All about G3

"Interview" with G3:

Favorite color: pink
Favorite number: 1
Favorite letter: D
Best friends: "You" - Mommy
Favorite toy: A baby
Favorite movie: Shrek
Favorite show: Yo Gabba Gabba
Favorite food: "Pa-stuff"
Favorite thing to do: "Making paint" aka painting
Favorite drink: juice

G3, based on chart up to 3-years:

*Imitates adults and playmates
*Spontaneously shows affection for familiar playmates
*Can take turns in games
*Understands concept of "mine" and "his/hers"
*Expresses affection openly
*Makes mechanical toys work
*Turns rotating handles
*Matches an object in her hand or room to a picture in a book
*Plays make-believe with dolls, animals, and people
*Completes puzzles with three to four pieces
*Understands the concept of "two"
*Follows a two- or three-part command
*Recognizes and identifies almost all common objects and pictures
*Understands most sentences
*Understands places in space ("on," "in," "under")
*Uses 4 to 5 word sentences
*Can say name, age, and sex
*Uses pronouns (I, you, me, we, they) and some plurals (cars, dogs, cats)
*Strangers can understand most of her words
*Climbs well
*Walks up and down stairs, alternating feet
*Kicks ball
*Runs easily (we know she can run, but she rarely really does)
*Bends over easily without falling
*Makes up-and-down, side-to-side, and circular lines with pencil or crayon
*Turns book pages on at a time
*Screws and unscrews jar lids (and the like)

G3 talks. She actually does talk quite a bit. It just doesn't seem like it when also listening to G1 and G2. Unless she is excited about something and then I think she talks more than anyone.

G3 is working on potty training. Most days she wears "big girl" underwear and has very few to no accidents. We even went to Iowa and she wore her "big girl" underwear and did awesome!

G3 really wants to be going to school with G1. The other day when we dropped him off she had a full on temper-tantrum at the school because we had to leave. I feel so bad for her. :-(

G3 is always anxious to help me out, unless that involves picking things up off the floor.

If we are not home it is very hard to calm G3 down when upset. If we are home she just needs to spend a couple minutes in her room (with her "Happy") and then she is fine.

G3 can open doors, but doesn't do so very often unless told to.

She continues to like doing her own thing, although she has been playing with the others more lately.

G3 loves all things twins. She gets excited when we point out other sets of twins and seems to be drawn to anything twin-related.

We are so incredibly blessed to have G3 in our family.

G2 and G3 have really been conversing with each other a lot lately. I love how "grown-up" their conversations are getting. They are so concerned about each other too. It is so amazing to see the connection they have. Although, neither one will claim to be the other's twin. We try to convince them of it but they tell us no and then tell us that someone else is their twin.

All about G2

I haven't really posted much about G2 or G3 lately so I thought I would take the time to do that, starting with G2.

I will begin with an "interview" with G2:

Favorite color: purple
Favorite number: 1
Favorite letter: W
Best friend: Dora (she has a big stuffed Dora that she sleeps with)
Favorite toy: A baby
Favorite movie: Tinkerbell
Favorite show: Dora
Favorite food: Breakfast (no specific) "My like breakfast" she said.
Favorite thing to do: Play at park on the swing and in the dirt
Favorite drink: juice

I get emails all the time that tell me where my children should be developmentally. I was looking at those and decided I would post what they can do from those lists. Oh, FYI, when I post about G3, her and G2 will not have all the same things on their lists.

