This has been such a fun season of life. The babies are much more independent and manageable yet still show us how much they need and love us. Most nights, Eric and I sit back at the end of a busy work day and just watch our kids play, fight, act super silly-- it is just pure joy. I know I will look back one day and remember this to be one of the best times of our lives.
Luke Update (20 months!)
Physical Development
Lukey's got almost all of his teeth in. He's just missing his 4 last molars. A bunch of teeth came in pretty close together shortly after his first birthday.. with the teething and the endless cycle of illness, I was a pretty sleep deprived mama!
Lukey is also taller and leaner. I'm always hearing comments about how he's thinning out although he's still got those adorably full cheeks.
Gross Motor Development
Luke started walking right around his 15 month birthday! For a few months he was still walking like a drunken sailor :) Nowadays he's running around getting into all sorts of trouble. He can’t quite jump yet but can walk backwards.
Fine Motor Development
Luke is getting really good at unzipping zippers, pushing buttons on toys, holding his bottle, holding utensils to feed himself, pulling string through hole.
He's very good at putting objects in containers and really enjoys doing it. It comes in handy during clean up time.
Cognitive Development
Lukey's got rhythm! When we sing songs, he chimes in and "sings" along. His favorite song at the moment is "All Aboard the Choo Choo Train" or as Lukey would sing, "Ahh boar choo choo chain." He walks around dancing and bopping his head to music. Other favorites are "ABCs", "Twinkle Twinkle", "Jesus Loves Me", "Jesus Loves the Little Children", mygym’s “Bye Bye” song. Luke also learns songs big sister learns from school when she sings them in the car on the way home. Who needs the radio when you've got two cute babies singing in the car?
Luke has been going through a language explosion these past 2-3 months. A few months back, he was able to say "nana" (banana), "orsh" (orange), "nai nai" (milk in Chinese), "Bao Bao" (carry me in Chinese), "ball", "amen", "hi", "hello", "bye bye", "more", "Gu gu" (older brother in Chinese, "Jie Jie" (older sister in Chinese), "ba-oon" (balloon), "moon", "door", "happy birthday", "spoon", "boomba" (Roomba), "choo choo" (for train), "Nai nai" (milk), "wa wa" (water), "bubble", "Go Go" (dog in Chinese), "Elmo", “swing”, “slide”, "sock", "shoe", "help", "bottle", "water", "more" along with the sign, "please" along with the sign, "all done" along with the sign. More recently, he's learned to count to 5 really clearly (up to 20 not so clearly), says "choo choo train", "sky", "hua hua" (flower in Chinese), "bobble" (bottle), "dada", "daddy", "el-phant" (elephant), "Muno", "open", "book", "sun", “oh no”, sit down in Chinese. He points to things saying "look!" When I say "say Thank you", he says "you're welcome". Though he had already learned a bunch of words by 18 months, he only started saying "mama" and "mommy" at 18 months-- yes learning "mama" came after most of the words listed above".
Recently, he's learned the word "broken" and boy has it come in handy. He broke one of M's figurines, handed it to me and said "broken". The next day, we were outside and he prematurely picked an orange off of his dad's orange tree, hands it to me and says "broken". I think I hear the word every other day! He's also been speaking 2+ word phrases. He'll say drink water in Chinese, "here go" (here you go) while handing an object to me, "uh oh happened?", “open this”, “Daddy’s home”, "balloon broken" (see video).
Though Luke has a pretty extensive vocabulary, he's not great with the animal sounds. If you ask him what a cow says, he roars. If you ask him what a cat says, he roars... More recently, however, he's been able to bark for a dog and quack for a duck.
Of course he understand more than he speaks. For example, he can identify his "nose", "head", "mouth", "hands", "feet". When I ask him to identify different items from books or ask him to bring objects to me, he correctly identifies many objects, even more complicated words like "maraca".
He also makes strong associations. When we get close to the railroad tracks, he says "choo choo". When I drive through the gate to our community, he says "daddy" because he knows he'll see Eric soon. When I walk by the bathroom, he points and says "teeth", then uses his finger as a toothbrush to brush his teeth. He is also very aware of things he's not allowed to touch or do, and knows that if he touches certain things, he will get scolded. He will sometimes get close to the oven and as he's about
to touch it, turn his head to see if we are looking. When he realizes that all eyes are on him, he smiles the cutest most mischievous smile, while pulling his hand away. When he really wants something, he'll say "please" or “more please”. When he wants a toy someone else is holding, he points to it and says "share!"
About a month ago, he was overgeneralizing quite a bit. For example, he would say "choo choo" for trains, but also for other vehicles like cars, buses, and trucks. He'll point to all sorts of animals and call them "duck". Every Sesame Street character was Elmo to him, every Yo Gabba Gabba character was Muno to him, and every Mickey Mouse clubhouse character was either "Minnie" or "Hot Dog". Very recently, he's been better able to express that these characters are different. He knows cars from trains, and Big Bird from Elmo. I think he is aware of the differences but just not verbally representing the characters or objects as being different.
We also see his attention developing. He can play with a toy for awhile before moving on to another and his attention for TV has grown. We can easily sit through an entire episode of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or Yo Gabba Gabba without getting bored.
Socioemotional Development
Wow, where did this personality come from?! At 12 months, I thought of my baby as a carefree, shy, patient little boy. Then he started walking and talking and having opinions! I now describe him as goofy, active, and mischievous!
Lukey is pretty clingy. I remember M being similar around this age but I feel that
Luke is a bit more needy than M.
