Practicing Prepositions

Molly's been very interested in prepositions lately and reporting where things are around the house.  Sometimes I like to play a little game with her where we pick one object and describe it with as many prepositions as we can.  For example, "The rocking chair is beside the crib...in front of the toy shelf...behind the ottoman...on top of the floor...underneath Mommy...next to Ian" and so on.  She has gotten quite good at identifying locations of objects, but for some reason she hasn't quite made the connection that prepositions also apply to her!  After we go through our whole descriptive list, I'll ask her, "Where's Molly?".  Her response will invariably be, "I'm RIGHT HERE!!!" pointing to her feet and with her very best what-kind-of-silly-question-is-that-Mommy tone of voice.  It cracks me up every time!

Her other favorite preposition game, and one that I'm not so fond of, but cracks me up just the same, is describing exactly where she is when she passes gas.  I'm not sure how it started, but anytime she toots, she announces "I gas on highchair" or "I gas in lil-li-loon (livingroom)" or "I gas next to coffee table."  We're still working on the "Excuse me" skills, but, hey, we're nailing those prepositions.  I guess in her case, instead of remembering the rule 'anywhere a mouse can go', we'll just stick with 'anywhere a gas can go.'  :-)

Time for an Update

The new school year has just begun, which means craziness has started to return to the Frueh family lifestyle.  I thought I'd better record an update on my two little blessings before my brain turns into teacher-mush for the year.

Molly -

Our little MoJo is now 3 years old, a fact she really enjoys sharing with nearly everyone she meets.  She'll hold up her 3 pudgy little fingers and say, 'I'm FREEEE!  I'm Molly and I'm FREEE!'  At her 3-year check-up, she was 34.5 inches tall and weighed 27 lbs., just hanging out in the 10th percentile, her favorite place to be for most of the last 3 years.
Favorite Foods: Any kind of cereal, yogurt and granola (goda bar), cottage cheese (cotty cheese), grapes, graham crackers, chicken, raisins
Favorite Books:  The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton, The Baby Beebee Bird by Diane Redfield Massie, All the World by Liz Garton Scanlon, Time for Tom (A Veggie Tales book)
Favorite Songs: Skinna-marinky-dinky-dink, This Old Man, This Little Light of Mine, Amazing Grace, You Are My Sunshine
Favorite Activities: Reading and going to the library to pick new books, Playing Little People with her castle or house, Hosting tea parties for Ian and her dolls (3 of them...all named "Molly" of course), Working on her puzzles, Walking in the woods, Finding mushrooms in the yard

She set the table herself.  Can you tell?  Everything so perfect and symmetrical!

Sometimes Ian can disturb the whole decorum of a proper tea party with his antics, but Molly is slowly slowly learning to have patience.

New Things She's Learning: Connecting sounds to letter names, Writing letters, Describing objects by shape, color & position, Spelling and writing names (her own and Ian's), Counting objects in numbers greater than 10, A new memory verse each month (This month it is I John 2:6 "Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Christ did." - Their theme in Sunday School this month is Walk Like Jesus).

She also enjoys learning to type her name in different fonts by finding the letters on Mommy's laptop.

When she gets tired of typing her name, she likes to type Ian's name.  (In this pic, she's showing off another new habit...checking to see if her smile is there everytime she gets her picture taken).

It is so fascinating to me to watch a child develop from birth through childhood.  I love to watch the world through her eyes and smile at the things that catch her fancy.  She loves water and gets excited everytime she sees it, even in picture books.  She'll always point to it and say, "I want to get in there.  I want to go swimmin'."  If it's a picture in a book, she'll actually put her feet in the water on the book and wiggle her toes.  She's very imaginative when it comes to reading.  If there's a house or store or restaurant in a book, she'll pretend to open the door and go in.  She likes to imagine what's inside, even if it's not pictured in the book.  I LOVE that about her and I know it will give her a love for reading that will grow with her.  It amazes me what she can memorize while we read.  Sometimes I'll catch her talking to herself or to her dolls and realize that she's actually reciting lines from her favorite books, word for word, using the same voice inflections I use when reading them.  She usually remembers them even better than I do!

