Preschool

Parent teacher conferences were held at preschool last week. So, I met with Mrs. Eubanks to talk about Warner's progress in the 2 year old class. He received mostly A's (meaning age-appropriate) on his student evaluation form. His social, physical, musical, and cognitive development are all on track. Well, again, for preschool.

His evaluation form is priceless. Mrs. Eubanks had this to say about Warner:

"Warner is totally focused when he applies himself to a task. His social skills are developing and I can see a leader being born. If there is not full cooperation during transitions, Warner reminds his classmates to get in line. His physical development and coordination are evident as he pedals various bikes during gym (with speed and sometimes passengers)."

The last part is my favorite. I can just picture him chauffeuring his classmates around the gym in the tricycle with the wagon attached to it. Warner loves school and can't wait to go three days a week next year.

Perfect.

Patent leather shoes placed over footed pajamas without assistance: Check.
Cliff bar and fruit rope for breakfast: Check.
Food placed on Warner's plate instead of Maren's to ignite sibling quarreling first thing in the morning: Check.
What a great start to the day.

Is it Spring yet?

I should preface this post by stating that I enjoy and appreciate all of the seasons God created. And this does include winter. I'm a sucker for snow, fireplaces, and sweaters. But this time of year I get the winter blues and am so itchy for Spring I can hardly stand it. So, I am very thankful for our recent warm weather. Very thankful. Here are a few pictures of the kids enjoying the afternoon outside.
Fresh air. What a concept. I know winter isn't over, and this warm weather won't last. But we'll take what we can get - and enjoy it while we can.

Favorite Things

It amazes me how the kids have developed such strong, distinct personalities at their young ages. They are pretty fanatic about a few things in particular.

Warner is my creature of habit. Everything must be done the same way, every time, with no exceptions - or a fit ensues. Food is no exception. The dinner in this picture is served once a week at our house (at least), because both kids love it: salmon, mashed potatoes, and asparagus or broccoli.
Nearly every day he eats the same thing for lunch: hot dog (with ketchup. Ketchup is a big deal at our house), broccoli, cheese, and some sort of fruit. In fact, when I asked him what he wanted to grow in our garden this year, he said "hot dogs, broccoli, cheese, ketchup, and orange juice". Nice.
More habits include our weekly trip to the library. Warner insists on getting two Clifford books, even if he's read them already. Seeing as we go once a week, we've just about exhausted Norman Bridwell's collection of Clifford books, but this has not deterred Warner from getting them. We've tried branching out to include the five little monkeys, Thomas, Bob the Builder, etc. but nothing comes close to Clifford. We also rent DVDs at the library. For a while it was the Wiggles (thank goodness we're past that stage), then Veggie Tales, and lately it's been Clifford. So, in addition to ketchup, Clifford is also a big deal at our house.

The library trip itself is also completed exactly the same way each time. First, we return our old books/DVDs. Then, Warner and Maren race to the elevator to push the button to go up. Once inside, they both press a button (Warner knows which one is the 2nd floor, Maren pushes whichever one strikes her fancy that day). Then, they both run to the back of the elevator for the ride up. Not sure why exactly, but they do it every time. When the doors open, they run to pick out their books and DVDs. Then, we hit up the community room filled with toys and play and make a mess that we don't have to clean up (very nice use of my tax dollars, thank you very much). Finally, we check out our books and DVDs. Warner uses a step stool to do everything himself (including unlocking the DVDs and printing the receipt), and lately Maren has been checking out "her" books by herself (board books. She chooses the most randoms ones).
Warner is also a collector. He loves loves loves his Cars - all from the movie Cars. Matchbox cars will just not do right now. He wants to know their name and where they fit into the movie. He has a running list of all the cars he does not have but "needs".

With the Cars theme, he wants all things he owns to be Cars. Shoes, umbrella, swim trunks, blankets, towels, etc. That or Toy Story. Like our Mr. Potato head collection - Toy Story, of course.
One of Maren's favorite things is shoes. She spends a lot of time mastering the art of putting on shoes, and not necessarily her own. In fact, when we go to the mall play area, she usually hangs out by the shoe cubbies, trying on everyone else's shoes. These pictured below are Warner's.
She also loves soft things. Mostly that means her blanket and lovie, but it often includes stuffed animals, or anything she can find. Today while I was washing her blanket and lovie, she found an extra changing table cover in her room that's soft and carried it around until the laundry was finished.
The paci is another favorite. We try to limit paci use to bedtime and naptime only, but I give in quite frequently. I've told myself that I'll worry about that tomorrow. I have enough to worry about today.
She also loves portable snacks. Because really, who has time to sit in their highchair to eat? Her current favorites are Cliff bars for kids, and fruit ropes (also made by Cliff, if you're interested. Organic, 100% fruit, so it makes me feel a bit better about it).

And let's not forget about books for miss Maren Mae. Her attention span when it comes to reading amazes me. She will sit in someone's lap forever, reading books. The length or subject don't really matter, as long as there are plenty of pictures and pages to turn.

So, these are their favorite things today. It sure is a wild ride with these kids.

18 Months

Maren is 18 months old. I'm not sure how this has happened because I swear she was an infant last week. Suddenly she's a toddler. First, her stats: 34 inches tall (95th percentile) and 24 pounds (25th percentile). She has met all of her milestones including running, imaginative play, identifying objects by pointing, knowing body parts, etc. She has also started eating much better lately and we are nearly off of baby food altogether. She has always liked meat, cheese, carbs, and more carbs ... but lately she will eat broccoli and asparagus like crazy. Anything mixed with mashed potatoes is a hit too. And although she isn't fond of a ton of raw fruit, I've been making smoothies with bananas, strawberries, blueberries, and homemade plain yogurt that she devours. So, I'm pleased with the eating progress we've made.

And technically she is up to speed on her speech ... but I'm a bit concerned about it. She rarely uses words. Don't get me wrong, she communicates very well: pointing, making noises repeatedly, etc. And she understands words spoken to her frighteningly well. It just doesn't come out of her mouth in words.

So, the pediatrician has referred us to audiology for a hearing test. Since she has had 5 ear infections since last spring her hearing might be impaired. This is what I'm hoping, in all honesty, and that they'll recommend tubes in her ears. She has suffered from allergies, asthma, and ear infections most of her life and I can't help but think tubes would help. So, we'll see where the audiology thing goes.

Other than that, Maren is a happy, healthy little girl. With a lot of spunk. Unfortunately she's taken to biting and/or hitting Warner on occasion to get her point across - perhaps because she doesn't have the words to express her feelings. Or perhaps it's just because that's what she wants to do. At any rate, it's concerning and frustrating as I begin disciplining this behavior. She also pushed some poor unsuspecting girl down at the mall play area last week and pulled a girl's hair at the YMCA. Whew.

Warner has been kind enough to "help" me with parenting Maren in this area and tells me whenever she misbehaves. So nice of him, right? Well as we left the Y after the hair-pulling incident, I hear Warner say: "Maren, it's not nice to pull someone's hair. We really mispointed in you". Mispointed, indeed. Ah, the joys of parenting.