Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Screaming
Just as I sat down to write this my little Erik began screaming over something and then proceeded to hit Joel, lol! Not that I find his behavior amusing. It is anything but. But it is humorously evidence of the fact that our Erik is a wee bit groucier than his older siblings. What really is amusing is that Erik has a very mellow, easy going side. He is always so well behaved and quiet in the nursery at church. But at home I think being the youngest, and often being not heard or misunderstood or mistreated by Joel or Elise has resulted in him taking extreme measures to be heard. Words...what are words? Why use them when you can scream at the top of your lungs? We have been working for some time with him to break him of this bad habit, but so far no luck. We will continue to try and pray that the screaming ceases (man, it does get loud here!). But until then we are trying to learn more about this little buddy and how to relate to him, realizing that each of our children are so uniquely wired and there is a whole world to discover about each one of them.
Locks of Love
A couple of years ago we decided to cut Elise's long locks. It was so long I realized that we could do locks of love, but that would mean that her hair would end up very short. I asked her what she wanted to do and she was totally up for it! So my friend Joy came over and helped me chop off the little lady's hair. She was left with an absolutely adorable hair cut. But more than being excited about the haircut, she was excited that she could donate her hair to a little girl in need of a wig. A few weeks later she received a post card from locks of love in the mail thanking her. She has kept it ever since.
Fast forward 2 years and once again our girly's hair had grown so long - almost to her waist. Again she really wanted a haircut and decided to do locks of love again. Again this meant a super short cut, but I love how she was totally game! She has not once made a comment about missing her hair or not liking it so short. But she has talked about doing locks of love. I love that she is so excited to be able to do something like that. I also love her adventurous side that is up for making such a drastic change without even an afterthought. She is a special little lady!
Fast forward 2 years and once again our girly's hair had grown so long - almost to her waist. Again she really wanted a haircut and decided to do locks of love again. Again this meant a super short cut, but I love how she was totally game! She has not once made a comment about missing her hair or not liking it so short. But she has talked about doing locks of love. I love that she is so excited to be able to do something like that. I also love her adventurous side that is up for making such a drastic change without even an afterthought. She is a special little lady!
The Tender One
Joel has always been a very "feeling" person. He is extremely passionate about things and feels things very deeply. Recently his sensitive side has been emerging in even greater measure. We recently watched the movie Elf with a friend of ours. At the end I caught my little buddy crying. He immediately denied it, claiming that his eyes simply have water that comes out of them every hour :). I told him how much I love his sensitive side and that it is a wonderful thing - nothing to be ashamed of! Two days later we were watching the Magic School Bus. I looked over and found my little buddy again crying, eyes all red. My prayer for this guy is that he grows to be a man comfortable with his sensitivity. This is how God has made him and it is a beautiful thing indeed.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Learning to Walk
At around 9 months Erik began to crawl. He quickly learned to stand on his own after that. I thought by 11 months he would be walking, but I thought all of my kids would be walking much earlier than they actually were. They both started at around 14-15 months.
Elise actually took her first steps after her 1st year party, but I got too excited about it and scared her. She wouldn't even try to take more steps for a couple more months, but when she did again she was off and a walker from that day on. Joel grew more gradually into walking. He started taking steps, but it took him probably a month or two before he was walking full time.
Erik took his first steps last night, though he didn't realize it :). But who knows how long it will be before he is walking. It's funny how babies can be completely capable of walking, yet because of fear they don't do it. It makes me wonder how many things I am completely capable of doing that I don't simply because I am afraid? There's some good food for thought! Anyway, I look forward to him walking because I know how fun it will be for him. He wants to be able to get places faster. I know it frustrates him when Nik gets home and Elise and Joel can quickly run to him while he is grunting and crawling as fast as he can and not making nearly as much headway as he wants. It is so cute and yet I also feel for him. But walking also means that he isn't a little baby anymore, and I'm not quite sure how I feel about that.
Elise actually took her first steps after her 1st year party, but I got too excited about it and scared her. She wouldn't even try to take more steps for a couple more months, but when she did again she was off and a walker from that day on. Joel grew more gradually into walking. He started taking steps, but it took him probably a month or two before he was walking full time.
Erik took his first steps last night, though he didn't realize it :). But who knows how long it will be before he is walking. It's funny how babies can be completely capable of walking, yet because of fear they don't do it. It makes me wonder how many things I am completely capable of doing that I don't simply because I am afraid? There's some good food for thought! Anyway, I look forward to him walking because I know how fun it will be for him. He wants to be able to get places faster. I know it frustrates him when Nik gets home and Elise and Joel can quickly run to him while he is grunting and crawling as fast as he can and not making nearly as much headway as he wants. It is so cute and yet I also feel for him. But walking also means that he isn't a little baby anymore, and I'm not quite sure how I feel about that.
Nicknames
We love coming up with fun nicknames for our kiddos. And there have been many. Although I have forgotten probably more than 75% of them (especially the ones for Joel), here are the ones I can recall right now:
Elise:
CeeCee
Bunky
Bunky boo
Bunkin
Leesee
Joel:
Joely
Joelster
Monkey
Joely rumbalay (this was Elise's - she said rumbalay means ticklish)
Rumbles (developed from the above)
Erik:
Riko
Rikadoo
Bug
Buggy
Elise:
CeeCee
Bunky
Bunky boo
Bunkin
Leesee
Joel:
Joely
Joelster
Monkey
Joely rumbalay (this was Elise's - she said rumbalay means ticklish)
Rumbles (developed from the above)
Erik:
Riko
Rikadoo
Bug
Buggy
Snuggler
I thoroughly enjoy snuggling with all of my babies! Out of the three though, Joel really is the official snuggler. All of them love to cuddle a little. As a baby Elise was a bit too busy for much cuddling, though as she has grown older she has also grown cuddlier. Erik is much like she was - too busy to sit still for very long, though he too likes to snuggle for very brief moments of time. Joel on the other hand, has always been able to sit for long periods of time with me. I remember reading to him while he was still in that baby phase, amazed that he could sit through Elise's longer stories so well. Erik at 11 months can only stay for about 30 seconds to listen to a story - then he is bored!
Today while watching a video I was trying to get Erik to sit with me. He did for maybe a minute and then wanted to "do" something. I put him on the floor to play and no sooner was Joel on my lap with his blanket and doggy. I have even had moments where I was watching a mommy show that must really have been quite boring to him, and he will still just sit and be with me through the whole thing. He just loves to cuddle and get that human physical touch time in. It is very precious and I am trying to savor it up knowing that as he gets older those times will fade away :(.
Today while watching a video I was trying to get Erik to sit with me. He did for maybe a minute and then wanted to "do" something. I put him on the floor to play and no sooner was Joel on my lap with his blanket and doggy. I have even had moments where I was watching a mommy show that must really have been quite boring to him, and he will still just sit and be with me through the whole thing. He just loves to cuddle and get that human physical touch time in. It is very precious and I am trying to savor it up knowing that as he gets older those times will fade away :(.
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