Justice – 21 months, Rayah – 6 weeks

Time for the monthly update on the kids!  In November, we had the opportunity to fly with our kids to Alberta to visit Joe’s family for a week.  This was the first flight for both of them and they both did really great!  Rayah slept for both flights and Justice was pretty good at keeping entertained with daddy for the flight there & then he also slept for the flight back.  Since we both had the kids on our laps and there are only 4 oxygen masks per row, we had to be separated and I sat in front of Joe, but it was all okay, seeing as it was only a 2 hour flight and perhaps it was better that way anyways, since Rayah would probably have been a distraction to Justice.

Our week there was really great and it was awesome to see Joe’s parents, sisters, one brother-in-law and his nieces and nephews!  None of them had met Justice yet (besides Joe’s parents) and of course none of them had met Rayah yet, so that was really nice.  While we were there, Justice got to do lots of fun things with daddy, like going swimming with his Auntie and cousins, going on his first (of many) quad ride, going to a tractor show, going on the trampoline and swing, and playing with the many dogs, cats and horses on the farm.  I was inside most of the time with Rayah, but I got to go out a bit too to play with Justice and go on what may have been my first quad ride and go for a fun walk in the bush with Grandma, Joe & Justice.  A funny thing on that walk was that Justice touched a live electric fence wire a couple times, but I guess the current isn’t flowing consistently but rather goes in pulses and he was just lucky enough to touch it when it wasn’t shocking!  There were also lots of fun new toys to discover and play with and a new house to explore and get into trouble, so Justice had a great time!    Rayah was having some gas issues while we were there, but it was fantastic to have so many willing hands to help out and I got lots of breaks, which was really nice!  They even took care of both kids for us for an evening, giving Rayah her very first bottle (expressed milk), so that Joe and I could go on a date.

And now for the regular update on the kids – and even though most of you probably don’t really care about all the little details that I record here, I’m still doing it for me so that I can remember them!  If you’d like to see recent videos of the kids, you can visit my youtube channel.

Justice

Cute and funny things:

• We’ve noticed that he sings when we are driving in the van and one time, Rayah was crying in her car seat and I looked back and saw Justice singing with his fingers in his ears – lol!
• One day when I was having a really rough day, I had a moment of frustration where I covered my face with my hands and was on the verge of tears, when Justice came up to me with his arms reaching up and said “hug?”  It was so sweet!  Then, later that same day, I was sitting on the floor having a cry and he was in my lap and he gave me a kiss on the nose – it was exactly what I needed and made me smile.
• He throws EVERYTHING!  He has a new fascination with throwing things high up in the air.  He’ll also throw all his many balls that he has in the basement (tennis balls, basketball, volleyball, and football) and he’ll throw them at the walls, so sometimes they come back and hit him.
• He claps and says “happy” when I dress him to go outside.
• It was probably only funny to me, but we had a moment where I was trying to put him down for his nap and he kept turning his soother around so that it was upside-down and I couldn’t help but laugh and then he started giggling and we were both laughing and I couldn’t stop!  I tried to sing him his bedtime lullaby, but I kept giggling and we both had a good laugh together.

New things:

• First plane ride – loved looking out the window at the city lights.
• First quad ride.
• First time visiting a church nursery – it didn’t go so well and he ended up crying for his mommy.
• First visit to his Grandma & Grandpa Engbrecht’s and first time meeting his aunts, an uncle, and his cousins.

Eating and drinking:

• Eating time is still quite messy and he is constantly getting his clothes dirty and food all over himself and the floor!
• He is now showing signs that he understands hunger and thirst as he has started saying his words “munch”, “eat”, “food”, “drink”, “mo” (more – with the hand sign), etc.  He will run upstairs when I say it’s time for a snack and he often asks for more food “peeze” (with the hand sign as well).

Talking and comprehension:

• He can now talk in a whisper which is terribly adorable!
• Of all his new words below, you can pretty much replace every “r” or “l” with a “w” or sometimes he just doesn’t say them at all :)
• Things: “shoe”, “bunk”, “phone”, “farm”, “stick”, “bucket”, “jacket”, “blanket”, “onesie”, “hockey”, “chiangle” (triangle), “circle”, “plane”, “flashlight”, “football”, “bump”, “buckle”, “laundry”, “vee” (the letter), “zuppo” (zipper), “tree”, “nap”, “towel”, “name”, “spanking”, “job”, “cookie”, “cracker”, “side” (outside), “muffin”, “mitts”, “brush”, “mess”, “broom”, “bike”, “hammer”, “jammies”
• Animals: “panda”, “sheep”, “hen”, “bunny”, “horsie”
• Body parts: “foot”, “cheek”, “chin”, “mouth”, “back”, “eye”, “toe”, “ow” (ear), “nose” (that’s his favorite one to point to on everyone)
• Numbers: “one”, “two”, “fo”, “fi”, “sick”, “eight”, “ni”
• Colors: “red”, “yellow”, “green”, “orange”
• Bathroom words: “poop”, “pooping” (appears to be saying this as he actually pees or poops in his diaper), “change”, “diaper”, “dowty” (dirty), “clean”, “showee” (shower), “potty”
• Eating words: “drink”, “juice”, “cheese”, “mink/mook” (milk), “food”, “chew”
• People: “Jake/Jacob” (cousin), “Angie” (auntie), “Cole” (auntie Nicole), “Chloe” (cousin), “Justice” (yay – he can finally say his own name!), “Jesus” (so sweet when he said this for the first time as we prayed for his lunch), “me”
• Verbs, Adjectives & Other words: “windy”, “peeze” (please), “run”, “kick”, “nummy” (yummy), “gone”, “funny” (inevitably what he thinks is funny is not something I think is funny!), “careful”, “gentle”, “crying” (says this about Rayah a lot), “welcome”, “come”, “mo” (more), “whining”, “good”, “fluffy”, “bounce” (says this about balls), “sleep”, “in”
• Phrases: “cheese peeze”, “drink milk”, “baby Rayah”, “hockey stick”, “thank you”, “ni-night”, “munch eat food”, “wake up!”, “come on!” (our personal favorite), and any combination of the words “bum poop stinky”!

