2nd Edition of what kids say

Troy and I keep mentioning how we need to remember all the things Sevea says. So another installment of what kids say is in order.

Sevea uses "for" instead of "because" for everything. I don't know if she even knows the word because. Except for the fact that it isn't an answer to a question.
Sevea: For you put it on the floor. For I want to. Let's go to Applebee's for I like it.

Sevea is dead set on getting a baby sister. She talks about it all the time. The other night Sevea and I were going to the grocery store and our conversation landed on babies, probably due to the fact that Eloise's mom was having her brother.
Sevea: I want to share my toys with my baby sister. I will read her books.
Me: You don't have a baby sister.
Sevea: We can get one.
Me: How do we get a baby sister?
Sevea: Your belly gets big and we go to the doctor and bring one home.
Me: How does the baby get in my belly? (I knew I was entering into a topic I wasn't sure how to answer but I was curious what she'd say)
Sevea: I don't know. We can go to the hospital and they use that thing, that thing on your belly.
Me: The ultrasound?
Sevea: Yes the octopus. The octopus will make the baby for us to bring home.
Me: The ul-tra-sou-nd?
Sevea: Yeah the ultr-a-sound.
Me: The ultrasound only takes pictures of the baby in mommy's belly. It doesn't make the baby.
Sevea: I don't know what makes the baby. What makes the baby mommy?
Me: (Thinking shoot I don't know what to say here.) Mommy's and daddy's love each other and make the baby.
Sevea: But how?
Me: I'm not, um, well they... let's ask dad.
Sevea: Okay. We're going to the grocery store. Can I get a cookie please?

Sevea was sick with a cold and had threw up on this morning. We thought it was because of the mucus draining but wanted to make sure she didn't fill her tummy with stuff to upset it.
Sevea: I want a cookie please.
Troy: Let's wait till lunch since you were sick this morning.
Sevea: I feel better. I can have a cookie now.
Troy: Okay, do you want one cookie now or two cookies at lunch?
Sevea: I'll have two cookies at lunch and one first too 

Sevea absolutely loves her grandparents. She talks about them a lot. She will ask a lot of questions about them or about when we were young and what they did.
Sevea at nap time: What did you say to grandma when it was your night time and you had to go to sleep?
Me: Okay, I'll go to bed.
Sevea: You didn't say no to your mommy?
Me: No I didn't say no.
Sevea: Oh, I said no once.

A little talk about Grandpa Steve. There is a lot of back story to this one but she is learning about how Grandpa Gary is not my dad and this makes her question more about Grandpa Steve.
Sevea: Why is Grandpa Gary gone?

Troy: He isn't gone.

Sevea: Mommy said he is.

Troy: For his job he drives that truck you rode in.  He is gone for a while and then comes home.

Sevea: Grandpa Gary is mommy's daddy?

Troy: No, Grandpa Steve is mommy's daddy

Sevea: Where is Grandpa Steve?

Troy: Do you remember where we told you Grandpa Steve  is?

Sevea: No

Troy: He is in heaven

Sevea: We can go to heaven?

Troy: No, we can't.

Sevea: How we get to heaven?

Troy: When you die you go to heaven.

Sevea: Grandpa Steve died?

Troy: Yep

Sevea: Like when one robot takes the batteries out of all the other robots and then they die?

Troy: Yeah kind of like that?

Sevea: So we take all the batteries out and then WE go to heaven?
These days it seems like everyone is trying to teach their kids how being #1 doesn't necessarily matter. It just matters that you have fun and do your best. Sevea decided this on her own. Her choice is always to be #2. Typical conversation after snack or lunchtime getting hands washed during daycare.
Sevea: What number am I?
Me: #2
Sevea: Yeah!!! #2, #2

Sevea: What number am I?
Me: You are #3
Sevea: How about Cohen be my #1 and then I'll be #2.
Me: Okay (wash Cohen up then her)
Sevea: Now I'm #2, yeah!!

Help, what have I gotten myself into

Cohen Month 11 Update

Holy Moly! Are we really just one month shy of having a toddler in the house again?!?! I can believe it after this last month. The latest blog posts certainly tell a story of a baby getting older. It has been a lot of fun watching him learn and explore this past month. He has been a pretty happy baby all along but this past month he’s been even more content (even with teething going on). He loves the fact that he can move around easily and get to new things. Speaking of those teeth…he’s been handling the teething pretty well. He still has 4 (two middle bottom and two top ones – middle and right) but the other side of the top are attempting to break through. Hopefully soon enough so his smile is balanced :)

His smile really does brighten up my day…or more like my every hour since I get to see so many smiles throughout the day. But the BEST thing about this month is Cohen’s new face he likes loves to make.

What you can’t tell from the pictures is that he also makes a huffing sound through his nose while making this face. It is hilarious! There’s no exact reason why he makes the face. Sometimes he’ll be upset, sometimes happy, sometimes crabby, and sometimes just because we do it and he’ll copy. I honestly can’t get enough of it. I know he’ll soon grow old of this and move on to something else so I’ll savor it while I can.

