LIFE

I clearly can't keep up with updating this blog.  I thought that at the very least I could do an update each time the girls had a birthday but it has been 5 months + since Alaina and Cora had their birthdays and the details of exactly what they were like at that time are lost on me.  At least I am documenting on instagram!  That is where I try to keep up now.  I find myself with some time right now and so here is a quick synopsis on each that I can look back at in the years to come.

Elsie.....

My sweet and crazy and emotional little daughter.

The one that tries my patience the most with stubborness and random bursts of over-excitement.  The stubborness is from Matthew the can't-contain-my-emotions is from me.  Bella, Cora, and Elsie had a plan to all sleep together the other night (Frykmans are in Ireland).  The beds were pushed together and they were soooo excited.  Elsie had built a plan on where each one would go but Cora and Bella weren't going along with it.  She could not bend on this issue and had a massive meltdown and chose to not sleep with them anymore.  Oy.

She will get really excited about things and kick and flail about or try to wrestle her sisters and stuff like that.  Sometimes they are ok with this and sometimes they get hurt.  On the flip side of this, she is easily the best cuddler and hugger in the family.

She is getting so big and has really become a kid.  I still like to bounce and sing to the big kids before bed sometimes.  I rarely do this with Elsie anymore because she is so heavy.  We still try sometimes but then laugh the whole time. :)

I'm so happy to say that she has been loving kindergarten all year.  She loves her friends there and has a great teacher and class.  She is reading books with us now and sounding out words that she sees in real life.  She practices writing and will write what she wants with invented spelling.  It's been fun to watch her learn and grow so much this year!

Her birthday is coming up and she will definitely be having a party this year.  It's been hard to decide who to invite.  She has never played with her classmates outside of school so if she wants to invite them I feel like we will have to do the whole class?

What she loves to do:  steal my phone and take videos of herself singing and being weird, write and draw, art, bake, play with her sisters, put on a show.

Cora....

My smart and funny little pipsqueak daughter.

She is a mama's girl through and through and through.  She still prefers me to do all things for her over anyone else and would want me to carry her all around the house if I would be up for it (sometimes I am).

She is inquisitive and interested in things and comes out with these random statements.  The other day she was asking more about Jesus and his rising and said "So Jesus died but then came back to life again?"  I'm not good at answering these questions because I am still struggling to understand it all as an adult!  Speaking of which, Elsie was really pushing me to explain the difference between Jesus and God the other day.  I gave her a pretty philosophical answer but she said she understood.

The other day Cora found a little toy she hadn't seen in a while and said, "At last!  There is that toy!"  She is just always saying things in an interesting way but still has that squeaky little voice which makes it all the more amusing.

She is the one that has struggled the most with me being back at work.  She is generally sad when the weekend is over and checks in throughout the week on how many days are left until we have more "stay home days again".

With Elsie reading now she is motivated to learn as well.  She knows some of the sight words and can read some of the easier ones that rely on repetition.  She doesn't really have any knowledge of sounding out words though.

Is an early bird and I can never feel confident in what her sleep schedule is.  She naps every other day now.  She still wakes up during the night sometimes and sneaks into our bed.  She is hard to sleep with though.  She is always wiggling and throwing her hair around.

Loves preschool and has been doing great there.  The teachers have had some fun stories of her being a caring friend and continuously opening up throughout the school year.

What she loves to do: snuggle with mom or dad, play with her sisters, do art and coloring, talk about kids from school and daycare and playing with them.  Of all of the kids, she is the one who always relies on me to help her figure out what she should do.  Elsie and Alaina can easily get lost in imaginary play but Cora always wants me to set up activities or get her started on something and then she will continue to play.

Alaina....

My baby.

She is so totally the baby of the family and I just feel that it is very unlikely anyone will come after her.  She has everyone in the family wrapped around her finger.  2 is actually my favorite age and she is especially charming so my phone is full of pictures and videos of her.

She will give me hugs and push my cheeks and say "I love you so much Mommy, you're my best friend ever!"  Telling everyone in the family that they are her "best friend ever" is totally her thing lately.  I think she got this from Elsie?

She is definately the most stubborn and independent one in the family.  She is very "terribly two" and challenges my parenting skills and tactics regularly.  I often tell the families I work with that she is my case study so that I know what works for them.

She insists on picking all of her own outfits.  I get her dressed at bedtime and she sleeps in those clothes and continues to wear them through the following day.  Changing her out of her pajamas in the morning was just to much of a power struggle.  Her very favorites are the heart sweatshirt she is wearing in this picture, a heart fleece, bunny sweater, tights and skirts, and star pants.

