Wow, it's been a while since I've posted. Sorry. I took the kiddos to our favorite playground today, and here's my fav pic of each of them to go along with their progress report.
Kiddo: Biggest progress with Kiddo's speech is he's using the final consonants on words, namely the letters s, t, p, k and ch. So we're hearing words like "yes" instead of "yeah" and "hep" for help instead of "he", and "chuch" instead of "uh" for church, and I could go on and on, but it's awesome to hear him and be able to understand better what he's saying. :)
He's also been communicating a lot more, and has learned how to ask questions without using any question words by raising his voice at the end of his phrase to make it a question. For example, sometimes when I tell the kiddos to "Get your shoes, we're going to go bye bye," he'll ask "Baba, Bapa?" which is his way of asking "Are we going to see Grandma and Grandpa?" Speaking of Grandma and Grandpa, they introduced both kiddos to Hawaiian rolls on Thanksgiving. The kids loved them so much I bought some, and when Kiddo saw them he got so excited and called them "Baba Bapa row!" He now calls them "pee butta row" since we put peanut butter on them.
Back to Kiddo asking questions: I had the kiddos in the shopping cart, as that is what I call them. Everyone here in the south calls them buggies. Anyway, both kiddos were in the shopping cart/buggy and this random guy came up to us, talking to us, and marveling about how well behaved they were sitting there in the buggy. Kiddo looked up at me, turned his head, furrowed his eyebrows and asked "Buggy?" Haha, so clear, no translation needed. Guess maybe we should start calling it that, as he can say that much easier and clearer than shopping cart.
Kiddo's learned how to request his wants and needs without prompting anymore, which is absolutely awesome and a great relief to me and my sanity. Instead of him coming to me and whining until I can figure out what he wants and prompt him to say it, he tells me what he wants, or will take me to the thing he wants if he doesn't know how to say it. It is awesome.
He's learned to say the word clean, and he'll walk into a room I've just cleaned and declare "Mama clean?" He says it with this incredulity to his voice that I try to not take it personally. Yes, Kiddo, I do clean things. Every day.
He'll just say things so matter-of-factly and it just makes me and Hubster laugh. One time he was playing with my hair and I asked him "Where's Daddy's hair?" (expecting him to point at Daddy or something of that nature) and he immediately said "All gone." (For the record, Hubster's hair is just cut very short.) Another time he was labeling things he saw while we were reading a book. Then he pointed at my mouth, said "mow" and then pointed at my nose "big no!" I'm hoping he means in comparison to his own, and not that I actually have a big nose. Either way, I'm thrilled that Kiddo is expressing himself.
As for gross motor we're experiencing excruciatingly slow, but steady progress. He now steps up and down steps without squatting, whoo hoo! He usually will step up or down by himself, or occasionally he will hold onto someone's hand or something for support, He's getting much better at using his legs to propel himself forward and backward on his bike, but won't attempt pedaling yet. Still not jumping yet, but he has learned to bend his knees before jumping, so now he bends his knees and then steps forward, one foot than the other while he says "up". I so badly want to see this kid jump. He can now do wheelbarrows all the way across the living room floor with me holding onto his ankles (for several months I held onto his thighs to give him more stability, and about a year ago he couldn't even hold himself up, let alone walk forward with his hands). He now will let us help him do forward rolls, before he freaked out if we even attempted, though he's a long way from doing them himself. He can climb all the way up the slides at play places which is pretty cool to see and Little Brother gets so mad/frustrated because he wants to climb up after him and can't. Kiddo now loves swings. A couple months ago he refused to get on them. He still sits in the baby swings as he doens't have enough strength in his core to stay in a regular swing, though he now loves the tire swing. Provides more stability is my guess, as well as the fact he can spin "roun roun" (around and around).
And as for fine motor, Kiddo is learning to color more within the lines, rather than just scribbling all over coloring pages. He is starting to write the letters of his name, though he needs prompting, especially with the last three letters of his name. He can put on his own socks and shoes, which makes going places a lot easier now, yay! He's able to cut across a sheet of paper now, before he could only do little snips. He can peel his own clementine if I start it for him, and he's learning to spread his own peanut butter on the bread for his beloved PB&J sandwiches, though he'd much rather lick the knife than actually make a sandwich.
Little Brother: Little Brother was having terrible temper tantrums, lots of screaming and whining for a few months. That's around the time he stopped using the 30 or so words he had, and I honestly was getting really worried. I've experienced Kiddo's uber slow progress, but never a regression of skills, and Little Brother was going through one and I was worried. But Hubster and I prayed a lot for peace in his little heart and for his words to come back and I believe God answered our prayers. With the help of our awesome speech therapist Little Brother is using those 30 words he had before and more. His temper tantrums are so much fewer and further apart, and I don't know if it's because he can communicate more or if he was sick before or just going through a terrible terrible phase that we never want to experience again or what.
