Delaney Alina is Twenty-Three Months Old - 06.30.2021

Delaney Alina is twenty-three months old!

Delaney loves to sing and twirl. Her favorite songs are Let It Go, Jingle Bells, If You're Happy and You Know It, and the Final Jeopardy song (humming the tune). 

Just like Emery did at this age, Delaney likes to identify everyone's eye color and talk about it. Sometimes she says the wrong color on purpose and corrects herself. 

Delaney loves kitties and also pretends to be one. 

Delaney speaks well and relatively clearly. She replaces the C/K sound with T and the G sound with D. 

Just this week (while traveling!) she has decided to use the potty several times a day. Perhaps she doesn't like disposable diapers since she's used to cloth diapers or she's ready to potty train? Who knows!

Delaney will be two at the end of July!

Delaney Alina is Twenty-Two Months Old - 05.31.2021

Delaney Alina is twenty-two months old! She will be two years old in two months!

Delaney is talking a lot and we understand her more and more. She likes to repeat herself and add a lot of words we don't understand in between the ones we do - maybe she knows what she's saying or maybe she's just trying to get the words out? 

She calls herself, Nay-nee, and if you call her anything (baby, sweetie, etc.) she will correct you: "No, I Nay-nee!" But if we see a baby and I tell her the baby's name, she says: "No, 'baby!'"

Delaney notices a lot and frequently asks, "S'at noise?" (What's that noise?) She thinks the coffee maker sounds like it's burping. When she answers, "Yeah," she actually says, "Yam." 

Delaney has started singing while dancing and twirling. Her favorite song is Let It Go. "Deh dih do, deh dih do..." and she gets a few bits of other lines: "I doh tare whatcha doh-in to day..." (I don't care what you're going to say...) then the singing somehow shifts into "Wee Elsa, wee Elsa, wee Elsa..." Maybe because she's twirling (weeee!)? Who knows. It's all super cute and sometimes very loud! She can also sing a reasonably good version of the alphabet and "Dubba-do, X, Y, and Z, now I know muh ABCs, Dubba-do, X, Y, and Z..." will loop several times at the end. She identifies colors well and combines them with objects: Blue [s]wing, red see-sul (circle), pee-pul tup (purple cup). 

Delaney continues to love Peek-a-Boo and hiding and shouting Boo! 

At dinner, Delaney says: "Nay-nee pray! Tee-too, Amen!" then she instructs each family member individually: "Ev-ett pray!" (He prays) "Em-ma-may pray!" (She prays) And so on. Often going around the table several times. 

Delaney and Everett are finally starting to play together as she becomes like more of a peer to him. He's pretty gentle with her and they usually have fun together. They like Ring-a-ring-a-Rosie, including falling down and jumping together on their mini trampoline.  

We love this stage - she's learning new things every day! 

Delaney Alina is Twenty-One Months Old - 04.30.2021

Delaney Alina is twenty-one months old! Only three more months until she's 2 years old!

Delaney has picked up phrases like "aw man!" and "I wub you" and "c'mon!" She's started to repeat us a little bit more clearly most of the time. Me: You're gonna play with your friends? D: Pay fends.

For words that start with the C/K sound, she uses the T sound. Cold is told, cup is tup, etc.

Delaney knows more shapes: circle, triangle, square, and generalizes pentagon/hexagon/octagon as oh-ta-don [octagon]. She knows nearly all the basic colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, white, black, brown. Now she can count from 2-9 (still leaves out 1). She can quantify two things: "I hah two bears!"

While we were doing our pictures, she stepped up on the porch step without using her hands - I haven't seen her do that. She's become more reliable around stairs and we've moved the baby gate to the top of the stairs going downstairs, leaving the set of four stairs going up to her room open. 

Delaney is picking up so many new things! We love this phase. It's hard to believe Everett was this age when she was born!

Everett Matthew is Three and a Half Years Old - 04.10.2021

Everett Matthew is three and a half years old!

Everett has been waiting for his half birthday for over 2 months now and only recently accepted that he would be turning 3.5 not 4 years old (thanks to much correcting from a certain sister).

Since turning 3, Everett has started going to preschool three mornings a week. He has learned 23 Bible verses (one for each letter A-W; e.g., the verse for F is "Fear not for I am with you, says the Lord.") He plays on a slide, ride-along cars, with blocks, in a play kitchen, and his favorite - with Play Doh. He's beginning to attempt to write some letters and numbers.

Everett can read probably 20 words and tries to sound out words he doesn't recognize. He is learning to add single digit numbers. He loves board games and adding the numbers on the dice helps him practice. 

