Bevan has had a lot of first these last few days. She has sat up for the first time, crawled for the first time, and we found one new tooth and another one just peeking through the surface. Wow! Teeth, sitting, and crawling all at once. That makes for easy documentation of her monumental moments. I can't express enough how much we all love having her around. She has such a great giggle and is such a cheerful child!
In the past I have told my children one of the reasons we need to brush our teeth is to get rid of the "sugar bugs" in our mouth and on our teeth. Therefore, occassionally after they brush their teeth they open wide and ask if there are any more sugar bugs in their mouth. This morning, after Brigden was flossing, and having a difficult time doing so because the floss kept getting stuck in between his back teeth, he said, "Ughh! Those potato bugs are tough." Just yesterday when Halen opened a belated birthday present and was super shocked to find it contained many Hannah Montana items, Brigden said, "What the...!" It is something Halen says all the time and there has never been a question of whether or not another word should come next or not because the next word isn't said in our home to begin with, but it is a funny thing to hear a 3 year old say it. He's quite the drama boy!
Harris has been extremely thrilled lately to have a brand new pair of tennis shoes. He's been so concerned about his new shoes that he has instituted a few rules for himself; no running in water and dirt, check them for "stickies" whenever he comes in the house, and keep them looking as new as possible. Honestly, I'm impressed that he's even trying because I'm sure the day will quickly come as a normal boy that those new shoes no longer looking new. The one downside to his new tennis shoes is that they have shoelaces and he hasn't ever had to tie his shoes before. Well, after 2 days of asking Mom to tie his shoes each time he put them on, Harris was done with that. He is an extremely self-motivated independent child. There is nothing he can't do, at least that's what he thinks. So after failing at teaching himself how to tie his shoes, which he really believed he could figure out on his own, he asked me to help him. I figured I would have to show him quite a few different times when we put his shoes on over the next few days, but I couldn't have been more wrong. I showed him in detail once on each shoe and then had him practice once on each shoe and then that was it. He did it perfectly from then on showing me how he had done it each time. I was in shock! It always amazes me what Harris can accomplish when he puts his mind to it. Especially considering what he will not do when he does not want to do it. He has amazing mind power!
Halen wasn't feeling well yesterday because of a light fever so she, the other kids, and I enjoyed a nice quiet day at home together. At first, I was really worried they would just fight all day because they were bored and couldn't play with friends, being sick, but again, I was wrong. (There seems to be a consistency here?) They played together with their capes and dolls in the morning and then after quiet time continued to play very well together. One of the biggest shockers of the day for me was that Halen played all by herself in her room for at least 3 hours. When I would check on her, because this was not normal, she was very content and about her business playing with her dolls and her dollhouse. That dollhouse has been one of the best purchases Dave and I have ever made together for our family! Later that night when I asked her what she played she went on to tell me for at least 15 minutes about each doll, including their role; daughter, mother, father, etc. and their hair. I almost fell asleep hearing about all the different hair styles of the dolls, but delighted in how excited she was about the entire thing. She and I have started a new tradition of actually talking on her bed before she goes to bed. We usually talk after school, but she also loves it when we talk before she goes to bed. In the past I've started our conversation by asking her, "What were 5 good things about your day?" to help her focus on the positive of some really bad days. As a result, she asks me each night, "Aren't you going to ask me what was good about my day?" I just love this new tradition of ours because I find that she loves talking to me and as I look back on my days as a daughter, I, too, loved talking to my mother. I hope that if we keep this up she'll continue to talk to me and there will never grow a barrier between us when she gets older and wants to become more private. I love our little time together and the other benefit is that I am now trying to put them to bed sooner so that I can enjoy that time with each of them and then they go to sleep better, having had 'down time' to relax them and prep them for sleeping. Another benefit is that it makes for less time fighting with each other as children. What a joy to have good quality time with my family!
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