Personality and Developmental Notes 9/6/10

Julie loves to say "ball" ("baaawwww") and we are starting to be able to distinguish it from a new word, "bowl" ("bowwwww").

Julie and Emma were trying to say "banana" ("nah nah") at dinner last week. Emma recognizes bananas by name in a book.

Julie seems to be starting to combine two words. Unfortunately, one of the words is usually "mine."

A few months ago, we saw Becca doing the sign for "more" - pointing at her palm. We hadn't seen it again until a week or so ago when they all started doing it and saying "more" ("mow"). They also like to point at their high chair trays and say "mow," as if to say "This is where the food goes."

They are really doing well with the spoons, just still having a hard time getting the food onto the spoon. (No problem getting it off the spoon, though.) Sometimes they will pick up food with their hands and put it on the spoon. One time, we didn't give them spoons for something, and Emma was really whiny and wouldn't eat until we gave her a spoon.

The girls have pretty much outgrown the exersaucers. We've been using them exclusively for week day breakfasts for the last 6 months or so, but we're about to give them up altogether. Part of the reason we're giving them up is that they girls are getting too big for them. They could probably get out of them if they wanted to. But, we also recently moved the pack-n-play out of the living room, once the outgrew the changing table max weight. This has left the fireplace doors exposed ... and it has been a constant battle. The handles are zip-tied closed, but they can still rattle, shake, and bang on the glass. (We'll be asking Santa for a kitchen set to cover this again. We were hoping to make it to Christmas, but we might have to call in a Santa favor because Greg and I are going crazy.) Playing with the fireplace is the only thing we've had to put them in the "thinking chair" for, but they the other girls cry because they just love chairs right now. We are going to try pulling the pack-n-play back out and using it for a "thinking spot,' but the only place we can put it is the place that is currently occupied by 3 exersaucers, so it's time to give them up.

Punishment has been a particular challenge lately. They don't seem to respond when we sound mad or yell at them to stop, and they don't even really seem to understand when they are being punished, or for what. I'm trying to avoid hitting them... I don't want to do it, and I don't want to do it because *I'm* mad. I'm at a loss.

Emma knows that the horse says "nayh." All of the girls have picked up fish noises, too, which has to have come from daycare because I don't know that I could have come up with a fish "sound" if I tried. But they make these cute kissing noises.

The girls LOVE to play airplane with daddy. Whenever they catch him laying down on the floor, they actually start a line. And once their turn is over, they get back in line.

They are starting to want to wipe their own mouths. For some reason, I tend to notice them wanting to do it more when we're out somewhere. It might be that we're more likely to give them dry napkins if we're out. At home, we wet them first, and they hate face/hand clean up time. They do like getting to run their hands under the tap after a particularly messy meal. I did get Emma to wipe some milk up off the floor a couple of weeks ago, and if you give her the wet paper towels after a meal, she'll start wiping her tray (and then her mouth... nice, I know). If all goes as planned, I'll have them doing all the housework in another year or two.

Emma calls bibs "bibby" right now.

We've been letting the girls in the kitchen a bit more, and at some point, I had all three of them around while I was getting a meal ready. Emma saw that I was putting stuff in their bowls, and she was hungry. I had my back turned, and heard a crash - she was trying to pull the high chairs out and it fell over. She was fine - it just scared her (and me).

They are really starting to go into "helper" mode... Becca gives out toys when her sisters are upset. I was trying to get the girls out the door last week and Julie's sippy cup tipped over on her exersaucer as I was getting her out. Emma stopped, stood it back up, and kept walking for the door.

Julie loves ducks. For a few days, she was carrying around this little duck puzzle piece. She just keeps things balled up in her fist and carries them around all day. (When we go to the playground, she constantly has a handful of mulch.) Then, she found this little maybe 4" tall promotional Aflac duck. She just carries it around constantly, and we let her take it to bed now, too. The other girls already seem to know that it is hers. It used to say "Aflac," but just today I noticed that it has stopped talking. Probably a good thing.

Emma can put on her own shoes now. She doesn't always get the right feet, and she blows a gasket if she has a shoe on and you take it off.