what they’re up to these days.

evan:

• is our sensitive little guy. if anything so much as brushes against him or if anyone looks at him the wrong way, he will start to cry. i’m blaming the fact that he’s nearly 3:)
• is great at formulating sentences. it’s hilarious the way that he puts things together. the other day i asked him how his day at school was and he said “i haven’t got an idea” instead of “i have no idea” – love it!
• is still a really good eater and is fairly good about trying new things. we have had a bit of a struggle because he likes to play with his food. this leads to ridiculously long meal times (over an hour) and is crazy messy. i am ok with the messy bit as long as we aren’t sitting there watching him shove peas through the hole on his sippy for 30 minutes.
• loves to sing songs. he will pick up on the most random ones as well. some of the stranger songs he knows includes “life is a highway” from cars (although he sings “life is our highway…”), “stop, in the name of love”, and the spirit and war hymn from aTm (and no, we aren’t trying to brainwash him. he heard them a couple of times and was hooked).
• is an iPad expert. we really don’t let him play much but after seeing me doing something on it a couple of times, he is able to find his folder, start and stop his apps, and turn it on and off – ridiculous!!! he even asked for it by name - “mommy, can i play with your iPad please?”
• is a fish! this kid loves to swim! we have to really watch him around the pool because he will jump in before realizing that no one is ready for him to swim to them. we have really been working on that and hopefully that lesson will sink in soon! otherwise, it will be a long summer of time outs :)
• is a really good big brother. he’s not really your touchy, feely big brother in that he never wanted to hold avery when she was little but he is always worried about where she is. if she isn’t with us, he gets very concerned and says that he “wants her” – precious! he has to give her a kiss each night before she goes to bed and will either say “night night. i love you” or “night night sweetie” every time.
• is an active little dude! he loves playing outside but is a completely sweatball within 2 minutes!
• loves his stuffed james the train his uncle james bought him while deployed. evan even made sure he was checked back into the country at passport control when we got back from england. he figured that since they wanted to take pictures of james to get on the plane (xray at security), surely he needed to be checked in with the rest of us! the passport guy (who was trying to keep a straight face) cracked at that one and loved checking james back in to the usa:)
• has done amazingly well with potty training. i can’t remember the last daytime accident he’s had. he’s still in pullups at night (mainly because he’s still in a crib – he’s moving to a big boy bed soon) but most mornings, he wakes up dry so hopefully we can work on that soon.
• has developed quite the imagination. he now “sees” dinosaurs all over the place and has to go and “get” them. occasionally, this imagination has backfired when he has nightmares and wakes up scared in the middle of the night.
• is a lovebug! if we are somewhere with a lot of people, he will go around and give hugs and kisses to everyone before we leave.
• loves his mommy & daddy! he is constantly telling us he “wants mommy” or “wants daddy” or will turn to us and say that he loves us. he is such a sweet boy!
• will say “mommy, you’re so pretty” anytime i am wearing a skirt.
• is an amazing kid that we love so incredibly much!!

avery:

• is our little bruiser. i swear she is going to play football when she is older. she is tough! guess that comes with having an older brother!
• is into everything! i only thought evan was. this kid is like a walking hurricane!
• will climb on anything and has absolutely no fear! i’m a little worrid about our huge bookcase in the gameroom. to her, it’s probably just a ladder to the ceiling :)
• loves her baby dolls! if you ask her to “love her babies,” she will pick them up and pat their backs. we need to work on the strength of her pats though. if that baby needed to burp or maybe needed a little heimlich action, avery is the girl for the job!!
• is a lovebug as well! she loves to give kisses (tongue out!) and hugs. if you are holding her and she gives you a hug, she will generally start patting your back. strangely enough, she isn’t beating you like she does her dolls – hmmmm…
• will seriously eat anything! and she is serious about her food!! i’m so blessed to have 2 good eaters and pray that they are always this good about meal times.
• loves the water! she hasn’t officially started swim lessons but she absolutely loves swimming. she is usually giggling so hard that we can’t get her to close her mouth which should make swim lessons interesting but at least she enjoys it :)
• is really talking these days! some of her words are “byebye”, “daddy”, “iwuvyou”, “shoes” (uhoh!), “uh oh”, “bubba”, “nightnight”, “nanny”, “vanpa”, “cc”, “pees” (please), “tank to” (thank you) and probably some others i am forgetting. she will repeat just about anything back to you.
• loves to bug her brother. she will walk over, take away the toy he is playing with while laughing , causing brother to have a meltdown, and then will bring it back and hand it to him to get him to stop crying. i need her to understand that if she hadn’t taken the toy in the first place, he wouldn’t be crying :) that being said, on the rare occasion she is not the cause of his crying, she will go and find him a toy and bring it to him to calm him down. she really can be sweet :)
• loves, loves her stuffed weimie puppy her uncle james bought her while he was deployed. he has to go everywhere with her!
• goes 90 to nothing when she’s awake but is our late sleeper once she is down.
• is still being rocked to sleep but we’re going to change that soon. after many tears, i got her to put herself down one night only to find out the next day she had a double ear infection and pneumonia. i felt like such a horrible mommy that i refused to try again until i knew everything was cleared up. fast forward through numerous more ear infections and now tubes and it might finally be time to cross that bridge again. i want her to be able to put herself to sleep at night. i know she can do it because she wakes up in the night and puts herself back to sleep. i think her biggest issue is her mommy separation issues and me leaving her in her bed.
• has huge mommy separation issues!!! they seem to be getting slightly better but she is attached! i’m sure me staying home with her is going to help that :)
• loves her daddy and is beyond excited when he gets home from work. she’s started fussing a little if he leaves her to go outside.
• loves her puppy dogs!
• will run when you ask her to. when she starts to run, her left arm starts pumping back and forth. i’ll have to get it on video – it’s hilarious!
• is a complete cheeseball and gives the goofiest smiles!
• has an attitude and has started expressing that with tantrums in the middle of the floor. she hates the word “no” and will throw herself back ward or arch her back when she doesn’t get her way – uh oh!!
• is stubborn – no idea where she gets that from!
• is a little toot that we love so incredibly much!!

we love watching our munchkins go through these phases but wish time could slow a little bit because they are getting so grown up so quickly!!