18 Months!

Nathan and Kenna are 18 months old today! I remember thinking that they went through a big development spurt at 14 months, and now at 18 months I see that very obvious change again (especially by the 17 month point). It's exciting to see how much they are changing into little kids! There is no question that they are toddlers now and not babies anymore.

*WARNING* Since I haven't updated in a long time, this is going to be a long one. :)

HAWAII!

We got back recently from a two week vacation to Hawaii (big island). We have taken them on several weekend trips but nothing this major, and we had never before flown with them. We had a great time, but it took me about a week to accept that "vacation" with kids this age is not really "vacation" as we are used to. :) It was fairly tiring and very limiting (in what you can do). Bryan and I are very adventurous and there are amazing outdoor adventure things to do in Hawaii - but we had to just take mental notes for the future if we go back when the kids are older. For example, we drove to a bay with a bunch of dolphins and there were kayakers all around them. It was incredible - but we were so sad to not be able to grab a kayak and get over there with them! Alas, it's temporary and we're both really excited to go again when the kids are older and can kayak WITH us. :)

Being pregnant on vacation had its own limitations. Bryan went diving with 8 foot manta rays (only two places in the world you can do this), and I stayed with the kids. In return, he was going to stay with the kids so I could snorkel with the manta rays (they aren't deep so you can see them from the surface). No dice - there is not a single boat that will take a pregnant woman. I was really annoyed! I snorkeled at all kinds of beaches there - what did they think would happen if I were on a boat?? Luckily, the snorkeling at the beaches was great - at one place, I snorkled with giant green sea turtles on each side of me, an eel below, and amazing fish all around. It was so exciting to snorkel with the huge turtles and I can't wait for Nathan and Kenna to experience that eventually!

We drove to beautiful waterfalls on the Hilo side (we were staying in Kona), went to amazing white sand beaches, took turns snorkeling, toured a coffee plantation, went to a black sand beach with big sea turtles everywhere, visited several historical sites, explored Kona and Waikoloa several times, and ate amazing island food!

It was most definitely worth it for them and for us. Even though I know they won't remember the trip itself, it's amazing how much something like this makes kids even this young grow - they learned so much being out of their normal environment! The 5+ hour plane ride was a bit taxing, but reasonable. The worst part for me was having to relate to them in a way I NEVER would otherwise - we gave them everything they wanted on the plane so they wouldn't scream and impact other people. Drop a book? No problem, we'll give you the book back. Want a snack right now (and constantly)? No problem. Want to have anything you want immediately so you don't scream bloody murder on an airplane with tons of people? You got it. I can't even tell you how it made me go crazy having to do that - my parenting philosophy is the complete opposite of that. And it's amazing how fast little people learn bad habits - after one plane ride, they were very demanding for several more days. They would cry in the car every time we went somewhere, thinking they were entitled to books and other play objects during the ride. I have never given them anything in the stroller or car seat, even when they were tiny, so they would learn to not expect anything and sit as patiently as possible given their age. They actually do a great job of that, and I credit it to never giving them things while waiting. But wow how that gets reversed fast! Fortunately, things are back to normal now that we are home. :)


KENNA UPDATES

My baby Kenna is growing up fast!! I'm going to have to brag for a minute here - she is SO smart and amazes me all the time with how much she knows already and how fast she learns (proud mommy!). A lot of that is because she LOVES books. No, no, you don't understand - she would ONLY read books ALL day if it were up to her. With everything in the playroom, she constantly points up at the books saying, "BOOK! BOOK!" She isn't as interested in the story books as she is in picture/word books. She loves to memorize the words and be "quizzed". It's so fascinating to me to see how she goes about learning because it is just like I do. She has to "perfect" each page and isn't happy if there is a word remaining she hasn't heard about. She will take my index finger and move it around to the different pictures for me to tell her what each one is. When she is learning totally new words, she takes my finger back and forth, back and forth, between a couple of words at a time in a very deliberate way to make sure she has them both memorized. Then she will have me point to other pictures and eventually comes back to hear the original ones. It's so interesting to see a tiny toddler fascinated by language and memorizing words in such a systematic way. She is just like me in that area - I have always loved languages and have an unusually good memory for words. You could ask me what transpired in a movie I saw yesterday and I would probably struggle to have much recollection of it, but if you ask me a word in another language I've only seen once and where it was on a page, chances are I can tell you right away. I think it's because I have NO creative mind at all, but an extremely analytical one that immediately sees patterns and systems. It's so obvious to see that Kenna is just like that in the way she systematically seeks to learn things. I hope to introduce her to some more creative areas as she grows to help foster a development of the other side of her brain too! I always wonder if there IS one creative bone in my body that just was never developed as a child. :) I love sitting with Kenna and "studying" with her because I feel like I understand her so well - what she is doing, why she is doing it, and how she wants to interact.

