Calvin's talking

He is improving so much with talking (since not having his pacifier for about 4 weeks, and doing wonderfully I might add, he may as well have forgotten about it), so this may be my LAST attempt at doing this...I tried keeping up with Violet's words but after she turned 2 I lost count. Calvin just turned 2, so I'll give it a go. One thing he likes to do is refer to animals by their sounds, not the actual names of the animals, so that is why there are so many animal sounds. I guess it all started when he started loving kitties and called them "meows". I know he understands much more than he can communicate. roar wack wack (quack quack) meow moo woo woo (woof woof) der mo! (there's more) dite dere (right there) oh mo mo (no) deer oatmere (oatmeal) mommy daddy oh-tay (okay) yeah uh-oh, more dere, mom mmm-mmm (while shaking his head for no) and then whatever he is talking about. "mmm-mmm more" or "mmm-mmm bye bye" to say he doesn't want to do something. Lala (Violet) bye bib (big) beep (deep) why (wide) why wha? (what) pee poopoo baby muh (milk) "ah-buh-bye" (could mean anything, he has said this for months for many things, but recently means "a big bite") nanee (candy) bubbo (bubble) bop (pop) mum (gum) ree Eh-mo (read Elmo!) owie hah (hot) ah-pay (airplane) I dah dit (I got it) up mou (mouse) owl tractor ball du (juice) apple oh man whoa sti-ter (sticker) nana (banana)

4 yr old logic

Tonight Violet asked me a question about the baby. We were eating supper, and she said "Mommy, are you covering the baby in food?" At first I really didn't understand her question, I had to think about it for awhile. She asked me again, "Mommy, is there food all over the baby?" or something to that effect. It then dawned on me that she thought the baby was inside my stomach where food goes. It wasn't really easy to explain to her that my baby wasn't exactly INSIDE my tummy, and that the baby has a separate place where it grows. It sure gave us a laugh though.

Doctor pictures

Doctor check ups

I got the kids in for their 4 and 2 yr check ups this morning. They had a great time there, both were happy and nice to the nurses and doctors. Calvin enthusiastically greeted each person who walked in our little room with a big "hi!". I scheduled them both at 9 am together so I wouldn't have to make two trips with each of them separately. Since their birthdays are with in a few weeks of each other, it worked well. Violet is almost 41" tall, they weighed her in at 40 lbs, but every time she steps on the scale in our bathroom it reads 38.5, so either way, not much difference. She had clothes and a full belly of oatmeal, that could have made a difference. :) So 4 was her number today. 4 yrs old, 40 lbs, and 41" tall. Calvin weighed in at an ounce shy of 30 lbs and 36" tall. His head measured 20" around which put him in the 90% percentile for his head, not surprising to me. :) Violet got to put on a little hospital exam robe. She was examined first, and answered every question correctly, the doctor asked her her full name and she could say "Violet LaMarche" clearly, showed her four fingers for her age, talked the doctor's ear off about preschool and the sparkly pet rock she painted named "Sally Pet" the day before, and was very cooperative when the doctor checked her whole body, head to toe. Blood pressure was 96/56, and she passed her vision screening. She was most excited about her knee reflexes, watching her foot bounce up when her knee was bonked with the goofy looking tool. When the doctor left she bounced off the exam table, picked up the knee tool and then proceeded to bonk her own, mine and Calvin's knees to get the same reaction. She wasn't exactly successful, but she got a kick out of it. The doctor then checked out Calvin, and he looks perfectly healthy. She noted that he was very tall for his age and was glad to hear him speaking more words in the time she was in the room with us. He said "here's more woof woof!" when he found a Clifford the Big Red Dog book, although it came out sounding more like 'Hee mo woo woo". Violet knew that they were "done" with the check ups but she asked when she was going to get her shots. She knew she was going to get three booster shots (MMR, chicken pox, and DTaP) and was SO brave, I was so proud of her. She laid down on the table, I hugged her arms, and two nurses did the three injections in quick time. I could see her face grimace but she smiled when it was all over. I gave her a big hug and she knew she had done well. She was pretty excited about her Dora bandaids and I had told her she could have a sucker when she was done. So that is the last of her vaccinations for many, many years. :) I am glad I brought the double stroller with me so Calvin was strapped in. He got a little sucker too, he would have freaked out of Violet had one and he didn't. Plus, they both did well. And yes, I brushed their teeth very well after lunch today. I told the doc I'd see her back in June with a new baby. I made a stop out at Sam's club on my way home to pick up some things, then we had an early lunch. She got to tell daddy she did a good job and was very brave. Everybody was hungry and by the time lunch was over, Violet was VERY tired. She was acting really whiny and helpless saying her legs really hurt and she couldn't even walk up the steps, so brushing her teeth and getting her to go potty before her nap was a big struggle, but once I laid her in bed, she was practically sleeping. No fight, no asking for songs or books, she really wanted to snuggle in and go to sleep. Calvin went down easy too. They have been sleeping since 12:45, I hope they both feel rested when they wake up.

