Y3W | First Little Loves

How sweet are they? They sat like that for a good 20 minutes and it was the cutest thing ever :) Okay, I feel like it's been awhile since I've done a Carter and Brynn update, so here goes...

Big brother Carter is very protective of his little sister {as you can see.} He makes sure she's okay, hugs her a million times a day, gets toys for her, and makes sure she has her milk and/or snack. It's all very sweet. Of course, it's not always like that. In reality we have to give him a 3 second rule with the hugs. {10 minute bear squeezes that include wrestling her to the ground are just not acceptable, Carter Man.}

Carter is doing really well at GG's school. He loves dot-to-dot papers and is especially into patterns now. Even when watching a movie, I have to give him random pattern quizzes because he loves them so much. He's mastered his shapes {omg, the way he says "trapezoid" melts my heart} and he's doing well with writing his name and working on his letters too. But for some reason, he hates learning his numbers. He can count pretty well, but gets easily frustrated with them and asks to work on something else {ahem, like patterns again.} I'm going out this weekend to buy him some dot-to-dot workbooks and maybe some number flashcards.

In the meantime, anyone know any fun iPad games that work on numbers? We have some really great pattern, shape, and color games but I haven't found a number game I love yet.

In other news, potty training with Carter has been difficult to say the least. He's showing all signs that he is ready, yet he is very resistant about it. Last weekend we did a potty training boot camp and he did so well. OMG, the look on his face when he peed in the potty for the first time? Priceless. I cried. He was just so proud of himself and we were, of course, so proud of him. We all cheered for him, then we hopped in the car and went to the store so he could pick out the toy that he wanted. He was so excited!

The whole weekend he did a great job of telling us when he had to go {if not, we'd take him every 20 minutes or so} and we'd reward him for even trying. {Thank gawd for M&M's, eh?} He also has a new Cars 2 Trouble game that he can only play with when he's sitting on the potty {this also helps him with his numbers... ya know, for an added bonus.}

And just when we were going to start working on pooping on the potty? Our house was hit with the stomach bug. So for the past 10 days or so, it has been pretty awful. And now I feel like we practically have to start over with potty training because it just wasn't possible while both kids were sick.

Lovely.

So yeah, I think we'll be doing another boot camp this weekend. He'll get it again. I know he will.

My sweet Brynnie girl is doing so well too. In the past 2 weeks or so, we've noticed a huge difference in her language skills. She's always been a talker, so we weren't concerned at all, but just in the last two weeks, she's been saying many more words and speaking much more clearly. It's the cutest!

She loves to clean and will often take napkins or wipes and just start cleaning the tables. My mom also got her a cleaning cart for Christmas, so she'll take the vacuum and start cleaning the rugs. She LOVES to dance and is always shaking her little heiney the moment she hears music {last night she was dancing to me stirring my smoothie, ha!} Brynnie absolutely loves talking on the phone... we had to give her all our old cell phones {she doesn't play with the toy phones, lol} and she'll sit there and have full conversations. She also loves daddy's iPad and is doing really well with her matching and puzzle games.

Brynn never. stops. moving. Unless she's sleeping, she barely sits down. She's always walking, dancing, playing, running, cooking, cleaning... something. I'd love to have an ounce of the energy that this girl has!

She loves her brother... boy, does she ever. She's always concerned about where he is and what he's doing. If he naps longer than her, she always tries to wake him up. Just seeing the two of them together is amazing and I truly believe in the saying "the best thing you can give your child is a sibling" because when I look at them, it makes my heart melt. The things that they'll get to experience together.... sigh.

They're both really excited for the new baby. REALLY excited. Carter will just randomly shout out "we're getting a new baby!" and then Brynn yells "baby, yay!" I love it. We'll see how they transition when the new baby actually comes, though. I think Carter will be perfectly fine, but Brynn may have some trouble. She gets a little jealous when I hold Reese, so I know she will have a hard time when we have a baby actually living with us 24/7. But she'll adjust fine and then go on with her busy little self. =)

So yeah... just a small update about my first little loves. I'm sure I'm leaving a lot out, but they are do amazingly well and getting so big. I actually just booked Brynn's 2nd birthday party, so more to come on that! ;)

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Happy Friday everyone!