This Past Month - 23 Months and 5.5 months

The past few weeks have been HUGE stepping stones for all three boys.  They have matured so much it boggles my mind.  Instead of writing separate posts for them, I thought I'd combine everything here in one.  The three of them are interacting so much these days, so many things are starting to become 'Gavin, Wyatt and Luke' and not just 'GW' and 'Luke'.  It is amazing watching this process happen between the three of them.

Gavin and Wyatt are learning to share their toys with Luke these days.  We've been explaining to them that Luke is their brother JUST as they are brothers to each other.  That means the love we show each other goes for Luke to.  They have zero problems sharing Luke's toys with him ;)

The boys took off parroting about 2 weeks ago!  They went from speaking words only to parroting phrases and small 3 word sentences at this point.  Gavin parrots everything!  Wyatt is beyond clear when he says certain words.  I LOVE their precious voices.  Gavin's is very soft and Wyatt's is husky and yet clear.  Wyatt doubles each word; lap lap, doggog, lights lights, book book, car car, shoes shoes, etc.  Gavin uses the T sound for Ps, although he can say P just fine.  I knew the boys were listening to everything we say and do, so I watch my words.  But I didn't realize that I needed to watch my breathing also!  Gavin has found it great fun to mimic my sighing when I get frustrated!  Now when I catch myself sighing, I turn it into a song!  What a great way to make Mama see things in a different light!

Because of their new parroting ability, we've had lots of fun with scripture!  The first thing we've been working on is 'God is love'.  I'll randomly say 'God is' and Wyatt quickly says 'love' in the sweetest voice ever!  They have also been repeating parts of their meal and night time prayers!

They continue to be amazing knowing their letters and numbers.  Gavin is always counting.  He often counts to 10 and then says, 'sixteen, eighteen, eighteen, twenty!'  Too cute!  They are great at recognizing visually the letters, numbers, shapes and colors.

They are all about sorting these days!  Wyatt's favorite thing to do is put a different color or shape in the wrong place and giggle and say, 'nooooo'.  Then quickly puts it in the right place and claps!  They sort mostly colors and shapes right now.  We are working on big vs small.  They love their counting bears too!  We use them for of course counting and color sorting and they love to practice words like, 'under', 'on top of', etc.  They love to say when things are 'here' or 'there'.

Gavin says, 'Ready, set, Go!' all the time!  He says 'Yay' and 'Cool' a lot too!  They both also say 'yee-haw' too!

The boys LOVE to dress up and practice dressing themselves.  They put on their hats, mittens and jackets all day every day.  They put on their pants and shirts, socks and shoes.  And let me tell you, Wyatt LOVES socks and shoes!  Wyatt especially is excellent about putting on his own socks, shoes, hats and mittens.  He is getting really good at putting on his pants and taking off his shirt.

Due to a lot less structure and preplanned daily activities since Christmas travel and all these sicknesses the past 2 months, Wyatt has had difficulty controlling his emotions again.  This and the fact that both boys have gone through a mutual testing phase (it's always together), has created a lot of very difficult moments parenting.  Gaining the wisdom to know what is best for each child and knowing how to handle yourself as the parent in each situation is so hard.  I am confident, we will get back on track soon with a little extra effort.

We've had a lot of whining a lot this month too.  Because of that, I've decided to have a place they can go to 'take time for themselves'.  It's a little storage bench behind our dining table.  They can go in there away from things and take as long as they need to whine or what not.  This is the only place they are allowed to whine.  If they start whining I give them the option to stop or go to the bench to take time for themselves.  Often they will go sit on the bench for a few seconds or minutes and them come back happier.  Sometimes it takes a few trips to get the point I mean it when I say we don't walk around whining.  This has been a great alternative to 'time out' which really doesn't work for them.  Giving them 'time for themselves' there or in their rooms with no set 'time' seems to work well with their personalities.  This by no means has eliminated rough moments!  Yes, we still have lots of times when all three boys have melt downs at the same time.  But, I am thankful for this idea God gave me.

Three days ago, we started to potty train Gavin.  He wasn't showing signs of awareness, but he is so intelligent and my main concern was his emotions.  I never wanted him to compare himself with Wyatt in this area, and I felt it was right around the corner.  So, Thursday evening I shared with Jason my thoughts and decided to start the next morning.  He had several accidents by midday the first day, but about 3 or 4 successes too!  That afternoon went even better.  Day 2 was AMAZING, with only 1 accident in the morning and the rest small dribbles if at all.  He tells us when he has to go 'Teetee' and goes when he says he has to.  We've had 'juice parties' the past few days to get them going  A LOT!  They've had great fun!!  We also prepped the bathrooms so the boys can stand and pee if they want to.  Wyatt thinks this is WONDERFUL and only stands to pee know.  He'll walk in the bathroom, pull down his pants, climb the stool and pee standing up all by himself!  He's pretty good at putting on his underwear again too, but I help most of the time right now.  The boys are so proud of themselves and each other!  They are way into 'action figures' right now, so the past two nights they've gotten little Mickey Mouse characters I picked up at the dollar store to celebrate their big days.  I've skipped the whole 'reward' thing every time they go potty due to age and personality.  They are beyond pleased with our dances and high fives every time they pee or poo!

