I originally wrote this in July, shortly after we got their 3 month pictures back. Then I procrastinated on going through their pictures to pick out favorites, because going through 250 pictures and narrowing it down to a few favorites seemed daunting. I finally made myself go through their pictures and narrowed it down to about 20 pictures. A lot has changed since I wrote this update, but I figured I should leave it as is so it's a true representation of them just after they turned 3.
Brooke
My sweet, sassy, independent little lady. She want to do everything on her own. From opening doors to getting dressed. It seems like each day she wants to do something new on her own. If you open the van door for her, be prepared for the fit of a life time. She is bound and determined to do it all her way. That especially applies to her clothing. She has 4 dresses that she wants to wear all the time. If those are dirty, it's a struggle to get her dressed. Underwear, shoes, and accessories have to be her choice too. She'd really prefer to only wear her underwear all the time. As soon as we walk in the door, her clothes come off immediately. Same thing in the morning. Her jammies stay on for approximately 2.3 seconds after she walks into our room in the morning.
She loves music and loves to sing. Some of her favorite songs to sing include "Daisy," "Itsy Bitsy Spider," "Wheels on the Bus," and "The Alphabet Song." She's starting to pick up lyrics from songs we hear on the radio. "Milkshake" and "Uptown Funk" are her two favorites to sing. She has a pitchy singing voice which kills me. It's about two octaves higher than her speaking voice, and so darn cute. When she dances she does lots of twirls, kicks, splits, and somersaults. Her newest thing thanks to "Hey Ya" is shaking it. When it's time to "shake it like a Polaroid picture," everyone must stop what they're doing and shake it.
Aside from knowing how to sing her ABCs, she also know them all on sight. Occasionally she needs a little reminder, but 99% of the time she can tell you what letter you're pointing to or holding up. This only applies to uppercase letters. She is a great counter, and can make her way to 29 all on her own. She understands the concept of 30s, 40s, 50s, etc, but she needs help as you move up each set of ten in counting. We work a lot on number recognition, but we still have a ways to go. 1-5 are always reliable. Anything after that is hit or miss. Sometimes she surprises me when we're in the store and I say we need to go to aisle 22 or 16, and she knows right where to go. Although, that could just be luck. Colors and shapes are something she's been good on for a while.
She loves playing dress up. Her current favorite is her Cinderella dress. She and Harrison like to play Cinderella and the Prince. You can hear them acting out Cinderella the movie pretty regularly. It usually starts out with them dancing, then she has to leave, he says wait, and she kicks off one of her glass slippers. Love, Love, Love it.
Her favorite movie right now is "Planes Fire and Rescue." "Planes" comes in a close second. She still loves "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse," but her love of shows like "Sophia the First" and "Doc McStuffins" has faded.
Baby girl loves breakfast and is always eager to eat in the morning. Bananas, strawberries, watermelon, and blackberries top her fruit list. She loves breakfast smoothies, veggie muffins, and toast with peanut butter. She'd actually prefer Nutella, but I'm stingy with my Nutella. ;) Lunch and dinner are always hit or miss. Carrots, cucumbers, peas, corn, avocados, and broccoli are safe vegetables. She's branching out and trying more things so occasionally a tomato, squash, or onion makes it's way onto her like list. Cottage cheese, yogurt, and colby jack cheese slices are frequently requested. Just within the last few weeks she's decided she like hard boiled eggs, and she asks for those almost daily. She prefers peanut butter and honey sandwiches to PB&J, and would pick a cheese quesedilla over a cheese toastie any day.
Reading is still one of her favorite things to do. Right now her favorite books are "Cordoury, " "Cordoury Gets A Pocket," and "Babies Don't Eat Pizza." She loves having us read to her, but also enjoys reading to herself. If it's a book she's familiar with, you can hear her reading abbreviated versions of the pages aloud. If she isn't familiar with the story, she makes up words based off of the pictures in the book.