Development:

• He can open any door in our house now, including our outside door, which we now have to dead bolt to keep him from taking off!  I also some times keep the bathroom and our bedroom doors locked so that he thinks they are always locked and inaccessible.  Since he has seen me using a kitchen knife to unlock these doors from the outside, he has attempted to open them with his play screwdrivers – lol!
• He has temper tantrums daily – whether it’s just whining and crying or full-on thrashing on the floor screaming until he dry heaves!  We are learning of different ways to handle these outbursts and meltdowns, but it is definitely challenging to keep your cool when he’s freaking out!
• We’ve noticed that he learns a lot of things by just observing us – for one, putting on hand lotion – he’ll play with the lotion bottle and then rub his hands together – very cute!
• He is learning the concept of putting things back where they belong, but thinks that it’s a game.  So he will constantly pull clothing and diapers, etc. out of Rayah’s dresser and then sometimes he’ll put them back on his own, or we have to go and make him put them back.  He’ll also close the drawers and doors when asked (not usually on the first request though).
• He is learning how to do other things we ask of him, like finding an object and bringing it to us.
• He’s still doing awesome at playing on his own while I’m busy and he’ll even let me take a nap on the couch in the basement while he plays with his toys, which is really nice!
• He’s learning how to go down the stairs forwards!  He’ll try to hold onto the wall or onto the steps and sort of go down on his bum, but mostly actually stepping down on his own!

Health:

• He’s had lots of injuries as of late, all of them involving falling!  He fell into the corner of a wall at our house, leaving a line on his cheek and a bloody cut on his chin.  He fell forwards, hitting his gums on the corner of a guitar case – this one bled A LOT and looked pretty nasty for a couple days, but healed up well.  He fell into a doorway at our house, hitting his nose and causing it to bleed.  He fell into a laundry basket and somehow cut two of his fingers on the plastic – more blood!  Jeepers!!

Brotherhood:

• He accidentally dropped a metal pot lid on Rayah’s face, giving her a small cut under her eye.
• He likes to pretend to kick Rayah in the head when she’s lying on the floor.  I don’t doubt that he’d actually do it if we weren’t paying attention, but I don’t think it’s out of malice – it’s more like he finds the idea funny and maybe thinks her head looks like a ball that’s nice for kicking.
• Still loves to give Rayah LOTS of hugs and kisses!
• In addition to constantly taking Rayah’s soother, he will also attempt to put her soother in her mouth for her.
• He constantly wants to rock Rayah’s bassinet when she’s in it, but his rocking is way too exuberant!

Rayah

• She still nurses about every three hours, but she’s had several great nights where she slept for 5-6 1/2 hours in between feedings, which was glorious for me!!
• She is still quite the pooper, but doesn’t poop with every single feeding any more.  Still, she likes to push out her poops and today she had a diaper blowout that went all the way up her back, almost to her neck!!
• She’s getting better at nursing and generally nurses for about 15 minutes, plus the time it takes to burp, change her diaper, etc.
• She has been having some gas issues, so once again I am trying to not have any dairy or caffeine to see if that helps.  I’m not entirely convinced that it’s the issue, but it does seem like she’s maybe a bit better since I’ve been off those things, so we’ll see.
• She spits up ALL THE TIME!  She spits up multiple times on herself, on her change mat, in her crib, in the bassinet, on me, on the floor, on the couch – everywhere!  And large quantities too!
• She had her first plane ride, first visit to Grandma & Grandpa Engbrecht’s and meeting her aunts, uncle & cousins.
• She had her first visit to Grandma & Grandpa Thiessen’s house.
• She had her first bottle (expressed milk) and has had formula as well – so far, so good!  She’s just getting the hang of it and has drank 2 oz.  Hopefully giving her the bottle on a regular basis now will help make the adjustment easier later on.
• She has been having gas issues, much like Justice did, but thankfully not as bad.  I’ve been trying to not have dairy or caffeine to see if that helps, but it’s really hard to tell what causes her gas pains. 
• I had her on her stomach one day and she was NOT happy about it and before she was even a month old, she managed to roll over onto her back!
• She has given us quite a few really big smiles that are so adorable and is also beginning to coo and gurgle and “talk” to us – so cute!
• She’s also a little porker just like her brother and has chubby cheeks and lots of rolls!