The Frenches: My 'Little' 'Big Boys' are 20 Months!!

The last time I wrote a dedicated post about Gavin and Wyatt, was their 17 month update; that was 3 months ago! So much has happened since then and they have grown so much in every way! Because of the 3 month gap, I know I am going to miss so much, but here are some of the most important things I want to capture about our amazing oldest boys at this age:

The boys still have the most amazing love for life and continual joy! They show such excitement for new things such as watching hot air balloons in the sky, airplanes/helicopters going by, spiders in the window, etc. They love their Mickey Mouse, Doc McStuffins, Baby Einstein and now Little Einsteins (focusing on music, instruments and art) and letter/phonics DVDs. They also have sat through two whole movies and loved them: Toy Story and Winnie the Pooh. They love watching football with Daddy. It brings me such joy watching them run around the room, squeal, high five and try to give a thumbs up Gig’Em (looks more like Texas Tech Guns Up though, haha).

They are all about sports these days. The past couple of months seem to be a lot of baseball and basket ball; using their tee ball stands inside and out and their new basketball goal we attached to a door upstairs. They are excellent at throwing too.

The boys are all about puzzles these days. They love dinosaurs, blocks, coloring/drawing, play-doh, animals and lots of cars. I love watching them play pretend these days! Downstairs they take care of their Goofy and Donald Duck by rocking them in the baby bouncer or rocker. They take them for rides in the boxes. They show them things out the window and give them kisses and hugs and let them play baseball with them! Gavin’s favorite upstairs is his puppy dog that talks (sings, and names the different body parts like hand, foot, heart, etc). He puts his Puppy in the swing, kisses it, and takes it to bed with him.

Wyatt and Gavin have the sweetest hearts. They love to take care of Luke and give him lots of kisses, hugs and pats. They even give him lots of doctor check ups! Wyatt is especially great at sharing and has to make sure his brother Gavin is well taken care of. He's always bringing him his water or snacks or sharing his toys when Gavin wants something. If he gets something or does something, he makes sure his 'DaInn' gets or does the same thing! They are always grabbing each others hands these days and pulling them along to go do something together. (They also love doing this with friends!) They love playing with friends and get so excited when I say we are going to someone's house or someone is coming over!

Speaking of bed: The boys are in big boy beds now for about 2 weeks! They watched as Daddy took off the front panel of their crib, we put on new sheets and big boy comforters and pillows! (Previously Jason had made a nursery door for us and I took down the curtains and blinds and put up blackout material that removes by using Velcro). They were so thrilled and bouncing and clapping around all morning. Then it was time for a nap. Gavin was thrilled! Wyatt not so much! They cried and played for 1 hour 45 minutes before Wyatt fell asleep in front of the door on the floor and Gavin in the reading nook. That night they went to bed without any fussing and feel right to sleep and slept all night! Every since then they go right to bed and love their big boy beds and room! The past several nights Gavin has been waking up once or twice at night needing a hug, then goes right back to sleep. They wake up about 5 or 5:30 AM now because of the time change, but have been playing together until 6:30 when I go and get them and we start our day together. Every night Jason and I tuck them in; I whisper ‘Tuck Tuck Little Duck” as I give them a kiss and tell them how much I love them (Gavin whispers back and does the same for his puppy ‘Duck Duck’). Then we say our prayer ‘Thank You God as this day ends, for our family and our friends. Taking time to sit and pray, thank You God for this great day!’ The boys love praying and it warms my heart as they lay on their tummy and back with folded hands automatically after I tuck them in! (They also love to pray throughout the day and get so excited when they see others pray too!)

Meal times are not the most fun for Jason and me right now. The boys don’t quite understand why they can’t play at the table. I’m forever telling them we can laugh, have fun, be silly and even sing, but we can NOT ‘bang the fork, pull the placemat off, throw food, play with Mama's food, blow bubbles in their milk’ and they have to ‘SIT DOWN, SIT DOWN, SIT DOWN…’ I know it will sink in some day, but right now meals are a continual teaching process. They continue to eat well some days and not so much others. Overall they are great eaters and not picky (unless they choose to exercise their opinions that day!)

