Avery
Although Avery is still a bit of a picky eater, he has been
gradually expanding his repertoire of foods.
His appetite has definite increased, sometimes eating as many as three
helpings of cereal at breakfast.
Upon seeing some sepia toned photos of himself as a baby,
Avery said, “I didn't know I was born before there was color.”
“Mommy, I don’t ever hear you burp, but I KNOW you do.”
Avery started his first day of 1st grade this
past week. He was not looking forward to
going because he “just wanted to stay home” and “not have to do homework”. After that first day, though, he admitted
that “it went better than I expected”.
Aileen cried when I would drop him off in the mornings and exclaim “I
come too!”. During the first couple of days,
she said “I miss Avwee” and “Daddy come home?”.
Transitions to new routines are understandably challenging for these two
kids.
Aileen
We have made an attempt at potty training Aileen, but she
has not responded favorably. She seems
to be scared to sit on the potty at times, and says that her small potty “is
for babies”.
Each night, Aileen picks out a story for me to read to
her. Generally, she will let me read a
page, stop me, and then point and name several things from the
illustration. Oftentimes, she names in
order “the daddy”, “mommy”, “Avery”, “Aileen” and sometimes “baby”.
She loves to dress up, especially in pink and frilly skirts
and dresses with bows, sparkles or ribbons.
At times, she can be pretty moody. Clint will try to change her diaper, wipe her
fingers, put her to bed, put on her shoes, etc… and she responds adamantly with
“NO! Mommy’s turn!” On the flip side, if I try to help her with
something, such as picking up her sunglasses that dropped from the top of her
head, she gets mad enough to grab them from me, throw them to the ground and
then pick them up “all by myself!” We have learned to give her freedom to try doing things herself
Once, Aileen confided to me that there was a “dragon stuck
in a cage” under the floor (referring to the noise when the air conditioning
comes on through the floor vents).
However, “he is a nice dragon” and “he won’t hurt” her “because he is
stuck”.
Both kids like to put their blankies on top of the air
conditioning floor vents to watch the force of the air fill up their blankets
causing them to float.
Aileen has been very interested in playing with her babies
in the past several months. She cuddles
them in blankets, takes them for rides in the van and stroller and likes to
feed them. Making due without a play
baby bottle, Aileen used a toy gun silencer that attaches to one of Avery’s toy
guns until we were able to buy her a bottle to use.
“Pooter” = computer (which she tells Clint “No, no….it’s
Mommy’s”
“Hocky Pocky” = Hobby Lobby
“Pack pack” = her back pack