Everett loves playing games, doing puzzles, playing at the park, playing basketball and football, playing our old Nintendo, playing computer games, typing on the computer, and watching game shows and sports.

Everett's favorite color is red, and he's recently added brown to his list. He's pretty opinionated about what he wears and likes comfy clothes, particularly if they're red.

After Thanksgiving, Everett stopped wearing diapers at night and has done so well! He generally sleeps well at night, though his daily naps happen more like 3-4 times a week rather than every day.

Everett is a tender boy and even if he gets told no and gets upset, he wants a hug while he cries it out. He's sensitive to his sisters and generally quick to apologize. But as a middle child, he's pretty possessive of his favorite toys. He does not like to be alone and always wants someone to play with him or accompany him to another room.

We are so excited to see all that he will learn in the next several months. What a joy!

Delaney Alina is Twenty Months Old - 03.31.2021

Delaney Alina is twenty months old!

Delaney is talking a lot, but a moderate percentage of what she says sounds just like other things she says - but she knows exactly what she means! For example, the three syllables "jeh jeh dale" doesn't sound very different when it's used for Veggietales, Paw Patrol, and diaper change, and "wuh wuh why" is SuperWhy and butterfly. "Zoo zah" is fruit snacks and sucker (pacifier). It helps if she's pointing to what she's talking about because she gets pretty unhappy if you can't verify what she's saying (so don't just say, uh huh; it does not work. She wants you to confirm what she's saying!)

She has started stringing two words together: "bye daddy!" "no diaper change" "please mama." She is also associating sounds and actions with their objects: she said, "chuh chuh doo doo" for a train sound, and says, "pop pop!" when she sees bubbles, and saying "weeee" on a slide. 

She still generalizes: all juice is apple juice, all round fruit is an apple, and santa and snowmen are both "ho ho ho."

She calls Elsa and Anna by name, but calls the movie "deh deh go" (Let it go). She likes to sing Let it go, Jingle bells, and "Boop der ris" (Whoop there it is; thank you, Geico commercial!)

About 3 weeks ago, we turned on a Veggietales episode and then turned it off before it was done. She said: jeh jeh dale all gone! (Veggietales all gone) and has repeated that about 10 times a day ever since. This reminds us of when Emery was a little bigger and continued to be upset about the Christmas tree being all gone for weeks after it had been taken down!

Delaney knows a few shapes: star, heart, moon, and a few colors: orange, purple, and blue (though she uses that for more than just blue, but usually gets actual blue correct). She has picked up the number 1 and knows 0-9, but not in order. 

Delaney loves baths and will talk about it before, during, and after and dart for the bathroom if she hears the water running. She loves to take her clothes off and say: I nude! 

She is sleeping well most nights, but if she wakes up, Blake or I will go in and hold her for a little while. I will ask "are you ready to go to your bed?" and sometimes she'll answer yes, but other times, she'll say: "no, need mama." And so we'll cuddle a little longer. 

She has learned how to climb the steps on our little toddler slide in the basement and can get her feet under her to slide down. This is a milestone, not having to worry (as much!) about her sliding sideways or getting tangled up. She's getting better going up and down the regular stairs (with someone close) and is seemingly more aware that she can't step forward down the stairs!

This girl is learning so much! She's a delight!

Delaney Alina is Nineteen Months Old - 02.28.2021

Delaney Alina is nineteen months old!

Delaney surprised us last month by showing us she knew some letters and within the last month, she's learned every letter! She also knows 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 0. We've tried counting but she seems to think it goes: 2, 3, 4, go! (again, no number 1).

Delaney is a bit more likely to repeat "please" when prompted, but she often follows it up with "now." She agrees by saying "oh-tay" (okay), which is as cute as you'd think.

Delaney and Everett face each other in their seats at the table and have started to go back and forth making raspberry sounds with their mouths followed by "take that!" The two of them make each other laugh.

This was the week for Delaney to officially drop her morning nap. It started making it hard for her to fall asleep for her second nap and skipping that one was not going to work. So she's still adjusting to the new schedule. 

Delaney likes to imitate gymnasts, dancers, and ice skaters on tv. She twirls and kicks and rolls on the floor. 

Occasionally, Delaney will find a toy she likes and play by herself for a little while, unlike a certain brother of hers who never seems to want to be alone. 

At her 18mo appointment, Delaney was 19lb 12.5oz and 31.5 inches, which is almost exactly the size Emery was at the same age (within a half ounce and a half an inch). 

This little sweetie is growing and learning! We love to see her grow!