Goofy Goofs

This is a very random post, but I just feel like there is so much I haven't posted about. This is my attempt to record some odd and interesting facts about the kids, and maybe a little about the parents too.

Whenever he hears the words outside, go, bye-bye, park, walk, etc. Hyrum brings me his shoes and gets frustrated if we aren't walking out the door. I'm trying to remember not to mention it until the last minute. It can be frustrating, but it's so cute how much he loves to go places, even just into our yard (and by yard I mean fenced in concrete slab). I grew up with a huge yard, in a neighborhood with gravel streets playing outside ALL the time, it's weird sometimes not having that for my kids.

Now that we moved our bookshelf upstairs, the two most popular things to get into are the side of the fridge (so he can get the broom and drag it around the house) and under the computer (so he can unplug the new external hard drive that we got to keep us from losing all of our pictures, videos, and music or just unplug the computer). I am kicking myself for not using the playpen as a way to keep him contained, now I think it might be too late, and we don't need more stuff cluttering our living room.

With mobility comes the desire to never sit still, especially for a diaper change. Hy wriggles out of the new diaper about 80% of the time, so we take a little trip to the potty, he says, "poop," sits for one or two seconds, gets up and tries to put his foot into the potty (or a toy if he happens to have one near by). I sit him back down and try to keep him there for a bit longer. He has actually peed in there a couple of times, but I wonder if that makes up for the few times he has peed on the floor while running around naked. It's a really fun game for a baby. Speaking of the potty issue, I am seriously considering early potty training with Hyrum. He is much more aware of full diapers than Selah ever was. I really want to try cloth diapers...the good kind with snaps or velcro. I'd like to make some to offset the cost, but then I'd have to invest in some materials. If anyone has any advice about this topic, feel free to pass it along.

We've hit a rough patch in Hy's eating habits. He ate anything when I was making his baby food, but now that he is not content unless he's holding the spoon, he is making faces at all the foods he used to like or has yet to try. He refuses to eat almost every vegetable, rice, pasta, potatoes, pretty much all the meals I make. He ALWAYS wants craisins, raisins and other dried fruit, he loves beans (and ate way too many yesterday!). He takes after his dad when it comes to pizza, he actually gets excited when he sees it and says, "more! more! more!" More is his way of asking for food. He likes yogurt and cereal and pancakes. Oh and he does okay with soup, but still won't touch the green stuff. I'm having a hard time feeling like I'm taking care of his nutrition needs lately. I need to get creative fast. Easier said than done when it's time to feed cranky kids. It all comes back to my need for organization! That's always the answer for me lately.

The good news is that he's going to sleep so much easier! I wish I could say that he's way happier because of it, but he seems crankier lately. I think he has a cold or allergies and will probably do better as he gets used to this new schedule. Have you ever heard of a kid who went from one nap to two? That's what we're doing this week. He's been taking only one short nap every day for months, but has just started taking two. It's wonderful! I hope he keeps it up for a while and that at least one of the naps starts lasting a little bit longer.

Selah and her imagination! She is still so funny to listen to when she plays by herself. I can never remember the specifics, but she loves to play games where she talks for different characters. She even pretends within her pretending. Now she's including punishments and pointing out bad behavior ("we don't say stupid"). She also is ALWAYS talking about her friends, she loves friends. One day she declared it "Princesses Day" so we did her hair like a princess and I made special princess food for her (flower shaped bread and bell peppers). She also ate "princess" Pops cereal. Meanwhile, Hyrum was shirtless and super messy as if he had to prove that boys aren't princesses.

We're working on reading and other academic stuff more lately. Selah is picking up how to sound out words really well and once she knows the ending (like at) and the letter sound of a new letter (like b or f or c...) she just blurts out the word without needing to sound it out. I've been pretty impressed when we practice. I try not to do too much all at once so we don't get frustrated. She is also learning to count to higher numbers. We're really close to her getting the concept (and remembering it) of the teens, twenties, and up. We still haven't made any decisions about preschool next year. I am thinking about just adding more activities to our schedule; storytime at the library, classes at the rec. center, and regular at home preschool stuff. If more people are interested, I would probably do a Joy School type thing...but with our own curriculum. My latest ambition is to start giving Selah some simple piano lessons. I don't play the piano, but I think it would be neat to teach her some basics. I have read that it really helps kids with their language skills and music is best learned when you're young...so I want to try it. If I need help teaching any part of it, at least I have Jared who knows. It seems like a waste having a piano and not using it. I wonder how badly out of tune it is. Hmm.