Thursday, February 13, 2014

My Girls- An Update

 It's been a while since the girls have been the sole topic of a post, nearly five months since Sophia's first birthday and Grace's half birthday!

My girls are: Amazing, Wonderful, Hilarious, Loving, Energetic, Verbal, Intelligent, Helpers, Observant, and Learners.

And to be honest they are also: High strung, slow eaters, impatient, and (one) can have a bit of a temper.

I am so thankful for the daughters God has given us. Living overseas, in a male centric society, I get asked all the time by people "Just girls ma'am?" with a head tilt of sympathy. I bite the side of my lip most days, hug my girls close, and say "Yes! We have two wonderful daughters!" I really hate that they have to hear that all the time, like they aren't enough are good enough.

I am clearly meant to be a "Girl mom," first. A friend of mine, who happens to have two sons, lent us a bunch of toys to use while in the hotel. Part of the collection was a set of train tracks and trains. I set them up for Grace one day during Sophia's morning nap and Grace just stared at me like "What am I suppossed to do with this?"

I just stared back at her, because, frankly, I wasn't sure. Once I made the trains pick up a load of coal and do a loop around the figure eight, I wasn't too clear on what was to happen next.

Ha!

Grace:
 I learn so much about mothering from Grace everyday. It is a trial by error situation right now but I wouldn't trade a moment of it!

Grace is 2 years and 10 months old.

Grace is very full of energy and loves to be socially involved. She's happiest when we are out and about and can interact with her friends.

She is slowly getting over all of her weird food aversions and even ate pasta recently! And the moment we returned to the Middle East she started eating cheese again. Never mind the fact that I still buy Kraft cheddar cheese, just like we did in the States!

She is getting into books and stories alot more. She can retell random Bible stories (Elizabeth and Mary, Joshua, and baby Moses.) 

She is in size 3T clothes and 7 shoes.

She takes one nap from 2-4 but I recently figured out that if I laid her down at 1 or 1:30 she would still sleep until 4! She goes to sleep at 7 and sleeps until 7 am when we wake her up.

Favorite Clothes- She's really into socks right now. I don't really get it.
Favorite Show- All about Yo Gabba Gabba, much to my chagrin. I feel like I am hallucinating when it is on!
Favorite Song- She's gotten into Zaccheus and Skip to my Lou in the last month.
Favorite Food- Chocolate Milk and Babybel cheese
Favorite Person- Momma or her friend Miya
Favorite Toy- A VTech Picnic basket and little metal tea set that she plays with everyday
Favorite Book- The Very Hungry Caterpillar or Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (classics!)

 She's my painfully slow eater. I have been looking for some sort of "Bite timer app," so that she has a constant countdown and reminder to chew her food, swallow, and take another bite. It drives me crazy! Not with all food, of course, just the stuff that she is not crazy about.

We are getting rid of her pacifiers tomorrow, on Valentines day! I am really excited/dreading it all in one moment. She always has slept with them so it will be a big deal tomorrow, when she lays down for her nap without them! We are dubbing it her "Big Girl Day," and told her it will involve presents, cupcakes, and being all done with her paci's! She is looking forward to it but I doubt she has any concept of what being all done with them actually means!

Sophia:

She is One year and four months old!

She walks, runs, and tries to jump. She has gotten pretty good at climbing on things, which Grace never did.

We just got her off of the bottle on Tuesday, February 11th. I kept it around because I wanted her to have some routine through all of this change but with us being in a hotel for several more weeks I just decided to go for it one morning! She fussed that first morning and then was fine!

Sophia takes a morning nap from 8:30-10:30 and then from 2-4 in the afternoon. She is a pretty light sleeper though so any change of temperature or noise during the last 45 minutes of her nap will mean that she wakes up!

She is my cuddly girl. She throws her head back to laugh and runs at you full speed (eyes closed and looking up at the ceiling while she runs!)

She can sign More, Please, Water, Food, Milk, Baby, Cheese, and Cracker. She says Momma, Dadda, Bottle, Baby, Book, Open, No, Up, Hot, Shoe, Sock, Shirt, and Ball.

She sits very still for book reading and it has actually helped Grace to learn to sit still for stories! Sophia really does love to look at books and points at things she recognizes over and over.

She loves to "dance," and will hold her hands out in front of her fingers together, and sing a song from Nutcracker as she twirls around.


She is in size 18 month clothes and size 5 Wide shoes. She is in size 4 diapers. She has six teeth but two molars are popping through as we speak!

A quirk about Sophia is that she HATES to be messed with. Meaning, if she didn't initiate being touched then she probably won't like it. (as pictured above.) I can never get any pictures of them together because Sophia becomes a little tyrant about being touched. Doctors visits are awful because she just hates being poked and prodded at. You can imagine how much fun bath time or nail clipping is! She doesn't mind getting dressed or diaper changes and she IS super cuddly. Just doesn't like being "messed with."

My girls are such precious little lives and I am thankful to be entrusted with raising them up. Can't wait to see what the next couple of months brings!

2 comments:

Emily Powell said...

so sweet! Love their hair!

hollie marie said...

Your girls are just absolutely precious! Sophia is looking so much older... slow down time!