For a while now, the focus has been on understanding the words - so I would ask her "where is..." and she would point to the appropriate picture. But in the last month or two she has transitioned to saying the word when I point to it. She doesn't have perfect pronounciation or anything, but she can say an amazing number of words. She says so many words that I had to sit down and count them out of curiosity so I can put them in her baby book. I was able to count more than 110 words off the top of my head that she regularly says! I would guess that there are at least 20 more that I'm not thinking of. Here are the ones I thought of:

Trash, clean, dirty, bowl, fork, spoon, high chair, bib, towel, apple, Banana, (Avo)cado, oatmeal, (to)mato, pea, egg, broccoli, cheese, melon, berry, mango, bread, corn, rice, milk, water, bean, nose, nez (nose in French), eye, mouth, bouche (mouth in French), foot, pied (foot in French), main (hand in French), tete (head in French), knee, toe, Elmo, (Mickey) Mouse, Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger, hammer, ball, car, choo-choo (train), book, whale, (es)cargot (snail in French), monkey, bear, duck, moose, deer, fish, (gi)raffe, octopus, chev(al) (horse in French), chat (cat in French), bird, sea horse, owl, poule (chicken in French), peacock, crab, gecko, turtle, gorilla, flute, guitar, mirror, rock, tree, flower, brush, bath, airplane, “Dee” (she calls Nathan “Dee” because we call him “buddy”), light, diaper, bag, clothes, shirt, short(s), jean(s), pant(s), shoe, sock, yo-yo, tickle, silly, booboo (as in injury), pee pee, poo poo (she tells me now when she has “poo poo”), chair, walk, play, up, down, bed, help, please, go, touch, no, mama, dada, night night, amen, crayon, pillow, monte (climb in French)

When they were around 12 months I tried hard to speak to them in French some each day. But that was before they were really picking up any words and I think I got frustrated - it was impossible to tell if anything I was doing was making a difference. So I kind of put it on hold subconsciously for a bit. I realized recently that was such a mistake because the time between 12-18 months is when they start the major soaking up of words process! Recently I decided to really force myself to spend at least one hour per day with them in French. (I say "force" because it's a challenge for me - I'm conversational but not fluent so I have to really put my mind to it!) What a difference it is making so quickly! They are already responding to instructions in French and when presented with various objects can pick out the right one when asked in French. I'm just amazed how fast it happens. So, I'm super incentivized right now to stay dedicated to helping them become bilingual.

In other tidbits:

--Kenna is well aware of the difference between poo poo and pee pee now. She tells me soon after a poo poo that she has one. I'm optimistic that this means she will be an early potty trainer. :) She also yells "pee pee" when she sees me leave for the bathroom.

--She now asks if she can touch things by saying, "touch?" Almost every time I change Nathan's diaper she walks over in curiosity and points to the diaper region saying, "touch?" LOL "No Kenna, no touch!"

--Kenna loves to help me with things. She is a diaper changing assistant and immediately brings me a diaper, a green bag for the dirty diaper, and wipes when she sees Nathan is getting changed. She is great at cleaning up and always takes her dirty clothes to the laundry basket, or puts things away in boxes. She and Nathan both push their high chairs in after eating and are very proud of doing it. :)

--She loves to brush her hair. First thing every morning that she says to me is "brush! brush! pease! brush!" while pointing at the brush on the dresser! I'm like, I haven't seen you in 12 hours and that's my greeting?

--Kenna is a HUGE daddy's girl right now. If she sees daddy and then he leaves the room, there are tears. If mommy and daddy both are in the room, daddy is always the requested one (she'll actually shake her head at me and say no, so daddy will pick her up instead!).

--She took her diaper off last month when I had her in a dress that didn't have a diaper cover under it. We came in after nap time and she was standing in her crib with no diaper - and there was a diaper with poo on the floor next to her crib. That hasn't happened since. :)

--She has stopped biting Nathan. This was an issue for a while. But since I implemented regular time out discipline with them a while ago, it seems to have stopped. She gets time outs usually for defiantly standing on chairs after being told no, throwing a toy in anger, dropping toys over the baby gate, or climbing on something she isn't allowed to climb on. They get one minute of time out for regular offenses and two minutes for anything that was due to disrespect. For example, if I am talking to them about what they just did wrong, I always say, "look at me". If they refuse to look at me, that is disrespectful and they get the two minutes. When time out is over, I explain to them what they did wrong and require them to look at me again (and nod that they understand the offense). If they refuse to look at me then, another two minutes. We run a tight ship, but I can see it is worth the effort already. :)


NATHAN UPDATES

My baby Nathan is a BIG boy! He is a rough and tumble little guy if I've ever seen one. :) He sees how much Kenna loves books and tries to get into it - he'll bring me a book and sit down in my lap but after his standard two pages, he is DONE. Literally. He closes the book and says bye bye! lol It's so cute to see how he tries to get into it but just has no patience for it or interest in it. Instead, he wants to move, move, move. Nathan is constantly on the go. I sometimes struggle with figuring out how to best engage him. With Kenna, she is so much like me, that it comes naturally. But with Nathan, sometimes I'm just not sure "how" to play with him. He doesn't really "play" with anything but rather carries objects around the room and takes things in and out of boxes. I try to get him interested in specific toys but he really doesn't like to sit and play much. He just has a TON of energy. Since he won't pick up French from books like Kenna, I have been trying to make up games in French that will interest him. The other day I started playing "come" and "run" with him using those two words in French. I would say "come!" in French and he would run and jump into my arms. Then I would say "run!" in French and he would run and fly into the bean bag. He LOVED this and did it for probably 20 minutes straight.

