April: Wilder 3.5 years, Felicity 18 months

The "OK mom can I please go open these eggs?" faces

This year, I've fallen behind on my monthly blogging about the kids. I've taken the photos and journaled a bit each week, but I'm several months behind on updates here. I feel a bit like a failure because I REALLY want to document these moments and I know that posting on Instagram is not quite the same as the blog. The further behind I get, the longer I know it'll take to catch up. That's for another day. For now, I would love to talk about Felicity turning 18 months old yesterday, and talk about how the kiddos are doing in April!

Easter 2017 -- I'll preface the photos--Felicity got up way early and the easter egg hunt was during her nap time, but she made the best of it. Girlfriend lets you know exactly what she's feeling all over her face. When Wilder is tired, he most of the time pushes through. When Felicity is tired, you can totally tell. She has an epic eyebrow. :-)

This was Felicity's first Easter egg hunt. Last year she was six months old--can you believe it? She wasn't even walking yet. And here she is toddling all over the place in her petticoat dress and heart shoes. She figured out that finding one egg was good, two was even better, and she didn't want to let go.

Wilder is an old pro at finding Easter eggs. He was schooled well over the last few years, and he had practice at school last week. He found a whole bunch of eggs in a hurry!

Zach and i were talking yesterday, and we counted more than 65 words that Felicity can say. I believe at even 14 months, she could say maybe a dozen. She doesn't string too many together yet, (Except "Where go?" and "Come on" - short ones like that) but she has a wide repertoire of words she knows and says. At top volume. It's great.

She also is a climber and she's pretty good at walking now. Definitely a "Toddler" but she gets where she wants to go. If she falls down--even flat on her face on the concrete--she picks herself up, shakes her head and shrugs her shoulders, and keeps going. Few tears. She's tough.

Felicity has an easy smile and she laughs a lot. She thinks her Daddy and brother are so funny. Her favorite thing to do right now is go walking around, carrying something, exploring. She likes to open drawers and dig around (especially in my makeup!). She likes to open cabinets, pull shoes off of shelves, dig in dirt, touch different textures--she walks and walks all over the place. I'd love to put a FitBit on her and see how many steps she takes. We got her some tennis shoes recently. She wore a hole in one of her moccasins from walking on the concrete. She wears some of Wilder's old tennis shoes, but now she has her own purple ones. I think they'll get a lot of use. :-)

Her other favorite thing to do is read. She loves flipping through books, checking out the flap stories and working moving pieces. She likes to read in her bed, and she'll often pull all the books off her shelf one at a time for perusal.

I can't believe she's 18 months old already. It feels like she's been a toddler forever. It's SUCH a fun age, especially with the two of them together. They just make my heart expand, when I watch them wander around outside and explore, Wilder narrating and frolicking, Felicity yelling GURL and pointing at squirrels with her pacifier in her mouth.

Felicity eats pretty much whatever I eat. She loves bacon, muffins, chick fil a fries and chicken. She also loves fruit--berries especially. 

She's been teething--she now has 14 teeth--one almost in and one close. After these last two, I hear we'll be done till she's 2. I'm really ready... it seems like she's been teething nonstop since she was 6 months old. All.the.time. But she's got four molars now, so she can eat all kinds of food really well.

She goes to bed (takes a while to get her down) around 8:30, wakes up anywhere from 6:30-7:30. She will usually nap in the afternoon, probably about 60 percent of the time. Sometimes she wants a morning nap. She doesn't nap every day--we spend a lot of time trying to get her to go down. She's just a different kiddo than Wilder!

I'm loving watching Felicity grow up in to a child. She's not a baby anymore, and it's been so fun seeing her grow and her hair grow like Rapunzel! She's always got something going on in that brain and it's so interesting what she gets into.

Wilder is now 3 1/2. He is is a conversationalist and a sweetheart. Last week he told Felicity he loved her. He says "Felicity is my best friend" and he's quick to try to comfort her if she gets upset. He is particular about his toys--he'll pack them up in a hurry if he sees her coming, but he's learning to give her something else if he doesn't want her to grab his things. Felicity has also learned how to quickly swipe a toy and run away, so... it's a learning experience.

We've been reading the Bible at meals lately. It's amazing how much they pick up. Example: Jesus walks on the water. Wilder requests this one by name (we switch stories every week so after a few days he requests the new one). Felicity will say "rock rock" when we get to the boat rocking part. Yesterday Wilder told us that his blue boots were so he could walk on water. A few weeks ago we read The Good Samaritan. He kept asking to read the battle of Jericho because the man on the road was going to Jericho. Then after we talked about what to do if someone was hurt, I asked what he would do if I fell down on the ground. He thought about it and said "I would get my doctor kit and i would call the doctor, and she would check you out so that you won't be hurt anymore." So interesting--we weren't even talking about the doctor, just hurt people.

if I tried to write about everything Wilder says, it would be a book. His favorite word it seems is "Because" - every sentence is a run on BECAUSE he strings them together BECAUSE...He continuously surprises us with the way his mind operates--he is so smart.

He's loving school--I'm not sure if I mentioned it, but he started going to an early learning center twice a week in January. After an adjustment, he is all in. He laughs with abandon and apparently dances like a wild man to Going on a Bear Hunt.. which is definitely a new phenomenon. After his teacher told us that, we tried to get him to dance at home (He danced at the Family Night at school in the gym, I saw it!) and to my absolute delight, Wilder is now a fan of dance parties. He gathered us up in the kitchen and said "Come on guys, let's have a dance party!" and so of course, we did. Felicity and all. It was such fun. He dances like a marionette and gallops tiny circles. Felicity is like a little arm-waving orangutan. It is so so cute and memories I will treasure forever.

They're both getting into coloring and painting more. At the beginning of the school year it was a struggle, but now they both dive in with the art supplies and enjoy making art.

I know I've got more to share, but it is slipping my mind. Thank you for your patience and for following along on our babies' journey. Here are some fun photos from Easter!

those eyebrows!