Elias' words

Elias is quite the little chatterbox. As if I need two children talking my ear off. If he isn't babbling away, he is singing some random song. He is quite a fan of Alicia Keys, and sings, "No one, no one", over and over. He does it in this high, sing songy, delicate baby voice and it is SO cute! His other favorite tunes are anything by Dan Zanes and Firecracker. He starts tapping and marching his chubby little feet as fast as he can when it comes on. To be quite honest, Dan Zanes is the one who taught him how to sing Twinkle Twinkle.

Here is a list of some of his vocab.

mommy

IS MINE! ( a sure sign of having a sibling)

daddy

NO!

nursies (in a sing songy voice, heavy on the E)

boobie (smoothie)

kiki (candy)

wu wu wee (water)

saucey (Softee, what he calls the cat)

Ah-e (Alice, the cat's name)

Uh k (ok)

Ooo

poo poo

pee pee

boot

soes (shoes)

ah!

Ame (amen)

ball

mama

uh uh

um (he likes to say that over and over, then runaway giggling)

yimbo yimbo (limbo)

beep beep

hose you (hold you)

puppy

 eet eet (eat eat)

ah done (all done)

abble (apple)

woo woo (choo choo)

hotdog

ces'up (ketchup)

chips

He also does several signs. He used to scream at me constantly when he wanted something. That got old quick. Since E thinks Micah is the coolest ever, he was more than happy to do the signs once Micah told him to. They are very cute together. It was really sweet to watch M teaching E how to do them. Both of them were proud to be working together.

Both of them use the signs for water, please and eat on a daily basis. Micah has continued to sign please since he first learned it around 15 mos.

Turn the Beat Around

Earlier this week, in the middle of yelling at Micah, I stopped my sentence. It suddenly hit me that Robert and I wanted our children. We kinda planned them and were thrilled to find out they were coming. Yet, there I was yelling my heart out at my sweet, although testy 3 year old son. Where was the respect? How had I, in such a short amount of time, come to show such harshness  to one of my favorite people in the entire world? It made me really, really sad. :(

 We have been an AP family pretty much from the beginning. We parent peacefully and treat our children with respect and dignity. So, I know better than to yell at my kids and I strive to not to it, but failed a lot. For some reason, I'd just kinda of spiraled out of control.  How I went from kissing and nuzzling the innocent babe gifted to me, to bullying him, I've yet to figure out.

 In that epiphany of a moment, I knew that I would either continue on in the way I had been or I'd get my act together and start living everyday with my children the way I intended to from the start. These little people were being treated like a cat that someone had abandoned on my doorstep in the night. Something to deal with until I found someone to take the problem away. That would stop right there and then.

 This entire past week has been SO wonderful! The house is happier. (Though as I write this, Micah is screaming at me that the candy on the fridge is not mine and I need to give it to him NOW.) I have enjoyed and relished my kids and their antics. Taking the time to step back without reacting has allowed us to all reconnect.

I'm not unrealistic. I know that eventually I will lose my temper and get loud again, hopefully that is a long way off. Thank God for second chances.