Month in Review: Part 1

Is June gone already? I can’t believe it either! So what have we been up to for the last month?

AVA

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Ava has found a friend in the little girl two houses down from us, Kara.  She and Kara go back and forth between houses and, although I encourage sibling friendships, I try and limit Piper and Lily’s participation so as to give the two girls their space.  Plus, I don’t think Kara’s dad is too thrilled with the invasion of the Kay girls all of the time (there are a lot of us!) and I try and give him a break too.  Kara is four and will be in Lily’s preschool class next year, but for now she is Ava’s buddy and becoming more used to hanging out at our house; she has joined us for meals several times in the last few days.  Ava also has been visiting her friend Ari’s house, where they play well together for hours at a time (and she enjoyed going to her birthday party the beginning of June).

I think Ava might be having a little growth spurt as she’s been very lethargic lately (and really picky eater, which is unusual). Either that or she’s just been watching too much Disney Channel and can’t figure out what to do when the TV’s off (if that’s the case, I think we will be having a detox session soon). All three girls love to watch the Disney programming in the morning and I have been more lax than usual on the amount of time because they have also been getting up around 6am and putting on the TV buys me time to wake up. Lazy parenting, but even I know my limits!

After doing a lot of research and seeing what the curriculum requirements are, I have decided to start Ava off at the first grade level in the fall. I found a website with first grade spelling words and was shocked to see that she knew most of the words for the first half of the year already.  So I will take my cue from her, but know we are breezing right past the idea of Kindergarten. Which, honestly, is about right as she should’ve gone to Kindergarten this last year but couldn’t because her birthday was 6 weeks past the deadline.  Silly rules.

LILY

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Lily is still very much into playing with games and activities from the closet, which is not always my favorite thing to do because Lily doesn’t stop at one activity – she always wants to do more and more and more.  But she is also brilliant at playing by herself.  She still prefers Ava’s company to Piper’s, but I finally figured out why – Piper acts like a firstborn and the last thing Lily wants is two big sisters.  Piper likes to boss her around and disagree with whatever Lily says (if Lily says the sky is blue, Piper will fight her and tell her it’s green.)  Lily and Piper just pick, pick, pick at each other - all day long!  That being said, sometimes when Ava is busy doing her own thing Lily and Piper will play nicely together and I try and encourage that as much as possible.

I finally figured out that Lily’s Love Language is “Acts of Service” which has explained a lot to me.  When I get frustrated with her because I wonder why the heck she can’t feed herself and wants me to give her bites of dinner, I now realize that it is just her Love Language and this act of service demonstrates by love to her.  Because my Love Language (and my personality) don’t lend itself naturally to this I struggle to remember it’s not helplessness, but a way of loving her.  It’s such a good growth opportunity for me. (Here’s the funny thing – Elliott’s Love Language is also “Acts or Service” so once again Lily is his spitting image.  Two peas in a pod, those two.)

She is still loving her short hair and most of the time I don’t even bother to brush it.  Works for us both!

Lily got a “big girl” booster car seat and has been loving it.  I love that she can buckle herself in.  Now the three older girls can all do their own car seat buckles, which is awesome!

Lily and Ava are obsessed right now with dinosaurs.  We get a lot of books about them at the library and read all about the different types.  They know all the names (and even the species) and I have been trying to keep them on that roll. (Earlier this year they were really into bugs an butterflies.)

PIPER

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Crazy, silly Piper.  I often remark she acts like she’s been sucking down sugar juice (even though I know that’s not true).  She is generally the funny one the of the bunch and I think it’s partly her craziness that annoys Lily.  Tempered with this good-naturedness though is a defiant streak.  It often comes out in a positive way, wanting to be very independent and do everything herself (she can buckle herself in the five-point harness car seat, something Lily was never able to do).  Don’t bother asking her if she needs help, the answer will always be “no.”

However, her independence can also come out in naughty ways.  She has been disobeying much more (thinking she knows better and can do it anyway when I tell her no), whining a lot when I tell her “no” to something, and talking back or being sassy.  Yesterday when I caught the girls doing something they shouldn’t she told me to “go back inside” and later on when we were waiting for Piper to buckle herself into her car seat she told me to “stop bothering” her. If I tell her to stop doing something she will say “I diiiiid!”; I have been teaching her to instead just say “OK mommy.” Umm, yeah. Sassy.

Although I would say she is potty-trained, we have been having some setbacks. When she is playing hard she tends to forget about the whole idea of going to the bathroom and will have accidents. So I have been trying to tell her (not remind her, TELL her) to go to the bathroom every couple of hours and even though she will whine and cry and say she doesn’t need to, she will always go potty. Nighttime she’s still in Pull-Ups, but she views them during the day as a punishment (and I roll with that idea).

She is currently in love with doing puzzles and I am always amazed that she can complete them. She’s good!

1 comment:

Tracy said...

Good to see an update on personalities and developments with the 3 oldest Kay girls. I LOVE that your house is the "hang out" spot and always wished ours were a bit more like that growing up. I intend for the Lindley house to be that welcoming place for all my kids' friends too. I can totally relate to Piper's sassiness but I believe it's part of the growing process and is only temporary. It's exhausting to keep cracking down on them, though, right? Good job and keep up the awesome parenting! Love ya, Sis!