Luke is growing so much this month!  He's outgrowing so many of his outfits in 1 month and gained over 2.5 lbs!  He's eating so well!  Between 6:30 or 7am he eats about 6-8oz.  Takes a nap about 9 or 9:30 for 45min to 2.5 hours.  He eats solids and milk between 10:30 and 11:30.  Another nap about 2 or 2:30 for about 1.5 to 2 hours.  Drinks about 6-8oz of milk again between 3:30 and 4.  Eats solids and drinks milk between 5 and 6 and drinks 2-6oz of milk before bed.  He's eating and loves carrots, sweet potatoes, avocado, acorn squash, bananas, apples and rice and oatmeal cereal.  We are introducing new things every 2-3 days.  He eats great with a spoon and really is a 'clean' eater.

Luke LOVES burp rags.  If he could play with one thing all day, it'd be a burp cloth!  I kid you not, he wants to hold one or my shirt all day long!  He likes his snuggle bears/pups/monkey too, but they don't hold a candle to burp cloths!

He is trying to hold the bottle and spoon these days when eating.  He is working on putting the pacifier in his month (which he is using a tiny bit more) and has done so successfully a few times.  He will suck on his thumb or knuckles too.

Luke has really matured a lot the past few weeks also.  His interaction with us and his brothers grows weekly.  His reaching for specific toys and showing excitement for certain ones, along with his ability to transfer toys from one hand to the other and turn around to observe, etc.  He still LOVES to observe.  He doesn't talk a whole lot, but prefers to WATCH HIS BROTHERS!  He has the sweetest voice though when he starts chatting and blowing bubbles.  I've noticed a lot of new syllables starting the past couple of weeks when he does talk.  He has the best grin too!  Melts my heart into butter just thinking about it!

He has been starting to intentionally rest his head on my chest/shoulders and snuggle in!  Watching his intentional affection is just precious! He loves watching Mama and Luke in the mirror too; something we've done since he was newborn!  

Luke is all about trying to crawl!  He likes his jumparoo, walker and bumbo seat just fine, (still loves his kicking coaster!!!) but he loves the floor!!!  He likes to be on his back for a while if he's on the activity mat.  Otherwise he quickly rolls over on his tummy, watches his brothers, scoots backwards, in circles and launches himself forward.  he is doing so great at learning to maneuver his body, I love watching him try.  He rarely gets frustrated when he can't get something; only starts to fuss when he gets tired.

Every now and then he'll sit up on his own for 20seconds to a minute if he is busy watching his brothers and doesn't notice what he is doing.  Other than that, he likes to lean in to me a lot still when we are on the floor.  He is getting better and better about holding himself up 'tripod style' though!

Luke is 'sleeping through the night'.  He started to do this a couple of days after we got back from El Paso after our Christmas travels, but then our house hold became sick and the congestion and other sickness just won't' go away.  He is still congested poor little guy.  We keep a humidifier going each night still.  He goes to sleep along with Gavin and Wyatt about 8pm each night; sleep but awake.  He will wake up a few times each night and fuss a little bit, but always puts himself back to sleep within 5 minutes.  Sometimes I'll go upstairs and give him a hug and kiss, but most of the time he will put himself back to sleep without being upset.  As I mentioned above, I get the boys out of bed about 6:30 at which he drinks his bottle.  (The boys would be up sooner if they had their way.)

This past week Gavin and Wyatt have actually been sickness free (minus a runny nose).  This has allowed naps to resume to normal; starting at 2pm and lasting 1.5 to 2.5 hours.  Wyatt has had a rough couple of weeks during the night.  He is waking up with bad dreams I am assuming.  The past two night though he has been able to sleep all night without any interruptions.

I got my triple stroller this week and just love it!  It's so great being able to walk miles ago to different parks, or go to the zoo knowing I have a place for each boy to rest at times (although they do love walking most of the time).  They love the parks and are just amazing on all the jungle gym equipment.

With all the sicknesses, Wyatt lost over 2 lbs in just one week.  That is a lot for this age.  I think he is gaining a lot of back though this past week or so.  I know they are going through another growth spurt. Their feet alone grew in one month.  They went from a size 7 to a 9 in 1 month!  Good thing we can save the shoes for Luke!

Gavin is going through a phase where he wants to be held a lot, and all three boys still love to snuggle!

There are a lot more things I want to capture about this time and write about, but I've run out of time.  Hope to write soon!