Kids Update

Aliyah is now finishing her second year of preschool. She has learned a lot from school and combined with her own desire to learn she is now reading and doing addition and subtraction. She loves reading and doing worksheets. She still gets a bit frustrated when she doesn't understand something, but she is getting better about asking for help.

She is still incredibly busy and active. Usually her first words when she wakes up or when she gets home from school is "So what are we going to do now mom?"

She is just naturally VERY social. She has to be around people. She often follows me around the house rather than just play in one area. She really doesn't like being alone and she has a hard time initiating play on her own. We are starting to have more scheduled "play on your own" time, in an effort to give me a break from coming up with activities for her and get a bit of space. Not only does she just like being around people, she likes being very close to people. She doesn't really understand space barriers and loves picking up, touching, climbing on, and clinging to people. Her good friends right now are Josie and Kate from preschool/church, however she loves playing with any friend or kid her age. She loves doing play dates, and would play with friends all day long if we let her.

She loves babies and is very excited for our baby to come. Every time she sees a baby she wants to hold it, play with it, and get close in its face.

She is still very curious and is ALWAYS asking questions. I feel like I have to explain to her why I do everything I do. When Bill and I our having conversations she always tries to listen in and understand what we are talking about. She is still very loud, energetic, and aggressive. Running around, screaming and yelling, and tackling people is still among her favorite things to do.

She is pretty brave and is willing to try new things. She also likes to try to do things on her own; she is very independent. She likes pouring her own milk and brushing her own hair.

She likes helping me. I think it is an extension of her social need, she'll do things to help me because then she is right with me. She loves to help cook and set the table. She likes to try to vacuum and sweep. She is very good at fetching things for me when I need them, like a diaper or the phone. She also likes to answer the phone herself.

She is also pretty responsible and obedient. For the most part she does what she is asked to do. I don't have to worry about her trying to sneak things or get into trouble when I am not looking (unlike little brother!)

Her hardest struggles right now are feeling jealous anytime Spencer has any attention from Bill or I, and playing nicely with Spencer. She teases him endlessly--the subtle teasing that is hard to stop. Spencer is starting to fight back with hair pulling and ruining her things. Most of the time I just let these natural consequences happen, because the lecturing hasn't worked. We'll see if they can work out their relationship as they get older.


Spencer is really growing up. Although I still call him "baby" he is almost done being a toddler and moving into being a boy. It is fun to see and sad at the same time.

He is definitely a boy. He can be very aggressive; yelling and growling and hitting when he doesn't get his way. He loves playing monster and bad guy where he chases others around growling and trying to tackle them. He loves playing cars and trains. He is incredibly interested in how things work--doors, knobs, buttons, etc.

He loves Aliyah and loves playing with her. He is sad every day when she goes to school or she goes to a friends house. He is realizing that she gets to do more fun things than him (School, dance, friends, parties, etc) and has recently started talking about "I go up" (when I grow up). For example, when he grows up he's going to go to school with "La-la" (his name for Aliyah). Its so cute.

He still is struggling a bit with his speech and often I don't understand what he is saying. Aliyah understands more than I do, and we look to her to interpret. He does have a few things he says a lot that is cute. Every morning he says "Iss suh die...suh up" meaning "its a sunny day the sun is up" or any time he gets hurt he says he has to go to the doctor. Whenever he does something wrong he shrugs his shoulders, puts his hands to the side and says " so sah-sah" (so sorry) He can't really say the "ay" sound, but says "eye" or "ah" instead so often he sounds like he has a southern drawl. He is always saying "Ah do" (I do) when he hears something he likes or wants to do and says "me too" to most things we say even when it doesn't apply. He still calls his lovie blanket "fluh-fluff".

He can count to about twelve and is starting to get interested in letters and words. He likes to look at books and wants me to help him read like I help Aliyah. His favorite books right now are "Hop, Pop" (Hop on Pop) and "Hahm, Shahm" (Green Eggs and Ham). When he wants to know what a letter is he asks "T. O. sound?" Essentially trying to imitate Aliyah when she asks me what sound a certain combination of letters makes.

He is very cuddly and affectionate. He loves snuggling with me and being by me. At meal time, he always pushes his chair next to mine and will hold my hand or touch my cheek and say "sit by you, mama" He is very sensitive to the feelings of others and is always very concerned when I am feeling sad. He will come up to me with a hopeful look and say "iss ok mama" Whenever we are reading books he always looks and labels the facial expressions of the characters on each page--happy, sad, mad, mean, nice, etc. And he is always concerned whenever he hears anyone crying, like babies around us at the store or church. "baby sad, mama"

He loves music--dancing to it and singing and humming. He often is humming "Book of mormon stories" to himself as he is playing and its usually right on tune.

For all his cuteness, he is still a two-year old boy, and can drive me crazy. He is pretty stubborn and likes to do things his way or he will throw tantrums. I haven't quite got him to sit in timeout on his own. We were working on it, then I became pregnant and didn't have the energy to fight a 37 pound, incredibly strong, 2-year old to stay in one spot. He is constantly getting into things he shouldn't be, making huge messes, ruining things. Example--dumping my face powder ALL over the bathroom, pulling out the buried water system tubing, twice, climbing on the counter to help himself to snacks, pulling apart a pad of sticky notes. I often feel that I spend most of my day fixing or cleaning up whatever trouble he has made. He has a hard time cleaning things up--not because he is not willing, but just has such a short attention span, he'll pick one thing up and then get distracted before he gets to the next thing.

He, like Aliyah, loves babies. He loves looking at my belly and talking to the baby. If he accidentally hits my stomach, he says "sah-sah baby" and will give by belly a kiss. I know he doesn't quite understand what is happening, but I think he will like the baby...hopefully.