We started a "chore chart" with Alex (things like getting dressed by himself, emptying the silverware, cleaning up his toys, etc.) and began giving him allowance for completing them (a nickel or dime for each sticker he has at the end of the week). We made a "spend" and a "give" bank so that he can learn to give back to God and make some money to eventually buy himself something with his hard-earned money (he's learning delayed gratification for sure)! He is doing great with it! He puts on his own clothes, shoes (often on the wrong feet!), and coat now and can go in and brush his own teeth, go potty and wash his hands without help! (Although he still sometimes says he needs help when wanting a little attention, but that's to be expected I suppose!) He's also doing better with counting, shapes, colors, and the alphabet as well! He is loving doing learning activities and the teacher in me is coming out a lot lately! We've been doing lots of projects and working on the fine motor skills a lot lately!
And Nathan - well, he's had another big growth month! He got his top two teeth a couple of weeks ago, puts some of the shapes in the right place in the shape sorter, says "tickle tickle" (I know, SUPER random words to be saying at 10 months... but it really does sound EXACTLY like it should LOL) as well as "mama" frequently! He's eating a lot of regular table foods now, cruises furniture, uses the walker toy we have, and is CRAWLING (as of March 2nd officially - he was making a few strides before that but not going across the room)! But probably my favorite new thing he does is clap! It is sooo cute... he claps all the time! He claps when you say "yay", puts his hands in the air when you say "hooray" and makes kissy sounds when you say "kisses" or make the sound yourself! I'm pretty sure he is the sweetest little boy ever :)
Here are some pictures of my boys from the past few days:
Alex's picture of himself! He does the whole "egg head" drawing right now - big head, eyes, nose, mouth, and hair, with legs and arms coming out of the head! Too cute! After this picture, he told me he was going to draw one of me - and that I have a HUGE head that would take up the whole board!
LOVE watching them play together! They really do just adore one another! The FIRST thing Alex said yesterday when I got him up from his nap (in his groggy, sleepy voice) was "where's my Nafan? I need him... I love my Nafan Mommy." They are just preciuos together :)
Here's my little man crawling to me! Now that he's on the move he's constantly crawling to mommy or big brother - or big brother's favorite toys! The first thing he crawled across the room to get was Alex's light up sword! (Before that he was making a few strides to get dropped food under the table, or his brother's special puppies!)
Boys playing video games!
Playing together again! "I'm going to teach Nafan his letters!"
The sweetest smile!
Nathan absolutely loves this walker! He's been doing pretty well with it for the past couple of weeks! He has even let go a couple of times and stands on his own for about .5 seconds! haha.
My little preschooler! He has an activity cabinet of things that I've been putting together over the last little bit for him! He LOVES it! He has a sensory tub of rice and one of pasta, play-doh, colored cotton ball sorting game (to be done with tweezers for fine motor practice!), magnetic letters to spell his name, shaving cream for letter/shape/drawing practice, scissors and scraps to cut, and some other random games and activities! It's so fun having him at the age where I can do creative, fun preschool activities and crafts with him!
Even Nathan has gotten to do some painting and activities with us lately! This is where his paci has come in super-handy! haha! He enjoyed painting hearts for Valentine's day! :)
This was one of Alex's favorite projects recently! We made this space scene with the Earth, moon, stars, and asteroids! Then we worked on the rocket ship! Alex loved playing with his completed project! :)
Other than those big milestones, last weekend I got to attend a women's retreat with our church! It was such a great weekend! Nathan got to come with me (since he's still nursing - several moms brought their nursing babies) and Alex stayed home to have a "guys weekend" with daddy - complete with a lunch and movie date, ice cream, and video games of course! It really was a great time for me to "escape", be surrounded by beautiful mountains, relax, meet lots of new people, and have some time of learning and growth.
This weekend I'm looking forward to relaxing with all 3 of the men in my life! This is the first 5 day week Gary has worked in a looong time (we are becoming very spoiled with his compressed work schedule, government holidays, and now teleworking at least one day every two weeks!) and after a few busy weekends in February, we're all tired! haha!
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