Friday, January 31, 2014

Living Separately

Since the beginning of the school year when Quincy moved into his own room Braxton and Zayden have been forced to be buddies. For the most part they do pretty well playing together, though they do have their moments of blood curdling screams and throwing cars at one another. 

When Zayden was finally old enough to go to nursery we hoped the transition would be made easier because Braxton would be with him for 6 months. Now starting the new year B has moved up Primary, where he's being challenged in the skills of sitting still and learning to sing songs. He has a fairly small class of 6 kids and told us last week about Samuel and the Lion's Den. We tried to convince him his name was Daniel, he wasn't buying it. It's been an interesting phase of having them separated during the last hours of church. B is learning much more and Zayden has developed a sense of independence playing on his own in nursery. He has really become involved in the nursery singing time and is doing very well. 

Despite being separated during the last two hours of church these two are still pretty good buddies at home. 
This makes me happy. 






Everyday Life

Post holidays our schedules have been pretty chill. 

We haven't done anything extremely exciting and  nobody's been sick. It's been a rather uneventful month, but we have managed to have some fun together, even doing the most boring (for my boys) of activities..... like shopping. The boys tolerated us doing some furniture shopping. 

One store gave out suckers and they were quite thrilled about that. I still haven't found the dining set I love, so it might have to wait longer. One of the last stores we wandered through to look at furniture was Fred Meyer, don't you love how Zayden wouldn't get near Braxton? 
Unless they are helping each other with cars.... 








Oh and I guess our biggest news is that Tyler was released out of YM and they called me to be the Beehives adviser. I like it so far, though I totally feel out of my element with all those girls, in a good way though. 

That's pretty much the happenings around here lately. 

Zayden Lately

Zayden is approaching to the two year mark in the not so far distance and I wanted to make sure that I took some time to record what he's up to lately.
His personality is definitely developing. Although he is often to referred to as the littles shadow- copying everything his older brothers are doing, of course, as not to be outdone by them- he still is his own little person.
He loves to dance. This is something that separates him from his brothers. He's had this love of music since he was young. Always shaking his bum to the beat of the song. I thought perhaps it would fade away as he got older, but I'm so glad it hasn't. I'm interested in seeing where it goes. Recently he enjoys singing the 'Do as I'm Doing' song-- which is adorable when he tries to do the arm motions. He also likes the 'Ducks' song and to sing 'Jesus wants Me for a Sunbeam' --during which he says 'beeem'.
He has added some new words to his vocabulary. He can now say: mom, dad, bupah- grandpa, bum, go, uh oh, dink- drink, firetruck is responded with 'wee ooo wee ooo, onk onk', wha dah- what's that,oooup- poop, doosh- juice, peese- please, trah- truck, eeth- teeth, bup- burp,bee bee-- baby, and the list goes on and on.... each day he adds something new, which pleases me since it seemed for a while he could have cared less about talking. He also likes to "sing", which is usually jibberish in tune with a song in his head. It's cute. He has also taken up yelling, mostly this occurs when all the boys are yelling and he just joins in, not to be left out, of course.
He might have a love for singing and music, but he still wants to rough house and play sports with his brothers. Most recently the boys are into tackling and playing "football". Zayden is NOT about to be left out of these games, regardless that he's the smallest of the group. He gets right in on the action, usually resulting in minor injuries, but he gets right  back in the game after a magical healing kiss from mom. He's a tough kid though and can mostly handle all the rough and tumble stuff pretty well.
He's a stomach sleeper. Every night I go in to check on his he's laying on his stomach, it doesn't matter if I turn him on his back he rolls over. He's a good sleeper and has adjusted well into sharing a room with Braxton.

He knows most all his body parts now: eyes, ears, mouth, cheeks, nose, tongue, teeth, hair, neck, chin, hands, elbows, legs, feet, bum, peanut, and belly. I'm trying to start on colors next. Part of me feels ashamed that he's almost two and doesn't really know colors yet, as Quincy knew all by the time he was 18 months, however I pushed it with Q and of course didn't have 2 other children to teach. This time around I'm trying to let his learning progress naturally.
He is starting to show signs of interest in potty stuff. He's fascinated when anyone's going to the bathroom. He points to things going into the toilet, to the toilet paper, and gets happy when we flush things 'bye bye'. I don't think he's quite ready for potty training yet, but he loves to wear underwear and I look forward to the day we don't have to buy diapers!! Oh that will be a glorious day!!

He is a total mama's boy. When he's hurt he will gladly bypass daddy to run straight to me for comfort. He's frequently mauling me throughout the day. He also gets jealous when B is sitting close to me or on my lap. He will yell at Braxton and push him away from me. He'll almost always give me kisses when I ask for them, however, if Tyler asks for a kiss he'll give me one instead... I'm pretty sure he enjoys seeing his dad gravel for a smooch. I'm also quite positive that he'll grow out of the phase, so for the time being I'm trying to enjoy all this.
He has started getting his two yer molars. He recently cut his first one a couple of weeks ago. The rest have yet to follow suit. He loves brushing his teeth and yells at us until we get his toothbrush and the toothpaste for him. We are trying to completely break the thumb sucking habit, which we are making progress in, however when he's trapped in a car and tired it's a lost because. He sucked his thumb a lot when we drove to Idaho. Although he was cutting that molar too, which I didn't discover until after the fact.
He has lots of energy and likes to laugh about things when he thinks something's funny. He also has no fear. He frequently jumps off beds and couches and makes me want to have a heart attack. He loves baths and HATES showers.

It's so great getting to experience his personality developing as he gets older and I can't wait to see who he becomes when he's older.