Kids' Birthday Update

Russell turned 2 on August 3rd. Spencer turned 5 on September 1st. Aliyah will turn 8 on September 10th.

RUSSELL is pretty easy going. He like to play cars and trains. Lately he has really been excited about Spencer's superheroes. I often walk in on him playing super hero action figures with Spencer's Bat Cave. He moves the figures around and chatters. He has some superhero shirts he loves to wear. We have a Spiderman full head mask and a generic superhero eye mask that he like to wear. He likes to wear helmets, hats, and goggles a lot, too. More than the other two ever did. He loves swinging and even likes just swinging on his stomach on the regular swing, though he loves to go "High" on the baby swing. He started doing wooden cutout puzzles, that's been the big interest this week. He is really starting to talk in the last few months. He knows so many words I can't record them all. He is the biggest copycat I have ever seen. He is always copying the words and actions of the family members, especially Aliyah and Spencer. If the kids accidentally drop food at dinner and get up to pick it up, he will get up and touch the floor too. In a conversation between the rest of the family he will repeat different words he hears, especially the last word of a sentence. It really has amazed me the extent of his copying the most random comments or actions. It makes me realize how much the children learn from what they see, that sure puts the pressure on to be a good example! :) Over the last few months he has been into sticking things in his nose. Again, this was never a problem I encountered with the other two. For the last 6-12 months he has been interested in putting objects like crayons in his nose and ears, but now it has moved to smaller objects. I have on two or three occasions pulled multiple peas out of one nostril. Another time it was three macaroni noodles in a row out of one nostril. The latest was a crumpled up sticker, shoved way up high. he has also recently discovered that he can push the chairs around the kitchen to get up onto the counter. I found him standing on the counter trying to reach a high shelf last week. Scary!His favorite song is Popcorn Popping. I will often observe him "singing" it to himself with the actions. He loves nursery--I don't think he ever had a problem going, actually. He is not too clinging--I can drop him off at friends houses to babysit him without him throwing a fit. He has sometimes cried when our babysitter comes over, but I think he forgets soon after we leave. He loves running around and playing with the big kids wherever they go, in the back, to the neighbors, at the park. He is napping spectacularly these days, a 2-3 hour nap everyday. He goes down so easy as well, he rarely cries. He has slept great though the night lately--I can't remember hearing him make a peep in the night in the last 3-6 months. He sleeps consistently 8pm to 6:30 to 7:30am. When he wakes up I think he hangs out in his bed, then will lay there for a while moaning on and off. Only if he's been up for a long time does he ever really start crying. He has done really great in the stroller. I think the fact of me having to help the bigger kids has made him just give into the stroller life. We can be places like the zoo or museum and he is usually fine to be in the stroller for hours. He will sometimes resist getting into his car seat or stroller, but once in he is content. He loves when daddy comes home and usually runs to him with open arms yelling "da-deeeee!" He is so sweet and fun. He loves to wrestle, and run and tackle. He LOVE sports. He loves playing catch with a glove (he can't actually catch it, but he loves trying). He loves hitting the ball off the tee. He loves his new basketball hoop he got for his birthday. He is getting more independent and starting to tell me "no, no,no!" when he doesn't like things. He wouldn't sit in his strap-in booster seat at the table, so now he is just on a chair, which make dinner more interesting. He likes to dump his plate over or throw it on the ground when he is done, or if he's mad. He loves drinking milk. He is very worried about hot things. He doesn't like things that are moderately warm, like a car seat, bath water, food, etc. He shouts "hot!" in a very worried voice and a very worried and scared look. He is starting to throw tantrums, kicking screaming flailing type tantrums over small things. He is the ultimate destroyer. He likes to empty every drawer, basket, cabinet, closet, bag, shelf, etc that he can get his little hands on. We can only baby-proof so much. Yesterday I saw him dump over the basket of balls, then head straight over to the book basket, dump that, then go look in the toy basket for a car. Little sinker! I do A LOT of picking up after him. He still loves pooh bear and uses him to sleep.  I love to steal as many  3-few second snuggles and soft little baby kisses that I can. He is at such a fun age right now, understanding and enjoying a lot of fun things in life, just so excited in exploring and learning, but still very much a sweet little baby.

