the "s" at the beginning is sure to be something else in baby-speak.
Oh, and "no". They've got that one down pat. Jane even says it when she's doing something she shouldn't. "Nnnnnna-O!" she yells gleefully, as she reaches for the forbidden object, "NNNNNa-O!"
Kate has a cute habit of flopping backwards on everything she can find that's soft enough to flop on. She stands against the couch, throws herself backward on it and griiiiiiins. So cute.
Brigid's doing "crafts" now. The last one she did was a princess. She drew and cut out a face, crown, body, arms and feet, then taped them all together. Pretty cool. She and I are also reading a chapter book together now ("Betsy-Tacy") and I love it! This is something like my ideal image of motherhood: getting to curl up on the couch and share my favorite books with my children. :)
btw, if you see Sam anytime soon, and he looks a little closely-shorn, just know that it wasn't my idea. He discovered that scissors do, indeed, cut hair. What you see now is my attempt to even it out a bit. So sad. He has such lovely thick hair (I think he, out of all the kids, got his hair from my side of the family - why is it always the boys? it's like my brother getting the long eyelashes) and it was at such a cute little-boy length, and now it is very, very short. Oh well. Hair grows.
right. I should got get that second cup of coffee now. love to you all! -Jess
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
would you pray for Adam?
He's got a biopsy this afternoon. His latest dermatologist appointment didn't find any evidence of new melanoma (praise God!), but there's a spot on his back that was previously biopsied that has begun to show new pigmentation. When it was previously biopsied it wasn't cancerous, but it was abnormal, so his doctor wants to remove the new spots and test them, just to make sure everything's okay.
Would you please pray that everything is okay? We need this man around here!
thanks and love,
Jess
Would you please pray that everything is okay? We need this man around here!
thanks and love,
Jess
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
birthday girls
I just put up a few of the (many!) cute pictures from the girls' birthday party on Saturday. They're on our picture blog (link on the sidebar). If you need an invitation to view it, just shoot me an email.
Go on, go look and leave me a comment about how cute our kids are. :)
-Jess
Go on, go look and leave me a comment about how cute our kids are. :)
-Jess
Friday, February 06, 2009
toddlers!
So, about a week ago, the girls started walking. They'd taken their first steps weeks ago, but now they're toddling all over! Usually it's five or six steps at a time, but yesterday Ekaterine made it all the way across the living room.
So cute, these little teeter-toddling children, shifting their weight from limb to limb, and grinning as they realize they can do it.
The really cool thing is that if you take their early birth into account, they're walking at ten months. :)
-Jess
So cute, these little teeter-toddling children, shifting their weight from limb to limb, and grinning as they realize they can do it.
The really cool thing is that if you take their early birth into account, they're walking at ten months. :)
-Jess
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
why I am never reading The Little Red Hen to the kids again
Me: Look, Sam, Jane's awake! What shall we do with her?
Sam: Take her to the mill and grind her into flour!
Aaaaaa! :) No, we'll certainly read it again, but oh, how two-year-olds lack a sense of CONTEXT.
Sam, btw, is potty-training. We were going to wait till he was three, but Mom S. has had him peeing in the toliet before baths whenever they do sleepovers over there, and on Sunday he insisted on going potty before climbing in the bath here, and as I watched him, I thought, "look, he can do this. Why am I waiting if he already knows how to do this?" So, we got out the unders, and he's done beautifully for the last two days.
Except for one thing: that number two thing. The boy needs to learn how to POOP in the potty. Pray for us. It was especially not fun yesterday when our water was out (plumbing repairs elsewhere in the complex) and we had one of those accidents. Eee-yuck.
But, for the rest, go boy-o! (I have to say, potty-training with boys is more amusing than potty-training with girls. And for Sam's future dignity, that's all I'm saying about that.)
Brigid is spending most of her days either drawing or climbing the rope swing Adam set up under our stairs. She and I sat and did a 100+ piece puzzle the other afternoon. I am enjoying the late afternoon times when she's the only kid awake; I think she will enjoy school so much when she goes next year, but I will miss her. I'm trying to enjoy the times I have with her now.
Jane is a STINKER. Okay, not wholly. But I always had the feeling she was mischievous, and I'm being proved right. One example? Ever since she discovered that blowing raspberries while eating yogurt provokes a big reaction from me, she's blown raspberries EVERY MORNING when she ses me get ready to feed her yogurt. She's gotten good about not doing it when the yogurt's actually in her mouth (hooray for children who understand "no"), but she still does it beforehand, just to get me to scold her. I do, and she GRINS. It's become a game, and honestly, it's the cutest thing.
She does other similar things, and I pray for her a lot that she will learn self-control as she grows . . . I think, with the Lord's help, she will grow into someone who is winsome and brave and insightful.
Jane also knows how to stand unsupported for ages, and has taken several steps at a go.
Ekaterine is rather laidback. Literally. :) Her new favorite thing to do is to stand with her back to the couch and leeeeeeeean back, arms extended, just lounging - but standing up. Like, "oh, I am so relaxed. Check out how chill I am." And then she smiles at her cute self. She's also very into playing rumble-tumble style with her dad and older siblings, crawling all over them and getting them to roll her around and over them.
Kate has taken a couple of steps - usually toward me or Adam. I think, with God's help, she is going to become a woman who is very affectionate and very grounded.
Sam: Take her to the mill and grind her into flour!
Aaaaaa! :) No, we'll certainly read it again, but oh, how two-year-olds lack a sense of CONTEXT.
