Update on the kiddos

Despite my pleas that my babies would stay little forever, they continue to grow and change and mature. Here are a few things going on with them:

Amelia Jayne has many words - among them:
uh oh
bye bye
Mama - she says this allllll the time now :)
Dada
Bubba
ball
bubble
Mimi
Papa
baby
duck

Animal sounds:
cat
dog
sheep
cow
duck
bear, lion, dinosaur (pretty much the same sounds)


I feel like she's adding new sounds, and some words, daily now!

She's become quite the eater! She'll pretty much eat (or at least try) anything, but her favorite foods are fruits and veggies. Yay for her! She'll eat blueberries, apples, bananas, oranges, cuties, tangerines, pears, carrots, green beans, corn, peas, broccoli, and sweet potatoes. That girl can eat some sweet potatoes!
She also loves sweets. I didn't think a tooth could get much sweeter than mine, but apparently I've passed it down. If she sees a cookie, she squeals until she gets it or until you put it up. And if you put it away, expect tears to follow. It's like she has radar. I won't even see the sugary goodness, but I'll hear her squealing. Then I'll follow her gaze or pointing finger and there it is!

Amelia Jayne continues to be an amazing sleeper. She's still the easiest child ever to put down to sleep. She still sucks on her blanket, to my disgust, but it makes her happy so I don't complain. I just try to wash it as often as possible. :)

Oh, Xander. He is...what my MIL would call him...four.
Whiny, pitiful, four.
Some days are great. But man, those days that he decides to be four? Whew. Hopefully we'll all make it through this year. I guess I get an extra couple of months since he won't technically be four until the end of next month. Oh, joy!

When we were away for the holidays, everything got worse. Xander's routine was interrupted, his schedule thrown off. He didn't eat normal foods, he didn't nap at all, he didn't even get to sleep before 9 most nights. That was fairly catastrophic. Add to it that he had Mimi and Grandma for that whole time and the whininess just became unbearable. I'm pretty sure he thinks Grandma and Mimi will let him get away with anything, which is probably true. But when Mama's around, watch out! I have the ultimate say-so that trumps anything Grandma or Mimi says. And Xander doesn't quite understand that yet. So he whines. He'll learn. Oh, he will learn.

We're going through a phase where both kids want me. It's very challenging for everyone involved. They don't want to share me and they get very jealous and competitive of each other when it comes to me. If I'm holding Amelia Jayne or helping her with something, Xander calls for me or whines or says his famous phrase, "Mommy, I neeeeed you!" If I'm reading a book with Xander or sitting on the floor with him, Amelia Jayne squeals screams as she toddles over and attempts to sit in my lap. Xander then screams, Amelia Jayne pulls his hair or hits him until he moves, making Xander yell louder, until all I want to do is pull my own hair out! I know it's just a phase, but geez! I'm not sure why I wasn't expecting this, but I wasn't.

I'm working on being a little more intentional with the kids. If Xander needs some extra attention, I try to play with him more while Amelia Jayne is napping. If Amelia Jayne needs something then I explain her needs to Xander and ask him to be patient. I'm also going to start having more "dates" with Xander where he and I get to go places together, just the two of us.

We'll see how all of this goes. I don't know if it'll work, but it's worth a try. Right?

Overall, I just love those little boogers. I just know that a few months years from now, I'll be looking back at these times, pining for them, and remembering how special they were. Yes. One day I will.