...Updates & all that good stuff! :)

Aubree is almost FOUR!!!! I seriously can't believe I'm going to be a mother of a four-year old! Her birthday is one month from tomorrow & the realization of her starting kindergarten next year is starting to sink in. I have one more year to be with her! After that, she's thrown into the education system & out of my protective arms! :( I'm glad we get these little bits of realization, so we're able to act on it.

Aubree, who was a once a very picky eating toddler, is now an open-minded, semi-daring Preschooler! She went from ONLY wanting junk food to asking me for carrot sticks, bananas, blueberries, apples, grapes (all fruits)... she likes salads, peas & she even likes broccoli, actually she says "ummmm.... Broccoli, my FAVORITE!", I honestly think she does that for my reaction, because I always say... "Aubree, that makes mommy so happy to hear!" :)

She knows her alphabet, she can count & describe things like, "look, there are 6 ducks outside". We got her some wonderful preschool activity books & she loves tracing the letters, numbers, circling the amount of objects she's supposed to, etc. She LOVES books!!! She loves coloring, writing letters, painting, drawing & playing make-believe. Her vocabulary is exceptional & I honestly contribute it to the fact that she's mostly only with adults (besides Preston), so she hasn't picked up any habits. She's a good girl & a good big sister, she really wants to please us & she gets hurt when she knows she messes up.

Of course, there are some things to her personality that put us at odds. She is a VERY early riser & she's a go-getter. She's a busy-body.... she wants to "do! go! see!" everything & she's very strong-headed & persistent. She gets up early & before I can even roll out of bed, pour my cup of coffee & start to think about what I'm going to make the kids for breakfast, she's already fully dressed for the day & full of way too much energy! One of the first things, I probably tell her EVERYDAY is "settle down Aubree, just calm down for a minute". She is the reason our whole family is up a little too early every weekend. She tells us "sleeping is boring" & really fights it sometimes - but, we never have any real issues getting her to bed & now that we've put her to bed earlier, she still gets the 9-10 hours of sleep a night that she probably needs - but, don't even suggest a nap to her! That will not happen!

Preston.... Oh man, what a boy! He's almost 19 months & again, I'm always amazed to how fast the time goes with these little people. Preston is a TALKER!!!  More so than Aubree ever was at this age! He communicates so well & really, truly uses 100+ words. He knows all his body parts & says their name, he knows about 20 animal & bugs names. This really shocks me... without even teaching him, he says "thank you", "welcome" & "sorry" in the right circumstances (???). I guess if you have the older one trained right, the smaller one just catches on quite quickly!

He's very physical, he's rough & tough and a little too daring for my liking. He likes books & he loves "Goodnight 123" which Aubree reads to us at night - he likes the "Shhhhhhh!!!" part & always does it on the correct page, sometimes even before in anticipation for that part. He loves sleeping, he loves going to bed! He would honestly sleep a lot longer if it wasn't for Aubree waking him up so early, but.... what can you do??

He's daytime potty trained!!!!!

He wears big boy underwear during his AWAKE hours at home, he's had maybe 2 urine accidents in the past few weeks. But, for the most part he tells us he has to go, runs to his toilet & goes. It took a few weeks & right when I was about to give-up, everything just clicked! :) He will still wear pull-ups or diapers during nap time, nighttime & when we're out of the house (I don't want my little guy using the public toilets anytime soon). But, I'm really proud of him & so happy that it's behind us - also so happy that we'll be saving a ton of $$$ on diapers! :) Seriously... We're going from about 180 diapers a month, to 65, maybe.

Other than that, I couldn't be happier with Aubree & Preston's relationship. They have a lot of fun together & you can just tell that they really love one another. Of course, that doesn't mean there aren't any fights - they definitely have their issues & they always seem to want the same toy at the exact same moment... which drives me crazy because we have HUNDREDS of toys!!! But, I guess that's just the way it is with siblings.

These are just some pictures I snapped while they were playing on our bed this morning.