The Harvey Family: December {2015}

This month Brett:

has added a lot of words to his vocabulary. I'm pretty much the only one who knows what they mean though, but we're getting there slowly. He's attempting to say a lot of new words but they haven't all become a regular part of his vocab yet. New words this month include: broom/bowl/spoon (boom), again (ahh-gin), fork (fffff), it's all done (es ahh duh), car/cart (cah), off (oss), gone (gah), no, hair (rrrrr), vacuum, up (bup), sock/rock (gock), glasses (gah-gah),outside, butt, nose, mouth, eye
is making more animal sounds and really seems to like animals and books about them. He knows what a lot of animals say now and can mostly say their sounds: cow, goat, duck, bird, pig, dog, cat
loves eating chips and dip. It was getting exhausting having to sit with him at the table and dip all his chips in the guacamole so he'd have all the bites ready for him to just put in his mouth. He started getting pushy about wanting to do it himself so we just let him have the bowl and he started doing really well with it so now he just gets a bowl and dips his own chips in there (video below).
has gone though a stage where he is very attached to Daddy in small spurts. The spurts don't usually last too long but it's been great that he'll just hug Chris around the neck super hard to avoid coming to me for something. Any steps toward lowering the separation anxiety with me are welcome!
is teething again. I can't really tell if it's molars or his eye teeth but he's started putting toys and fingers in his mouth again so hopefully we'll see something soon. He really hates getting his teeth brushed so maybe this is part of it?
is obsessed with his crocs and wearing shoes around the house. Personally, I don't like walking around on hard flooring without socks or slippers either so maybe he comes by it honestly? Or maybe he is just excited to be able to put on shoes by himself and feels proud that he can put on his crocs. He's pretty much been barefoot his whole life so the first option doesn't make much sense.
possibly going through a growth spurt. There are some days where he doesn't eat much at all but there are other days where he just doesn't want to stop eating and I keep wondering when he'll start growing more. He finally broke the 23 lb barrier but I keep waiting for his legs to grow into the rest of his body. He is a pretty lean little kid except for that belly.
is finally weaned!!! We were down to one feeding a day after getting back from Virginia so it was time. He was so used to having that little snack at 5:30AM so it was a rough week getting him back to sleep without nursing. He didn't want any other drink as a replacement. Sadly he is used to waking up early now so he wakes up most days around 6AM which is too early for everyone, and he needs more sleep than that. Hopefully his body will get used to going longer stretches without food. When he wakes up in the morning (after trying to get him to go back to sleep for 45 mins or so) he is ravenous and wants to eat and drink a ton. I wish he would just sip on a cup of milk like Blake does. Sadly, he doesn't like any of the milk options we've tried (regular and vanilla rice milk and regular almond milk). He gets his milk intake in the form of smoothies now which is better than nothing but still not as much as he probably needs. He drinks smoothies with strawberries, banana, avocado and rice milk. He loves them!
has started doing much better with puzzles. He seems to be getting the hang of puzzles and does really well except the most common mistake he makes is trying to put a piece in upside down (the spin way, not the front/back way) and when I tell him it's upside down he tries to flip it over (front/back way). Blake couldn't care less about puzzles so maybe Brett will be my puzzle buddy one day? Here's hoping.
tried a couple new foods. Most of the time new foods are Blake's idea so they both tried chocolate and wheat this month and they seem to be doing just fine with them so that is promising!
has added a few more signs to his signing vocabulary: smoothie, helicopter
has to use the big potty like Blake, but only for tinkle. I can't seem to catch him at the right time to try anything else on the potty.

This month Blake:

seems to have gone through a growth spurt too. He has been eating a lot and he's almost outgrown his 3T pants. He's transitioning over to 5T pants (as I get them hemmed - sewing machine for the win!) because the waist fits but his legs aren't quite long enough for them yet.
doesn't like candy. He tried candy on Halloween and then a candy cane when we went to visit Santa and he just doesn't seem to like the taste. That's ok by me!
doesn't want to do things alone like go to the bathroom and put on his shoes. I'm not sure if he's scared of something (going into another room that is dark) or just wants to make sure he is still getting attention from Mommy and Daddy the way that Brett does.
teaches Brett how to do things. Instead of just fussing every time that Brett gets in the way of him doing something, I suggested that he teach Brett how to help him and now he does a really great job of helping teach Brett how to do all kinds of things. Thankfully Brett is very quick to catch on to most things and it works out well; Brett is being included and Blake gets to be a good big brother. Blake has become so motherly toward Brett and will help clean food off his face or straighten his clothes and he always is looking out for him to make sure that he doesn't get in harms way when they're walking somewhere. It is really very sweet how Blake has his hand out in front of Brett's chest ready to make sure he is safe.
wanted to cut off 2 links on his Christmas countdown every other day to "get to Christmas faster". He got something from school at the beginning of the month that had yellow links that he could cut off each day as he counted down to Christmas and at some point he forgot to cut one off so he cut off 2 in one day and from that point on he wanted to cut off 2 every other day.
talks about what he's going to do when he's 4 or 5. For instance, he gets on and off the potty without a stool when he wants to "practice for when he's 4 or 5". If he doesn't want to do something on his own like put on his shoes or drink from a cup with no lid, he says that he'll do that when he's "4 or 5". And now that Christmas is over, he's already started talking about what presents he wants for his "4-year-old birthday".
his favorite song is still One Republic - Counting Stars. When we have a dance party he always wants to hear that one over and over.
loves watching the Magic School Bus. Mimi and Papa got him the complete DVD set for Christmas and it is right up his alley. It's almost like an animated version of How It's Made which is perfect for him. He seems to be most into how the body works right now I think.
started using an electric toothbrush. Mimi had one and he was very interested in it so we got him one. At first he thought the feeling was too weird so he'd only let me brush his front 4 teeth and then we'd have to switch to the regular brush for the rest. Then gradually we've gotten to where he'll let me brush all his teeth with it.
had some great quotes but I forgot to write them down. Only got one: "Our home is the best home I could ever think of." So sweet! I love this boy and his brain. He makes me laugh on a daily basis.

Photos:

Our family photo. So excited to have one where we all look good!

Daddy helping the boys build a lego tower.

Brett's first time painting with real paint. He did a surprisingly good job but he just wanted to smear it around then ask for more paint immediately.

Brett getting his feet painted for our little project.

Then stamping his foot print onto a little canvas...

And the final product. A couple cute little reindeer!

We saw Santa at Blake's school but he didn't have anywhere to sit and Brett was NOT going to have any part of Santa.

A few pics of Blake performing in his Christmas Program at school. He did such a great job! The videos are posted below.

The final song was We Wish You A Merry Christmas.

Our little climber always has to be climbing on something. This time he found the new dimmer slider switch that we connected to Blake's lamp in his room. The lamp switch had basically stopped working and it was near impossible to turn on and off. The dimmer is actually really great because I can turn it super low once he gets in bed at night and it helps get him ready for sleep.

Blake was excited to tell Santa that he wanted stampers and stickers for Christmas.

Surprisingly, Brett didn't scream and cry when he sat down on Santa's lap. He didn't smile either but that's ok. Santa stopped by the fire station this year instead of driving around through the neighborhoods, so we stopped by to meet him there.

I've been wanting to try out this snow globe idea from Pinterest for a while and we finally did it. It worked out great for the first hour or so and then (as one of the commenters said happened to them) the water turned green from the dye in the trees. When we glued the trees to the lid of the jar (with super glue), we only let them dry for a few minutes (instead of the recommended 24 hours) so eventually we had 3 trees floating around in the snow globes too, haha. They were really cute while they lasted but if we do it again we'll try waiting longer for the glue to dry and maybe using something other than green trees.

This is the countdown to Christmas chain link that Blake brought home from school the beginning of December. He cut off 2 links every other day.

We put together a yearly photo collage up on our wall and as I was putting it together I realized that Chris wasn't in very many photos so we had to get one of him and the boys. As always, Blake wasn't cooperating for most of them so this was the best we could do.

We had a lot more presents under the tree this year and Santa came too! It was so much fun this year to see Blake get so excited about Santa. We left out milk and cookies but I only got a cell phone pic.

I still love our tree and we're doing a good job getting new homemade and collectible ornaments to phase out the red and silver place holders that we got originally. The boys would request that the tree lights be turned on all the time just like I did when I was little. =)

Here are the boys making some ornaments for the tree. Blake loves his arts and crafts so he has been asking every day to make a new ornament. I think we kept it to 5 or 6 new ones this year (that we made at home - I think Blake made a few more at school). Brett has recently learned how to peel and stick stickers but he can only do certain ones.