Beep Why Why

Calvin's newest favorite song is "Deep and Wide". I got the kids three CDs of kids Bible songs (over 100 songs!) and every time Violet listens to a CD she soaks up everything she possibly can, learning each song very quickly. "Deep and Wide" is one of the simpler, shorter songs that Calvin attached his brain to. He belts out the tune by singing "Beep Why Why....Beep Why Why....(then a bunch of blubbering)...Beep Why Why!" then the 2nd verse "Why an' Beep...Why an' Beep..." Its so funny and cute to hear him sing with the right "words" coming out of his mouth all silly like a 2 yr old should sound, but he's right on tune!

Valentine Cookie Outreach

My friend Selena had this great idea. Last year she did it and said it went really well, so she recruited some friends to get in on the action this year. The idea was to reach out to our neighbors somehow and spread God's love. So we and another friend of ours baked a bunch of cookies, got together and decorated them, and exchanged cookies so we'd all have a big variety, packaged them up in cute little treat bags, and put tags on the handles of the bags with a note that says "Happy Valentine's Day from the LaMarche family, David, Maria, Violet and Calvin" with our address on it. The back side of the note card has the verse John 3:16 on it arranged in such a way that the word "VALENTINE" is vertical in the verse. When I type it out in the box where I type the post, the spaces are there so it looks like the word Valentine is vertical, but when I hit post it deletes the spaces...so this is not exactly what it looks like but you get the idea. The letters that are supposed to be vertical are capitalized and really, it just looks much better printed on the card surrounded with hearts. :) “For God so loVed the world, that He gAve His onLy begottEn soN, thaT whosoever believes In Him shall Not perish, but have Everlasting life.” I packaged up 13 treat bags with all the cookies I had Selena got these really cute heart treat bags and ribbon. All our treat bags were assembled Monday night after an effort decorating all the cookies we made. So after Dave got done with work today, we bundled up the kids, packed up all the cookie treat bags in a carrying sack and handed them out to our neighbors. Violet was really, really excited to hand out cookies to everybody. She insisted on carrying each individual bag of cookies to the door and ringing the doorbell. She got really shy though, at the moment when someone would open the door. She was supposed to say "Happy Valentine's Day!" but got stage fright each time. Instead she handed them the bag and let mommy do all the talking. Dave and Calvin were with me at the door but Dave was holding Calvin the whole time (he isn't the best walker in the snow). Everybody seemed to be really shocked that we were actually OUTSIDE in the middle of this snowy winter night, and most people were really grateful and thankful for us doing such a sweet thing. We handed out 13 bags, and only came across one house where nobody answered, so we made 12 personal contacts. Our neighbors to the north, Nate and Deb Beving, invited us in. Initially we planned on not accepting any offers to come inside, but they insisted we stop in for a second. We caught up with them a little, found out their girls both had recent birthdays and turned 13 and 10 yrs old (I'm thinking: babysitters!). Calvin loved petting their little dog. It was a nice conversation. They thanked us for the cookies, and off we went. The 12th house we stopped at was a house across the street and few houses south of ours. They opened the door, and happily greeted us. We said we were their neighbors from across the street and they said "which house?" and wondered because they hadn't seen us before. We pointed out our house, and noted the fact that our name and address were on the card attached to the cookies. They asked when we moved in and they felt ashamed that they hadn't met us yet. We told them no problem, we hadn't really met any of our neighbors yet! They were insistent on inviting us in and insisted over and over that we take off our boots and coats and sit down for a chat. I was anxious to get going since it was already 8 pm and we hadn't had supper yet, but I pushed those feelings aside and agreed to go inside to talk for a little while. We settled into their living room for about 10-15 minutes, and these two people (Jeff and Kathy) were just so excited and thankful that we stopped over and were SO excited to meet us. Upon leaving they gave us great big bear hugs and said they'd love to have us over for dinner some time. Wow! Dave said he had never met such inviting people in his life! They asked us how we both ended up in Cedar Falls since I was from Mason City and he was from Chicago, and we mentioned that it was our connection through church, and they asked us about that, found out where we went around here, and they were excited to tell us that they loved going to Heartland Vineyard right across the street, which I know is a solid Christian church that preaches the truth. Good to know! So, we may have met some Christians on our block. Both kids were pretty much melting down and tired so that is how the visit got cut short. They were so tired that they were laying flat on their backs side by side waiting to leave by their front door. I promised Violet mac and cheese if she could hand out the last bag of cookies to the next house and that got her feet moving pretty quick. Overall I think it was a success, we got to know and meet our neighbors, even some new ones that have moved in since we did. And with the scripture reference, we marked ourselves as Christians to the neighbors, I hope to make more contacts in the future!

