What's going on with the kids

Beth's speech has grown by leaps and bounds in the past two weeks or so. If I've ever said her speech was improving before, well triple that! She repeats everything and even says stuff that I don't ever remember saying around her. Today when Ryan was leaving for work, she was in her high chair eating some cheerios. He kissed both of us goodbye and as he was walking out the door, Beth yelled, "Be careful Daddy!" She also can sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star absolutely perfectly! Every time I hang up the phone, she says, "Who dat? Miss Katie? Or Daddy?" It cracks me up, she always wants to know who I'm talking to! She'll also accidentally fall down (or make her doll fall down) and go, "Oh no, Beth fall down!" She is a constant chatterbox, if she's not talking to me she's talking to Eric or Ariel, singing, or just in her own little world reciting her ABCs or counting to 10. Despite all the words she's learning, "No" still seems to be her favorite! If I had a dollar for everytime she told me no throughout the day... I'm frequently try to avoid yes or no questions, and instead give her choices. Sometimes if I'm at one side of the house and she's in another room, if I yell, "Hey Beth!" all I'll hear is "NO!" Haha... It's easy to laugh about it when she's asleep, lol. But all of this has lead me on a quest for the perfect form of discipline, and since we don't spank I am challenged to find creative ways to teach her right from wrong and correct her actions. So far I'm testing out the idea of a "naughty chair" (for her to sit in until she's ready to correct her action, not really for a set amount of time). I've read several disipline books and I honestly thought I'd be pretty good at coming up with creative ideas to discipline. But as it turns out, I'm no good in this area yet! Temper tantrums ensue!

Luke. Our boy is nearly 4.5 months old, and looking back at my blog I realize that he's a little behind where Beth was at this point. Now, I've never been comfortable comparing my kids to other kids, and I know I shouldn't compare my kids to each other, but it's made me feel bad. I feel like I put Luke down so much more during the day than I did with Beth, but on the other hand I feel like I still hold him all day long! He doesn't really enjoy sitting in the swing for very long, but he'll tolerate it for about 10-20 minutes if he starts in a good mood. Sleep is awful right now, he just totally fights sleep. He naps usually 3 times a day (sometime 4 if one of them was really short) and he wants to go to bed around 6-7 and wake up at 6:00. Uhhhhhh.... Our usual routine of putting him to sleep involves him crying a lot (because he's overly-tired) and finally getting him to pass out. It's very wearing on both of us, but I feel bad because I feel like I don't have the time (or energy) to give him what I gave to Beth. I know that's the name of the game, and I'll probably feel this way or worse with every subsequent child. But I can't help but wonder if I haven't interacted with him enough, or in the right ways, and that's why he's not quite where Beth was at this age. But, as I looked through my old blog posts, I saw that on Beth's 6- month doctor visit she was 14 lbs 4 oz- and that was exactly Luke's weight at his 4-month visit! So he does have height and weight on her, heh. But overall he is still just a mild-tempered, mellow baby. Two days ago I got my first real cackle from him and I loved it! He's been laughing for a few weeks now, when we act like fools, but this was the first time I really heard him howl with laughter- and it was at Beth kicking a soccer ball outside! I'm not sure if he was laughing at Beth or the ball, but Beth is usually pretty good at making him laugh. I still remember Beth's first "real" laugh like that, it was at Vegas our dog. I LOVE those baby sweet baby sounds!

These pictures are from last week, the first two on Thursday and the second two on Friday. Two consecutive days, my mornings consisted of Luke falling asleep on his on in my bed, and Beth playing quietly in the other room. How wonderful!