Kids Update (November)

Here’s a quick update from this past month.

R-man is growing up right before our eyes. The kid is becoming very independent and absolutely loves the outdoors. Although, he isn't fond of the snow!

Thanks to Kari Bruck Photography for the great work!

Age:
R-man is 16 months 
Little-C is 2 yrs. 11 months

Stats:
R-man is:

• Weight: 22 lbs. 14 oz. (51%)
• Height: 32" (78%)
• Head: 19" (86%)

Little-C is 32 lbs.
Teeth:
R-man has 12 teeth and his molars are almost through. When you try to test to see if they've come through with your finger, he'll about bite them off. I mean, those little buggers are sharp!

Little-C's teeth are great. She's gotten to the point where she likes to be like her Mommy and use an adult toothbrush instead of the small one that fits nicely in her mouth. She does great with flossing with the little floss pick the dentist gave her.

She cares for all of her babies daily.

Clothes:
R-man – He is wearing mostly 18-24 month clothes. Even though he's in the 78 percentile for his height, we still have to occasionally roll up his pants so he doesn't walk on them. He is wearing size 5 shoes and his loafers are still his shoes of choice.

Little-C – She is wearing 3T clothes and size 8 shoes. She's been kind of a pickle with getting dressed for daycare in the morning. She'll want to pick out her own clothes and shoes. It's fine if it matches, but most of the time, it's sweatpants with her cowgirl boots. We will have to teach her a thing or two about fashion as she get's older.

Our family photo!

Favorite foods this month:  R-man loves eating the following foods:

• Chicken n biscuit crackers - He could eat dozens of these.
• M & M's - He knows exactly where they are in the pantry and will point to them if he get's to enter it! 
• Mac 'N Cheese - Our schedules have been a bit busy lately so this has been their meal of choice lately.
• Hot dogs - He loves them and if Little-C is eating one he begs until he get's some on his own tray.
• Corn - I'm surprised he likes it as much as he does. 
• Clone Cones - We recently took him to a ISU basketball game and he couldn't get enough of the "Clone Cones."
• Banana Bread - If you cut it up into little pieces, he'll eat an entire slice.

Little-C loves about anything these days, but she's starting to become an extremely light eater. If she's hungry, she'll eat an entire serving of mac 'n cheese, but if she's not, she'll take one bite and push it away.

Milestones: 
R-man:

• Goes up and down stairs: He's mastered going down stairs by sliding on his tummy and quickly returns to the top to do it again. We recently took the gate down and it's amazing how much easier life is without the gate.
• Books: He loves all of them, but he particularly likes the "Poke-A-Dot" book that we bought at Sams Club. You can poke these little dots to count! 
• Outside toys: He absolutely loves his outdoor toys. As soon you get him out of the car and set him down, he will go straight to his toys. The cold doesn't seem to bother him.
• Throws things away: If you need something thrown away, just ask R-man to do it. He'll gladly toss it in the trash. Dave and I had noticed our coasters were disappearing too. We later found out that he was tossing those away too.

Little-C:

• Potty trained: We are thrilled that she's fully potty trained. We can take her out in public now without having to put a pull up on. On the weekends we even allow her to take a nap without a pull up. Hopefully she get's the nighttime thing figured out soon. 
• Knows her birthday month, date and year
• Knows her parents names and brother's name
• Knows names of relatives: If you point at a photo, she can tell you who everyone is in the photo including her cousins, grandparents, uncles and aunts.

New things they've learned and/or do:
R-man:

• Animal sounds: He knows what a snake, cat, rooster, sheep, dog, pig, cow, horse, duck, monkey, lion, gorilla, bear, tractor, train and truck all say. When we went in for his 15-month check-up the doctor was amazed with all the sounds he could make. Typically, they hope for at least five, but clearly he can make 16 sounds. 
• Gives hugs and kisses: In the morning we'll tell him to give his sister a hug and a kiss and he'll lay on top of her, put his arms around her and say "ahhhh" Melts our hearts everyday.
• Say's Thank You and Please: If he want's something we will have him say please, but it usually sounds like, peeeeese. Thank you on the other hand is very clear! 
• Points and says no-no-no: If he doesn't like something you're doing, he'll point and say no-no-no. It usually doesn't work, but he still tries.
• Biting: He's learned to use his teeth very well as a defense mechanism. It's not fun when you hear from daycare at least once a week that he bit one of his friends. Little-C went through this same phase, but it'll soon pass!

Wishing Santa would bring him this for Christmas.

Little-C:

• Sings new songs almost everyday. Below are new ones that she's been singing:
• Down at the corner of the bakery shop...
• I'm in a circus ring, ting-a-ling, let's watch Little-C do a circus circus ring, do a trick...

• Cares for her brother: If he needs help in anyway, she'll help guide him so he's safe. Going down the stairs, she'll hold his hand or help him up on his step.

She was so tired she fell asleep at the counter one evening.

Little-C loves going grocery shopping.

Favorite Things:
R-man

• Little Blue Truck book: This is his favorite book and he doesn't care if you read it 10x a day.
• Animals: He seems to love all kinds of animals. The bigger the animal the more he seems to like it. It amazes us how much he loves cows even though they are much bigger than he is.
• Cars and tractors: He loves playing with them and zooming them all over the place.
• Playing downstairs: Not sure why he and his sister love playing downstairs, but as soon as you say, let's go downstairs, he's already on the step waiting for you to come down too.

He loves being pushed around in the baby stroller.

He usually likes going down the slide, but not with snow on it.

He doesn't quite like the sledding.

He isn't sure what to think of the snow.

Little-C

• Snow: She loves playing in the snow and building a snowman. She'll start singing, "Do you want to build a snowman," from the Frozen movie.
• Helps pick up: She doesn't love helping pick up all the time, but if a reward is involved she's on it. 
• Cheering on the Cyclones: This past football season was tough, but she loved seeing CY (aka: Bird) on TV when they played.

She's a little snow bird!

She loves to shovel snow with her mini-shovel.

Sleep:

• R-man goes down between 7:30 and 8:00. 
• Little-C goes down around 8:30 and 9:00. 
• On the weekends they wake up between 7:00-8:00. During the week, we usually have to wake them up to get ready for daycare. Little-C is not a morning person at all. 

Health:
Both had a clean bill of health this month.

We went to see Santa at Bass Pro on Thanksgiving Day. Neither of them cried.

She was loving Santa's elf.