Good stuff!

So, it's been over six months since I reported on the development of my kids.  So much has happened since then.  I'm sure I will miss stuff but here we go:

In July, we potty trained Lila.  It went pretty smoothly.  She definitely had her share of accidents, but with the 3 day potty training approach, it was done pretty quickly (not in 3 days  mind you, but quickly).  She is rising up to the role of terrible two, but in the cutest way possible.  She wears the title of "Jill Jr" with pride.  "No" is one of her favorite words right now, along with "I do it myself".  She presses us on a regular basis, almost asking us to discipline her.  And she responds very well to discipline in most cases.  If she's melting down for no particular reason or at least not one that warrants the level of melt down she has, I tell her to go to her room until she's finished.  A few minutes later, you'll hear her yelling from her room "Mom, I'm done crying."  Then she comes out and begins to play.  Time outs tend to work for her better than spankings, although she get's her fair share of those as well for "felonies".  But Lila commits far more "misdemeanors".  Although she did bite a chunk out of dad's shoulder about a month ago.  It was funny to see Yaya, who doesn't believe in spanking his grandkids, handle that one!

We talk regularly about joy.  I want her default to be joy, and it tends to be frustration.  She hears me say "This is the day that the Lord has made.  Let us rejoice and be glad in it" on a pretty regular basis, along with me singing "I'm happy today".  She still loves to sing... especially in the car.  She typically sings from the time we drive off til the time we pull up to wherever we are going.  Her newest love is chewing gum.  Mom introduced her to that, and now she's obsessed.  She does very well with it, and it's a great leveraging tool!  She has also become a great little gymnast.  She climbs all over everything and flips off of whatever she can.  She'll do the splits between two dining room chairs and do a handstand against any wall around her.  We really want to put her in gymnastics in January.  We'll see if any place will take a 2 1/2 year old.  The kids are getting a trampoline for Christmas and she is going to be in heaven.  She has so many cute facial expressions and sayings.  The nose squench is my favorite look right now, and "Oh my goodness" said with a squeal is my favorite saying.  Lila does great in school.  She still cries a lot when I leave her, but does fine once I'm gone.  She still loves baby dolls, and her favorite thing to do is to play "Mommy and Daddy" with Gray Cambron.  Hector's not sure how he feels about that!  Her favorite shows right now are Barney and Daniel Tiger.  Hector and I love Daniel Tiger.  It teaches Ben and Lila both some great social lessons, like how to share, and how to handle their anger.  The kids will sing the songs from the show when they are dealing with those situations.  It's great.

Benjamin is growing up so fast.  He is doing great in Mrs. Hudgens Pre-K class.  Ellie decided to hold Noah back this year, so now he and Ben are in the same class.  They are really enjoying being together. The teacher says he's right on track, and sometimes gets frustrated when the other kids aren't getting it.  I don't know where he gets his impatience from!  I'm beginning to panic a little bit because we are having to make decisions about kindergarten.  I can't believe that!  The school we're zoned to is not acceptable, so we plan to transfer to either Hill or Duff.  We're also considering keeping him at Park Row, although we really can't afford it.  We ultimately want him in public school, I'm just not sure if I'm ready yet!

We have totally changed our approach to the tv he's allowed to watch.  No more super hero stuff.  His favorite show is Wild Kratts, and he loves Sophia the first, strangely enough.  He's into spy stuff right now, and we've let him watch Spy Kids, but that's about it.  I think it's really made a difference in his nightmares.  He still have some but not near as many as he used to.  He's sleeping in his own bed 90% of the time.  Speaking of his bed, last month, we bought ben a used bunk bed for $30.  How can you pass that up?  He loves it!  And so does Lila.  We bought Lila a full size bed to have in her room because she kept asking us to lay down by her, and that wasn't happening in her toddler bed.  She loved it at first!  Until she started hanging out in Bubba's room.  Now, Ben has a new roommate.  Lila wants to sleep on the top bunk every night, which works well, because Ben likes to sleep on the bottom so that I'll lay next to him.  Ben still prays most nights that Sugar will come back.  We've told him we'll get another dog when he's big enough to help.  The other night I was talking about how cool it is that Jesus is our brother.  And Ben immediately said, "my other brother died... sugar" .  That broke my heart!  He is such a deep thinker.  I often times say, "that's a great question.  Let's ask daddy".  Because the last time I answered a question about heaven, Ben stressed out about it for months.  Heaven's cool and all, but he wants to stay in his home!  Because of that, I was really worried about how he would handle Granny's funeral, but he did great.  We really prayed about how to handle it with him, and God marked our steps out for us.  He saw her body and everything, and said she looked like a statue.  He was a little upset when Meredith was upset during the funeral, but that's it.  And I'm very thankful that we were able to address the topic with him at a young age.  I've heard that the older they are, the harder they take it.

I know that doesn't even scrape the tip of the ice berg, but it's better than nothing.  I will do my best to be more frequent in my posts.  I'm sure I'll have plenty to report after Christmas.  There are so many sweet things they say and do on a daily basis, that a blog every six months can't come close to capturing it all!  As always, God is so good, and I am so thankful!