September 8, 2008

My little boys are growing up so fast. I have been going through old pictures and it's hard to believe how much they have changed. The dad and I were talking about the boys yesterday and how we can actually carry on a conversation with them now. It is so amazing how children develop so quickly. They want to do everything for themselves and I try to let them do as much on their own as they can. They are such good helpers. Nick tends to be the little shadow who is always at my elbow wanting to help. Ben usually tends to go off and play by himself at these times. Sometimes Ben wants to help too, especially if we are cooking something yummy. If we are folding laundry or putting dishes away, Ben usually escapes to go play by himself. I am starting to try to pull him in more often and give him tasks to do, sometimes much to his dismay.

From what I have seen so far, Nick tends to be the happy helper and Ben tends to be the reluctant helper. So I am working with Ben, trying to focus in on that and help him learn how to enjoy work:).
We took down the cribs again last night. The boys are sleeping on their twin mattresses on the floor again. I thought it would be good to go ahead since we are sitting with them until they fall asleep anyway these days.

Our potty training approach has once again changed too:). Ben is back to wearing big boy pants during waking hours and Nick is wearing pull ups during waking hours. I started a new sticker chart for them, because Ben had been asking for it and he normally does so well with using the potty, while Nick was totally refusing. So I thought Ben needed some type of recognition for his efforts and success. It was a very positive thing for both of them. Ben continues to do well and is very happy with the sticker reward and Nick now wants to use the potty sometimes too. He still wets his pull ups and is an ace at being able to squeeze out the smallest amount of pee so he can get a sticker too. But at least he is wanting to sit on the potty again and I think that's a move in the right direction.

The dad and I both have noticed that Nick is really initiating a lot of affection these days, though Ben is not normally very happy to be on the receiving end of Nick's affection. Ben initiated a kiss on my cheek the other day too, for the first time, which was very sweet. I love it when they initiate affection. It is so sweet.

The other thing I have noticed lately is that, not only are the boys playing together more these days, they are also behaving better overall. I am not having to correct them as much as I once did. As I listen to them talking to each other when they play, I often hear them self-correct nicely when one of them upsets the other one by not sharing or taking a toy or something. Of course, there are still plenty of times when I have to help them resolve their differences but it is nice to see them starting to do it themselves sometimes too.

And, as for the boys playing together, they now tend to play together very well while I clean and cook. However, if I want to just sit down to read to myself or work on something, they have a hard time with that sometimes.

They are very into pretending to cook these days and also playing with their trains and cars, trucks and bulldozer-type vehicles. With birthdays approaching so quickly, I really need to decide what to get them for their birthdays. I was going to get them a pretend coffee maker and toaster but then my sister said she would like to get it for them. They are both intrigued by the dad's coffee maker and they love to help make toast so I think they will enjoy these toys a lot. They can also use the coffee maker in the bath tub or the kitchen sink and water can actually run through it. They are going to have a ball with that but I will probably end up wishing we had two coffee makers. I just keep reminding myself that it is good for them to learn to share and we are building character:).

We were reading our "cookie book" the other day and N jumped up to pretend to cook something so we decided to make cupcakes together. They thoroughly enjoyed the cupcakes and so did I:).

Here are also some pictures of our "preschool" time together this morning. Our preschool is very spontaneous and normally happens when they are interested in doing something that fits in nicely with what we need to be learning anyway. We have lots of fun learning letters and letter sounds and also numbers and counting. The dad likes to read counting books with them, which I don't enjoy as much, so that works out pretty well. Most of what we learn just happens very naturally in our day to day playing and living and we all love it....and yes, they both love wearing my reading glasses, although I am sure it is very difficult for them to see while wearing them:).

And now, I am going to go have a cupcake before the boys wake up from their nap:).