Elijah & Josephine - other updates

Let’s see... at home, Elijah and Josephine can now pretty well dress themselves, including their Velcro shoes (although sometimes keeping the tongue pulled up is a challenge. Shirts and jackets can be a challenge if the sleeves are inside out, and they can’t start their zippers. Snapping pants is a challenge for Elijah - but actually he can usually do it (depending on the pants) - he just usually chooses to walk around with his pants undone until someone tells him to do it. Footie pajamas are a new challenge - getting all the limbs in the correct holes. Josephine calls them "Footie jajamas" and loves them! Both Elijah and Josephine are good at using the right words to ask for help now: “Help me please!” instead of whining.

They can “brush their teeth” themselves, although Josephine usually needs help with the toothpaste. I’m not sure how many of their back or upper teeth actually get touched, so we still help them at least once a day, and on occasion, we also brush our teeth at the same time, so they can see for themselves.

Dinner is always a fun time at our house. We’re now working with Elijah and Josephine on some of their table manners – chewing with their lips closed, not talking with food in their mouth, etc. They’re already AWESOME at saying please and thank you. Kaylen is still working on some of these things, and I think they might just pass her up on them. They already have on the please and thank you – it became automatic to them as those were some of the first words they learned when they came home.

Kaylen is our awesome dishwasher loader/unloader. We are starting to teach the little kids how to load their plates, but it’s so funny, because they’ll hold their plate over the spot, and ask, “This way?” They’re so proud about their ability to help though, and get mad sometimes if someone else clears their plate or throws away their napkin for them! And they fight over who gets to put away Mom & Dad's dishes after a meal if we are busy putting the food away and they're still on the table. Too funny!

They're learning how to do other household jobs too. They're getting pretty good at scrubbing in the bathroom - floor and countertops. Kaylen's happy about this because this used to be her job and she hated it. They're awesome at picking up their toys when it's time for bed or supper or whatever. At least when someone's watching anyway! Sometimes a little playing gets in the way and makes it take much longer - or sometimes the girls get annoyed that they did all the work while their brother played.

Elijah & Josephine still both sleep very well. They eat very well too - pretty much they know they're expected to eat what's served. Elijah gives us a hassle sometimes on veggies or hard-to-chew meat, but not nearly as much as he used to. And we're not above bribing our children with a fruity or sugary dessert to get them to clean their plates or hurry faster. :)