Just like her sisters, she loves to sing.  Her singing totally melts my heart and I wish she would never grow out of her funny two-year-old way of singing and talking.

Her language has been blossoming lately and she has been talking in past tense and sentences like "I don't remember that one mom."  (I think I only notice these things because I work with language development).

What she loves to do:  Play with her babies, play with those little creatures in their little house, push strollers, sing, color, play with sisters, play Seek a Boo, be the baby. :)

Alaina 18 months

My crazy little Alaina baby has me wrapped around her little finger.  Just look how sweet this angel is...

Over the last month or 2 she has REALLY started to get some personality.  She has gone from a sweet little baby to a toddler girl who makes her feelings known and holds her own with the other kids.  Her favorite word is "no" right now....and "uppy mama".  When I tell her that I have to put her down or can't give her what she wants, she gives the cutest little puppy dog faces.  She knows how to manipulate me!

On this particular day, Angie brought Swedish fish for me on daycare appreciation day.  I had given one to all of the kids.  Alaina threw a tantrum over not getting more....

I'm actually happy to say that the tantrums have gone way down.  I think that part of the tantrums going down is that she has a core vocabulary now.  Words she says include more, cracker, bar, please, dada, mama, stop, hi, bye, eye, uppy, cheese, nana (banana), sit down, wawa, ah done/down, no, uh oh, baby, owie, beh button, ball, nigh nigh, me, bar (for granola bar), shoes, weeee.  She says "shhhh" with the one finger over her mouth when someone else is crying.  She holds out her hand and yells "stop!" when the kids get too far ahead of me on a walk.  She occasionally says her sister's names.  She says "Ehsie" for Elsie and "Owa" for Cora.  She starts a lot of words with "I wa" for I want and then babbles a lot.  It can be difficult to determine what "I wa ba wawa mama peaaaaase," really means but I generally just give her her sippy cup in those moments and hope it works.

She loves pushing her walker around outside.  That is an activity I started to get her up on her feet for longer periods of time.

She is a TOTAL mama's girl.  Cora was just like this at this age (and still is pretty much). If I am around, she wants me.  Whenever I open the door from working out the very first thing I hear is foosteps or knees coming at me and "mama mama mama mama!"  After I finished the half marathon, she was ready to be held by me right away....

Lucky girl with her sweet cousins....

If I can get her off my side long enough, she has fun playing with favorite toys.  She likes the little people, peg boards with stackers, babies, trains, clunky puzzles, clunker toys, ball pound maze, balls in general, painitng with water, coloring for short periods, pushing a baby stroller around, etc.

My snuggle bug.  She wants me to hold her all of the time and likes to guard my lap from others when I am sitting but it is not all that common for her to actually cuddle with me.

Her "cheeeeeese" face.  She will do this whenever she seems my cell phone up. :)

She has made a stance that she likes to eat like a big person.  Actually, it is probably more about eating off my plate.  I was breaking off pieces of chicken nachos for her on this day but she preferred to take big chunks and use her fork to dig into my plate instead.

The first time I put the little miss in pigtails I took a million pictures of her because of the cuteness!

Loves hanging with her sisters.  They all had freezie pops and Alaina was either too scared of hers or thought it was too cold because she kept setting it behind her but yet didn't want help eating it and didn't want anyone else to touch it.

The biggest concern and area of progress for Alaina between 15-18 months is her knee walking.  I should really take a video of it to look back on.  It is so second nature to me now that I don't really notice but whenever someone new sees it they laugh and point it out to me as if it is the first time she is doing it.  It's funny.  And the only reason I say it is funny now is because she is finally mostly walking on her feet.  Here is a synopsis of her knee walking and walking in general....

13 months - she started walking on her knees.  During this same time period, she was cruising along furniture more on her feet.  At that time, I thought that the knee walking was something she'd do for a month or so while she transitioned into walking.  This actually took over as her primary mode of getting around.  The better she got with knee walking, the less she was willing to be on her feet at all.  She would pop up onto her feet to reach things but then go back to her knees to move on to the next thing.  Between 14-15 months she was stubbornly in this habit and I would work daily on getting her to do more on her feet.  I would force her into doing push toys on her feet instead of her knees.  The more I tried to work on things with her the more stubborn she got about doing things her own way.