Lukey is also jealous just like M was. I used to think I was not going to have this problem with my 2nd child since he is born having to share mom's attention with his sib, but surprisingly he is just as jealous.
Lukey is showing signs of guilt. When he gets scolded for something, he either has a smirk on his face as if to say "darn! I almost got away with it!" or looks down to avoid making eye contact with a totally ashamed look or starts to cry. So precious!
Lukey can show affection-- he will sometimes give hugs and kisses when asked. He also says "I love you" back and has self-initiated an "I love you" once.
He laughs when anyone farts, burps, or makes any funny sound. Oftentimes he will blow raspberries just to be silly. It’s particularly funny when Makayla joins him and it becomes a raspberry chorus. Of course Eric and I put on our stern faces and tell them to stop but are doing everything we can not to burst out laughing.
People are becoming familiar to him. Lukey is more inclined to approach someone if he is familiar with them. He clearly shows that he knows familiar people in his life such as his grandparents, aunts and uncles. He can correctly identify these people when asked.
We enrolled him in MyGym a few months ago and have seen improvement in his comfort with letting go of mom and going to instructor, and in his ability to sit and participate in circle time.
Luke obsessions:
- trains
- bubbles
- balloons
- snacks
- anything stick-like (utensils, toy screwdriver)
- flowing water
- Yo Gabba Gabba
- Bubble Guppies
- Mickey Mouse & friends
- shovels
- anything his sister is playing with at the moment
- tents
Makayla Update (3 years 9 months)
Three is A LOT easier than I expected. Yes of course Makayla has her moments, especially when she is sleep-deprived, but when she knows the rules, she is pretty good at following them.
Though the new baby excitement has worn off long ago, Makayla is still a very loving sister most of the time. She likes to call Luke "my Lukey". She has been very helpful-- she occasionally wakes him up in the morning and entertains him while we are doing other things. In the car, she hands snacks to him. She is also taking her big sister job very seriously. You'll hear her tell Lukey "No Lukey!" when he's doing something he's not supposed to be doing. She also reports when he's pooped :) When it comes to sharing my attention, Makayla is so great with allowing me to hold Luke. If she wants me to hold her, she doesn't even ask to be held until he's off wandering around.
We’ve recently put both kids in the same bedroom and both kids love it! She tells me how much she loves being in his room and that “Luke is the perfect baby!”
Makayla is also protective of Luke. At the park, an older girl was getting mad at Luke for taking her things, very aggressively telling him to stop. Makayla reprimanded her for scolding Luke, saying, "You have to say 'Lukey, please don't take my stick'" to which the girl looked completed confused and responded with "ok".
Makayla and Luke are also learning to take turns. One day I brought 2 shovels to the park because I knew they would both want one. They looked exactly the same, but one was red and the other yellow. For some reason, they both decided it was a "red shovel" kind of a day! They kept fighting over who got the red shovel. So as a learning experience, I had them trade off-- each person got the beloved shovel for 5 minutes (in arbitrary mommy time). Of course this just meant every 5 minutes, one of the kids would throw a tantrum. Did they learn to take turns? not really. Was mama exhausted? absolutely! I will have to give credit to Makayla, though for giving her brother what he wants about half the time.
Early this year, Makayla really started warming up a lot to Eric. It’s so cool to see their relationship continuously developing. She tells him that he is the best daddy in the whole wide world, calls him her favorite superhero, gets so excited to see him when he comes home. She is truly daddy’s little girl.
Makayla LOVES reading books. Sometimes she'll choose to read books over playing with toys or watching TV. Even when she plays games on our phones, she often chooses the book-reading apps. She also likes to "read" books herself. She will pick up a book and tell the story showing her understanding of sentence construction. She'll use a lot of ".... he replied" or ".... she exclaimed" or "they said..."
Makayla seems to be doing really well in school. Of course she prefers to be at home, but she no longer complains about people not wanting to be her friend. She's also made a best friend at school and they do everything together! She is also a lot less clingy during drop-offs.
Makayla can speak a little bit of Chinese. She has learned to ask politely for a cup of water. There are also a few single words she can say in Chinese but most are food related haha
Makayla’s attitude is also improving. Most of the time she doesn’t get upset when she doesn’t get her way. Just the other day she asked if she could watch tv, and I just said "no, not right now". Her response, "oh, ok". (?!?!) She's also great with "thank you", "please", and "you're welcome"s.
M can use scissors.
M has really shown huge improvement in potty training. She self initiates all the time and hardly has accidents.
One of the most exciting areas of development we have seen in Makayla within the past half year is her ability to draw and write. She makes the cutest stick figures and letters. We received a portfolio from school that was a compilation of pictures and artwork throughout the school year—the comparison between her drawing from September and April is astounding. She can also write all the letters of the alphabet and numbers, though not with the proper strokes. At school, she is given a worksheet of numbers to trace and she'll sit there and work on it by herself until it's finished. I know it may not seem like a big deal, but she has really come a long way from when she started school in September!
We also attended Makayla's end of school year ballet recital and school musical. I was so blown away by how confident Makayla was on stage. I remember how during her Christmas concert back in December, we were just happy that she stayed seated with the rest of her class!
She says a lot of funny things:
"I want to be a good girl but I'm just a little cranky."
"My butt is not working!" (sitting on the toilet trying to get poopy out)
"mommy, can you have a happy face?"
"I spotted a..."
"my poop was pointy. I need to drink more fluids so my poop won't be pointy anymore"
I'm super excited for this summer! I hope to be posting more frequently!
