Some snippets from the last six months (hold on.. this might be a long one!):
-Although Sam is no longer nursing.. JJ and Alexis still remember the phenomenon and I'll catch them talking about how milk can come out of various body parts... of course they're nipples, but also their chins or their elbows. They have quite the imaginations.
-Earlier in the year when we were completing the potty training and focusing on pooping in the potty (instead of waiting until they got a pull-up on for nap time or night time).. So I got a sticker chart, put it up and gave them a sticker each time they produced a deuce. We told them after ten stickers, they could go to Chuck-E-Cheeses, which just opened up by our house. Within a couple of weeks, they had each achieved the required number of stickers so we set off one Saturday to what we've come to refer to as "Chaos in a Box"... At the entrance, a CeC employee was there to stamp their hands and ask if we were there celebrating anything. Alexis quickly piped up (or rather screamed): "We went poop ten times.. I got ten stickers cuz I pooped in the potty ten times so I get to come to Chuck-E-CHEESES!!" But that place as a reward sure does work.. the very next sticker chart was to stay dry during nap and night time... and every morning they would get so excited if they're pull ups were dry.
-Along those lines, however, we've learned that 3 is an age where manipulation is starting to rear it's ugly head. One morning (actually this has happened multiple mornings) I heard a lot of banging up in the twins room.. when I went to check on them, Alexis was scurrying back into bed. She then popped back up and announced, "mommy I'm dry.. I get to get a sticker so I can go to Chuck-E-Cheeses!!!" Sure enough, she was wearing a dry pull-up but I realized she had on different pajamas than she put on the night before. I checked their garbage can in the bathroom and sure enough, she had placed a wet pull-up in the garbage can, climbed up to the shelf in her closet where the pull-ups are kept, and put a fresh one on. Both she and JJ will also tell me (or Mike) when I say no to something, "But Daddy [Mommy] said we can!" Although oddly if I give something to them that Mike generally doesn't like them to have (such as a stick of gum) and tell them not to tell Daddy because he doesn't like them to have gum, the first thing out of their mouths when they see him next is "Daddy.. Mommy gave me gum! But I'm not going to tell you"
-When they were pretty consistantly got dry in the mornings (though we like JJ to still wear the pull-ups as he's only batting 0.500 right now), we went once again to CeC's... This time, I took them solo. Once they were through their coins, however, they were completely devastated. We're trying to teach them about limits, and spending (at least the concept) so I explained that we only bought 20 coins and I didn't have any more money to get more. JJ heard this explanation as he burned through his stash first, to which he got very sad for a while, then thought a bit and brightly said, "But mommy, just go ask the man for more coins. I bet he has more.. just go ask!" The man, of course, was the cashier. Ironically, not 2 minutes later Alexis ran out of coins and came up to me with the exact same, simple-but-brilliant idea to just go "ask the man."
-The other day JJ was getting dressed in the morning (a chore they thankfully can do by themselves now!), and kept playing with his nether-regions. Eventually he looked up from his exploring and said, "Mommy, what is this?" to which I replied, "JJ that's your penis." "No, mommy, what's this part?" "Oh, those are your balls JJ". "Mommy, I have BALLS??"-We have learned that Alexis is a very very linear thinker. Starting earlier this year, she's become very focused and aware regarding cause and effects. If I tell her to stop doing something, or warn her against doing something, she will almost always state what the resulting chain of events would be "If I hit Samantha you will get mad?" "Yes, Alexis" "And Samantha will get hurt?" "Yes, Alexis" "And you will put me in time out?" "Yes, Alexis" ... and then she hits Samantha.
-A couple of months ago I was trying to get Sam to say "mommy" by repeating it over and over to her. Finally, JJ stomped up to me, put his hands on his hips and declared, "Sam doesn't say mommy! She can only say 'Ahh Duh, Ahh Duh' " and then marched away.
-Sam is now walking up a storm and it's amazing to watch her watch her siblings... she is so focused on what they do and trying to mimic them. JJ is much more tolerant of Sam shadowing him, though he gets frustrated when she ruins his train or car set-ups. She does really love her crib and will often fuss until she's put down for a nap or for the night. We think it's not just that she is ready to sleep--she's ready for some alone time.
-It's only been a couple of months, but JJ and Alexis are now acutely aware of what is socially appropriate for "boys" and for "girls" ... JJ has a friend DP that is a year older and is showing JJ they ways of the world. Recently, we heard him playing with his cars and saying, "I'm going to kill you!" Mike tried to explain that we don't want to say that because killing someone is bad. He declared that DP says that to which Mike explained that it didn't matter, we didn't want JJ to say it. JJ was incredibly torn.. you could see his confusion about two people in his life that didn't agree... But it's an ongoing battle I guess. The other day, JJ pushed Alexis over and declared he was playing "bad guys" and that's what he and DP play. I explained that we don't play that, that we only play good guys or happy guys. At first, he wasn't convinced but I saw him later declare, "I'm JJ and I'm a ba... I'm a happy guy"
-Alexis and JJ were in the wedding of Mike's brother over memorial day weekend. A beautiful location, couple and day! And the twins were super cute (of course) in their outfits. Once they successfully walked down the isle, there were gifts on their chairs from the wedding planner (a thoughtful move to keep them quite during the ceremony). JJ got a firetruck and Alexis got her first barbie. She sleeps with the thing. I knew the day would come, but I still let out a deep sigh.
-Alexis is quite the hoarder. She's also very focused on always having a "purse" with her and having that purse filled with random things not limited to the following: hair clips, small toys, random receipts and/or clothing tags, snack foods, barbies, random toy parts (not even the whole toy), balls, jewelry... basically anything that fits. And she freaks out if you take anything away. But she switches up her loot every few days and she's getting better about accepting the fact that her toys need to be organized in a logical way. She also spends quite a bit of time in the morning grooming herself and insists on changing clothes if she gets a speck of dirt or even water on herself. Big sigh.
-We got a swimming pool! We started construction the week after memorial day and am almost complete.. we just have landscaping left to do. The kids absolutely love it, and are freakishly amazing swimmers. The ISR courses get all the credit. Sam was ISR trained in April/May and is a great floater, though we want to continue to swim train her as having a pool is can be scary with 3 kids 3 and under. We'll post the latest videos and photos to dropshots soon (meaning in the next six months)...
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