15 months - brought her to her well child check and brought up my concerns.  The pediatrician watched her zip around on her knees and said he had never seen anything like it.  She refused to bare weight at that appointment.  He was torn because as far as he could tell she seemed normal physically but recommended that a PT see her in case there was something he was missing.  He also asked the advice of a second Pediatrician who said the same things.  About a week after that appointment I called NP's early intervention and asked if I could get her screened by a PT.  It took a couple weeks before they were able to come out so she was almost 16 months when they came.  They pointed out the great things she was doing and didn't have anything concrete to point out or suggest.  They too had not really seen a child who does this.  They were an awesome couple of ladies and I was happy that I had them come out to bend an ear about it.  I continued to consult with the PT through the Spring on things.

16 months - About a week or so after the ladies were over, Alaina took her first steps.  My OT friend showed a trick to get her to walk to me.  Over the next 2 days she repeated this trick over and over while I showed it off.  Then she absolutely 100% stopped getting on her feet.  She totally backtracked and was mad at me about making her walk and be on her feet.  Not only did she stop walking but she stopped using push toys and everything.  I had to back off completely.

17 months -

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Elsie is 5

Elsie's first birthday celebration was at school.  It was a few weeks early so that they could squeeze them all in before school was out.  I love the way she is sitting on this chair and how she is giving her shy-school smile.

On the Friday before her birthday, we celebrated at daycare.  She came with me to pick out the doughnuts and we stopped at Patty's to get her a hot chocholate (and a fancy coffee for me!)

That evening we had a birthday dinner celebration with Godparents and Grandparents.  Elsie wanted to try peeling the potatoes and I said that since she is getting older she can give it a try.  At first it was too difficult and she was scared of getting cut and said "maybe I should wait until I am 6."  But then when I needed to take a break from it, she slid over and started up again.  She got the hang of it and was able to finish one by herself.  She is always interested in trying new chores and jobs but once I continue to ask her to do it for a few weeks she starts to say "ughhhhh!  I can't do everyyyyythiiiiing!"

Singing to the birthday girl while she wears the new gymnastics outfit she just got!

Elsie's actual birthday was on Sunday and she got to pick a friend to go on a fun event with her.  At first she wanted to bring Holden but then she was starting to say Cora, so we decided just to make it a family day.  We went to play at Hyland Park at the Chutes and Ladders playground and did some walking and adventuring there.

These two tunnel slides started at the same spot so the girls would climb to the top and slide down at the same time.  When they reached the bottom, they ran to each other and hugged.  They did this over and over and over again....pretty cute.

We went out to eat at Applebee's afterward.  We told the waitress it was Elsie's birthday.  She asked if she should sing or not because a lot of kids get scared about it.  We said yes to singing because Elsie loved the idea.  We prepped her about it and she was excited.  When they came after lunch, she was not prepared.  Elsie was a deer in headlights.  She was not prepared for a whole team of wait staff to start cheering and singing loudly out to the whole restaurant.  She was stunned, and I totally wish I would have pulled my camera out for that.  As soon as they all walked away, she was beaming and said she was surprised but loved it.

Elsie is excited about going to kindergarten.  She did great at the open house.  After she had met 3 or so of the teachers she turned to me and said, "Mom, I am lovin' all of these teachers!"  :)

Preschool graduation....

Elsie fiercely loves every member of her family.  She is often very sweet to all of us.  She will say, "Mom, I just love you so so much! Like, more than 100!"

This morning her and Cora were holding hands on a walk and she said to Cora, "I love holding your hand and I love giving you hugs in the morning!"  Sidenote:  Elsie and Cora sleep in a bed together now.  They say they are scared and that helps them.  Last night I asked Elsie when she thinks she will sleep in her own bed again and she said "I think when I turn 8."

We love to snuggle and chat on the couch...

She asked me to take a picture this Spring because she was able to climb to the top of the caterpillar without getting scared.

This is a picture of Elsie during a treasure hunt after she found a clue.  She gets SO excited.  She is very excitable and dramatic!  She is drama every day.  Sometimes its fun-loving-happy drama and sometimes its sad-mad-crying drama.

She LOVES art and I love that she loves it.  She has an art cabinet that she digs in when she isn't napping.  She comes up with little projects or just colors and draws.  The other day she cut up a plastic bag, found some string, and made a kite.  Lately in the evenings, when the younger 2 go to bed, Elsie and I will get out adult art materials and do our adult coloring sheets together.

Elsie used to hate getting her hair brushed and would scream every day about it.  Now she loves if she gets a chance to get her hair straightened in my bathroom with me.

This was the end of the year daycare party.  Elsie loved it...and then cried when it was over.

Elsie and Cora love to stop on walks and investigate nature and plants and bugs.  Sometimes I indulge them.

Our little Elsie is the same beautiful, performing, singing, helpful, playful, sorta bossy, artsy girl she has always been and we are blessed to call her ours and get to watch her grow!

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