Friday, April 1, 2011

Where does the time go?

Yes, I realize I have not posted anything on here since mid January  - and for that I am sorry.   I will do the best I can to remember what all we have been up to in the last 2 1/2 months.
Clara -
She has been out of her brace since mid February (3 months old).  I was absolutely thrilled for her to not have to wear it anymore.  Once she was able to not wear it anymore she had an ultrasound done on her hip.  It showed that her left (the problem one) is not as perfect as her right, but is in the normal range. 
Another issue we have been dealing with when it come to Clara is she seems to have a very sensitive stomach.  I have had to give up all dairy, oh how I miss my cheese.  Also if I eat anything too spicy or too much broccoli or other gassy food then she lets me know it.  I REALLY hope she grows out of these stomach issues.  I want her to be able to eat all the yummy foods without being in pain.
Other than the hip and her gas issues she has been extremely healthy.  She had a few days with a slightly icky nose, but nothing to bad. 
A vast majority of the time she is smiling and laughing.  Everyone comments on how happy of a baby she is.  And they are completely correct.  I am not sure how I have been so blessed to have 2 awesome babies.  That being said Clara does have her gassy moments where she screams her head off.  And if she feels she is being ignored she also makes sure you know how she feels about it.
So far Clara is a tall/thin baby.   At her 2 month check up she was about 90% for height and only about 50% for weight.  I am not sure what her percents were at 4 months, but I will try to remember to ask at her 6 month check up. The baby fat she does have she carries in her cheeks and her thighs.   Unlike me, she has a very thin belly.  Maybe she will keep that as she grows up.  :)
As of yesterday, Clara can now roll over BOTH ways!  I think that is pretty impressive since she is only 4 1/2 months old!

Gray-
Since last posting Gray has turned 2!  He is now in a big boy bed and is potty trained during his awake hours.  I am in no hurry to have him out of diapers at nap/bedtime.  He has a hard enough time sleeping and I don't want to give him another reason to get out of the bed.
He can now count to 12 and after skipping a few numbers can get to 20.  He also recognizes numbers 0-10 all of the time and sometimes numbers between 11 and 20.  He recognizes all of this alphabet and can sing his abc's when he wants to.  For some reason he often skips E and G.  His signing vocabulary is extremely large.  I keep meaning to try to list all of the ones he knows so I can get a count.  I would say he knows 100 or more.  His spoken vocabulary is also huge!  There are truly times I wish he didn't have such a large vocabulary, but I try to remind myself that there are lots of people who would do most anything to have their child speak more.
He now showers instead of taking a bath.  If it were up to him then he would stay in the shower all day!  I love that he is okay with the water running all over his face and getting in his eyes.  I think that will help him this summer in swimming lessons. 
Gray has really started to become imaginative lately.  He has several imaginary friends,the main one being "Alligator."  Alligator follows us all the time when we are out driving.  He must be a very special alligator because he is often in trees.  Gray also likes to pretend he is Chris.  This is the general idea of a conversation between him and myself yesterday at the kitchen table.
Gray: Me daddy
Me:   Oh you are daddy now
Gray: Yes, Got to work, push buttons
Me: HAHAHAH

I think Chris didn't really appreciate Gray's view of his work when I told him the story.

One huge challenge we are having with Gray is while he was perfectly fine in his big boy bed for almost 2 months the last couple weeks that has changed.  He refuses to stay in his bed for naps or at bed time.  This has not helped any of our moods.  I keep praying this phase is over soon!  It is the worst phase Gray has ever had!


Teaching Gray -
I am pretty sure in  a previous post I mentioned started to have a time each day to teach Gray each day.  I did fairly decent with this for a little while, but I unfortunately have not kept this up.  I have a very hard time finding the time to get things together for this.  Also Clara refuses to be in any kind of a routine so I never knew when she would be asleep or for how long.  This made it difficult, especially since she has a knack for waking up when we have the paint out.  Once we are on a better schedule we will get back into school. :)

Well I just realized I am way late on setting anything out for dinner so that is all for now.