Times of Change

Well, lately, we seem to be going through phases of change with the kids. It is fun to me the see the phases children go through. Take, for instance, Liam and his recent phase. About a month before Christmas, Liam became terrified of the bath. His whole life, he has always enjoyed his bath, so this was very strange. He would be fine until you put him in the water, then he would go completely hysterical. At first, we just assumed it was a discipline issue. But nothing worked, and bath time each night was dreaded by both Matt and I. I mean, he literally was hysterical, like he was terrified of something. We thought it was the bubbles, so we stopped using them, but still, he would cry and scream. We finally figured out that it was "floaties" like hair or fuzz and stuff that he was terrified of. He would scream, "Yucky! Yucky!" all the while slapping at whatever was floating in the water. So, we would try to clean out the tub each time before he got in, but he would still cry, with his eyes constantly searching for "yuckies."

This continued through the first two weeks of our vacation. Then, one day, Liam watched as his cousins Eldan and Kole took baths, and he was completely fine after that! Weird! Now, he cries when it is time to get OUT of the tub! Go figure!

I think we have entered a new phase of talking with Liam. He used to talk a lot, but we could only understand a small portion of it. Now, I understand pretty much everything, with only a few occasional "gibberish" words here and there. But his new favorite things to say are, "That's Liam's." Or, "That's mine." Or, "Mommy, I need some juice." Or, "Mommy, I need to watch Thomas." It is cute to carry on actual conversations with him. He is constantly saying, "Mommy, what you doing?" I love it!

Leila is now officially in the teething phase. Her first tooth popped through this week, and she is NOT happy about it. To show her dissatisfaction to this, she has decided that sleep is no longer necessary for her or her mommy. I think the last several nights, I have gotten no more than 2 hours of sleep straight. She wakes up, rolls over on her back, and cries, or squeals. If I know that she is okay, I try to ignore it, but it is really hard since she is very loud in her squealing, and it is heard all throughout the house. I think I should try the pillow over my ears technique. That might help.

She is also growing like a weed. She isn't really getting all those baby rolls that some babies get. She is just growing longer and longer. She is also getting closer to crawling. She can go backwards pretty good, but still working on the forward part! I'm having to get back into "crawling mode" myself, keeping an eye out for small parts of stuff that can be put into little peoples' mouths!

So, there is a brief update on us. We haven't been doing much or going many places for 2 reasons. One, we have no extra money, so why go out and see stuff that you can't buy? And two, it has been very, VERY cold, as it is with many of you. I believe this morning, our temp was -35 C, which is close to -30 F, I believe. So, we aren't taking the kids out on any unnecessary excursions.

Well, I am off to iron clothes for morning, then off to bed! I sure hope that Leila decides to sleep tonight! She barely slept all day, and I am just so tired! Have a great night everyone!