Playtime includes more pretend play than ever before. They like to pretend cooking food and serving it at the table, eating it from the dishes, then cleaning it all up. Anna is also much more interested in dolls these days. She has a favorite doll at daycare (Boo from Monsters, Inc) that she has to sleep with now. We bought one for home off of ebay, and I'm planning on trading her pacifier for Boo next weekend during our next attempt to get rid of per pacifier. She's pretty good at "trading" things with Sam, so I'm hoping that will do the trick. At night, Anna has to say "good night" to her babies ("night-night babies" and then making a snoring noise) and close the bedroom door before we finish our bedtime routine. We also have to sometimes "feed" her babies the food she is eating, or have her baby pretend drink from her sippy. Sam has also ingrained cleaning up into his brain (so proud!).I've always made it a point of cleaning up our toys together before a meal, or bath time, or leaving the house. Now Sam spontaneously starts to clean up on his own if I let him know that it is time for one of those things. He impressed a mom at the children's museum today with his self-initiated cleanup skills. :)
While Sam and Anna still like their previous book favorites, the top requested book right now is one I made from Shutterfly with a free book code that has family members pictures and their names in it. Since they don't get to see our extended family very often, I think this will help with all the family gatherings approaching with the holiday season ahead. They love that book so much that I have to put it out of sight (out of mind) when we aren't reading it. Sam and Anna will go through the book repeating everyone's name and kissing their faces.
Anna and Sam seem to also be doing more mimicking lately. Anna loves to brush other peoples hair, and will pretend to wipe her self with a wipe like she's changing her own diaper. She uses her fingernail clippers to pretend "clip" my nails too. She also has been showing her preferences for clothing even more. The other day, I tried to put her in an orange outfit and she saw her purple one nearby and refused to let me dress her, until I put the purple one on. Her favorite colors seem to be purple or pink... I think because usually things those colors always get given to her instead of Sam, so she has claimed pink and purple as Anna colors. :) Sam's favorite colors seem to be yellow, orange, or blue right now. Sam's favorite animals are horses and owls and they both love deer. We also seem to be extra interested in the moon this month, probably because its always out for our after-dinner walk now. Both Sam and Anna love to point it out many times during each walk. The song favorite du jour is The Farmer in the Dell.
Sam seems to be less clingy in the last month, and he's morphing into more of a daddy's boy as well. He tends to test his limits more than Anna, and loves to see just what he can do. It's always easy to tell when he's about to do something, because he'll look back over his shoulder with an impish grin to see if you are looking before he takes off. He's more mischievous, but Anna's more opinionated. Such fun characters they've grown into!
Not too many changes physically with large or fine motor skills... although Sam did climb into his own high chair for the first time this week. I guess he was hungry and ready to get dinner started! They can climb into our stroller on their own and he is also close to being able to climb into his own car seat. They are also getting better and better at the simple puzzles we have.
We had some minor issues with sleep this month because our daycare provider was putting them down for their nap later and later. The later nap meant that they were still sleeping closer to bedtime, which ended up delaying our bedtime as well. She was putting them down sometimes as late at 2:30 pm. After talking with her, Sam and Anna are back on a 1-3:15/4 pm napping schedule, which makes our nights a little better too.
We haven't introduced many new foods lately, however, Sam has discovered the fun of dipping sauces... like ketchup. If he sees a sauce he can use to dip stuff in, often he will refuse to eat without dipping his food in it. I've seen some pretty odd combinations, but I guess it tastes good to him if he's eating it, right? Anna's eating more meat, which has been a very welcome change. I'm sure that helped with her weight gain this month, along with the pouches we've been feeding both Sam and Anna.
Could it be that we've turned the corner on the difficulty level of taking pictures? At least this time, it seemed much easier to take the monthly photos. Anna climbed right up into the usual spot once we put her sticker on and gave her the dog and they both seemed to understand a little to hold still and smile. Compared to the sweat I used to work up trying to get a decent shot, this time was a breeze.
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