With all the holiday stuff to talk about, I haven't had much chance to update on the little things that consume our lives raising these kids. Just a few things to document, lots of Claire things and a couple Luker things:)
Claire has such a personality, with a fiercely independent and wild side. She has so many expressions that will just crack us up at any turn. I swear she rolled her eyes at Matt today! It starts already! Speaking of starting, we have started time outs with her and they're pretty effective.
She is talking so much it is crazy, especially if you compare her verbal development to Luke who barely had 5 words at this age (23 mo). Claire's vocabulary is pretty extensive and we are really trying to have her "use her words" instead of whining as much as possible. You can actually have full conversations with her back and forth and she understand what you're saying and responds appropriately.
Unlike Luke (who according to my my memory was sleeping through the night at this point, although I could have blocked it out - I should check the blog archive!)) Claire is waking up ALL THE TIME at night. We made the mistake of letting her sleep with us in the middle of the night, desperate for sleep ourselves, and now it is hard to break her of that. She wants you to put her arm over her to snuggle her in, and if you move your arm she'll lift your arm and try to put it back over her like she likes it to be. But even if she's not sleeping with us she's waking up and wanting to be walked around the house. We have to actually show her, as if to prove to her, that everyone is asleep and she should be too. I told Kristin that I think we need to Ferberize her again, but it seems strange to Ferberize somebody that you can actually have a logical conversation with. Like you try and let her cry it out and she's saying "Mommy, come here!" Not sure about how this will go, but we need to do something. I really thought that by 2 we would have this kid sleeping through the night. At least it is good birth control for having another one! I also have to say that we're really lucky that Luke sleeps through all of this hullabaloo like a champ.
In hair twirling news, the only reason she still has long hair is because she recently learned how to untwirl her hair when she's wrapping it around her finger so that it doesn't get caught on her fingertip to cut off blood flow anymore. So while she's still twirling her hair into tons of knots that need to be worked/cut out all the time - she's not in danger of losing a digit so we haven't cut all of her hair off yet. She'll just continue to work on the right side of her head going completely bald. That's a good look, I think. She's starting a new trend!
Luke has been really good about expressing his emotions lately. Like if you do/say something he doesn't like he tells you about it. Example: "Mommy, can I watch shows?" "No, Luke." "Mommy, when you told me no when I asked you if I could watch shows, that made me feel sad." Or else he makes a noise in the back of his throat that we have called "Luke's angry noise". If he's making his angry noise you know he's mad/frustrated and he doesn't even need to say the words. Except every time he makes the noise it makes us laugh, which makes him laugh, so then he's not mad anymore.
Luke was really upset that he didn't have school for a couple weeks for Christmas break. He was almost in tears when we told him how many days he wouldn't have school for. So I asked him what he likes the most about school. He thought for a long time and then answered "asking questions!"
Luke is such a great helper in the kitchen and a budding chef! He likes to help make dinner, bake things, set the table, unload the dishwasher, load the dishwasher, you name it. He is such a monkey climbing up on the counter to get dishes or put them away. He is so interested in food - and plays with his toy kitchen all the time. He likes to play restaurant in the play kitchen and named his restaurant "The Hungry Hippo". Our neighbors gave the kids aprons with their name on them for Christmas, and Luke asked if he could add the word "Chef" before his name on his:)
He goes to the bathroom now and shuts the door, "I need privacy, Claire!"
Luke likes to pick out outfits for Claire and proclaim "She would look adorable in this!"
Putting him to bed....Me: "I love you Stinky".... Him: "I love you more!" What a snuggle-buggle my little Luker-Dukersons is:)
And that's it for updates, here are a few pics from the week and a couple videos too!
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| Snowball fight |
This is a video of Matt spinning Luke around on the tube, which he loved, but also shows Claire's usual reaction to being out in the snow - not happy. She seems to have a 5 minute tolerance for the snow - must be Grandma Mary's genes, just kidding:)
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| Walking in Mommy's shoes |
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| Spumoni has been wanting a lot of attention lately - sometimes he can be kind of a loner, but he has been sticking around us like glue, always wanting to be where we are. |
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| He always has to sleep on something - be it clothes, pillows, what have you - his dog bed is usually a last choice location. |
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| Our first sledding of the year at G&G's - super fun |
This is a video of Luke jumping over Matt via a snow ramp they built. We don't have a video of it, but after this he jumped both Matt and I - monster truck style!
