Jill & Charlie Updates

 Jill is 9 months old now!  (Only 3 more months of purchasing formula - yay!!!!).  In the picture above she was 8 months old.  She has started wearing size 18 month clothes.  She is a tummy/army crawler - and has been since she was about 7 months old.  Before she figured out the crawling thing, she would roll everywhere she needed to go.  She has started to pull herself up a little bit every now and then - that skill is definitely emerging.  I wouldn't be surprised if she started walking before her birthday - but I guess that just depends on how much she enjoys crawling at that point.  She still doesn't have ANY teeth!  But, she obviously seems to be doing fine without them!  She loves to eat bits of bread, peas, corn, rice,  baby nutri-grain bars, puffs, and tastes of ice cream.  She can feed pretty much all of those things to herself with her cute chubby fingers.  She babbles all day long.  She says "Ma-Ma-Ma" when she is crying/sad and "Da da da" when she is happy.  She'll repeat "ba ba" when I ask her if she wants a bottle.  She has always had an impressive tongue - ever since she was a newborn, people would often comment about how much she moves it all the time - twisting it and sticking it in and out ALL the time.  She has also started to do this little clicking noise.  It's hard to explain but I can show you sometime if you care.  ;)  She also does this really cute face where she scrunches up her nose and squints her eyes and still has a little smile.  It's seriously adorable.  She is a HAPPY baby - and we are often complimented by others on her content demeanor.  She pretty much only cries when she is hungry or tired.  We love her to pieces and are so grateful that she has joined our family!

Charlie will be 3 later this month and he is such a fun little guy.  This picture was from a few weeks ago before he went to preschool one morning.  Uncle Kenny and Aunt Kristy bought him these cute vans for Christmas and they finally fit.  He thinks the shoes help him run "really really fast" and generally refers to them as his "fast shoes."  Dave and I often refer to him as a tender-heart.   He tells me which kids are nice to him and which aren't and who his good friends are.  He is really lovey - and loves to give and receive hugs all day long.   He wants to be "big and strong" like his friend Payson and his Dad - which always helps him to eat his vegetables at dinner.  He loves to play with his friend Jake and told me last week that he is going to marry his girl-friend Avery when he is older.  I don't know how he knows about being married - but he does.  He sings songs to himself while he is playing alone and still requests to sing "I Am A Child of God" every week at family night.  He loves to read books before bedtime  - his current favorites are "Where The Wild Things Are" and "The Little Engine That Could."    He continues to be a great eater.  He'll try almost anything - sometimes with lots of coaxing - but he will eat lots of different foods.  He loves avocado on his toast, chocolate shakes, and hot dogs among other normal kid favorites (funny - those are 3 of my favorites too  :-) ).  Over the last 2 weeks it seems he has finally mastered the potty training thing.  We are going on 11 months and I was almost at my wits end when he pooped in his underwear one day last month.  I thought about it and decided I would sympathetically cut up a binky the next time he had an accident.  (He still sleeps with a binky every night - I know - that's next on my agenda).  I explained that to him and he understood.  On the upside - when he went ALL day long with no accidents he would receive a reward of 2 new train tracks after dinner.  (I bought a box of Trackmaster tracks for him to earn)  It has worked wonders.  We have gone several days in a row without any accidents and he receives little to no prompting from me to go.  We do have set potty times where he has to go - but he has pretty much learned those and does it on his own now that he has the procedure down (before bath time, right when he wakes up, right before we leave the house, and right when we get home, right after a meal).  His love for trains continues, but he has also been very interested in firetrucks and airplanes lately.  He sings "the firetruck song" that he learned at his nursery class as he plays with his firetruck some days.  His favorite shows are WordWorld, GeoTrax, Cars, and the newer Thomas movies with more animation.  Anyway, it's hard to believe that he will be 3 in just 3 weeks.  He is such a joy and we love seeing his little personality develop into such a happy, friendly kid!