BUT, Little Brother's talking! He's using the names of animals rather than the sounds they say. He saw a deer on TV and was so excited and proudly declared it a "goat!!" haha.
He's now requesting the things he wants, usually "caka" for cracker, "titi" for TV, "mo" for more, "ju" for juice, "zizza" for pizza, "didi" for outside, "uppah" for up, "opuh" for open, "su" for cereal, and "chee!" for cheese. His newest word is "amote" for the remote, which he brings me when he wants to watch TV. He usually repeats each of these words several times, as if we're not getting it the first time. For example, he'll bring you his empty cup and say "ju ju ju ju" until you've gotten his cup refilled and in his hands. We heard you loud and clear the first time, buddy.
He says "Yeah!" a lot. Example" "Do you want cereal?" "Su. Yeah!" He says "Ta da!" with his arms out all triumphant-like every time he finishes one of his puzzles.
He says "whereditgo?" all as one word for anything that you ask about that he doesn't know where it is. For example, "Where's Daddy?" "Dada? Whereditgo?" Makes me smile every time. He also puts 'a' in front of words, so for example he'll bring me "a ba!" (ball) or "a book!"
He'll announce "poo poo" after each time he's done so, as well as every time he's passed gas. I've gotten many a funny look from strangers when Little Brother suddenly announces "poo poo". Thanks buddy, for keeping life so entertaining.
He blows kisses when you tell him "bye bye" or "night night" or "I love you". And he folds his hands and sits quietly while we pray and proudly declares "Ameh!" when we're done.
He gives monstrously tight hugs, in which his hands are wrapped around your neck and he'll say "wiggle wiggle" as he holds on tight. I enjoy the hug and the wiggles, the choking part I could do without.
As for gross motor skills, he gallops, which he calls jumping, and he does it gladly, even on your lap while he's giving you one of his monstrously tight hugs. Kiddo is still further ahead than Little Brother on the climbing front. Little Brother can't climb up play places which makes him very frustrated and so many times I find myself climbing up the play places to help him up so he can play up top with his brother and then go down the slide, only to begin the process over again. Ugh. I can't wait until both of them are able to climb up those dang things themselves so I can actually sit and relax like the other parents who oftentimes are oblivious to what their children are even doing. But that's a rant for another day, sorry. As for stepping, he quickly graduated from crawling up and down them to now holding onto a support or hand. But today I watched him climb up a staircase without holding onto anything. I was happy to snap a photo before he made it to the top. :)
That's about it for now. Slow and steady progress over here. Much better than regressions and plateaus. I'm ready for some speech surges and lots of victories in the gross motor department. For Christmas, I want to see Kiddo jump and to hear both kiddos say "I love you." We shall see. ;)
Little Brother is a little obsessed right now with rainbows. Here's a few statements about them:
October: Kiddo gave me a very special b-day present of singing to me the Happy Birthday song. Kiddo started asking "What's this?" And the kiddos had a blast trick or treating for Halloween as Woody and Buzz Lightyear.
While eating some Nilla Wafers, Kiddo and I were looking at the back of the box, which were covered with those cute little minions from Despicable Me. 
Little Brother's Speech: Little Brother (18 months) has had speech therapy with our beloved speech therapist once a month since January and we're seeing great progress. He now makes lots of animal noises (my favorite is his quacking noise for the duck) and is repeating some of our words and phrases. "Bye bye" and "Do aga" (do it again) are a few of the phrases we've heard, as well as the "go go go" and "da da" (all done) he's been saying since around 15 months. As for individual words, don't have a lot of those yet, except for "titi" for TV and "ti" for eat. (Apparently I'm raising a kid that wants to eat and watch TV all day. He hears no a lot). Occasionally he'll say "Mama" and "Dada" but it is always whispered and he signs it while he's saying it. I have heard him say "gaff" (giraffe) a few times and "go" (goat), and "tiga" (tiger) once or twice. This kid ADORES animals! He still seems to prefer signing to speaking for now, but he LOVES to babble. "Goolioolioolio" is my favorite babbling phrase we hear from him, and if you say something back to him in response he'll continue the babbling like he's having a conversation with you. Kiddo never babbled and I've been enjoying hearing baby babble. I'll try to get a video of the babbling and also his animal sounds for you soon.
