Colin & Claire: Spring is near!

Alright, let's just assume I'm going to continue to be terrible at this blogging thing, and I'll stop apologizing for being terrible at it.

Claire:

Oh dear, I haven't even mentioned that we're naming this baby Claire. Claire Elizabeth, in fact. Peter and I picked out the name Claire possibly before we were married, and when we found out we were having a girl, we went through baby names again to make sure there wasn't something we liked better. There wasn't. I couldn't even come up with a close second. We found a couple of middle names that we were okay with, but we both liked Elizabeth best. She's scheduled to be brought into the world by C-section on April 21st, early in the morning. I'm hoping she stays in there until then! That's 3 days before my due date, which is when I went into labor with Colin. It allows me to do my last lecture of the semester on April 20th, as well.

She has been growing right on track; my fluid levels seems to be more stable this time (they were pretty high with Colin, so I was measuring ahead by now). Her heartbeat has been great each time, and she is SUPER active. I don't remember Colin moving this much, ALL the time. I failed my 1-hour glucose test again (by 3 points), and I was lucky enough to get to do the 3-hour test again, which I passed with no problems. If we have a 3rd, I'm just going to ask for the 3-hour-test or the 2-hour-test up front. I hate needles, and I'd rather not go through it all more than once again.

Colin:

Oh, our sweet little 2.5 year old. We have been doing everything we can think of to prepare him for the arrival of his little sister. I don't think he totally understands that she will be coming home to live with us, but he hasn't really shown any negative behaviors toward all of the changes that we've been making. We moved him to his new room in February so that he didn't feel like we were kicking him out of his old room. No problems; he loves his new room!

While I expect he will give us all kinds of fun new behaviors in the upcoming months and as a threenager, he hasn't really had much of the "terrible 2s." He's gone through a few ups and downs at daycare in relation to behavior, but they've implemented a new system recently, and he's thriving with it. Our daycare is associated with a church, so they aren't required to meet any state regulations, but they have been going through voluntary accreditation to meet state standards for daycares. One of the strange standards is that children under 2.5 have to be in a room with a sink. We got a note in January that Colin would need to be switched to a new room, and I unfortunately went "Mama Bear" about this. Right now he's in a room where he is the youngest kid, and he has thrived in this room. He benefits from being around the older kids, because he's a sponge and picks up things so quickly. They were planning to move him to a room where he would be the oldest, and the children in the room would be at a very different skill level than he is now. I already know that he's going to be one of the oldest in his class in school for most of his academic life, and I didn't want to start that now. The state wasn't going to be doing their assessment until March, and Colin would be 2.5 March 1st, so they agreed to let him stay in his classroom, and I calmed down.

Speaking of things Colin has learned, he probably knows somewhere between 20-30 songs, which he sings to us or requests for us to sing to him regularly. He makes us sit with him and do "Circle time" like they do at daycare, and we have to sit "Crapplesauce (criss-cross-applesauce)." He knows his letters and the sounds they make, as well as whose name starts with what letter. "G is for Geoff! A is for Addie" My favorite is "V is for Nessa! (Vanessa)" He speaks in long full sentences, and he's starting to do some pretend play. Much of which I imagine he picked up from daycare, as we don't really do anything related to Spiderman/Superman/Frozen, and he seems to know a lot about those individuals now.

Potty training has been hit-or-miss. He does better at daycare than he does at home, because they take him at scheduled intervals. He certainly knows when he's gone, especially if he's wearing underwear. But if he's playing too hard, he doesn't notice that he has to go to the bathroom. I'm trying to push it a little more now that we're within 6 weeks of sister's arrival. It's not that I have a problem with 2 in diapers, I just don't really want to be racing Colin to the bathroom while trying to feed Claire once she arrives. Hopefully we'll see some progress in the next couple of weeks.

He is a happy, happy kid. He loves HIS dog, Penny, and more than anything, he loves to read. Which makes this bookworm very happy. We easily read books half of his waking hours before/after daycare.

Penny & Ella: they're good. Ella has started to warm up to Colin a little; she allows him to shake her hand and give her a treat in the morning. She still tolerates Penny and playing with her. Penny loves Colin, but he doesn't like to leave her alone sometimes. She allows him to get away with a lot, which she makes up for by knocking him over (she's 70 pounds now) or slurping his face.

Pictures (Christmas)