Troy’s Moose Shirt

I have to admit that if I were to guess if a boy or girl child would care more about what they wear, I’d guess the girl. But if the girl and boy I am talking about happen to be my Troy and my Ella, the boy actually cares a lot more. While Ella cares some about her clothes, she really isn’t picky and she really doesn’t have favorite shirts or outfits. She certainly didn’t care as much as Troy does at Troy’s age.

However, Troy has a few favorite shirts: anything with Mickey Mouse, his old-man Buzz Lightyear pajamas, and his moose shirt. He’s liked moose for a while, and when I saw the shirt, I knew he’d like it, although I had no idea how much he’d like it. Along with his Mickey Mouse shirts, he often requests to wear his moose shirt. It is funny to me that an almost-two-and-a-half year old boy would pay so much attention to his clothes. : )

 

 

 

 

“It’s mine!”

Troy has been extremely possessive lately, and reminds me a lot of the toddler’s rules of possession (modified).

Troy often says (or yells or whines), “it’s mine!” to Ella, me, his dad, or anyone else that he feels is threatening his ability to posses whatever he has.

I’ve been really struggling with trying to foster an environment for the kids in which they are better at sharing their things. I know they are only 2 and 3 (almost 4), but I don’t want them to be materialistic or selfish. I don’t want them to be so concerned with physical things. I want them to be willing to share their things with others. I want them to not melt down if a toy gets broken or lost. I want them to be easy going and flexible as they play with each other (as well as others), and to understand that it is important to share and take turns and exhibit selfless attitudes.

I know that I need to be correcting poor attitudes and poor behavior consistently now.  I know there is no “trick” that will instantly turn my kids into kids who share with kindness. I know these characteristics aren’t something that just magically happen when they get to be a certain age. And, although I know that they won’t suddenly understand how to start sharing once they hit a certain age, I do know that their understanding of the concept of sharing will increase with age. Ella has proven that to me.

I also know that this task, although with most tasks in parenting, requires a lot of patience and perseverance.  And don’t get me wrong. They do share. Sometimes. : )

Sibling Photo Time

Before Troy was born, and when I wasn’t nearly as experienced with my camera, I wrote a post about taking a toddler’s photo. Much hasn’t changed in that department except that I’m dealing with two kiddos now. It can be quite difficult to get a photo of them together where they are both looking at the camera and both happy without assistance (things are much easier when my husband helps out). Here’s a great sequence to illustrate the point.  Ella is pretty good at following directions (unless she isn’t in a picture taking mood), but Troy on the other hand seems to do everything in his power to not follow directions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Daddy cut my hair!”

Back in November Troy's hair was starting to get a bit ragged.

We personally like his hair to be neat and short, and Trent and I had discussed that he would just buzz his head when we officially decided it was time for the  hair cut. One day when Ella and I were out shopping, I got a call from Trent telling me that he had successfully cut Troy’s hair. I was SHOCKED because I thought it would take both of us to hold him during the process, but Troy actually cooperated with Trent.

However, the haircut wasn’t exactly what I had imagined. It was, uh, a bit shorter. I also didn’t realize how blonde his hair is (which made him look almost bald!). (please ignore the poor quality cell phone pic)

 

Everyone we saw was shocked by his hair, and, of course, rubbed his head and asked him who cut his hair. He’d say, “Daddy cut my hair!”

Although it was shorter than I expected, his little buzzed head was pretty cute, especially after it grew out some.

It has grown out quite a bit now, and he even needs a trim. :) The other day I was playing a game with him to get him to identify some of his body parts. When I pointed to his hair he said, "Daddy cut my hair!"

The Gingerbread House

So behind on blogging (that’s what happens when your computer breaks AND it is the holidays). Catching up a little at a time!

Ella (and Troy this year!) got to decorate a gingerbread house. I was surprised that Troy actually did some “decorating” before he decided he needed to dig into the candy. I cannot believe how much Ella has grown since we decorated a gingerbread house last Christmas, and that Troy could actually help this year!

 

 

I let each kid decorate one side of the roof. This one is Ella's side:

 

And this one is Troy's side:

Happy 16 Months Troy!

Happy 16 Months Troy!

