Our Kids

Okay so Landis is a little lovebug. Really a very, very delightful little baby. After a couple months we figured out that her late afternoon rants were due to gas. So now we work during the day to avoid that gassy buildup that was giving her such pain. We can push up her little legs and get toots out of her and she thinks that is just so wonderful. She is desperately trying to suck on her thumb, she really loves to suck (I know I mentioned it before) but she prefers something fleshy to the artificial binky kind of thing. Last night she sounded like a starving man sucking meat off a bone, it was so loud and kind of disturbing. Thank goodness she does not breastfeed that loud. HA!

Her sleep pattern is still trying to emerge but it does seem to be taking its time. She likes to get up in the morning between 7-8 and stay up for an hour or more. That first nap she is happy to take on her own in her bouncy chair. The only downside is that the sleep is a quick one and many mornings I am getting out and about with the girls so it disrupts her pattern. As I type she is fast asleep in the Moby and has been for about the last hour or more. She likes to sleep there the most but she is getting heavier and it is harder for me to do things, it is like being 9 months prego. Once she falls asleep at night she is good for the night, no late night rocking or any of that business so I really can’t complain. I think Jason is anxious for her to sleep on her own since once I get her down I am pretty much stuck (this is all for my benefit, he is concerned about me and I know that and appreciate it) but I am enjoying this baby so much. I get to hold and cuddle her a lot more than I did with the girls and I love it.

When she is awake she prefers human interaction to all the toys in the world. Her face lights up with glee when one of her sisters pops into view. She will goo and laugh at Piper and is very interested in staring and smiling at Lela. The girls are wonderful with her and very gentle. They love it when she touches them, they squeal with glee to me, “Landis touched my face, she touched my footy jamas…..”, it just could not be cuter.

Well Piper and Lela are growing up fast but at least I will have the blog to remind me about it later;) Lately they have been chatting up a storm, they are right in that place where they have verbal skills and cognitive skills but neither one of them works as fast as they would like, this leads to……..frustration:) Yes that is right, the tantrum is coming, the tantrum is coming lock up your dogs and batten down the hatches. Lately the trantums have come from Lela, she seems to feel things much more intensely than Piper which leads to more frustration. Piper is more the one that holds her finger right over Lela’s arm and says, “I am not touching her” until Lela is in tears. From what I have heard this is a lot like JJ and Jason as tots so it is kind of like cosmic karma. Jason swears it was always JJ tormenting him but I suspect it was the other way around since Piper is so much like her dad, LOL!

The other day Piper was on the potty and she called out to Jason that she was finished. We knew she was finished because she declared, “I saw a little poo sticking out.” Apparently she had been watching herself poop through her legs and saw it sticking out. When she bounded off the potty there was indeed a little poo in there and she was quite excited that she had actually seen it exit. Maybe she is British since they are so fond of toilet humor:)

On the Lela front our parenting coach encouraged us to have the girls (all small kids) do more for themselves. I let them do a lot but I still do most things for them because it is easier on me, waiting for them to put on their shoes is like Chinese water torture. So I have been making a major effort to see what they can, can’t, will and won’t do for themselves. One thing she pointed out is that right now they want to help and if we don’t cultivate that want to help it will be gone and they won’t help. Makes sense. They have been going potty by themselves and pulling up and down their pants, cleaning off their own dishes, setting the table and a few other things. They have been picking out their clothes and shoes, helping with the dishes and laundry, cleaning up their toys and other things for quite some time. Now because of all the extra doing Lela has come up with her favorite phrase, “I can’t.” Now she says that all the time for any activity that she does not want to do, crikies that can get old really quick. I end up in a 10 minute long conversation with her about why she “can’t” and more often than not we decide to do the task together.

Piper’s latest trick is to purposely dump things on the ground for no apparent reason (other than to torment me of course). She took all the moss out of my budding paperwhites and dropped it to the floor, just a minute ago she turned her sippy cup upside down and let it all drip out (while I was writing this post), the took things off the counter today and just dropped them one by one onto the floor. I know that she is testing me, maybe she likes to hear me sigh really heavily (that is fodder for another post) I just pray I have the strength to get through the twin 3′s with some sense of accomplishment and happy well rounded tots (is that too much to ask:-P).