Yesterday at the open gym at the Y another mom asked me how old my kiddos were. When I told her they were 14 months, she said "They're ALL 14 months?!" =) Yes, yes, they are. It took me a split second longer than normal to respond to her question because they've only been 14 months for a few days. For some reason 14 months sounds so much older than 13 to me.
These three are really on the move now. Avery and Ellie are walking everywhere and are getting fast enough that their default mode of locomotion, even when trying to escape, is now walking. It used to be that when they wanted to "run away" like escaping from their bedroom before bed or when they noticed the hallway gate was open and were booking it that way they would drop down to crawl, but not anymore. Isaiah is still crawling 90% of the time, but if there is something he can push...anything really...then he's up on his feet and pushing it around the room. He especially loves to push around this little train ride on toy that they have and has gotten really good at problem solving when he runs into obstacles. They're all budding interior designers I think because they all love to push furniture around and rearrange the dining room! Sometimes I look up from getting lunch ready and all three dining room chairs are moved as well as one or two from the kitchen bar.
Isaiah
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| he needs a little help at the top, but this boy loves to slide |
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| our little bookworm |
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| awww |
Our little guy has made some huge leaps in language and communication skills this month. He is jabbering a lot more and now he's taken to making Ellie's "budja budja" noise. He also went through a funny "growling" phase this month, though that has tapered off recently. Isaiah is also imitating more signs like "book," "sleepy," and "dog." Isaiah is truly our little bookworm. He LOVES books and a book can often snap him out of a weepy or angry mood faster than anything, including snuggles. Taking away a book because it's time to do something else can also create a pretty awesome meltdown! Sometimes the girls will be walking around, playing, asking to be picked up, and we'll look over and he's just over by the bookshelf taking them all off the shelf and then sitting there and looking at them. His fine motor skills are now improving enough that he can turn the pages to look at them himself which has been great. He's also getting good at pointing to pictures in books and actually points to things more often than the girls when you're looking at books and asking "where's the ball?" etc. Speaking of fine motor skills, he is really determined to learn how to eat with a spoon and sticks with it longer than anyone. He has even scooped a couple of bites by himself and will look at us and wait for us to help him scoop the next bite sometimes. It's really cute.
He still has a great laugh and has been adorable with initiating interactions and laughing with his sisters and us. He likes to initiate peek-a-boo and the other day he was standing by our bed in the morning and squatting down to duck below the edge of the bed and then popping up to peek and laughing and laughing. When the girls first started walking Isaiah was trying a lot too, but I think he got a little discouraged when it wasn't as easy for him and quit trying much unless we were specifically working on it with him, but over the past week he's gotten a little more adventurous. He's taken up to 20 steps before he crashes and burns, so he's making progress and will probably get it this month. I don't think Isaiah is a big fan of gravity (except for when he's dropping food or his cup from the table!) because you get that boy in the pool and he is a wild man. He just LOVES to swim and is very brave (too brave really) in the pool these days. He is very good at blowing bubbles and will do it over and over again. He has absolutely no problem putting his head under and will do it repeatedly, pretty much trying to dive out of your arms. He can pull himself out of the pool and will "jump" in from sitting on the edge and doesn't mind going under for a sec before we grab him. He's really fun to take swimming, but it's hard to have him and another baby in the pool because he's such a wild man!
Avery
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| happy little bear |
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| still only two teeth, but the top 4 are coming |
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| Avery & a "Da woo woo" (aka dog) |
Our littlest peanut is now an expert walker. The developmental teacher who came to see Isaiah yesterday said "she doesn't even look like a new walker anymore!" And it's true. She is all over the place and is able to step over small obstacles and up small steps (~2-3") without support already! She can also do a full slide circuit (up the steps, down the slide, walk to the steps, repeat) by herself at pretty much every park we go to now. At a couple parks we have to slow her down at the end of the slide so she doesn't launch off the end, but it's prety amazing to watch her do this and she'll do it over and over again. What's funny is that she is so independently mobile, but is now constantly asking for "uppa," wanting us to pick her up. Avery is using lots of words both verbally and in sign. She signs "sleepy," "
elephant," "please," "chicken," "my turn," & imitates lots of words (ball, help, dog, water, more) and a few animal sounds (ribbit, bawk-bawk ,woof woof). She has a lot to say and is pretty persistent and insistent with her communication. She has been eating more lately, especially at breakfast, which is great. But she has an idea of how things should be...like the other day we tried to give her a bit of yogurt from a communal bowl and she refused the bite and then pointed to her plate...so we put is on her plate and she ate it all!
