the kids in December

Kevin
"I'm having ______." (Fill in blank with whatever he is playing with/holding/using.) This is something Kevin has actually been saying for a long time.

"It's probably ______."

I am so amazed at some of the language developments Kevin has made in the last few months. He is also so much more imaginative than he was a few months ago. I think Kindermusik played a big part in bringing that about. Before we started going to Kindermusik he would often get annoyed if I would dance or do actions to songs. He liked to listen to them and would occasionally dance, but he wasn't interested in doing music and actions with me. Now he listens to his Kindermusik CDs all the time and is always looking for different things to turn into instruments, and he loves it when I come up with new movements or actions to do with songs. He also sings along with the music a lot of the time. I think Kindermusik helped him learn how to respond to music. Kevin can be sensitive to sounds--it's not that loud noises hurt his ears, it's that his activity level and behavior are strongly influenced by sounds. If I run the vacuum cleaner or grind wheat he will suddenly go from being calm to bouncing off the walls and screaming. So I think he was having a hard time knowing how to respond to music, and going to Kindermusik helped him figure that out a little bit.

Yesterday (12/14) he had an imaginary cash register set up in the washing machine. He was sitting on the spinning thing in the center and telling me what various things were, so I asked if I could buy some milk and he pantomimed the entire process of scanning the groceries and bagging them and handing them to me, and when I pantomimed handing him my debit card he "scanned" it and handed it back. Every time he imagines like this I get excited because a few months ago I wondered sometimes if he had any imagination at all. Back then he wasn't even interested if I tried to initiate pretend games (and would sometimes get mad at me if I suggested it), and now he does it by himself. I am so impressed by the things that he notices.

Kevin is also starting to be more purposeful when he's drawing lately. Usually it's pretty hard to tell what he has drawn, but at least he is drawing things and saying that they are mountains or bread or circles instead of randomly scribbling like he used to.

Ryan came in and found him wearing my glasses as if that were a perfectly normal thing to do.

Heidi
Heidi is learning to say her prayers, sort of. At random times she will fold her arms and say, "A-wah-wah," (Heavenly Father) and then smile and run away, and she will also say Amen at the end of prayers. She recognizes Jesus in pictures. She has been doing great in nursery since she started going at the beginning of the month.

Heidi's favorite thing is for us to hold her hands and spin her around in circles. She is always coming to me and holding out her hands to get me to do it with her.

Video: http://youtu.be/OB0YRbPXm54

The kids are good friends. Heidi takes a shorter nap than Kevin, and after she is awake all she wants to do is go wake Kevin up so he will come play with her. Until then she acts bored and gets mad if we stop her from going into Kevin's room. They love to turn on Kindermusik CDs and dance. Their favorite song is In My House: "Oh, in my house I help clean up with a dust-a-dust dust-a-dust-a-dust . . . " They both sing along and I love it. Kevin has decided that one of his train tracks is his banjo, and when they are listening to music he runs around pretending to strum it. (It does sort of look like a banjo or guitar.)

It looks like we have finally got the kids sleeping in the same bedroom at night. Heidi has been sleeping in a pack n play in our closet for nearly a year. We have made a few attempts at getting them to sleep in the same room in the past, but there were various problems. We had to put Heidi in there first and wait for her to get to sleep, and then sneak in with Kevin. Then they would sleep all night but wake up at 6:00 in the morning, which is way too early (they normally get up around 7:30-8:00--yes, we are pretty lucky). After too many early mornings I decided it wasn't worth being too tired to function and Heidi went back to the pack n play in the closet. But I wanted to try again during Christmas break when I didn't have school to worry about, so we tried again a couple of days after my last final. We didn't even do anything special--we just put the kids in their beds, turned off the light, and said good night and I love you. They chatted for quite a while, and then Kevin came out and greeted us and then turned and said, "Come on, Heidi, let's go get your dog." Yes, he had somehow managed to get her out of the crib. So they got her stuffed dog and then we escorted them back to bed. They chatted for a long time and then finally went to sleep. I figured as long as no hitting was happening I wouldn't interfere. The next night they went to sleep just fine and have continued to sleep in the same room for a couple more nights. They've been getting up around 7:30. I'm glad that we decided not to push it and just waited until they were older. This was easy! Heidi does still sleep in our closet for naps, but it seems like the kids are doing fine sharing a room.

I have been taking the kids to a free program at the University Mall called the Traveling Teacher Show. We have gone twice now. The two teachers sing songs and do activities with the kids and talk about different ways to help the environment, and then at the end the kids get to make a craft out of recycled things. The first time we went we made reindeer by decorating toilet paper tubes and the second time we made New Years Ned puppets using paper bags and various things that were leftover from previous classes. I don't like it quite as much as Kindermusik for the music aspect, but it's nice to expose my kids to doing crafts since that is not really one of my talents. The kids like doing the crafts and they are proud of their creations. In reality I just end up making the thing for them because they don't like deciding what else to glue on, but they're still proud of the result. The teachers have a furry green muppet named Org who always makes an appearance during the songs and also comes and looks at the kids' crafts and tells them how much he likes what they did, and Kevin and Heidi both think Org is very interesting. I can tell that Kevin feels very nervous during the singing and activity parts because it's a new experience and he doesn't know any of the people. When we walk in he holds onto my leg and then after we've been there for a while he starts crawling around and sticking his tongue out. I know it probably looks really odd to people who don't know him. I am hoping to keep going to the Traveling Teacher Show because I think it's helpful for him to be put in new situations like this so he can figure out what to do with himself.