James is such a big boy. He is totally able to dress himself even down to his shoes (velcro of course) and he is so proud of himself. He tells us all the time "I can do it myself". He continues to be a virtual mini me of his daddy in almost every way. He is a talk, talk, talker and never meets a stranger. He loves to ask me "why" about 1,000x a day and eventually it gets to the point where I have to turn the questions around on him to get him to stop! I know this is part of learning but there comes a point when you just can't answer another question - especially when it's the same one you've already been asked. When I don't answer him he'll often say, "you already told me, mommy?" It appears that his primary love language right now is quality time. He LOVES to be with you and have your full attention. When we're outside and he's playing ball if I look away for even a second he catches me and calls me back to his attention. He also has a very sensitive heart. He doesn't like to see others hurt or crying (unless it's his brother sometimes:) and he himself can get a little sensitive at times - which can be hard when I have 3 babies vying for my attention but sometimes you just have to stop and hold the one that needs you the most :) He is starting to really love to "read". Often when it's bedtime story time he wants to be the one to do the reading. He's getting a couple new Leap Frog learning to read videos for Christmas that should help him start to put letters together to make words and then he's well on his way! I recently bought the Jesus Storybook Bible and we read from it every night and they both love it and often I will find him in his room looking over the stories again - melt a mommy's heart!
John-Mark continues to be our little fearless 2 year old that thinks he's 3. I told someone today that he's so focused he's clumsy if that makes any sense. He is always a little banged up and bruised somewhere from getting so focused on one thing that he misses the wall or table or stairs - you name it and boom! He is my slow walker that I have to keep close by at all times or he'll get focused on something and get left behind! In fact, last week he almost gave me a heart attack. We were at The Bass Pro Shop walking around and he and James were right behind me and within 5 seconds he wasn't. I went back thinking he had walked off in to a clothes isle and I couldn't see him - nothing. I began to panic which I think set James in to a panic because I'm yelling "John-Mark!" and he's running with me yelling "where' my brother! where's my brother!" Thankfully a store clerk got on the radio and found out he was at the front of the store. When we walked in I let them look at the four wheelers for a bit and he decided that's what he wanted to do again so when he saw his chance he B-lined it to the front of the store to play - No more free walking in the store - he must be in a cart at all times!
Our favorite new trick they do is singing The 50 Nifty United States song. They both know all 50 states and can sing it perfectly. John-Mark is the funniest because he doesn't pronunciate as clearly as James but it's super cute. Jeremy has been dying to teach it to them probably since James was born and I told him just to start singing it and they would learn it - and sure enough - in about 2 weeks they had it down. That is one family trait they get from both of us - they LOVE to sing. We are a singing family - we all love to sing. We listen to bible stories and songs in the car and it's amazing how much of it they know by heart! I love it! I'm working on getting a video of the 50 Nifty song on the blog - so stay tuned :)
It has become clear that while James is just like Jeremy, John-Mark is a lot like his mommy. He is just the cutest little thing ever (;) but he has a bit of a temper on him when things don't go his way. He's also much more thoughtful and deliberate in what he does (ie - planning his escape back to the 4-wheelers - he had been thinking about that for a while!) It's funny to see how we parent them differently and how I seem to have more grace for James' obedience issues and not so much for John-Mark and Jeremy is the opposite. Kind of crazy. I guess it's because we see so much of ourselves in them and we think we know the motivation behind their behavior and we want to correct it before it gets out of hand. As always - I can't imagine these boys without each other and they definitely keep me on my toes!
Gracie Belle is just our sweet little princess. We're not sure yet which way her personality is going to go. So far she seems to be a good balance of both of us through and through. Most of the time she is just a happy, laid back girl. However, it appears that ONLY with me can she get a bit demanding. She LOVES to yell at me when she wants or needs me. Just this loud, almost "hey!" thing she does. She also will follow me around the house crying when I'm in the middle of cooking dinner. She never does this with her daddy - she just plays and plays when she is with him. But as much as that drives me crazy she also melts my heart when I'm holding her and someone comes up and talks to her and she gives them a grin and then lays her head on my shoulder. It's like she's saying "you can talk to me but don't you dare try to take me from my mommy". She's my girl! One thing that has become very evident is that she also LOVES music and anytime she hears any she starts clapping and moving her shoulders side to side. I recently started letting her watch Miss Patty Cake and she LOVES her. That's my new way to get dinner cooked in peace :) We've also realized that while she started out not being a picky eater - the more food we introduce to her the pickier she gets - hmmm. Her favorite things right now are turkey hotdogs, turkey, ham, goldfish, applesauce, and any kind of babyfood. I have to keep giving her the babyfood to make sure she's getting her veggies! Oh- and chick-fil-a chicken nuggets! I swear she can eat about 6 in one sitting if I would let her! We took her for her 1 year check up about a month ago and she weighed about 18 1/2 pounds - Jeremy thinks as much as she eats she's going to put on some weight soon but pretty soon she'll be walking and probably eating more!
I know there are tons of things I am forgetting to blog about but that's all I've got time for for now!
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