The fighting...

...does not seem to end lately. I think my kids have the worst cabin fever and are just bored to death inside this house some days. Every time it snows, Violet gets upset and whines that it won't be spring time for a very very long time. She is longing to go outside and ride her trike. I hear ya sweetie. Playing outside in the snow is really not that fun either. I tried bundling them up a couple times and going outside, but all Calvin wants to do is walk in it and he is bored with in minutes, and Violet wants to climb hills that the snowplow makes along side the road. Which is fine, but I can't be outside supervising her and deal with a frustrated Calvin who can't do the same things his big sister is doing. I'm not going to pull them in a sled when I'm almost 6 months pregnant. Violet has a strong sense of what is HERS (her blankies, stroller, baby, etc) and totally freaks out when Calvin touches her stuff. He knows exactly how to push her buttons too, and does it in the most calm matter with a straight face. They have rare moments when they both actually play together and do it nicely and laugh, but they are far outweighed by screaming, fighting, hair pulling, hitting, and yelling. They each have an agenda for whatever they're doing and it never seems to be the same agenda. Both of them end up getting disciplined for any given situation. Calvin makes her mad, Violet freaks out to a very dramatic degree...and she gets him back in her own way. One of their favorite things to do is "play trucks". They each grab a toy truck and push it the length of the hosue from the living room to the garage door, over and over again, but they each argue about who gets which truck multiple times. I just end up taking the trucks away all together until they can agree to play nicely. Its really, really hard to remain calm in the middle of all this fighting. I am trying my best to not get myself worked up to their level, because I know in my head that it is not productive, instead it is the frustration I feel from the way they are acting. They end up scared of me when I yell at them and its not productive. They might behave instantly because they are getting yelled at but its not teaching them good behavior. I find that when I force myself to chill out before responding to them they end up listening better (if I whisper they actually listen better!) and calm down quicker. The verse in Proverbs 15:1 applies to parenting more than I have ever realized: "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." I want to believe that this will get better as they get older. Ages 4 and 2 aren't seeming all that compatible at the moment.

Violet felt the baby kick

Tonight while I was getting Violet down for bed, I told her we could lay down together to see if we could feel the baby move after she was all ready. That was a big motivator for getting her in bed quick, so we tried to lay really still and feel any movement. I suggested the idea of trying to feel the baby move while I was reading her a story and I felt a few kicks myself thinking this might be a good awake time for baby. I knew she'd "get a kick" out of feeling some movement. So we laid down on her bed for a few minutes, she was very quiet and patient with both hands on my belly. I felt a strong kick after awhile and could visibly see my belly move. She felt the movement, and immediately gasped and snapped her head to look at me. I said "did you feel that one?!" she said "Yeahhh!!" and got really giddy. We talked about what the baby looks like. She asked if the baby was cold in there, I told her no, mommy's body was giving the baby a big hug and was keeping baby's body warm. She thought it was funny that baby wasn't wearing socks or had any clothes on. I reassured her that once the baby came out of mommy's tummy we would definitely put some clothes on her. She insisted on waiting longer to feel more kicks, but there were none very strong that she could feel. But I know she felt the first one!

Violet had a dream

And she told me about it earlier today. She said to me "Mommy, I had a dream that the baby just POPPED right out of your tummy! And the baby was crying, and crying, and crying. I gave her a blanket. Mommy, we need to go to the store and get the new baby a blanket because I don't think she has one in there!" I could tell she was deeply concerned about the baby's blanket and went on about it for some time, so I think that will be a good gift idea for Violet to give to the new baby. And we don't know the sex of this baby, but Violet often refers to the new baby as "she" and I have a strong feeling it is a girl. I hesitate to even write that, because it just makes me think I'm going to be wrong. I thought Violet was a boy before she was born, and I thought Calvin was a girl before he was born, so I'm 0 for 2. The score might change!