Watching closely. . . .

Some may call me paranoid or overly-sensitive, but since child #1 was language delayed I have been consciously watching child #2 to make sure he is on track in this area of his development. Interestingly, Joshua was also delayed in his gross motor development which goes hand in hand with the language delay so I thought maybe we'd be in the clear with Matthew as his gross motor abilities are on target, if not beyond, for his age. Matthew has lots of single words, but rarely is uttering a two word phrase which is where my concern lies. In the past few weeks Matthew has become a bit more stubborn about repeating words or answering us with words when asked to do so. The annoying "grunting" has appeared instead of words many days. Still, like his older brother at this same age, he understands everything that is being said to him and can carry out directions easily so at least I know there isn't a bigger issue.

I emailed my friend and case worker from Early On who worked with Joshua to help with his language delay and let her know of my concerns. She reassured me that the was still pretty much on task for his task for his age, but to watch and make sure he doesn't fall behind. Hopefully her suggestions help in bumping him up to saying those two word utterances. Since Joshua was so delayed it was easy to keep up on the list of words he was able to say, but I haven't made a list of Matthew's words until yesterday. Once I put down all the single words he is already able to say at 21 months old I was actually surprised - it's a list of 47 words (an 18 month old should be saying 10 words and expands to 50-200 words by 24 months so Matthew is definitely on his way)! Now it's just helping his make that next jump to two word phrases and if not I know just who to call to help. Hoping we don't end up needing to use Early On, but thankful that such a helpful resource is available in case we do.

Snowboarding

Our winter-loving child loves to spend hours playing out in the snow, crazy if you ask me. He loves to sled, build forts and generally just play in the snow so we wondered if he'd like to snowbaord. A couple weekends ago Owen brought over his snowboard and let Joshua try it out. We really thought there was no way Joshua was going to try it since he doesn't like to try new things or take risks. I think watching Owen show him what to do helped. Surprisingly Joshua actually snowboarded and asked if he could get one. Well, this is not the time you go shopping for such an item as they have pretty much sold out or been clearanced out in most stores so we hadn't really been looking. We happened to be at Dick's Sporting Goods on Saturday and they actually had a little kid's snowboard for a decent price. We purchase it figuring if Joshua didn't end up riding it Matthew, our little risk taker, would in future years. Yesterday was cold, but sunny so we spent the afternoon trying out Joshua's new snowboard on the hill by our house. He did really well and we are proud of him for trying it!

Rocker

Yesterday Joshua brought a note home from school with a bunch of dates for special days at school. As I was entering all the dates in my phone I realized that Rock Star/Hip Hop day was the next day! Time to do some quick thinking and throw together a rock star look for my 5 year old in a matter of hours. I pulled out his "Born to Rock" shirt from last winter that is a bit small but was going to have to do in a pinch. Then it was off to Walgreens to find some hair gel to help his hair spike (which I am pretty sure his hair is not very capable of doing) and some color to spray in it. I found some "Spike Glue" and talked him into glitter spray rather than the original green he wanted as I figured the glitter would be less noticeable than a color and would likely wash out better too. So today we got him all ready fro rock star day except when we went to spray his hair the can of glitter spray wouldn't work; he was bummed, but thankfully got over it pretty quickly. Can't wait to hear how rock star day went when he gets home. . . . and we'll see how well the spike glue comes out of his hair!

Two Peas in a Pod

With Joshua and Eli, my cousin Missy's son, both in the same Kindergarten class this year it made it possible for Missy and I to take turns swap younger kids and take a morning every so often to volunteer in the classroom and have a little "me" time to run errands/shop alone! It's been fun to see Matthew and Matea interact during these times. These two kiddos have lots of similarities in their personalities. Interestingly, they seem to have their own level of communication! It's great for my little bugger to have this social interaction and have to navigate and learn sharing, cooperating with one another and taking turns. Yesterday both Matthew and Matea spent about 45 min. playing with jiggle jelly so I finally remembered to grab the camera to snap a picture of these two cuties!

