Tayls of Life, Love, & Babies: 2013

Gabrielle

Of course, right after I wrote that Gabrielle couldn't write at single letter when she turned 4, the next day she called me up and had written letters all over her white board during quiet time. I guess all in her own time. She can spell and write her name (all 9 letters!) and is working on other letters too.

Gabs got new glasses lenses a couple of weeks ago and her eyes are still wandering and she is seeing double sometimes so thank goodness we have a specialist appointment in January. Her OD is thinking more and more that bifocals may work better for her and to keep up the patching.

At Gabs 4 year dentist checkup the dentist told us that she will definitely need braces and probably 4 adult molars pulled :/ She has such big baby teeth that are already cramped in her jaw, adult teeth are 3x as big and he said there will be issues. Didn't think we had to worry about that yet!

Oliver

We had an ice storm so Gabi's last day of preschool for the year so her pajama/Christmas party was cancelled. She didn't take it too well.....I ended up taking them to Jumpin Jax to play instead. Oliver fell on his face there and had mouthfuls upon mouthfuls of blood. Took him to the doctor and he had torn his frenulum and cut his bottom lip. She consulted with Urgent Care to see if they wanted to stitch it and they decided to leave it since they'd basically have to put him under to stitch in his mouth.

Oliver started really say mommy for me at 13 months old. So so cute. And he calls Gabrielle "Gaggy" and says "Da-dee" for Nick. All super cute :)

He walked over to his hamper and saw his blankie in there to be washed, pulled it out and said "kiki kiki!" and walked away with it. Why is it such an ordeal to wash blankets in this house?

He is a walking machine and just climbed his first stair today..... :/

He dances by moving his arms up and down one at a time, like a slow motion mashed potato. :)

He has a strange affinity for anything pink. I think because anything pink is sacred and not supposed to be touched (everything his sister owns).

He finally figured out how to get in and out of his Anywhere Chair by himself on Christmas. He did that for hours and was so excited. Well, it is Gabi's. He likes the pink one - he won't sit in his blue one.

And maybe the best thing ever - Oliver is actually sleeping through the night like a real person a lot of the time. He finally just did it. Sleeps about 12 hours straight. Once in a while he wakes up but I just go in and hold him for a minute and offer a drink of water. He's never too happy with that approach but will fall right back to sleep afterwards.

Christmas

Gabrielle wanted a real mermaid tail for Christmas, so she could be a real mermaid. For real. She is very into real and pretend lately, though she doesn't always get them right. We got an Elf on the Shelf this year and this first morning she saw him she said, "he's just pretend" though she does kind of get into it. She is very into the logistics and asks lots of questions about how Santa works, where he sleeps, how he knows her name, how he gets in the house, and everything else. She is so excited for Christmas and totally gets it. We are having to work hard at keeping the materialism and gimmes to a minimum. She's tries to be good, she says "I just want all the toys, I can't stop thinking about it!!". But really she does a good job and thought of three things to ask Santa for so she wasn't greedy(after originally spewing a laundry list when getting ready to go). Ariel Barbies, pretend bugs, and pom poms were on her wish list.

Gabs got lots of stuff - princess CD/karaoke machine, Barbie fashion stencils, Sofia the First CD, worm house, dance leotard, Rapunzel play doh set, stick on earrings, puzzles, books, Ariel carriage, princess Barbie set, and lots more.

Oliver could not care less about opening presents or anything of the sort. He got a Batman car set, lego wagon, train set, boulder dropping toy, and other things.