Development of the babies

Feb 27th J survived her 1 year old well child check up, I thought I'd be a rockstar and take both Kip and Jov in for their appointment while R was at school.  K melted down - something about being 2.5 and not wanting to be in just a diaper.  He threw his pants at me several times and said "Pants on now quease!"  It wasn't until I told him that he had to be in a diaper so he could show the Dr. all his neat "potty prize" tattoos (yes he has peed in the potty, 2 times now, looks like I need to buckle down and give this potty stuff a shot!), that he finally settled down about having to be near naked for this darn check up.  Kip escaped free of any needle pokes, J however didn't.  Her pipsqueak cry broke the heart of that poor medical assistant who said "I've never had to give 1 year old shots to a baby that is the size of a 6 month old"
Yes, her statement was correct.  Our sweet girl is a peanut.  Her stats put her below the 2nd percentile...which pretty much means she is going to follow in her parent's footsteps and be the smallest kid in her class.  Sister has two big brothers to watch out for her.  Her spunky, spit fire attitude lets me know she'll rock her little-ness, and manage just fine.  She is sure getting good wear out of her size 6 month clothes though :).  She is 26.75inches and 15lbs 1oz.

She is a mover, or girl.  Climbing up stairs, cruising along the walls, furniture, etc to get to where she wants.  She will walk holding onto just one of my hands, but she is a chicken...not quite ready for the solo first steps - which is just fine by me.  She claps her hands, blows kisses (makes me melt), waves bye-bye, still flashes her "AAAHHHHHH" face, gives high fives, throws her arms up in the air to show you "so big."  She is such a little lover.  She crawls right up, nuzzles her little face into yours and gives kisses and snuggles- to me, her brothers, and her daddy.  Oh such sweetness.  She says mama, dada, nana, and ba (for bath) and sister knows what she means when she says ba - she beelines straight up the stairs for bathtime chanting "ba, ba, ba" as she moves when you ask her "Jovie want a bath?"  She goes to bed at 7pm, and complains for about 5 minutes before dozing off, and then wakes about 7:30-8am.  She mimics everything we do  - from noises (burping, growling, blowing raspberries), to rubbing her hands together just like I do while putting  lotion on her.

Kip - our "giant baby" turns out not to be so giant in relationship to kids his same age.  His height and weight put him in the 25th percentile, but then again, for our kids the 25th percentile is giant :).  He is busy doing normal stuff...

• stringing words together to make sentences with the occasional baby talk thrown in (which is normal for this age I was assured by the pediatrician - having a sentence speaking 18 month old as a firstborn has made me need to focus in on the norm for each age group)
• he loves counting (can count to 15 perfectly) - most likely attributed to hide-n-seek, for a while he would always count and then say "ready or not her I come" even when we weren't playing hide-n-seek.
• learning letters (always asks me to write letters).  He can accurately identify all the letters of the alphabet except M and W.  He gets so excited spotting letters when out and about - most recently this week at Target "wook at a letters mom, a T, A, R, G, E, T"
• Identifying parts of the body, my favorite moment this week before bathtime - "dis is my weiner, I make the pee come out" and he really did to my surprise.  Perhaps potty training in the not to distant future?!
• Learning animals and the noises they make - my favorite his monkey noises and actions.
• sings songs
• paints, draws, colors, plays PlayDoh (oh this kid LOVES PlayDoh)
• loves shapes and knows the names of most, constantly asks me to draw then with sidewalk chalk outside (mom this is a star, a heart, a square, a circle...)
• showing interest in colors (though he declares everything either pink or yellow).
• Loving electronics - "I play iPad" or "I play mommy's quone (Phone)?"
• Sneaking and watching a DVD after bedtime on the portable DVD player - His favorite Dora.

Our Ryk, he is a learning guy.  He despises that I try to throw in learning into everything, but he is picking up on stuff.  He is doing such a good job sounding things out, and learning to read.  Soon enough P and I won't be able to rely on spelling out secrets to each other anymore.  He knows how to spell his last name, but hates to write it.  He has this stuffed dog that has been his best friend lately - Pip

Pip goes most places with us, except when R goes to school, then Pip stays in his doggy bin and R rushes home to rescue him right when he gets home from school.  Goodness what this little boy would do for a real pet of his own...

Pip has other dog friends named Wolfie, Duvle, Scruffy Brown, Spots, and Thumb.  I asked him why one of the dogs name was Thumb he says - "cause I used up all the dog names of course."  He loves all things spiderman, and goodness am I tired loving playing it with him.  Best of all, he loves his siblings, and goodness the relationship he has with his "pretty" (he always call Jovie his "pretty") it just does something to my soul

Seeing these little loves be together; learn, fight, love, share...oh it is just something special.

So very lucky to be a mama of 3.