Colorful

Please excuse the lack of blogging as we've entered the season of winter blahs. Have no fear though life is still hopping in the Hager house, just no major things to blog about.
Matthew has taken a liking to Joshua's markers despite my many attempts at steering him toward the washable crayons to no avail. He is actually pretty good about keeping the marker on the paper when coloring which is shocking to me. However yesterday he decided to branch out from coloring books and color on his face instead. I was only a few feet away from him when he did it, but I was vacuuming and the little stinker had his back turned to me. I actually thought it was quite funny, but stifled the giggles and hid the markers. Thank goodness they are washable markers and thank goodness he chose his face as a canvas rather than our walls, furniture, floor, etc!!!!

Christmas Trees and the train, just a bit belated

I meant to take the boys to the gardens before Christmas, but by the time I realized we still hadn't fit it in it was the week of Christmas and I figured it would be crazy. I didn't really want to monitor a 20 month old around all those trees and breakable ornaments while trying to maneuver around a crowd. Since My cousin Missy found herself in the same situation we decided we should make a visit before the train was put away until next Christmas. We went last week and there was hardly anyone there which was so nice! The kids enjoyed looking at all the trees, at least for a short time before they begged to go see the train. The train exhibit gets bigger and better each year and is so worth going to see, especially with kids! Joshua was very good at noticing all the little details on the buildings (all the buildings in the exhibit are made out of natural materials). He was excited to discover a replica of the theater where we saw Peter Pan not so long ago! The other highlight for the kids was watching the birds in the conservatory. We had a wonderful, relaxed morning at the gardens!

Watching the train car pass by.

Matthew was enthralled with watching the train . . . at least for a few minutes!

Joshua, Eli, Matthew and Matea watching the birds eat.

Christmas Day 2010

After our little family celebration Christmas morning we went over to my uncle and aunt's house to celebrate with extended family. As usual we had a wonderful time filled with delicious food, good conversations and catching up and the boys were blessed with more gifts! So nice to have a relaxing afternoon surrounded by family! Just before dinner time we packed up and headed over to Cory's parents house for more Christmas celebrating. The cousins were a wee bit excited to do their gift exchange and could hardly make it through eating their dinner. It was a busy day, but one that we look forward to and love each year!

Joshua and my cousin Whitney drawing and coloring.

A special surprise from Uncle Steve and Aunt Cher - a vintage wind-up car from Portugal!

My aunts and uncles maintain that Christmas is for kids and spoiled the boys with gifts. Even my cousin Matt and his wife, Katie sent gifts all the way from California for the boys! A HUGE thanks to all of them!

My grandparents opening their gifts. So thankful for the legacy and family that they've built and blessed us with!

Aunt Cher and Aunt Nancy opening the ornaments the boys made them.

Matthew's new Krinkle blocks from Uncle Jim and Aunt Nancy.

Joshua was very excited about his new GloDoodle from Uncle Jim and Aunt Nancy!

Matthew loves his Playmobil garage and dump truck from Matt and Katie!

Thrilled with his new Playmobil police car from Matt and Katie!

A cool new penny bank from Uncle Steve and Aunt Cher!

A piggy bank for Matthew from Uncle Steve and Aunt Cher.

Gabrielle and Matthew during the cousin gift exchange. Gabrielle loves to give Matthew lots of attention and he loves it!

Matthew liked his John Deere book and cash register from Gabrielle!

Matthew gives Gabrielle a thank you hug!

Upon opening his new Toy Story 3 game from Owen Joshua said,

"perfect Owen, thank you!!"

The sons got new tool bags and the daughters got little wet/dry vacuums as surprise gifts from Cory's parents too!

Christmas Morning 2010

Christmas morning is our time to celebrate with our own little family. This year Joshua was making some poor behavior choices the night before and had lost all of his presents - a lot of jealousy over Matthew's Playmobil recycling truck caused many behavior isses which in turn led to all of his gifts being taken away and needing to be earned back. Joshua actually did earn a present back right before going to bed Christmas Eve night so at least he had one under the tree for Christmas morning. However, he was able to earn the others back slowly over the course of the entire morning by making good choices and man did the child go out of his way to make good choices, be kind and respectful! We started the morning with cinnamon rolls, the lighting of the Advent wreath, telling the story of Jesus' birth and singing happy birthday to Jesus. The first gift opened Christmas morning was the one Joshua brought home from church last Sunday - it was a little baby figure to remind us about the one true gift we all received in that tiny babe Jesus who was born to save us all.



