Week 94.34

Dear Nathan,

Thank God your separation anxiety spell only lasted for a few days. You are back to your normal self now, but you are now starting to throw some major tantrums (mostly crying) when you don't get your way. You mainly get super upset when we don't let you watch TV or play bubbles (because we are about to go out somewhere). I am trying really hard to stay consistent with my replies and hopefully you will be able to learn that no means no eventually. 

As far as milestones goes, there haven't been any major developments, but he is simply refining skills that he already has like scooping, walking down stairs, working on jigsaw puzzles, and cutting. 

We've been cooking together each afternoon. After your afternoon snack, we prep dinner together so that when daddy comes home, all I have to do is add some heat and cook. 

I am also so proud of your desire to finish a task before you move on to another one. You are very good about putting your toys away by yourself. You are able to sit and finish a whole 24 piece puzzle and put the pieces away without getting distracted. You put the play dough in the correct containers and then you put all the play dough accessories in the bucket that they belong in. I'm glad that you have a pretty good attention span. I'd say it's better than a lot of the students that I used to teach in school. Let's hope it stays that way. 

Things that you are really into right now: 

1. Elmo

2. Cookie monster (you do a great imitation of him)

3. Bubbles

4. Puzzles

5. Trains and cars

6. Identifying colors and sizes (large vs small)

7. Play-dough

8. Ping-pong bowling (see below)

9. Going to the pool. 

10. Jumping off of things. 

The joy on his face!

To make things a bit safer, we've set up a few landing pads for you. You can pretty much do this all day. 

You are not as obsessed with cats anymore (Thank God!) but instead you are very aware of other babies. You will point out all the babies that you see and today at the pool, you even signed "more" after you pointed out the babies. Which brings me to the next skill that you've recently attained: the ability to find similar things. For example, you will point out something green, identify it as green and then point to something else that's green and say "more." 

As far as things with your little sister goes, I'm back to enjoying being pregnant a bit more. The hip pain is gone, I'm able to sleep a bit better and I have a bit more energy during the day. Last night I packed the suitcase that we'll be bringing to the hospital and it finally sank in that in a few weeks, we will have not 1 kid to take care of but 2 kids. 

The cleaning schedule that I've been following is awesome. Things are getting cleaned, and for the most part, staying clean. Some days I'm even motivated to complete the next day's chores. Next weekend I'm going to go through all of little sister's stuff and organize them once again. Since I will leading teacher trainings all of next week, I will probably get to that by the end of the following week. 

So the update next week will probably be pretty short. But I'll post an updated bump picture. 

That's about it for now. 

Stay sweet and cuddly forever. 

Mommy.