March 31, 2008

I really don't know what I did all last week but I know I was busy. Where did March go? Wow, time flies when you are having fun.

I have been working on lifebooks a lot lately. Well, I say a lot but I am lucky if I can spend one hour a day, on average, working on it...actually, it might be closer to an average of 30 minutes a day. It is hard to make much progress when you only have short chunks of time. But I am making progress and they are starting to look a bit better, although now I realize how bad the beginning pages are so I am redoing some of them.

The boys are doing great. I have had several people tell me that when their child was around 30 months old, it was as if someone flipped a switch and the child became a different little person. I think we are there now. Both boys are now talking in sentences....not perfect sentences, by any means, but more than just two or three word phrases and they can definitely get their ideas across now, most of the time anyway. The other day Ben told me (while pointing), "mommy, Dancer threw up". Sure enough, Dancer had thrown up. Isn't that nice?

Yesterday, as we were on our way to church, Nick said "mommy, be up high clouds". Those are the only two examples I can think of right now but they are really doing this all day long now. They talk all the time and they can understand each other much better than I can understand them. They are really improving on their pronunciation and can say so many words more clearly now, it is amazing to me. But there are still times when I can't figure out what they are saying but they seem to always understand each other.

Back to the 'flip of the switch' story. The other thing is that they are now becoming a bit more particular about what they wear and eat. They want to pick out their own PJ's. This morning, Nick did not want to wear the clothes I picked out for him. Instead, he wanted to wear the same thing he had slept in, which was the same thing he had worn since nap time on Sunday, since he did not want to take it off last night either. I forced the issue, since our Parent's as Teachers lady was coming over this morning, although we did compromise a bit since I told him he could change back after she left. He didn't forget. As soon as she left, he wanted to put the 'Elmo' shirt back on. Thankfully he did change into fresh PJ's this evening after his bath so hopefully he will forget about the Elmo shirt for a while...or a least long enough for me to wash it.

As for food, they are not becoming picky eaters yet but they are becoming rather opinionated about what they want to eat. This morning, for the first time ever, they decided they did not want to have oatmeal for breakfast. They wanted yogurt, which is usually a snack food around here. So, they had yogurt and I offered some of daddy's cereal with some raisins and they wanted that too. But then, Nick decided that once the cereal became soggy that it was not good ("mommy, yucky") so I offered him some toast, which I knew he would want...this kid would eat bread or toast for every meal if I let him. So they both had a piece of toast.

There are a few discipline things we are working on around here, such as: Nick tends to take toys away from Ben, if he really really wants them, and he tends to throw things if he gets angry about something. Ben tends to SCREAM BLOODY MURDER when Nick takes his toys. He takes Nick's toys once in a while too but less often. There is another thing that Ben does that is harder to describe. If I tell him to take a toy and put it 'away', meaning on the shelf in the library/playroom where it goes, he will take it to the library and put it on the floor or on the couch or anywhere other than where it is suppose to go. This has happened enough times now that I know for sure he does it on purpose. I find it quite interesting and somewhat humorous. I try to remember to keep an eye on him in these situations and make sure he puts the toy away. The other thing that he is funny about is picking up something he has dumped out, such as blocks or beads or something like that. If I say "let's pick these up" or even if I just start picking them up myself, he wants to help. If I tell him to pick something up, he will ask for brother or me to help him. If I say "you can do it. You dumped them out and brother is busy picking up such-and-such", he starts crying and will stall and play and everything else. It is a huge battle. So now, if this happens, I tell him he needs to do it with a good attitude or he will have to do it again. It is amazing how well this works with him. He immediately puts this half-fake smile on his face, shines it up at me and quickly picks up the blocks or whatever was dumped. He has yet to have to do it over again. Well, actually, the very first time I tried this with him, he had picked up two or three of something and I did make him start over. But he has always put on the good attitude and picked everything up and the little smiley face he makes is so cute.

I am having such fun, watching them become the little boys that God has made them to be. They are so cute and funny and they crack each other up all the time (and me too). They are growing so fast. They really look more like little boys and less like babies these days. Going back through all of the adoption related information and pictures really brings back a lot of memories. They were so little when we first met them. I am enjoying the journey of revisiting all of the pictures from our two trips to Russia, although it sure pulls at my heart strings a lot.

We finally got the new twin beds on Saturday. We just bought the mattresses and box springs and we also bought two bed rails, since they are still pretty high off the ground with just the mattress and box springs. We have not yet found bed frames that we like but I'm not in a hurry for that yet.

We still have the cribs set up in their room too:). Today, Nick slept in his new bed during nap and he did very well. It was the first time either of the boys had slept in the new beds. They have been soooo excited about them but then they either change their mind at the last minute and want to sleep in their cribs (especially Ben) or they won't stay in their new bed. I have told them that if they get out of their new bed, they have to sleep in their old bed (I can do this now, since they are still in diapers:). There have been two or three times when they started out in their new bed and then I would hear the pitter patter of little feet upstairs. They never objected when I went up and put them in their cribs, so I think it was their way of saying they were not quite ready yet. I was surprised that Nick was able to take a really good nap in his new bed today. Maybe Ben will be able to do it too tomorrow. He seems to find it especially difficult to stay put in his bed so it may be a while before he is ready to actually sleep there.

I am very thankful that we have enough room to keep the cribs up in their room and have their twin beds in there too. So they can transition gradually and maybe we won't have as many sleepless nights...so far anyway. And, on that note, it's past my bedtime. Goodnight.