Sam, btw, is potty-training. We were going to wait till he was three, but Mom S. has had him peeing in the toliet before baths whenever they do sleepovers over there, and on Sunday he insisted on going potty before climbing in the bath here, and as I watched him, I thought, "look, he can do this. Why am I waiting if he already knows how to do this?" So, we got out the unders, and he's done beautifully for the last two days.
Except for one thing: that number two thing. The boy needs to learn how to POOP in the potty. Pray for us. It was especially not fun yesterday when our water was out (plumbing repairs elsewhere in the complex) and we had one of those accidents. Eee-yuck.
But, for the rest, go boy-o! (I have to say, potty-training with boys is more amusing than potty-training with girls. And for Sam's future dignity, that's all I'm saying about that.)
Brigid is spending most of her days either drawing or climbing the rope swing Adam set up under our stairs. She and I sat and did a 100+ piece puzzle the other afternoon. I am enjoying the late afternoon times when she's the only kid awake; I think she will enjoy school so much when she goes next year, but I will miss her. I'm trying to enjoy the times I have with her now.
Jane is a STINKER. Okay, not wholly. But I always had the feeling she was mischievous, and I'm being proved right. One example? Ever since she discovered that blowing raspberries while eating yogurt provokes a big reaction from me, she's blown raspberries EVERY MORNING when she ses me get ready to feed her yogurt. She's gotten good about not doing it when the yogurt's actually in her mouth (hooray for children who understand "no"), but she still does it beforehand, just to get me to scold her. I do, and she GRINS. It's become a game, and honestly, it's the cutest thing.
She does other similar things, and I pray for her a lot that she will learn self-control as she grows . . . I think, with the Lord's help, she will grow into someone who is winsome and brave and insightful.
Jane also knows how to stand unsupported for ages, and has taken several steps at a go.
Ekaterine is rather laidback. Literally. :) Her new favorite thing to do is to stand with her back to the couch and leeeeeeeean back, arms extended, just lounging - but standing up. Like, "oh, I am so relaxed. Check out how chill I am." And then she smiles at her cute self. She's also very into playing rumble-tumble style with her dad and older siblings, crawling all over them and getting them to roll her around and over them.
Kate has taken a couple of steps - usually toward me or Adam. I think, with God's help, she is going to become a woman who is very affectionate and very grounded.
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
verbal girls
I was talking to my mom yesterday about Jane and Ekaterine, and realized I should update the blog/baby book on their verbal progress.
Man, we have some happy, noisy babies! :)
They are getting more words, which is always so much fun (I love it when my kids learn language - it's a huge step on the road to getting to know them better!).
Jane has a favorite noise, which is a sort of ululating siren sound: "ah-YAH-ah-YAH-ah-YAHHHH!" But she'll change the consonant on the front, depending on what you say to her. When I tell her, "yeah, yeah, Jane!", she'll say, "yah-YAH" and when Brigid sits there and carefully instructs her, "No, no, no, no, no," she'll change to "nyah-NYAH-nyah-NYAH!" Yes, Brigid taught Jane to say "no". Thank you, Brigid.
Kate (and maybe Jane, not sure) has learned to say "Brie", which comes out "Ba-WAH". :D
That added to the "nummy" "more" "mom" and "dad" is a pretty good vocabulary for 11 month olds (today!) who should actually only be about 9 1/2 months old.
They're also doing lots of other interesting things: Kate has learned to waggle her tongue (back and forth, instead of up and down, which I've never seen another baby do - she sticks it out really far and then touches it to one corner of her mouth and then the other, quickly. It's hilarious!), Jane still makes her wookie noise and growls, and Katie (as well as Jane, to a lesser extent) is doing great standing independantly and will often just let go of her prop and stand and play with something with both hands. Kate also loves to stand up, and then raise both hands high up in the air, and then dive towards whoever is nearest. Several times this has resulted in her taking an actual step! Jane (and Kate too, but not as much) cruises all over the place, and super-fast!
So, that's where the twinks are at. I'm sure I'm missing something, but at least I've got some of it down for posterity! ;)
-Jess
Man, we have some happy, noisy babies! :)
They are getting more words, which is always so much fun (I love it when my kids learn language - it's a huge step on the road to getting to know them better!).
Jane has a favorite noise, which is a sort of ululating siren sound: "ah-YAH-ah-YAH-ah-YAHHHH!" But she'll change the consonant on the front, depending on what you say to her. When I tell her, "yeah, yeah, Jane!", she'll say, "yah-YAH" and when Brigid sits there and carefully instructs her, "No, no, no, no, no," she'll change to "nyah-NYAH-nyah-NYAH!" Yes, Brigid taught Jane to say "no". Thank you, Brigid.
Kate (and maybe Jane, not sure) has learned to say "Brie", which comes out "Ba-WAH". :D
That added to the "nummy" "more" "mom" and "dad" is a pretty good vocabulary for 11 month olds (today!) who should actually only be about 9 1/2 months old.
They're also doing lots of other interesting things: Kate has learned to waggle her tongue (back and forth, instead of up and down, which I've never seen another baby do - she sticks it out really far and then touches it to one corner of her mouth and then the other, quickly. It's hilarious!), Jane still makes her wookie noise and growls, and Katie (as well as Jane, to a lesser extent) is doing great standing independantly and will often just let go of her prop and stand and play with something with both hands. Kate also loves to stand up, and then raise both hands high up in the air, and then dive towards whoever is nearest. Several times this has resulted in her taking an actual step! Jane (and Kate too, but not as much) cruises all over the place, and super-fast!
So, that's where the twinks are at. I'm sure I'm missing something, but at least I've got some of it down for posterity! ;)
-Jess
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