Home One Month and a Snow/Ice Day

Smiling Brothers....at last!!!

A couple of weeks ago, I took the boys and myself to get their haircuts. The boys had fun getting their haircuts while sitting in a play police car while watching cartoons. The boys look so handsome with a fresh new look. Check them out.

Our cuties



The boys including my husband had fun in the snow or should I say ice last week. Robert would give each boy a turn to be wizzed across the yard on the ice and with the slight downslope in our front yard they would slide pretty far. Evan would ask when Robert was at work where was "Outide Papa" or outside Papa was. Evan loves the outdoors and screams when he has to come inside. both Steven and Evan have a very stubborn side and with an attitude but on the flip side they are extremely lovable and want as much love and affection as one could give them.


WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

Papa Wizzing the boys on the sled...."Outide Papa" as Evan would say.


WHOO WHOO!!

Slip slide and away Evan!

We work on our schooling during the weekdays and Steven is now saying 3 word sentences when he does talk in English. He tries so hard and really wants to learn. He loves being the best at what he does. He now knows about 20 animals, 20 body parts, 6 colors, many food items, can count up to 13, knows many letters' sounds and recognizes about one third to one half of the alphabet letters. He told Andrew "No toys in the kitchen" (something I always say) this morning which surprised Robert and I and he was telling Andrew to repeat after him and say "Excuse me" after Andrew burped at the table. We all smiled and laughed that Steven was correcting Andrew and telling him in English to repeat after him by saying "Excuse me".

Steven is becoming more and more affectionate with me and wanting more one on one time with Mommy. He is even calling me Mommy and Robert Daddy now. At times he wants me to baby him and wants me to help him get dressed, even though I know he can do it himself. I have to keep reminding myself that Steven is younger emotionally than his physical age and needs more affection from me since he missed out on so much love and attention in the past years.

There were a few times where I had to put Steven in time-out for misbehaving and trying to teach him of the concept of time-out was tougher than teaching a 2 or 3 year old partly because of the language barrier. He of course didn't want to stay in his room and for me to lift or drag him back into his room to keep him in time-out for the 5 minutes was a chore for me since he is so big and heavy to lift. He finally understood and stayed in his room until his time was up and I made him appologize to his brother/s or me for whatever the issue was. He certainly has a stubborn side to him that rises up from time to time.

Evan is doing great! He is more babyish than Steven or Andrew. Emotionally he reminds me of a 2 year old but mentally and intellectually he is a 3 and a half year old. He is my cuddle bunny. He is always hugging my legs when I'm fixing food in the kitchen for a meal, trying to hug me when he's eating, and he loves to try and push me down on his bed to play and get tickles from Mommy when I am trying to change his clothes. His legs are super strong for his age and he has a lot of power behind them. He is such a cutie but I can tell he will need some speech therapy since he slurs through the words or phrases I say slowly and want him to repeat. He is bonding well with Andrew and visa versa. Every once in a while they go at it, but not as much as it was in the past.

Andrew is doing much better in school and at home. He is not stressing out every time it's time to get dressed...just once in a while. For a while there it was every single time he changed his clothes he would whine and cry and get upset because he refused to pick out something to wear. When I would pick it out he wouldn't like my selection and always seemed to want to wear the dirty food crusted clothes he wore the day before to school. Well you know that wasn't happening if I could help it. It would take him 45 minutes to get dressed in the morning with constant crying, whining and frustration. There was always something wrong with most of his clothes, according to Andrew,that it was really wearing Robert and I's patience level down drastically. Talk about particular with his clothes....Many times I wanted to scream and sometimes I did.

We started using the timer when the boys start to fight over a toy. My friend Jen with twin boys Andrew's age suggested putting the timer to manage the boys taking turns. Boy that has helped quite a bit with keeping the atmosphere more peaceful in our home. At times now Andrew will come up to me and ask for me to put the timer on so he can get a turn with the saught after toy. Praise the Lord for progress.