Ethan 6 months and Rose 2 yrs - 4 months

Dear Rose and Ethan,

You are both such easy children in most ways, I so appreciate your happy dispositions.  Unfortunately Papa has had to work quite a bit lately to finish some projects.  So, I have been sort of single parenting lately.  I have been trying to be patient!

Rose

You are talking so much these days.  You communicate your wishes quite well, not quite in full sentences.  A commen request is “Ima raisins” or “What you doing Mommy?”.  You have become quite picky on food.  You prefer raisins, yogurt, sweet things, bananas, cutie oranges (sometimes).  You do not really like most vegetables.  You can sing several shorter songs by yourself, and the words are mostly correct.  The ones you often sing are The ABCs, Jesus Loves Me, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, and Slippery Fish.

Development

You are not really interested in going on the potty much.  You did go #2 on the big potty for the first time the other day.  It was quite a success because I saw you start bearing down, and you were willing to head into the potty.  Usually you say you do not want to.  You can pull your pants down on your own.  I need to have you start getting dressed on your own.  It’s hard because we are usually in a bit of a rush in the morning.  You talk and sing quite a bit.  You like to look through books.  You can identify many animals, and their sounds.  You get colors right some of the time.  You can count to 10, and perhaps 20. 

Likes
Eating, dancing/dance parties, being carried/held, reading books, Super Simple Songs on Youtube, going to church aka seeing Jesus, going to the park, being outside, drawing, drawing with sidewalk chalk

Dislikes
Washing your hair, brushing your hair, brushing your teeth, taking naps.  You usually go to bed quite easily, but sometimes you whine a bit about that.

Ethan

You are such a sweet and smiley boy.  You really do not cry unless you are quite hungry or something is wrong.  We had a bit of a scare in February.  You had a double ear infection, RSV, and the beginnings of viral pneumonia.  I believe you likely have asthma and potentially allergies also.  In the last week or so you have gotten much better.  We were having to suction you every couple of hours.  There is much less discharge these days.  When you are sick for some reason you like the disposable Enfamil bottle nipples better.  So, we go back and forth between normal nipples and those.  The disposable ones suck in quite easily, so it takes longer to have a bottle with them.  You are on Level 1 Dr Brown nipples.

Likes
Baths, being held, being in the upright bouncer, chewing on your hands or anything you can put in your mouth

Dislikes
Tummy time, having your nose suctioned when you are sleepy

Development
You roll over on your own very well these days.  You like to make babbling sounds.  You try to pull yourself when on your tummy.  You seem to get hungry for solid-ish food, but you often don’t seem to eat much of it.  Occasionally you will lap up a decent amount of oatmeal.  Only a couple of times have you enjoyed eating pureed veggies.  Your favorite has seemed to be butternut squash or sweet potatoes.  You really are not into pureed food much yet though.  You do not really jump in the jumper yet, but you like to play with the different gadgets.

Sleeping
You wake up most nights between 12 and 2, and then around 5 or 6.  You are definitely not sleeping through the night yet.  But you are getting better.  When you were dealing with allergies/congestion you were waking up every hour or so, and not able to each much at once.  Thank goodness we are over that!

I love you both so much!

Love,

Mama