G2, based on the chart for up to 3-years:

*Imitates adults and playmates
*Spontaneously shows affection for familiar playmates
*Can take turns in games
*Understands concept of "mine" and "his/hers"
*Expresses affection openly
*Expresses a wide range of emotion
*Makes mechanical toys work
*Matches an object in her hand or room to a picture in a book
*Plays make-believe with dolls, animals, and people
*Understands concept of "two"
*Follows a two- or three-part command
*Recognizes and identifies almost all common objects and pictures
*Understands most sentences
*Understands places in space ("on," "in," "under")
*Uses 4 to 5 word sentences
*Can say name, age, and sex
*Uses pronouns (I, you, me, we, they) and some plurals (cars, dogs, cats)
*Strangers can understand most of her words
*Climbs well
*Walks up and down stairs, alternating feet
*Kicks ball
*Runs easily
*Pedals tricycle
*Bends over easily without falling
*Makes up-and-down, side-to-side, and circular lines with pencil or crayon
*Screws and unscrews jar lids (and the like)

G2 is quite the chatterbox. I don't think she is ever not talking. I'm not sure where she gets that from. :-P She uses the word "cuz" just about every other word. It's cute.

She only takes an interest in potty-training when the others are on the toilet. I am really going to be cracking down on this though.

G2 likes to sleep on her floor, not sure why but she does.

When she is in an affectionate mood, watch out! She likes to give lots and lots of kisses, long kisses at that.

She is quick to get upset (again not sure where she gets that from) but she is pretty easily quieted also.

G2 wants to try everything but is also afraid of everything. That sometimes makes things frustrating. But we will get through.

G2 follows her brother. Anything he does she wants to be doing.

She is such a sweetheart and I am so lucky to be her mommy.

The Boy is 4

Which we all knew he turned 4 this summer. But I am just getting around to blogging about his birthday. We had a party in Burlington on July 6th. We decided to have it there for a couple reasons. Reason one is G1 really really really wanted Ricky, Ginny and Skyler at his party. But with their due-date being so close to then I didn't want them to feel like they needed to make there way to us for his birthday. Reason two was so Matt's grandma and great-aunt would be able to make it.
We had the party at Perkins Park. There was a good turn-out. Pretty much everyone that was invited (with the exception of 2 households I think) came. The kids had a blast playing with water guns and also on the playground equipment.
Here is the cake:
Here is G1 blowing out his candles (he picked out super tall candles):
G1 got lots of fun gifts (and now as I am typing this I realize I did not get thank-yous sent out, OOPS!!). It is crazy all the things he is old enough for now.
Here he is playing with his Leapster2:
On his actual birthday (July 9th) we went to playgroup in the morning. Playgroup that day was at Kiwanis Park here in town, that is where the sprinkler park is. We took brownies to share with our friends. G1 was very excited to be turning 4.
After playgroup we had cupcakes and ice cream at home, with the 6 of us and Grammy.
Here G1 is blowing out his candles:

G4 eating her ice cream and cupcake:
G1 with a messy face:
G3 with a messy face:
G2, also with a messy face:
I can't believe my baby boy 4 already. The time has really flown by. He is loving preschool, although he will tell us pretty much nothing about it. His Sunbeam teacher came to the preschool on Wednesday to talk about butterflies (that's what she does as a profession). I think that was a lot of fun for him.

Here are a few things he told me about preschool:

Favorite things to do there: coloring and playing games
Favorite friend in class: First he said Mrs. Lozier, then he added Callie, Bryar and Briana
Favorite snacks at preschool: crackers, juice, applesauce and juice (I think he really likes the juice)
Has learned: how to walk in a line
Then he told me "Preschool needs two things...Me (Gavyn) and juice"
He told me there is nothing he doesn't like about preschool.

I found out today that G2 and G3 may be able to start going on Mondays and Wednesdays starting in January. That would make them so happy. We will have to see if we can swing that financially. That would be so strange to have only one child for those 2.5 hours two days a week.

G1 has preschool pictures next Friday (the 25th) and they will also do sibling pictures. We might have them take a picture of all the Gs and then G1's individual pictures. We just turned in his first book order this week. Man, being a parent with (a) child(ren) in school requires a lot doesn't it?!?

To be honest I wasn't sure I really wanted any of them going to preschool. I really would love to homeschool. But this has been a pretty good experience so far.* G1 is loving it and it is kind of nice to hang out with just the girls.