Ah, every month bring lots of changes, but this month you seem so much more grown-up! You are finally walking! You started taking steps early on in the month, but didn’t really take many steps in a row until about halfway through the month. You got fairly sick in the middle of the month, and after being sick didn’t seem interested in walking again for a little while, but once you were feeling better started taking steps again.

You love playing with Ella, and y’all generally do enjoy each others’ company. I love listening to you playing and laughing at each other!

You are stubborn. Really stubborn. You consistently get into things you know you aren’t supposed to get into (like the dogs’ water bowl or their food dishes). You demonstrate that you know you aren’t supposed to do things because oftentimes when I see you getting in the dogs’ water, for example, you’ll start crawling away really fast! You also keep on doing whatever it is you are doing after we tell you no (several times) like throw your food or touch my computer. This is new territory for us . . . when Ella was your age we usually only had to tell her a few times not to do something and she steered clear of the activity.

You also finally quit taking a bottle this month! We had intended on weaning you earlier on, but after a couple of bouts of sickness and travel, the timing just never worked out. We (along with our wallet) are glad that you are finally weaned! You have also been eating a ton lately, I feel like I can’t feed you enough! There have been days in the past couple of weeks where pretty much anytime you are awake you are crawling/walking around saying “bite! bite! bite!” (in a Chinese accent no less).

 

You continue to love being the center of attention. You’ve started clapping at yourself if we tell you that you’ve done a good job. You are such a cheese ball! You are also a huge chatterbox. You constantly talk even though we don’t know what you are always saying (most of the time we don’t know, ha!). The pediatrician kept commenting on how much you were talking when we were at your 15 month well check.

You love, love, love throwing balls. You are really good (especially considering your age) at throwing a football (or other things). You can get good distance and are pretty accurate too. You got a basketball goal for Christmas, and you’ve been having a lot of fun playing with it, and shooting baskets. Just recently you have been able to pick up the basketball, walk to the goal, shoot, and (sometimes) make a basket.

Signs you do: more, finished, milk, hungry, thank you, please (although only once, maybe twice), thirsty, sleepy (although thirsty, sleepy, and please all look a lot alike when you do them . . .)

Words you say: bye, ball, Bible, bottle, bite, book, blue, mama, dada, Ella, “eeses” (Reeses, our dog), “ah-ee” (Ali, our other dog), Lucy (grandparent’s dog),  “anks” (thanks), “ank oo” (thank you), “ish” (fish), “inished” (finished), duck, “ootball” (football), RhuRhu (grandma), Gigi (grandma), hey, hi, down, up, uh-uh, “eese” (please"), play. I also think you say something that sounds like “what’s that?”

Animal noises you make: chicken

Favorite foods: banana, and then I don’t know what else. You eat a ton of different stuff, but half the time something you gobbled up the day before, you won’t touch the next day. It can make it very tough figuring out what to feed you!

Favorite activities: crawling/walking and exploring everything, especially following Ella or chasing a dog; dancing (you love to turn on the music that plays on toys and dance to it); reading books; watching Blue’s Clues; taking baths; playing with balls (you love to throw any kind of ball); trying get any electronics or drinks you can spot.

Troy at 15 months

Ella’s House

One of Ella’s Christmas presents this year was a large cardboard playhouse that you can decorate and color yourself. I wasn’t sure how she’d do with such free reign of markers (not to mention the whole idea that she is coloring on walls of a house), but she did great! She has been responsible with the markers, and only ended up with a bit of marker on her, and none on the floor (or my walls) (at least not that I’ve found!). She’s even been a great sport about not having the markers out when Troy is playing in the room with her.

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Activities (with a toddler!)

Now that Ella is getting a little bit older, I was excited to do lots of fun Christmas projects with her this year. We didn’t get around to doing as many things as I had originally planned, but we did do a couple of fun projects.

First, we made a gingerbread house. We used a boxed kit, and Ella had a ton of fun directing me where to put icing and candy as well as placing some of the candy herself. She was even more excited when she figured out that she could eat some of the candy. : ) By the way, no judging on the quality of the finished product – I’m not very creative and my helper was a two year old! ; )

 

 

 

 

We also made salt dough ornaments. They were incredibly easy to make, and Ella really enjoyed picking out shapes as well as using the cookie cutters (or other utensils) to cut out the shapes.

 

 

 

(Ella was sick when we did this activity, so ignore the snotty face . . .)