Look Who's Talking!

Mr. Matthew is growing up so fast. It's hard to believe that he's almost four months old already! He can roll over from his tummy to his back, do a small pushup and bear a lot of weight on his legs. The past few days, he has been talking up a storm! He's so excited about it that he stays up at night talking to himself. Cute, but not at 5 AM. If you talk back to him, he will just keep on going and going. He can sit up in a Bumbo chair, too (see picture). Matthew LOVES his swing right now, just like Ashlyn did at that age. For fun, I've attached a video of Ashlyn at 4 months and Matthew at 4 months in the same swing down below. It's hard to tell who is who, except that one is in pink and one is in blue. :-)

Ashlyn is getting ready to go potty. We bought her some training underwear and pull-ups a few weeks ago even though she wasn't interested (she would always say "no" if you asked her if she wanted to go on the potty), but tonight she asked to sit on the potty without prompting. After about twenty minutes on the potty, I bribed her with chocolate (it was bedtime and she still wanted to try). I went downstairs to get the chocolate, leaving her on the potty and when I returned, she was standing up looking in the potty and she had gone number 1. Bunny did a celebration dance and Ashlyn got her bite of chocolate (the entire Hershey's kiss!). If we weren't going to the Children's museum tomorrow, I'd totally spend the whole day training her. I think we'll put on the undies tomorrow afternoon and try to go potty every 30 minutes or so...hopefully that is often enough. We'll see!

I never really posted any pictures from the rest of our holidays...after my mom and Greg left, my cousin Teri visited with her husband, Josh, and her two kiddos (Hunter, 3 and Nathanael 9 months). Ashlyn and Matthew had a blast playing with their two cousins. Here's a picture of Mark and Matthew watching some James Bond movie. This is the best way to get Matthew to do tummy time...he really likes TV in general, not just James Bond.

Hunter was like a rock star to Ashlyn, going on the potty and going down the big slides at Kangaroo Jacks. She was terrified at Kangaroo Jacks for all but about five minutes when she actually jumped a little bit. Mostly, she wanted to "watch Hunter do it"! Having four kids in the house was a bit hectic, but it a great visit and we had a great time!

After Teri left, Mark's parents came up for New Year's. This visit was much more low-key, but we had a great time visiting with them. Ashlyn was sad to see Mimi and Baba go home, and she half expected someone else to arrive later that day because we'd just had three different families visit!

Ashlyn-isms and More Sleep!

After lights out the other night, Mark and I were cracking up reciting Ashlyn's favorite things to say. For example: "Turn wight on," when we get up in the morning or "It's durwy (dirty)" when her favorite cup is in the sink. Also, when her baby brother is in the swing: "Turn mobile on" or "The mobile stopped." She's the mobile police; she never lets it stop.

Randomly throughout the day, she says, "I like chocolate?" Really, she means that she would like some chocolate...it can't hurt to ask, right? Over the past several weeks, her daddy has been home and she's seen him a few times without his shirt. Guess what she says? "Daddy no have boobies no nurse Maffhew." Gotta love that.

We have been letting Matthew cry a bit at night...since Thanksgiving that boy has been waking up about every three hours at night. Talk about a relapse! I humored him because at first he had a cold and then I thought maybe it was a growth spurt. Any growth spurt he might have been having is surely over now, so we are going for a 5 or 6 hour stretch like he used to do. The first night was miserable...he cried for almost 2 hours. The next night was much better, about 10 minutes. I am feeding him around midnight and then around 5. I feel so much better with a long stretch of sleep. And that stinker will smile at me and want to play each time he is up. He is such a sweet smiley boy!