Since Nathan doesn't "study" books like Kenna, he has a more "normal" vocabulary for his age. It's so hard to not compare them - I was really worried about his word development until I found out the normal word range for this age is 10-20 words, so HE is normal and Kenna is not. lol He understands way more than he says, like most kids, but here are his words at this point:

mama, dada, (ba)nana, apple, bowl, bear, chat, no, nose, tortue (his stuffed animal - turtle in French), bath, shirt, ball, duck, knee, bib, tree, flower, sock, shoe, please, go, up, down, night night, amen, bye bye, hi, main (hand in French), car

The difficult thing for me in having such an active little boy is that it is REALLY hard for me to take the two of them to the park where they can really get that energy out. It's very hard to chase them around and at this age there is a lot of chasing required to make sure they don't go flying down the slide the wrong way, etc. Especially being pregnant (26 weeks now!), I just can't do it on my own. Fortunately, our nanny does it when she is here (one day a week), Bryan's parents do it when they are here (one day a week) and Bryan and I do it together on weekends. Now that it's warm I can take them to our backyard too, which is easier for me to do. I bought Nathan a little soccer set and tee ball set but so far he just wants to carry the bat around the yard. We'll get there. :)

Other tidbits:

--Nathan's favorite activity right now is climbing up on furniture, sitting, then climbing down. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

--He still has a huge attachment to his stuffed turtle Tortue. If he has dropped Tortue out of the crib in the morning before I come in, there is no greeting, no "hi mommy" no nothing...it's just an anguished "TORTUE. TORTUE. TORTUE. TORTUE." Oh how he loves Tortue. It's so cute.

--Nathan gets the most time outs for running off from me after I say "come here" (repeatedly). He runs away and laughs. I know he wants to make a game of it and play chase, but it can be dangerous for him to not obey me in this area. I don't want him running into the street someday laughing! So I never chase him if I'm telling him "come here". I say everything once nicely with please. If they don't listen, I clap with a more stern voice "come here now". After that it's time out. Nathan gets an immediate two minutes for this "violation" since it's disrespectful and dangerous.

--Nathan still loves eating above all! Whenever he sees the clean up wipes come out, symbolizing the end of a meal, he immediately screams! No matter how much he has eaten, he still doesn't want to see the meal come to an end. He eats just about everything but doesn't appreciate beans of any kind. He puts them in his mouth and then refuses to swallow!

--Aside from Tortue, Nathan loves to give hugs to his other big stuffed animals - monkey and bear especially. He carries them around the playroom and periodically lies down on them to love them. It's very, very sweet. It's funny though because Kenna doesn't really like stuffed animals but is VERY affectionate with people - she LOVES Nathan and always tries to give him "pat pats" and hugs. He promptly runs away. lol Nathan mostly gives mommy and daddy hugs when he is tired and gets snuggly. Those are my favorite moments because my little energizer bunny finally settles down for cuddles.


BABY 3 UPDATES

Baby 3 officially has a name...Alexa. It's a name I've always LOVED and it's a little more unique than the other two names at the top of our list (Ava and Ella). Bryan decided he really liked it too, and voila, baby 3 became Alexa while we were in Hawaii.

Since I have an anterior placenta, it took me a long time to feel Alexa move. But the night before we left for Hawaii, on April 30, I felt several strong kicks and I knew that's what it was. Since then I have felt her pretty regularly, though still not as often as most people do. Bryan got to feel her in Hawaii, which was neat!

We are now working on the nursery - basically we've just ordered the things we need and the room has been emptied out (it was my office, but now Bryan and I are sharing an office). So it doesn't seem like much progress but we're trying. :) I keep having dreams about not being prepared for tests in school, etc., which makes it pretty obvious I'm not feeling ready for Alexa's arrival. Gotta get that nursery done!

As for me, I still throw up almost every day. I'm in for the long haul it looks like. I'm 26 weeks now and definitely feeling big. I have trouble imagining I'll get much bigger?! Oh my. I've gained about 12 pounds, which is a little less than average. I struggle with not being able to breathe as deeply (uterus pushing on lungs) and it makes me feel panicky. I have to suppress those panic feelings all the time so I don't just go crazy! I'm really trying hard to embrace the rest of pregnancy because I haven't done a great job of that to date. Most of the time I have looked forward to being on the other side of this but I realize now it will all pass me by and I'll regret not embracing it more. So, my goal for the third trimester is to really appreciate pregnancy for what it is, knowing it won't be for much longer and soon I'll be able to breathe normally again. :)