Three months seems to be the norm as far as my frequency of journaling here. So much has changed with Eliana in the last few months. She has had a word explosion within the last 6-8 weeks. She went from saying minimal words to nearly a new word every day. And she's combining words well too. In fact just in the last couple days she's been saying sentences such as, "Help you?", and Mimi (which is the nickname she's chosen for Braden) hit my head". A little tattle tale already. :) I'm not even sure I can come up with all her new words, there have been so many! But I think it's safe to say she's pretty much on target for verbal development. Even today she's started to refer to herself by her name. She pronounces her name as "Yana". :) She also has learned a lot of her letters from a letter game on my phone. She's able to recognize probably at least half if not more of all uppercase letters and a few lower case letters too. Sometimes she's able to identify the letter before Braden. She's also had more personality come out in the last month. She has a very compassionate side and whenever anyone is hurt or crying, she's quick to go to them, put her arm or arms around them and in a mommy-like voice say, "be ok, be ok". She also likes to tell stories. She'll be in her car seat with 2 stuffed puppies telling a story about how they go nigh-night and then there's a "neigh" and they wake up etc. . . . . and it goes on an on. It's so cute to hear her telling her stories. :) And she love to pretend to be a horse galloping around saying "Neigh-neigh". She also seems to love music and whenever there is a good beat, she's been known to start stomping her feet and turning in circles. And at times (in church or Braden's pre-school program) will put her hands together and be waving her arms about too. It's too cute! I know I need to treasure all these moments because my baby is becoming less of a baby everyday. :( It makes me a little sad since she's our last baby. And, there was one time in the car recently that she was falling asleep on the way home from church. Braden, trying to be helpful, started yelling at her to wake up so she could nap once we got home. She opened her bleary eyes and started saying, "No, Mimi, Shush, Mimi" and evening waging her index finger at him. It was hilarious!
Braden has had a new surge of separation anxiety during the last month of pre-school. He would cry every time I dropped him off- which he hadn't done all year! And even crying when Curtis would drop him off at Aunt Cara's house. Also, crying when dropping off at Sunday school and at the Child Watch at the gym. When asked what's wrong with him he just says, "I just love you and want me be home with you". Also Curtis got him to say, "I used to just miss Mommy, but now I miss the whole family". It just seems he's reached a new level of awareness. I just hope this phase passes quickly.
I've recently signed both kids up for swim lessons that start next Wednesday. Eliana and I will be in a parent/child class and Braden will be in a preschool class with no more than 3 other kids to 1 instructor. It's a program called Goldfish Swim School in Carmel that seems to be highly recommended. Braden has had such anxiety about the pool and swim lessons especially when related to going underwater. Last summer, the program we did at the Y made him go under. And he nearly had a panic attack. So, we're praying this is a better experience.
Also, both kids will be starting soccer next Saturday morning. Eliana will be in a parent/child class and Braden will be in the beginner preschool class. We did soccer with the Y last year too, but Braden did not do well mostly due to immaturity issues. Hopefully the Little Kickers program will go better since they don't do any competitive games, only drills etc. It should be an interesting, slightly busy summer. It already seems that many of our summer weekends are filling up. But it should be fun! Til next time....
