Wednesday, August 29, 2012

17 Months!

Kayla:
  • has gotten really good at eating with a fork.  She's great with with bite sized pieces of her sandwich or with roasted potatoes.
  • loves colouring.  If she finds a pen and paper she'll scribble on it...until I set her up with crayons and paper.  She loves to put a handful of crayons in front of her and use them all to colour.  Unfortunately, she also learned that the wall can be coloured on!  Jon and I were franctically trying to do last minute packing before a camping trip to Alouette with Nicole & Colin when we noticed it was quiet and Kayla wasn't around.  We found her in the hallway with a pencil and scribbles on the wall!
  • brings Matthew a toy or stuffed animal if he's crying while having his diaper/clothes changed
  • loves the sandbox
  • loves eating fruit...favourites right now are plums (ripe or not ripe!) and blueberries
  • loves coffee.  My dad made Kayla her own coffee a couple weeks ago (coffee mixed with hazelnut cream and an ice cube) and she CHUGGED it.  No lie.  Her half-mug full was gone in 30 seconds...and then she was wired.
  • absolutely loves reading books.  She'll sit and pull out all of our books, turns pages, points to things, and talks
  • has tripped and fallen on her knees so many times this month!  She is constantly sporting a "princess" band-aid on her right knee.  Just ask her where her "owie" is and she'll show you.  
  • is learning how to communicate "no" by shaking her head.  She does it 50% of the time.  She mostly does it when you ask her if she wants more to eat or if you ask her if she wants to come out of the swing.
  • loves stacking the small, individual mega blocks into a tower and walking around
  • doesn't struggle as much with being constipated.  I now try to give her 1 tsp of lactulose every two or three days (mixed in with applesauce).  She still doesn't poop near as often as Matthew does, but at least when she does go she's not screaming in pain anymore.  She often will go without us even realizing it!

Matthew:
  • enjoys throwing his crayons on the ground when colouring.  If he continues after a couple warnings, then he's not allowed to colour anymore...and he CRIES.
  • has started his button-pushing phase again
  • loves throwing toys down the stairs, and then whining for me to open the gate
  • loves the sandbox
  • loves eating fruit...favourites right now are plums (ripe or not ripe!) and blueberries
  • loves playing with the ball popper
  • constantly furrows his eyebrows and asks "ah di?'  It sounds like "what's this?"  Candice was so annoyed a couple weeks ago when he wouldn't stop.
  • gave high five to Jason through skype while Jason was in Ontario visiting David & Laura and Remy & Carly.  He didn't even think twice before raising his hand to the computer screen.
  • likes to tip his sippy cup upside down so the contents drip out, and then smears it around
  • whines to communicate what he wants.
  • has started to point to what he wants...except he uses his whole hand and wiggles is fingers at the item.
  • now waves "bye-bye" to the bathwater as it drains (Kayla started a month ago)
  • absolutely hates having his diaper changed.  Most of the time I have to pin him down to prevent him from rolling over.

Our Schedule:
*Matthew and Kayla dropped to one nap on Monday, August 13th.  They made it clear that two naps just was not going to work for them anymore...they constantly giggled and played the entire time they were supposed to be having their afternoon nap, and complained about going to bed at night.

7:30am  Wake Up & Breakfast
8:00am  Bath
9:30am  Snack
11:30am  Lunch
12:00pm  Nap
2:00pm  Wake Up & Snack
5:00pm  Dinner
7:45pm  Bottles
8:00pm  Bedtime

*Thank goodness I started writing this entry shortly after they turned 16 months old...there's no way I would have remembered everything!*

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Matthew's Walking!

Wow!  Does that ever feel good to say!  He's been able to do it for quite a while now...it was just a matter of him choosing to do it on a regular basis.  Yesterday was the day for him to make the switch, apparently.  After a whole day of whining (likely due to a combination of the heat outside/inside and two molars cutting through with the third on the way) and a refusal to eat dinner at my parents' house, I had had enough and packed everything up and took Matthew and Kayla home (Jon was on the island for a friend's wedding).  A dose of Tylenol + his soother + being home seemed to settle Matthew down....and he decided to walk!  He snuck up on me by walking from the living room to the bathroom, and then snuck up on me in the kitchen.  I was shocked each time he appeared!  I'm so used to hearing him come crawling, hands and knees slapping on the ground, that to not hear anything at all and then see him standing there was super exciting!  Today was much of the same, him walking most of the time, so it's official, he's walking!  He needs the occasional reminder when I catch him crawling, to "stand up and walk", and then he does so immediately.

His new-found freedom worries me a little bit.  Already last night on the way to go back to my parents' for some dessert, Kayla headed straight there while Matthew took the scenic route around the garden.  How am I going to control both at once?  It's been so easy for Kayla...walking wherever she pleases while I follow carrying Matthew.  How will she respond when I don't let her have the same freedom?  How do I teach them that they may not go down the driveway to the road?  Oh man, this is a whole new chapter in their (and our) lives!  Two toddlers...let the fun begin!