Grace 4 Years Old

Grace shows off the new Helmet and Elbow Pads
Originally uploaded by Jenmomma

I'm a little late on this update, but yes, Grace turned 4 years old. She is so amazing and wonderful and challenging and frustrating and beautiful and funny and smart and I can't imagine life without her.

So, what can I say about Grace?

Physically, she's a healthy little girl. We didn't have any trips to the doctor (or stitches!) this year, other than the normal check-ups and her speech therapy. At her 4 year old cleft clinic appointment, she passed all exams with flying colors and they made us an appointment for next December. Her 4 year old regular check-up did bring some tears with an unexpected shot, but otherwise she did that great too. I need to check how tall she is, but she was about average. However, she weighs 50 pounds and was in the 94th percentile for weight. Some of it is what she eats and portion sizes (I'm sure), but she also has a fairly muscular/athletic build and is just really solid. She's wearing a size 10 shoe and size 6 clothes.

Developmental
Grace has been fully potty trained for over a year. She can also take care of most of her personal hygeine. She can wash herself in the bath (we still have to do her hair). She can wash her hands by herself after using the restroom (if we could just get flushing down). She brushes her teeth by herself after we put on the toothpaste (she would do that herself, but uses too much). She can brush her hair, but we usually do that for her. She can completely dress and undress herself including shoes, coat, and recently gloves. Sometimes her fashion choices are questionable, but at this point I only require that we dress for the appropriate season.

Grace can recognize all shapes, letters, and numbers. She practices writing letters and can write her own name (first only) and Eric. Although she recognizes my name. She understands the concept of rhyming and is beginning to understand all the sounds the letters make. I think if we worked at it, she could start reading soon. Her coloring skills have made leaps and bounds and she now almost always colors within the lines.

Grace has an active imagination and I catch her pretending and talking with her dolls, ponies, or bath toys. Bedtime is usually between 8:30 and 9 p.m. We begin the process at 8:00, but bedtime depends on how much we play in the bath or how many stories we read. After her bath, she brushes her teeth, puts on her pj's, brushes her hair, and then we usually read 3 stories and go straight to bed. If there is a special situation (visiting a friends house, other family over, etc.) Grace is allowed to have a "pajama party" which means she can go back downstairs after her bath. She love it!

Socially
Grace is the smartest funniest kid I know. She cracks me up with the things she says. She also is a sponge for vocabulary and uses words that I feel are a bit above her age range. Some of my favorite quotes:
1) While describing a dream she had one night, "Grandpa built a contraption for the bit-bug."
2) While getting ready to read stories, "Wait a minute, I just have to get situated first."
3) When throwing fits, "I am very angry at you!" I would have expected "mad."
4) When working on an "object." "This is very difficult."

Sometimes her intelligence is especially hard to deal with. Discipline is a real issue with us. She constantly talks back. When we tell her not to do something, she will say, "but I was just..." or "no, I need to..." It is as if she feels her opinion is just as valid as ours and deserves to be heard. We are consistent that she gets a time-out every time she talks back, but often, she will continue to tell us how she feels even sitting in time out. Other times we make her mad and will get "I am very angry at you. I am going to my room to think about it." I keep telling myself that someday all this self-confidence and assertiveness will make her a stronger and self-sufficient woman, but it is hard at age 4.

Grace is extremely sweet and loving. Around Thanksgiving she often told me, "I am thankful for my family." She also says things like, "Lukey is the best baby in the whole world." "You are the best mommy in the whole world." "Zeus is the best puppy in the whole world." Etc. Even at her birthday party (and Christmas) she would open a gift and say, "I really wanted this" and hug the package. She also requests kisses and hugs by walking up to you and saying, "Kissy?" or "Huggy?" She requires hugs and kisses and being tucked in every night.

I know I've missed tons of the little tiny quirks, but that's the main gist of it. She's an incredible little girl and I'm so glad that we were blessed with her.

Merry Christmas!

Grace Sets Out Cookies and Chocolate Milk for Santa
Originally uploaded by Jenmomma

We had a good one. Click the picture to go to Flickr and see the rest of the photos from Christmas morning (and Christmas Eve if you go backwards).

