Wednesday, January 16, 2013

My Growing Boys

My boys are changing all the time! Brycen is especially catching me off guard these days with how much he's learning and growing.

Brycen...
  • can count to 10. I was so surprised one day when he was up to the counter top counting his goldfish crackers. I watched in amazement as he got to 10, then the rest of the numbers were just jibberish. But he got to ten! Smart boy.
  • loves to play hide and seek. He almost completely understands the concept, so it makes for a funny game. He loves to be the one to count and look. He counts to two, then he's on his way to find you! You pretty much get to take two long leaps to find a spot, then hide there as quickly as possible. It's such a thrill for him to find you. If you tell him to hide, he'll still come find you. He especially loves playing hide and seek with my mom. 
  • says "please" and "thank you" without being told. Well, most of the time. For example, he'll ask me to help him up onto the couch if his hands are full and says "mank you" afterward. The other day he was outside in his snow clothes while I was shoveling the driveway. He fell down at least 10 times, and each time I helped him up he said "mank you". He says it after some of the simplest things and it's just the sweetest. I'm glad that he's learned to do that and does it regularly. When he asks for something we have to remind him to say "please" sometimes, but most of the time he does pretty well on his own.
  • still loves Mickey. Whenever he wants to watch a show he says "Mickey! Mickey!" It's always Mickey. Every now and then it's "Jo Jo" (Oso), but Mickey is the favorite.
  • loves to sing "Twinkle Twinkle". We can only understand so many of the words, but we can tell what he's saying and that he knows what he's saying! It's exciting to hear him sing his very first song.

Carter...
  • is a very happy baby and smiles all the time. We've been very blessed to have such happy kids. He's happy when you have to wake him up, he's happy at 3am when he wants a bottle, he'll even smile at someone when he's sad. 
  • is a much better eater than Brycen was as a baby. He'll eat anything I give him, even if he hates it. I gave him peas one day and he made the saddest face. He hated the peas, but he kept opening his mouth to eat like a good boy. I felt bad and tossed them and gave him something he does like. Besides peas, he's liked every other vegetable I've given him. Brycen was not that way at all. We had to mix a little bit of pear or apple with his veggies to get him to eat them. Carter also eats straight oatmeal. Brycen wouldn't eat rice cereal straight so we put some in his bottles. We decided to skip rice cereal completely and just do oatmeal with Carter. He's done really well and likes it.
  • is still not sitting up on his own yet, but he's getting there! We were told by his pediatrician and the NICU staff before we left the hospital that he would be behind in some areas, and sitting and rolling over are two of them. He's rolled over from back to tummy maybe twice and tummy to back once.