Then it was on to the gift opening. . . .Matthew dug right into his presents, knowing just how to do it this Christmas all on his own! Joshua would help Matthew when needed, but actually did a good job of letting Matthew do things himself. Matthew was thrilled to play with whatever he got and loved it all! I think we nailed it though with the new shopping cart as Matthew seemed to like that the most! Joshua was excited to get the Mobigo game system that he had his eye on . . . yes we have entered the world of electronic gifts already although he loved his other gifts too and was very thankful. It was nice to see that Joshua got excited not only about getting his gifts, but giving gifts to others this year; the night before he was anxious for Papa to open his gift and really enjoyed sharing with Papa how he picked out the Grandpa pens at the santa shop all on his own at school. Surprisingly Joshua was even very excited to give Matthew his gift from the santa shop as well on Christmas morning; Joshua knows his brother well as Matthew loved his new little dump truck! I had picked up a gift on Black Fridayfor the boys to give daddy on Christmas morning and Joshua had helped me hide it and wrap it and was actually able to keep it a secret for a whole month! Joshua was beyond thrilled for Cory to finally open up the remote control helicopter we had gotten him and they have played with it multiple times a day since so it was definitely a hit! I really feel like this year Joshua understood that Christmas is all about Jesus first and foremost and the rest of the Christmas stuff is just secondary which was a true delight to see and experience with him this year!

The first gift of Christmas, baby Jesus!



Matthew opens his gift from Joshua, a new dumptruck!

A beautiful picture and picture from Joshua to mom and dad.

A remote control helicopter for Dad!

Concentrating on a game on his new Mobigo!

Shopping around the house with Jelly Cat.

A Matchbox motorhome for Joshua from Matthew.

Working together to unwrap Joshua's gift.

Flexeez , a perfect toy for our little builder Joshua!

Matthew hiding out in his new IKEA tent.

"GUYS!!!!!!" How Matthew refers to Playmobil.

Playing with his own "guys"!

A Nascar game for the Mobigo!

Christmas Eve 2010

It's become our tradition to have the kids open stockings on Christmas Eve, so this year they did it right after breakfast since Joshua is now more aware of the day and time and was asking about his stocking right away. The boys got some essentials like socks for Matthew and underwear for Joshua along with some simple and fun items. Matthew's favorite items were his finger puppets and bubbles for the bathtub. Joshua's favorite stocking items were his magic tree, magic wand and little speakers for his ipod shuffle.

Papa came over for dinner at night and brought gifts for the boys. It was difficult this year for Joshua to wait to open his presents until after dinner, seriously it was like we were torturing the kid making him wait! Once he finally got to open his presents he was thrilled to find he had gotten Boom Blox Bash Party game for the Wii along with some new shirts. Matthew was very taken with his new "guys", in other words his first Playmobil item a recycling truck. The new outfit Papa bought Matthew was a hit too and had to be tried on right away. Uncle Phil was also able to join us once he got out of work that night so the boys got to open gifts from him and Uncle Dave. Joshua was beyond excited to receive a Playmobil police station and Matthew got a Playmobil 123 farm set which he loves! It was a wonderful night of family and celebrating!

Boom Blox Bash Party game for the Wii!

Opening a new outfit from Papa. He totally had the hang of of what to do this Christmas with presents!

Joshua giving Papa the gift he picked out for him at the Santa Shop at school - pens that say Grandpa.

Matthew's first Playmobil ("guys" as he likes to call Playmobil)!

Showing Papa the recycling bins that came with his truck.

The look on his face says it all . . . thrilled to get a Playmobil police station from Uncle Phil and Uncle Dave!

More "guys" for Matthew, this time a Playmobil 1 2 3 Farm set!

Setting up the farm from Uncle Phil and Uncle Dave.

Setting up the police station.

Giving Phil his gifts.