As is typical with most first-borns, Molly has taken on a motherly role with her little brother.  The only problem is that she has a difficult time discerning the fine line between being helpful and being bossy.  She enjoys making decisions for Ian, such as what color diaper he should wear, what he should have to drink with his dinner, and what toys he should play with.  If she wants to play with a certain toy, then inevitably Ian is "too little" to play with that toy.  It's amusing to watch their different personalities play out in their relationship, as Ian is very much the opposite of Molly in many ways.  He's easy-going, silly, light-hearted, and easy-to-please.  If Molly decides what toys he should or shouldn't play with and he's not completely satisfied with the arrangement, he'll usually just walk away and find something else to do...no muss, no fuss.  But it drives her crazy!!!  She is definitely a first-born, top-to-bottom, inside and out.

Ian:

Ian is now 18 months old.  At his 18-month check-up he was 31.5 inches tall and weighed 23 lbs., right in the 25th percentile.
Favorite Foods: Cheerios, Bananas (nonnys), PB&J sandwiches (which he unfolds and eats from the inside out), Cheese (cheee), Broccoli (a new obsession)...Truthfully, pretty much any food in arm's reach.  He is not picky and loves to eat.
Favorite Books:  First 100 Words, Mother May I?, Hop on Pop, Snuggle Puppy by Sandra Boynton, Cars-Trucks-Boats-and-Planes by Richard Scarry
Favorite Songs: If You're Happy and You Know It, I'm a Little Teapot, Jesus Loves Me
Favorite Activities: Reading (by himself or with anyone else in the world), "Mowing" our front patch of woods with his lawnmower, Going for stroller walks, Riding in the wagon, Dumping out any box of toys or blocks, Playing cars, Getting dirty (very very very dirty)
New Things He's Learning:

• That those squiggly black lines on a page stand for words.  He has learned to point to them when we read and realizes that when the squiggly symbols run out, it's time to turn the page.
• Recognizing that letters are letters and that they have names.  He isn't yet able to match any letters to their appropriate names, but he gets very excited whenever he sees letters (on his alphabet placemat, on his sheets and blankets, in alphabet books, on TV, on the refrigerator magnets).  Whenever he sees letters, he excitedly points to them and starts shouting, "D! O! I! A! B! G!"  I'm surprised at how many names he knows, even if he can't match them to any symbols.  His favorite by far is D.  As soon as he gets in the tub, he'll grab every foam letter sponge one by one and shout, "D! D! D! D!" until he eventually finds the right one and I confirm that his guessing has led to success at last.
• How to follow multi-step directions (ie: "Go in your room and bring back your blue shoes." or "Pick up these dirty clothes and put them in the hamper.")  He enjoys taking care of his responsibilities each day (putting his own dirty diaper in the pail, clothes in hamper, picking up his toys, wiping his tray, etc.).
• How to feed himself with a fork and spoon.  He prefers adult-size utensils and refuses to accept help, even with challenging items like Cheerios or spaghetti.  It has led to some interesting solutions on his part and some messy post-meal clean-ups, but most of the food is making it to his mouth, thankfully.

As he has been since the day he was born, Ian is a joy to be around and brings so many smiles to our family.  He is goofy and joyful and full of laughter.  He gets a huge kick out of the littlest things and loves to giggle.  One of his favorite things to do is scream with delight because it's just so darn fun.  However, it's not always so fun for the people sitting right next to him, so we're working on this little habit.  He also has some quirky little habits that make me smile.  One of them is that he always always always eats with his feet pushed right up against the bottom of his highchair tray.  I just love sitting next to him at meals and petting those precious, perfect little feet!

Ian is also very good at getting into, well, pretty much anything.  He can scale any chair, shelf, or table.  He is capable of reaching nearly every elevated surface in our home, given enough time without supervision.  We've had to be ultra-vigilant with child-proofing this time around because he is so agile.  Now that all his favorite cupboards and drawers are off-limits, he's been enjoying his one drawer full of safe kitchen gadgets that he is allowed to get into.

Yes, he pushed the highchair over and climbed up into it himself.  And, yes, he IS pants-less.  He has also become somewhat of a diaper-houdini.

Hoping the next time I update, it's not with a report of how Ian has figured out how to disassemble child-proof locks ;-).