changes

At the end of September/beginning of October, Lukasz turned 19 months old (and Lily turned 38 months old). He also started to talk. Not in full sentences, but he would surprise me with a new word or two each day. Now his favourite phrase seems to be "no-wan", or "don't want". He keeps reminding me of a teenager, but then I realize it's only the soon-to-be terrible 2s rearing their ugly head. He still has the sweetest way of saying please: "pweeeeeeezh", which Lily now can and does imitate perfectly. And my morning alarm clock is now the sound of him going "Mommeeeeeeeeeeee! Mommeeeeeeeeeeee!" Why can't he say "Tatuuuuuuuuuuuuus!"? Sigh.

He still says "uppa" when he wants to be picked up, and "um um" for when he wants to eat, combined with trying to crawl up his chair. I don't think I blogged about the changes to his chair yet; he used to sit in his booster seat with tray on a chair separate from the table, just like a regular high chair, while Lily sits up to the table with us in her booster seat. Lukasz's eating habits were pretty extraordinarily horrible. He'd consistently tip his sippy cup and let it pour out all over his tray, upend his plate and throw his food on the floor.

I first realized he hated to have me feed him when he whipped out an "a-do-i", which was his way of saying "I'll do it", so I handed the spoon over. Then, a few weeks ago, I rearranged the table settings so he sits at one end of the table up at the table just like Lily. And I could not BELIEVE the change in his eating habits. Suddenly he was Mr. Perfect Eater. He dropped all his old habits of throwing and spilling food and drink, and is now even picking up food that he accidentally drops on the place mat or into his bib, and putting it back on his plate. He eats by himself like a pro, and there's even been times where he'll eat everything on his plate and have MORE. And when he's done, he'll say "all done" and pick everything up and hand it to me.

It's like my mom keeps telling me, a child's biggest goal is to grow up.


Lily has started keyboard lessons; it's a really interesting way of teaching such young kids... the focus is mostly on learning the difference between high and low, and loud and soft, and keeping a steady beat, like the hop, hop of a rabbit. But Lily also now knows where all the D and F keys are on the keyboard, thanks to the dreadful, dancing dinosaur in his dinosaur den (the two black keys) and Fireman Fred's firehall (the three black keys). The leftmost black key is the fire pole which the fireman slides down and then lands on his F key. I was really confused at first, but now I can see Lily keeping steady beats with her castanet while singing a song and it just blows me away. She heard a Beethoven song and said "It's piano soft" and then when it got louder "it's forte loud". She loves loves LOVES music and dancing and singing, and I'm learning a lot through being in these classes, too. I'm not good at memorizing but I'll now never forget where the D and F key are, that's for sure!

They both have started showing a real interest in looking at books by themselves (HOORAY!, not the by themselves part so much, but the fact that they independently choose to look at one, without me saying "okay I'm going to read you a book", because, I admit, I want them to love reading as much as I do). Lily has memorized a couple of books, "Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?", "The wheels on the bus" and "Down by the station". It helps that the last two are songs. She's "read" books to Lukasz a few times now, and it's really sweet to see. With Lukasz's increased vocabulary has come the greater interest in books, and he loves to call out things he sees and recognizes "plane! fwain (train)! ball! beebee (baby)! bee! moon! sun! star! wee ohh wee ohh (fire truck)!" etc. He knows the sounds a lot of animals make and he names them like that as well: oof oof, kak kak, meow. :)

The biggest change that's happened in the last couple of weeks is that Lily no longer naps during the day.

UGH.

But, I have taught her from the start that I need to do some cleaning and things like that while Lukasz naps, so she's getting better at entertaining herself. I play with her and help her with things as well, but at least this way she doesn't expect me to be by her side for his entire nap.

The sweet part about no naps for her? They are both in bed by 8:30 at night. I seriously never thought the day would come. When she was napping she was rarely in bed before 10 p.m., obviously the nap was giving her a total second wind.

So now we've reached a new phase in parenting, new challenges, new rewards, a new level of required energy... but overall it's a great time. :)

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