SPENCER has just started his last year of preschool. Only one day in but he already has told me twice that he likes it. He is going two mornings a week. I am going to see if a less busy schedule will be good for him (and me) this year before he heads in to all day kindergarten. He did really well in his preschool last year. He had amazing teachers and was almost always excited about going to class. He loved riding the bus home too. He has shown a lot of interest in numbers lately. He carries a calculator around with him everywhere, "calculating" the different numbers he encounters during the day. Last year he was interested in Aliyah's addition flash cards, and he quizzed himself with the easier ones. I have given him worksheets of sums to 10 and he can figure them all out (without his calculator, by the way). he has shown some interest in reading so we are starting in on working on sounds and sounding out words. He has spent the summer enjoying his friends in the neighborhood and enjoying playing outside on the play set, in the tree house, in the sandbox, collecting toads and worms, etc. He has been doing swimming lessons since January and is swimming, kind of. Enough that he can be about 5-8 feet from an edge of the pool and "swim" back. We are still working on the form, but he is able to get himself around the pool. We will continue lessons, luckily he loves it. He is starting T-ball next week and is excited about that. He is still sucking his thumb, but is finally coming to realize that he shouldn't be. I am hoping to work on this habit before kindergarten. He still has been having problems with anger. He escalates from disappointment and frustration very quickly to anger. And once he his anger he is a bit hard to calm down. We are learning more of how to help him. Again, another thing I hope to work on a lot before kindergarten. He can get overwhelmed with the chaos of life and we often find him snuggling with his doggy and a soft blanket in a quiet corner of the house. He is much more content with alone time than Aliyah was, and it is nice. He and Russell play pretty well together. He is often very proud of being a kind big brother to Russell. He is very generous and is almost always willing to share things happily. He got some candy packs from a friend for his birthday and his first thought was how he was going to give half to Aliyah. He also got a Lego set and remote control car for his birthday, both of which Aliyah has gotten more time then him with, and he is happy to share with her (on his terms though--if you try to take something away from him he goes straight to being crazy mad, but if you give him a minute to think about it, 99% of the time he will share). This dynamic I am sure has a lot to do with Aliyah's demanding personality. I think that Spencer is 90% sweet, kind, generous, content, restful, fun, happy, cheerful and 10% bull-seeing-red angry. When not disturbed, his natural temperament is so upbeat and cheerful, it is nice. He has a few best friends. Ace from church and our across the street neighbors Warren and Verra. It is fun seeing him interact with his friends. He and Ace are so cute together. They often run and hug each other when they first get together--adorable. He loves checking out Starwars, superhero, and Ninjago books at the library. That's all he will checkout, and he knows exactly where those sections are. He likes to do things on his own timetable and that he has planned. He gets very frustrated (then angry) if he is rushed or if plans change or if he had his own plan that we can't do. I try to help by giving him lots of time to prepare to the leave house or change plans, but that can't always happen. He loves doing puzzle, coloring pictures, writing his name, helping cook. He has the chore of unloading the silverware. He loves trying to be helpful. He is also a great sleeper. Although pjs, teeth brushing, and family scriptures can be a bit rough, he is almost always ready and happy to jump into bed and go to sleep. He also sleep from about 8pm to 6:30 or 7:30. He has ended up napping a few times a week the last few weeks. I think with being home every afternoon, he might do more napping than last year.

ALIYAH just started 2nd grade. She is getting baptized soon and is very excited. She is still very much Aliyah--social butterfly (ALWAYS wanting to be with a friend or people in general), amazingly stubborn, energetic, Loud, wanting to be the center of attention, over-dramatic -  I am starting to think she may do well in theater! :) She wants to know everything that's going on, be involved in anything that's happening, be a part of every conversation. She is very good at being in charge of people, and sometimes has a hard time if someone else wants to take charge in a friend group. She has spent the summer playing with the kids in the neighborhood and loving it. Although she enjoys school, she was sad to start back up--she just wanted to keep playing all day. She started piano lessons in May and is doing really well. She is really enjoying it and practices everyday with being asked to. She did swim lessons over the summer and was really liking that as well. She finished up the last school year doing great--her teacher had only great things to say about her and she did well academically. It is nice to not have to worry about school behavior and academics. She has picked up right where she left off last year having her first words off the bus everyday asking to play with a friend. She is very good at taking care of Russell and just recently changed her first diaper. I count on her to help out a lot with getting him dressed, shoes on, getting him snacks and drinks and keeping an eye on him while I jump in the shower or work on a project. She loves carrying him (and anyone for that matter) around. She still loves climbing trees and on the top of play structures, running around and shouting. This summer she got into collecting toads with the neighborhood kids. She is always very curious and is starting to ask more in depth and serious questions about life. It is interesting seeing her mature in this way. She is very helpful around the house. She cleans her room, makes her bed, cleans her bathroom, vacuums, unloads the dishwasher, does laundry. She is also very interested in helping me cook. I have a hard time letting go of control over everything in the kitchen, but I am starting to let her help out when she can. This week Spencer got a new Lego set for his birthday. Aliyah has followed all the directions and put the set together for Spencer. The two of them spent an hour or two everyday at the dining room table for the last week working on it. She can sit and work on things quietly too, she'll read, do puzzles, craft, play with dolls, for long stretchers--her little mind just needs to be working constantly, she was like that as a baby, its just how she works. She definitely does not need any rest time like Spencer. She now has our old queen bed and she and Spencer like to share it, its very sweet. They play together most of the time, although they argue a lot, she still is pretty good at including him. We try to do most play dates, free play with neighbors and outings as a family group, so she hasn't started excluding him from her play very often. She is looking forward to getting older, and likes to play pretend makeup, try on my clothes, talk about things she will do as a teenager. She plans on attending BYU for college, which is just fine with us! I think at this point she thinks that is just the next step in life...become a teenager, go to high school, go to BYU, get married, and become a mom. Well, it worked for me! :) She has been wanting to get her ears pierced for a few years. We have explained to her how they pierce them and told her she can whenever she likes, but after thinking about the earring gun, she always says she'll wait a bit. She has a big personality. Sometimes its hard, but as she gets older and learns more self control, we know she will do great things with that energy, excitement, intelligence, enthusiasm and love of people.