Avery has been enjoying swimming more and more. She loves jumping in the pool (from sitting at the edge) and is getting pretty good at putting her face under. We think it bugs her that she hasn't mastered blowing bubbles! She tries, but ~75% of the time ends up swallowing the pool (or tub) water. Avery continues to show more and more signs of being ready for potty training. She walked over to me the other day and grunted like she had to poop. I asked her if she needed did indeed have to go. And I would say she pees in the potty about 75% of the times we sit her on it at diaper changes. She is also starting to fight putting her diaper back on (joy!) and LOVES to just run around with a nakey butt. The other day she and Ellie ganged up on me and she took off with her naked bum and then as I was wrangling her back to get her diaper on, Ellie swiped her diaper cover and took off! If a door or the gate isn't fully latched Avery can open them, stepping or crawling backwards to pull the door open before escaping so we have to be very careful about that or she's gone. She has also figured out how to push the sliding door to the entry way (where the dog water & cat/dog food are) by wedging part of her body in sideways and pushing. Avery is into having us sing songs and will request both "row row row" (verbally) and "wheels on the bus" (by rolling her arms in front of her). She is not a fan of being in the car, which makes me nervous for our 16 hour drive over the holidays! But she does like us to sing and will make happy or sad sounds to indicate her song preferences! Avery has been in a stranger danger phase again and hates it when we leave the room, even if we'll be right back. We've been counting to 10 for those times when we'll be right back and that seems to help. We've been using the counting strategy to help her with sharing too, which has been hard for her. She's a smarty pants though because we'll count to 10 and then she has to share, and one day when we gave the cup to Ellie she held up her hands and made a sound to tell us we needed to start Ellie's countdown so she could have another turn!
Ellie is walking all over the place now, rarely ever crawling. In fact, I feel like she probably crawls even less than Avery because she is so determined to walk everywhere. She falls a lot still and has had a nice series of little bruises on her forehead to show for it. Sometimes she cries after she bonks but not always, sometimes she just pops right back up and keeps on walking. Ellie is super into getting dressed and wearing random things and parading around in them. She is a crack up and walks around with some random piece of clothing on her head all the time. She will undoubtedly be the first one dressing (and undressing) herself. She does a lot of the work when we help her get dressed and undressed now. Ellie continues to be our little chatterbox. It is so fun to just sit and listen to her jibber jabber on and on about who knows what. I feel like once she has a bunch of words she's never going to stop talking. (She must be channeling Uncle Matt!) She signs "sleepy" "elephant" "eat" and "please" but doesn't sign more very often anymore and instead when you ask her if she wants more of something she gives us her "yes" face (opens her eyes really wide and does a biting motion with her mouth). She verbally requests "up" ALL. THE. TIME. =)
Ellie is still our best nighttime sleeper but she has often been staying awake for a large portion of naps just sucking her thumb or talking to her froggy or reading books. It's actually really cute to watch on the video and she is generally fairly quiet so she doesn't usually bother the other two. Ellie loves her little frog lovey and also likes to steal her brother and sister's loveys out of their cribs. She loves her snuggles and she either wakes up from a nap really happy and ready to go or really sad and then needs a solid 10 minutes of snuggling before she can do anything else. And she doesn't like to share her snuggles and will push or hit Isaiah or Avery if they try to hone in on her snuggle time. When we go swimming Ellie is the least rambunctious and most hesitant about putting her face in the water, but at home in the tub she loves to lay on her belly and kick and has no problem putting her face in. Ellie is outpacing the other two in growth and has quite the little buddha belly these days. We've been noticing that 12mo shirts are getting pretty snug on her.
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| A little playground lovefest |
We love these three little people so much and they love each other too. If we take one baby on a solo outing or someone gets up late from a nap, the babies who are playing are now visibly excited to see each other. The random kisses continue (as you can see in the picture above) and they have added hugs to their repertoire. Sometimes they knock each other over with the intensity of their hugs and kisses!