They have been having fun with decorations and had a blast on their first Trick or Treating! They thought it was fun holding their buckets out to people, but found the decorations best part! At one point Wyatt sat down to watch someone’s black bucket with bubbly water and dry ice! He also wanted the balloons someone had in their yard and dropped his candy bucket to watch the airplane and cheer as it flew by! They loved trying candy for the first time. The next two days they cried and kept going to the front door with their buckets asking for their shoes because they wanted to go ‘Deek Deek’ (Trick or Treat)!

They have also been trying to talk a whole lot more. Gavin especially is becoming a parrot with so many words! We are so excited to communicate with them and hear what they are thinking!

Not sure if I mentioned this in my previous post, but Wyatt had to go to the ER because Gavin shut the front door on his finger. It was bleeding real bad and I thought it could have cut deep to the bone. No broken fingers and the doctor glued the skin together. Our pediatrician said she would have preferred to stitch it, but it healed great regardless. It looks like a burn wound now.

Wyatt is still ‘potty trained’ the same as a month ago. He has a few accidents at home, mainly when he is side tracked. The biggest problem for him is that he says he has to go, but then doesn’t once on the potty. We can do this 2-4 times before he goes some times and then sometimes it is an accident. I guess he is still learning how to control when and when not to go. He went through a couple of weeks of not wanting to poo on the potty, but is getting much better at this if he has to go when awake. If it happens to be at nap time though, he’ll go in his diaper which we put on at naps and night. There has only been one morning he woke up completely dry. He didn’t go potty when he woke up, but after breakfast said he had to go and then peed a bunch! Gavin shows increasing signs of getting ready to potty train, but still not yet. He doesn’t like the diapers and wants to sit on the potty more and more. Wyatt is often taking off his pants and running around the house naked if we can’t stop him in time; especially after dinner before bath. He’s also unzipping his one piece pjs, so it’s just a matter of time before he completely takes them off at night… I sure hope not though!

The boys have learned to jump and think it’s so fun! They also dance better and better as they learn to move in new ways! Wyatt especially is particularly fond of dancing! Wyatt is my dance buddy in the car; I love watching him bebop his head and arms and legs with me as we drive along. Gavin is my singing buddy in the car (and home); it just warms my heart listing to his melodies as we drive along or as he runs around the house! They love to sing too (especially Gavin still who loves to grab the microphone and sing ‘Lalalalalal’ really loud and so sweet sounding!!)!

Their letter and sound recognition is amazing and growing each day! I can ask them to get me a certain letter and they come running with it. Or they will come bring me a random letter and tell me the sound it makes. Or I’ll ask what sound a letter makes and they say it. They don’t do this with all letters, but a lot and it is growing every week! They also recognize the color red, blue and yellow the best and sometimes green. They are also great at recognizing their shapes. They love circles and Gavin draws a great one these days!

One of our favorite games these days has 2 variations and is getting a third as they learn to talk more. They love to point to things and we'll say the word. This will go on for a long time and we'll repeat the cycle they create over and over! Then I'll change it up and we'll ask them where certain things are (making sure to give them challenges) and they point to them or find them. They LOVE this! I'm now starting to point to things and ask them what it is. Slowly they are able to say some of the words on their own!

They also love doing this as we read books which they still love to do! Their two favorite books these days are a lift and flap zoo book where we play the above game with (making sure to include all the animal sounds!) and 'Designed by God, so I must be special' book (playing the same game as well!).

They love to pretend to cook and eat and feed us things they ‘make’ in their kitchen.

The boys still love to snuggle and give kisses and hugs. They have the best laughs and giggles and have developed a new cute ‘chuckle’/hearty 'hahaha' when watching or doing something funny!

I know I am missing a lot, but I will try to capture things better in the upcoming months when life gets a little more routine.