Her best friend right now is her baby doll. Baby goes everywhere with her. Yesterday baby even went swimming in the pool with her. She's had the baby doll since her first birthday and has always liked her, but now they're inseparable. I'm not sure if it's just her age, or if it has to do with the new babies on the way. Either way, I think she's going to be a great big sister.
Harrison
My sensitive little lover. He has the biggest heart and is truly a mama's boy. He always wants to be where I am and gets worried if he can't see me, even if I'm just in a different room of the house. He has been very attached to me, and hesitant to give his love to anyone else lately. Even his aunties, grandparents, and daddy. The timing of this behavior seems to coincide with when they found our about the babies. Since then, all his love is only for me. He is very emotional and his feeling get hurt easily. Brooke knows this and will push his buttons on purpose. He lives for snuggles and hugs, and it usually only takes a few minutes of snuggles to get him settled down. He wants to try and do things on his own, but he gets very frustrated if he's not able to do it the first time. It can be frustrating for us too, but we try to make each of his frustrations a learning experience.
Harrison is very often over tired, which may have something to do with his emotional state. His sister needs less sleep than him, and she frequently wakes him up when she gets out of bed. Once he falls asleep he sleeps like a log, but getting him to sleep at nap time requires adult supervision. Rob or I lay in bed with him each day until he falls asleep. He tries everything to keep himself from falling asleep, so we get to lay there and tell him to close his eyes, be quiet, no playing, stop fidgeting, no biting yourself. It works, but we definitely miss the days of turning off the lights and walking out of the room.
He has finally in the last couple weeks really taken a positive turn in the potty training department. After months of struggles he is finally telling us when he needs to go. I think it's been almost two weeks since we've had an accident which is a huge deal because they were a daily occurrence. We recently started telling them they were going to have to be able to go on their own without help in order to go to school, and I think that made a huge difference in his mindset. He still doesn't want to pull his pants up on his own, but we're getting there. I'm so proud of this big accomplishment for him.
Harry loves to do puzzles, and is extremely good at them. We have started doing jigsaw puzzles that are anywhere in size from 9-40 pieces. Usually while I'm working on sorting pieces, he is already putting together half of the puzzle on his own. His favorite is a big two sided floor puzzle that's a fire truck on one side and a city scene on the other.
He finally moved past "K, L, M, M, P," and we now have definite "L, M, N, O, P." He knows most of his uppercase letters on sight, but still has a few he struggles with. His counting is hit and miss. 1-13 are always perfect. Sometime 14-19 get a little mixed up, and other times he gets it exactly right. He is working on his 20s and getting much more reliable with them as well. 1-5 are reliable numbers he knows on sight, and 6-10 are ones we are still working on. Colors and shapes he's 100% on, and he's even getting to the point when he can draw almost recognizable shapes. Triangles and circles mostly. :)
Harrison is still my champion eater. Yogurt is definitely his favorite food. It doesn't matter what flavor or brand, the kid loves yogurt. "Ficy cheese," or hot pepper as us adults refer to it, is another favorite of his. He will try any vegetable, any fruit, any meat, pretty much everything you sit in front of him he'll try. Most things he actually likes too. Our biggest eating struggle with Harry is to keep him focused on eating and not playing.
He has recently discovered he really likes "Jungle Junction" and "Handy Manny." His interest in watching "MMC" has completely dropped, although he does still love his Mickey toys. He loves the "Planes" movies as well as "Cars." "Cinderella" and "Penguins of Madagascar" are pretty high on his list too. He usually chooses a different movie each time is his turn to pick.
Harry loves reading. When he picks out books, they're usually different each day. He doesn't have any sure favorites, he just seems to love them all. He loves looking at books on his own, but much prefers for us to read them to him. He loves snuggling up next to us while we read to him, or while he and Brooke look at a book together.
In the few short months since I wrote this update so much has changed. From school, to favorite activites, to their attitudes. Everything changes so quickly when they're little. Reading where they were three months ago reminds me to savor every minute with them, and also to remember that the tough stages will pass before I know it.
I love you little munchkins, and can't wait to see what the next 6 months has in store for you!
All photos by
Gillian Dyan Photography