I’ll also savor this time in which he likes to cuddle. Just this past week I’ve found him “relaxing” and just taking a breather. Life is hard for a baby you know.

Rest now buddy, life just never seems to slow down!

Without us knowing

We bought this book to help Sevea learn how to count better and to work on number recognition. We’ve worked quite a bit on the alphabet and she is doing great with that. In the fall her daycare provider is starting a new program to include letters and numbers weekly ;) But beyond saying numbers or counting coins we haven’t done a ton with numbers. She never had interest in numbers quite like the alphabet. But we thought it would be worth a shot to see if she was interested in learning numbers more with this book. So it was much to our surprise that the girl we thought didn’t know her numbers pointed them out with no problem upon first opening this book. A great reminder that kids learn more than we think and even when we don’t know it!

Up, Up, Up

Since Cohen is now getting around and getting around more quickly he has had more and more opportunities to pull himself up on things. He’s gone from this:

to now pulling himself up on almost anything. He really enjoys this new skill and everything else that comes along with it. So much more to explore and enjoy.

But with new things to explore, means more things to learn, and with learning there is always set backs or challenges. Take for instance this sit and spin. Little does Cohen know that unlike most things he stands on it doesn’t stay still. Makes for some fun but also an interesting experience for someone just getting the hang of this whole standing thing. He took on the challenge pretty well but in the end learned the hard way. Experiences like this surely explains this face

Okay ignore the happy face but focus on the bruises…all apart of the learning experience I guess!

On all fours

We watched Cohen move around the room flopping on his belly wondering to ourselves if this would be his method of crawling until he learned to walk. Sevea did an army type crawl the whole time (for months and months and months), well that is until after she learned how to walk and then later would crawl on all fours. Well Cohen had been getting on all fours for a while so I was hoping he would decide this was a better way to crawl. And what do you know not even a week after starting to move forward he decided that crawling on all fours is definitely a better idea. You can get to things so much faster. Look at me go…

You wait and wait and wait for them to sit, crawl, stand, walk, etc. but when it finally happens it can be surprising. Even after experiencing this stage once it takes us off guard to now see Cohen in all sorts of different spots in the house. Especially since he is going on all fours he gets there pretty quick. Long gone are the days of setting him down and knowing he wouldn’t go anywhere. Let the chasing begin…all over again :)

Best picture

I snapped this picture with my phone. This picture definitely proves the saying “the best camera is the one you have available.”

Sevea lately

I do take pictures of Sevea. But most often they don’t really have a story to go with them. She is just being cute or silly or funny. Here are some of my favorites of our big girl lately. She makes us smile each day and we certainly love every facial expression we get…even the grumpy ones!

Puppets are all about imagination right? Well let’s just pretend they are slippers. Notice she still likes to stick her chin way out for pictures which results in mom taking 15 pictures trying to get a good one. Stick your chin in Sevea…ok…the second photo is what I get with that request ;)

One of her new favorite tricks. It is fun watching her do more things I remember loving as a kid.

There is that chin out again which often is paired with closed eyes. She has fallen even deeper in love with her little brother. She talks about him a little more possessively at times now. She enjoys playing with him but sometimes forgets the rule of not picking him up. Thankfully she is still really gentle. He is 100% in love with her and often looks for her wherever she is if he can hear her. She can make him smile and laugh better than anyone. Let’s hope their love for each other always remains this friendly. (But I am sure the sibling fights will not be far off!)

She has certainly figured out her independence. For a kid who always followed others she certainly takes her turn at trying to be the boss. We actually love it even though it means more parenting for us. She isn’t always happy with hearing no and definitely has additional crabbiness at times because of it, but she overall is a great kid. We know for how “easy” she makes life now, the teenage years will surely give us a run for our money.

Moving forward

Sometimes in life you just need to choose to move forward. Cohen finally figured this one out!!! 

What a way to end a week full of new skills!

All in a week

It never ceases to amaze me how much kids can learn in such a short amount of time. Or sometimes rather what they decide to do. You could tell Cohen was watching and learning and taking notes for quite some time. But he just sat with that information…literally just sat with it :) That is until this last week. He decided it was time to show off everything he had learned the past few months.

He’s been able to go from sitting to laying down for a month or two. But he finally figured out how great to is to go from laying down to sitting. Sitting is his favorite thing so he loves going from laying to sitting to laying to sitting. I wondered if he would crawl because he just sort of moved around my laying down and sitting then doing it again.

He was trying hard to figure out how to pull himself up on things. But often just gave up and did what he loves best.

Give him an easier obstacle to climb and he was able to do it. Of course being new at these things will result in some casualties but it will also result in some bravery to try to accomplish more.

These new found skills resulted in some frustrations in the crib. I am a horrible mom to take a picture before helping him ;) This was the first time he has ever sat up in his crib as well as pull himself up. Time to lower the crib I suppose.

Before we know it he will conquer this obstacle and more on his own. And we’ll try to appreciate each new skill, little or small, just as much as the others.