update on the babies.

I realized I haven’t done a true update on the kiddos in awhile so here goes…

evan ray:

• weighed 52 lbs at his 4 year well child visit and was 44 inches tall. as our dr says “the size of the average 6 year old”. at least he’s consistent
• has such an amazing ability to learn. this kiddo adds & subtracts without being taught how. he has started to sound out words without much prompting. if we misunderstand what he says, he will correct us and tell us what letter the word he was trying to say starts with.
• has such a tender heart and will randomly shower you with kisses and “I love you”s.
• has also started pushing his limits even more than before. it’s almost like he’s started coming into his more rambunctious “boy” stage. it’s frustrating because he is so sweet but at the same time, will walk up and kick over his sister’s doll house for no reason or will run over one of the dogs again, for no reason. hopefully this is a phase that we can curb with consistent correction because this little boy is just too sweet to be mean!
• has finally gotten his “big boy room”. poor kiddo has had the same “nursery” décor his entire life. we just finished redoing his room and he loves it!!! poor baby was still sleeping in his converted crib until a couple weeks ago. did I mention he’s the size of your average 6 year old?? oops!
• has a clock in his room that turns green when he is allowed to get up. believe it or not, he usually waits before getting up!! he’s definitely our rule follower. once he gets up, he comes into our room to wake us up if we’re not already up. the first time he did this {a couple months ago}, he scared me to death!!
• has done so well with his new speech therapist!! we are so excited by the progress he has already made in a month!
• is very protective of his little sister. it is super cute to watch him walk up to anyone talking to her and introduce himself – “hi, I’m evan and I’m avery’s big brother!” she’s a lucky little girl {even if she won’t realize it for awhile!}
• loves playing soccer, kinect games, board games, jumping in the bounce house, riding his bike, driving his truck, playing on his ipad, reading books, coloring, building…really, just about anything
• LOVES to swim!! so much so that when we got out of the pool, his eyes were “fuzzy”. poor baby! he is able to swim from one end of the pool to the other…over and over and over again! our little fish!
• wears size 6 shorts/pants and 5 shirts

avery jo:

• definitely marches to the beat of her own drummer.
• loves to dress up as a princess daily. she has her selection of dresses in the game room closet and is quite vocal about which she would like.
• has really developed quite the vocabulary. it’s super cute when she uses a word for the first time – it still amazes us!
• is quite dramatic! if she gets upset about something, she will run off and pout. her current favorite locations for these fits include in the kitchen in the corner of the cabinets, behind the curtains, in our room, or in her closet. I have no idea where she gets this from?!?!
• LOVES animals!! especially small dogs. I keep telling brian we should get her one but so far, that idea has been nixed. I don’t get it! it’s not like we’d notice another dog
• knows her colors and most of her letters & numbers. considering she hasn’t been in school during the last year, I’m pretty impressed!!
• is quite chatty and loves to tell you about all kinds of things. only problem is that sometimes her mouth gets ahead of her head and part of what comes out sounds almost chinese! it’s actually pretty funny!
• has done so well in swimming and is able to swim short distances by herself. she is not afraid of going underwater and loves being in the water!!!
• is starting to show signs of having similar speech issues as evan. we have asked his therapist about it and she has told us to wait until she is at least 3 to test because any earlier than that would not result in effective therapy
• loves her big brother and doesn’t like to be without him
• knows exactly how to annoy her brother and does it daily!
• still uses a paci at nap & bedtime although we are about to break that habit…yikes!
• is still in her crib. once we get rid of the paci and are sleeping well, we’ll convert her bed
• is still in diapers although we could probably have potty trained a few months ago {we didn’t because of the california trip & ashley’s wedding}. we’ll probably cross that bridge soon but don’t want to throw too many changes at her at once.
• still wears all of her clothes from last summer. she really slimmed down in the last year and while they’re a little shorter than last year, they definitely still fit. she is wearing between a 2T & 3T

love, love these little stinkers!!!