Hope everyone out there had a Merry Christmas too.

Crawl

Eric called me at work today to tell me that Luke crawled about 2 feet today. He said it was probably an accident, but a combination of getting his feet planted and subsequently his knees underneath him resulted in him being on all 4's for the first time. He seemed surprised, but decided to move a leg and arm and lunge forward and had his first forward motion.

I still haven't seen it yet, but I am guessing over the next 2 weeks or so he'll start to get the hang of this. I guess I need to go get a gate for the top of the stairs soon.

Luke - 7 1/2 Month Update

Luke
Originally uploaded by Jenmomma

So, I missed the 7-Month update and we're not quite 8 months yet, so I'll do a mid-month one. Grace's 4 year update next.

So, Luke is still completely awesome. As you can see in the picture, he's a little orange, which I've been told is from eating all those carrots, squash and sweet potatos! So here's Luke's milestones:

Physical
- Sitting - Luke is very good at sitting unsupported now. He got this down about a week after he turned 6 months. He will sit for long periods of time when playing and can ride in a grocery cart or sit in a restaurant high chair now. When he's had enough he just leans to the side and topples over.
- We did end up switching to a regular carseat which is nicer than carrying the infant carrier, but now we have to wrestle with a coat.
- He has grown more attached to his teddy and monkey, but really likes about anything soft.
- Luke's favorite game is to take off (and then chew on) his socks. He rarely has socks on in the house for that reason and I always have to put at least one sock back on after any time in the car.
- He will stand if you hold onto him, but doesn't seem to want to bounce or have any desire to pull or hold himself upright.
- Luke still loves playing on the floor and I think anytime will learn to crawl. He trys to army crawl and really stretches to get to things. He pivots and turns really well, just hasn't quite figured out forward motion. But oh he wants to. In fact he's just a bit more cranky because of it.
- His hand/eye coordination is very good. He reaches, picks things up, will transfer from hand to hand, objects if something is taken away, and can even pick up small items now.
- He loves games like peekaboo and loves to be tickled or "eaten."
- He still laughes alot and likes to babble and hear himself make the strangest noises.
- Lately we're getting some angry cries when we take away something or if we aren't fast enough with the food.

Eating
Moving on to food... Over the last 6 weeks we've progressed a lot.
- Nursing is coming to an end. I dropped another pumping session at work to once per day and then a week later dropped that one and just was nursing at night and in the morning. Then I started supplementing at night after nursing. Lately, I've dropped the evening nursing session and this week am starting to skip any morning nursing session if I'm not uncomfortable. I'm guessing we'll be done by the first of the year.
- Formula - Luke has no problems with formula and now has a part of a bottle in the morning after nursing or instead. Two during the day and one in the evening. Usually about 6 ounces at each feeding.
- Cereal - This weekend we started adding cereal after the morning bottle and sometimes if he's still hungry he gets some at lunch time with his fruit.
- Baby Food - We've moved to Stage 2 foods and he eats a fruit at lunch and a veggie or meat and a fruit at dinner.
- He also has started eating "puffs" as an appetizer while I am getting his meals ready and he waits in the highchair.
- We've let Luke try some table foods too. He ate a pancake a couple weeks ago and last weekend ate 1/2 a biscuit. He's also fed himself saltines.
- We've introduced the sippy cup, but he's not great at it yet, but he does try to hold his bottle, so we're getting there.


Sleeping
- Finally, we're sleeping all night. Funny, it corresponded with when I started supplementing with formula after his evening nursing session. I think he just wasn't quite full enough to last all night. He now goes to bed around 7:30 and sleeps until I get him up between 7 and 7:30 on weekdays or around 8:30 on weekends.
- Napping. He normally naps about 30 minutes in the morning and 1 1/2 hours in the afternoon. However, on weekends, I can usually get the afternoon nap to last a bit longer.

That's all I can think of at the moment. He's such a sweet heart and everyone loves him. He's still incredibly social and smilely. Just want to eat him up sometimes :)