Rebecca is working through the ABeka Nursery curriculum, because I really wanted to be able to keep her busy without having to think too hard (and not having a printer or easily accessible computer meant I needed something in hard copy). She's done about 7 weeks worth of materials now, and generally thoroughly enjoys herself. Of course, that's 7 weeks in the course of 3 months, so we're really taking it much slower than you're "supposed" to, but that's okay. :) The point is to have fun! She is definitely a challenge many days however, so sometimes "school" lasts a whopping two minutes before she stops cooperating and therefore gets sent on her way! We just pick up where we left off the next time/day we attempt school in those cases. There are times she wants to do two or three days worth of school in one day as well. If she's cooperative usually we spend no more than 10 minutes on school time in a day, so I think that's good. Anyway, she has learned about the letters A-E, her colours, shapes, about her body, and a number of things beginning with the various letters she's learned about, and we see her demonstrating her knowledge regularly. It also keeps her brain engaged, which means she's less mischievous!
She no longer looks or acts like a baby. I was realizing that this evening. She's lost the majority of that 'baby' look now. She really does look like a little girl. And, I need to trim her hair. I'm just afraid of messing it up! It's starting to look quite straggly. Perhaps she'll sit still if I sit her in front of a video. She seems to very much enjoy watching Madeline shows on Hulu, so that could perhaps work. She's been free of accidents aside from sleeping for more than two months now, and even before that we were only having one every couple of weeks... unless it was on purpose (she does have "accidents" when she is angry with me for something). She's becoming clearer and clearer in her speech, but also learning so many new words that we often struggle to figure out what she is talking about, as while she is clear for a two year old, she is not as clear as a five year old is, understandably! For instance, it took me almost a full day to figure out what a "stitue" was... she'd been asking for a tissue all day! Poor child! At least her pointing finger works well most days, and she DOES know signs for many things so we usually can muddle our way through new words.
She loves to play pretend, and I think managed to scare herself. She's now afraid of the dark, because she insists "It biting me" (her words). When asked to clarify, she told us "A nouse bite Bubba" (a mouse bite Rebecca), so we suspect she is afraid a mouse will bite her if it is dark... so we have MANY night lights in our house now. Two dim ones in her room (green and blue "cool" night lights), and one bright yellow one in each room between our room and hers, which we keep on through the night for her. She likes her lights, and is much happier when it isn't dark as she moves through the house. She hasn't told us anything will bite her in a few days, so it seems they have helped!
Elias has been sitting for a while now (evidenced in the pictures I posted!), but he has started trying to crawl properly on his hands and knees in the last couple of days, and he also loves to pull up so he can see more things around him. He's spending more and more time up and less on his tummy, so I'm getting ready to celebrate the day that I no longer need to stain treat every one of his garments because of all the dirt on his bellies and wrists! I'm sure in 20 years I'll wish I was back stain treating his clothing because he got it messy crawling around on our floors, but right now... it really is a hassle. :) I keep reminding myself to enjoy it because it only lasts for a short time though, because these kids really do grow up much faster than I want them to. :)
I introduced Elias to pears a couple of weeks ago, and added in some rice cereal this past week. He's been very interested in the concept of eating for a couple of months, and I even tried giving him some pears back around Christmas, but all he could do was gag on them, even when I watered them down to almost a water consistency, so we waited a while and tried again. He really enjoys getting the new flavours and textures now, but I don't want to go much further, as I don't want to end up with food stains on clothing, and he is most DEFINITELY a spitter! I want him to stop spitting up as much before I give him orange and green foods to stain clothing with!
Elias is no longer sleeping through the night either, though I somewhat wonder if when he has a little more solid food in his diet he will sleep more. He did sleep better last night than he has been, and I gave him a little snack of pears in the evening, so this evening I gave him some pears and rice, so I'm curious to see if he actually does sleep better tonight, or if it was a fluke! Maybe the poor kid is just getting hungry midway through the night and as my milk digests so quickly, he just isn't staying full long enough to stay asleep! maybe. I can always hope, anyway!
So, there's my update... I'll have to put some pictures on here again soo... I ought to try to at least so the "once a month" milestone pictures (ie, "birthdays") of each kid, but it seems my hands are often full of children these days, and thus the camera is left by the way side! I need to remedy this, as those pictures will be memories one day, and those little children will be all grown up and gone!
(yes, I'm rather nostalgic today, can you tell??)