Onto some health stuff:
G1 got a tick on our vacation or right when we got back. We aren't too sure exactly. He has still had a red bump. I took him to the doctor a week ago to have it checked out. The doctor looked at it and said he didn't think it was Lyme's disease because there was no bulls eye. Instead he thought maybe G1 had a localized allergic reaction to the tick. So, he prescribed an antibiotic. Hopefully that does the trick.
While we were there I brought up G1 still pooping in his underwear. We talked about that at his 4-year check-up and doctor recommended giving him fiber gummies and something else I think. We've been doing that and it hasn't helped. So he gave me some literature to read that has suggestions of things to do. He also had us go down to get an x-ray of G1's belly. X-ray showed that G1 is pretty constipated. Now he is on Miralax and a laxative. He sure has pooped a lot, but still not in the toilet much. :-( Hopefully things will be straightened out soon.

*G1's behavior is not the best when he gets out of school for the day. That has actually been pretty hard for me to deal with. But every other aspect of preschool is great.

G1 started pre-school

Today G1 started pre-school. He was super excited. He woke up at 6:30 (which is not unusual) and did not want to go back to sleep. He just wanted the day to get started.

G1 requested pancakes for breakfast and sat in the kitchen talking to me while I made them.

Here he is after his shower. In between breakfast and his shower he said to me a few times, "Okay, let's go." I had to keep telling him we had to wait. It was hard for him to wait so much this morning.
*I'm not sure why the first 2 videos are separated by the picture, it won't let me change that. Also, it is 2 videos because G4 decided to climb up some stairs and then jump off so that is why the first one stops abruptly and you hear crying.

Leaving the house:

He told me "No more pictures!"
At the door to the pre-school:
Hanging his bag up on his coat hook, he remembered right where to go and found his name by himself:
With his teacher, Mrs. Lozier:
What he was doing when we left:
After school, while talking to me about it:

**Trevor is a friend from church. Oh and our address is on his book that he shows at the end that's why there is something blocking that.

Sprinkler Park Fun

June 29, 2009

Cousins' birthdays

June 28, 2009

We went to Matt's sister's house to celebrate her sons' (Ethan and Evan) birthdays. We do not see those boys nearly enough, they have grown so much!

G4 thought she would help open presents:
Evan:
Ethan (this was the best picture we could get of him):
Aren't these boys handsome?!?

Railroad Days

June 27, 2009

Every year our town has Railroad Days. Here they have a petting zoo, pony rides, carnival, booths with crafts, food and more. We like to go and walk around.

Here is the locomotive Matt washed one night at work, we went into the one behind it:
We rode on a little kiddy train.

G1 and G2:

Matt and G3:
The whole family:
Pony rides, only the 3 older Gs rode on the ponies.

G3, she started saying "Yee-Haw." It was really cute:
G2, she surprised me by wanting to ride and not screaming when she got near the pony:
G1, he was a big boy and didn't have Mommy or Daddy walk by him:
The petting zoo:
G3 is the only one that would touch an animal. G1 stayed right by Matt, practically attached to him. G2 screamed as soon as I took her in. I'm sure G4 would have petted the animals but we didn't take her in. Probably next year.
G4 sitting up in the locomotive:

At the pool

June 25, 2009
This is at a local community pool. The pool only gets to 2' 4" so it is pretty nice for my kids to be in. G1 and G3 were the only ones to go with me the first time I took kids.

Painting fun

The day before G4's birthday party Marcia came up to start work decorating cakes.  That morning/early afternoon I had to be out of the house.  I asked her if she would be brave enough (I probably used the word willing) to paint with/or watch The Gs paint while I was gone.  She thought that would work.  I had them paint the bean bag toss.  I asked Matt to stay up to get them started so Marcia could be sure to get some pictures.

This was the first time I had let my children use paints like this.  And they seemed to have a blast.  Honestly, I'm a little glad I wasn't here to clean them up (sorry Marcia!).  Thank you so much for doing this with them Marcia.  You are one rockin' aunt!