May 31 Update

Sofia - 31 months

Potty training - We are en route towards being potty trained in the daytime! Sofia is better at holding it in longer and telling us when she needs to go. The trick for her is if she is wearing a diaper, she will go in it and may not tell us but will hold it if she's in undies. We have been successful with napping without a diaper and today I took her over to a friend's place and she told me when she had to go. I have been lazy and too tired lately to deal with nighttime training so it will be on our 'to do' list in the weeks to come. It's progressing well so baby steps.

Language development - Sofia is picking up on melodies of songs/jiggles and likes to hum/sing with them when she hears it. I love how she sings the cknw jiggle and other radio ads since obvious that's what mom and dad listen to most of the time. Her sentences are getting longer and tots have an amazing memory. We are working with her counting which she can do up to 12 and needs some help to get to 20. Typical phases heard these days: sure mum! five minutes! mui watch ipad/tv/iphone? She hasn't figured out the pronouns yet so has not used 'I' and confused with 'me' and 'you' - she saids, help you instead of help me!

Toddler Attitude/Behavior - Meltdowns galore and they are so draining on us. Their impatience leads quickly to whining and crying simply because they don't understand the concept of 'after'. We have instituted a rule that if there's any (fake)crying/whining then she does not get to play with the ipad. ipads are only for happy girls and boys. Sofia has also recently developed more fear with anything unknown to her. She becomes really cautious and will not try new things. Even the playground is now a territory of fear where she refuses to go on the swing and now even the slide because she went down it awkwardly one time. I don't really know what to do. Our DD can be real sweet towards her little bro at times but at a turn of a dime, she becomes little miss bully and asserts her passive aggressive behavior on N. Little pushes, pokes and tackling him to the ground are just the beginning of many years of sibling squabbles to come.

Nolan - 9 months

Potty time - Nolan is pretty regular at going to the pot 1-2 times/day so we have not had to deal with poopy diapers for a few months now (yay)

Motor and fine skills - He is a fast crawler and can easily pull up to a standing position. His favorite is crawling under table and chairs so we are constantly fishing him out of trouble. Soon, he will be walking...OMG We call him 'Mr. Bear' because of his big cute paw hands. He just recently started waving bye and will give you things in his hand.

Verbal - whoa he's a very chatty baby. Auntie Pam called him a bird when he screams. He loves to scream and when you have both kids copying each other's screams, it makes for a long car ride=P He can make a 'm', 'da' and 'ba' sound.

Sofia had her signature piggy face when she was young. This guy makes the funniest and sweetest smile ever (squinty eyes with mouth wide open)

He has two teeth out. No more toothless grins!

Still waiting for summer to appear so I can show off N's thunder thighs =)

pics from our last aquarium visit (yes it was sunny!)