A phase

Any time one of our kids does something we aren't fond of, we try to think of it as a phase that will pass soon.  Perhaps that means we're in denial - if so, oh well, it works for us.

Lately, our phase has been head banging and hitting themselves in the head.  Yup, I said them - plural.  Liam started hitting himself or banging his head on the floor when he was almost a year.  I asked about it at his one year check-up and our doctor reassured me that it was a tantrum and had the very technical medical name of head-banging.  She encouraged us to ignore the behavior and it would pass.

Since Karsten is completely immersed in the terrible threes, he's been hearing the word 'no' a lot more lately. He's also spent his fair share of time in timeout when he makes poor choices.  Lately, he has chosen to express his frustration and anger by hitting himself or banging his head on the floor - just like Liam.  Monkey see, monkey do!  I knew Liam would spend a lot of time imitating Karsten, I hadn't counted on it going both ways!

I called the doctor and she eased my concerns that this was just a phase and he was trying out a new way to express his frustration. For now, we'll continue to try remind him of all the cool things that big boys get to do that babies can't do.  This too shall pass...

Wordless Wednesday - Kisses

Cupcake skillz

I've mentioned many times about how much the boys love my mom's cupcakes.  I've been meaning to dig up these pictures that Scott took with his phone over the holidays.  For some reason, Liam grabbed his entire cupcake and tried to suck it.  He sat like this with his cupcake until it just kept getting smaller and smaller.



Then the only thing left was this messy boy and a small chunk of cupcake.

Belated Arrival

The boys received belated Christmas presents from Scott's cousins today - the presents had been shipped to the wrong place and thankfully found their way to our house.

Karsten was excited to read his new Micky Mouse books.


He told us a story about Mickey Mouse and all his friends.


Liam got a fun hat and some PJs.  The hat was a bit hit and provided endless entertainment taking it on and off.  Trying to catch him with the hat on was a bit of a challenge.


He knew it went on his head.


But as soon as I put it on him, he tried to take it off.


See what I mean?  He looks pretty proud of himself.


Ah HA - he got it off!


Karsten wanted to get it on the fun and help Liam put on the hat.

Swords

We were doing dishes one night and the boys were running around playing.  Suddenly, Karsten said "Moooooommy, I waaaaant a sword like Liam.".  HUH?  I had no clue what he was talking about.

But when I turned around, this is what I saw. Liam had 'rescued' a wooden spoon out of the dishwasher. Seems pretty proud of himself doesn't he?


Good thing we have two wooden spoons because we found one for Karsten and they played swords.

Letters

Karsten has been able to sing the alphabet since he was two, and he's known a handful of letters for a long time.  But now, Gail is teaching him to write his letters and make sure he recognizes all of the letters by sight.

We've been doing fun activities with letters to help reinforce what he is learning.  He likes to trace letters when you make a dotted version for him.


Liam was having fun playing with the crayon box.  He would take crayons out then gingerly put them back in.


Tracing his name.


While it looks like Liam was drawing on the floor, he was actually seeing if he could get the crayon to stand up.  He would hold it here like this, then let go and it would fall over.  He did this a couple of times before he put the crayon back in the box.


This is the parking lot game - I drew a bunch of lines to make parking spots and wrote a letter in each parking spot.  Then, I would say a letter and Karsten had to drive the car into the correct parking spot.




The game was a hit!  He was doing a great job finding the letters.  After a while, he started missing letters and I couldn't figure out if he knew the letters or if he was just getting distracted by the game.  After a quick review of the flash cards, he knew most of the letters.  He's currently struggling with M, J, Y, P and F.

Light Savers

When Eden and Elam came over for New Years Eve, Elam brought his Star Wars light saber.  Karsten thought it was so cool.

Ever since then, Karsten and Liam have been playing with these Swiffer dusters.  I asked Karsten what they were doing and he told me that these were their 'light savers - just like Elam's'. :)