3-Year-Olds Continued...

So, I kinda summed up the current state of eating and growing at our house in the last post. Incidentally, today was an excellent eating day, and that always puts me in a happy mood:)


What I've really been wanting to do is to write about some of the really cute and funny things they are doing and saying lately. I love this age, despite all the bickering and whining that sometimes goes on. It seems like the are learning so much so fast, and the next thing you know I will blink my eyes and they will be teenagers. There's so much that I don't want to forget!

I'll start with a few Holland stories. Holland is pretty much talking in complete sentences, asking and answering questions, and following multi-step directions. Well, at least when she actually listens... She adds words to her vocabulary EVERY day, and amazes us with some of the things she comes up with.

I started putting the xmas tree up while Holland was napping. When she woke up and came downstairs she got really excited and said "OOOOHHHHH, it's Christmas!!!" The next day she saw the tree after I had gotten the lights on it. She said, "Wow Mom, you finished it! Can I touch it?" I said "sure, you can touch it." Then she said, "no, I'm not going to touch it...it has germs on it." When she saw the stockings hanging from the mantle she said "Wow Mom, that looks beautiful!"

Every time she looks out the window and sees snow, she says "It's snowing! Can we go sledding? Can we make a snowman?" Nevermind that the snow isn't actually sticking to the ground yet! When she hears a Christmas song on the radio that uses the word holly, she says "Me Mom? Me?" I'll say "Yes you!" And she says "they're singing about ME!"

Many times lately when I ask her to do something she responds, "I can't now. I too busy." The other day I asked her to come down in the family room so I could get her shoes on, and she said "I'm never ever coming down there." "Never ever?" "Nope, never ever."

The first thing she said when I walked in to get her up in the morning after last Thursday when I was sickly ill, was "MOM, you're HAPPY!" I couldn't convince her that the reason I was in bed the day before was NOT because I wasn't happy. She's also still very big on informing us when she is sad. "I'm SOOO SAD." We hear this A LOT! She's also very great about saying "I'm sorry." Sometimes she says it at the wrong times though, like she falls then tells me "I'm sorry Mom." I don't know why she feels the need to apologize all the time. She clearly doesn't get this from me;)


Holland is also thinking a lot of things are "scary" lately. We hear "I'm scared" almost as much as "I'm sad." She is very afraid of the previews to her DVDs especially the Disney ones. I've tried analyzing this fear, and what I can gather is that she does not like the music/noise or the announcers voice that comes on with the digital Disney DVD. I think it surprised her once, so now she thinks it is coming every time the screen turns dark. She either hides, or makes us hug her during the previews of any Disney movie. She'll hide her eyes with certain parts of other movies, but once the video is on, she is okay.

Holland also LOVES dogs, and loves to BE a dog. She also want ME to be a "mommy dog." All. day. long. Every stuffed toy needs to have a mommy and a baby. She pretends to be a baby, and wants me to be the mommy. She says "mommy." I say "baby." Then I get big hugs. Gotta love that. Until about the 200th time, but that's okay.

Eden's language is really coming along now too, but is clearly delayed both expressively and receptively. I'm not sure how much of the delay is due to not hearing for the first year, having CP, a combination of the two, or something else entirely. Even so, I am very encouraged with the progress we are seeing lately, and I think if we can continue to be patient with her she will continue to amaze us all.

She is a total parrot lately, and repeats everything her sister says. Having Holland there as a model, as well as a motivator has been extremely helpful with Eden's speech development. Eden has had a couple of her own breakthroughs just this past week that I am very excited about. First, she has started alerting us when her cochlear implant is not working!!!! Yippee!!! I have waited 2 years for this! Just this past weekend when I was feeding her a meal in her booster chair, I noticed that her magnet would come off when she turned her head. She repeatedly reached up and touched the coil, then looked at me and pointed to her cheek. Now, we have taught her to point to her ear when she hears something outside of the room, and to say "I hear it." She does this ALL the time now, when she hears something interesting like a siren or an airplane, or a dog barking, but instead of her ear she points to her cheek. So her pointing to her cheek when her magnet comes off is her way of saying "I can't hear it!" She did it in school on Monday when it had shut off, and let me know that I needed to fix it. It almost made me cry! I am so glad that she will be able to let her teachers know when she can't hear when she actually starts going to school without me. I was envisioning her at school unable to hear, and never telling anyone. We'll keep working on it until she gets really good at it, so I don't have that worry!


The other really cool thing that she started doing lately is saying and signing diaper change after she poops. Historically she would sit in a wet or poopy diaper all day and never make a peep if I wasn't on top of it. I wondered how it would ever be possible to potty train her if she didn't even care if she had a dirty diaper! In just a week she is consistently telling me when she needs a diaper change, and at least 3 or 4 times has told me BEFORE she actually pooped! We've had her sitting on the potty when she asks, but so far nothing in that department. But I think it will happen...someday. Maybe it will happen for Eden before Holland. You never know. After experiencing some early success with using the potty, Holland has decided that she really is not interested anymore. The only times she asks to go "poop in the potty" are when we are sitting down for dinner at a restaurant, or when it is time for bed. Of course, neither time does she actually need to go:)

The other thing Eden has gotten really good at lately is saying "no way." Why is "no way" SOOOO much more annoying than just "no." And why not "no thanks?" Why "no way?" I don't know where she got that, except for maybe her sister.

I love how Eden says "Hi Guys!" when she enters a room, or when she is playing with her little characters. I also love when she covers her mouth to laugh and says when she thinks something is "funny." I love when she wears the fleece Cinderella shirt, that she has to keep the hood on all day long, and says "uh-oh" over and over if it falls off. I love that she calls us "mommy" and "daddy" now instead of always mama and dada. I love that the past few days she says "santa ho, ho, ho" when she sees a santa, and repeats it over and over if you laugh cause she loves to be funny.

They are both so cool, and funny, and smart, and loving. There are still plenty of challenges, but when I step back and look at the bigger picture, we are mostly pretty lucky, and I have so much to be thankful for.