This picture tells a lot -- This month Karis really became a little Mama :) She loves playing with her baby doll and doing whatever she sees Mama doing with Karlie. She will burp her, dance with her, wash her face, wear her in a sling, give her a paci, wrap her up in Karlie's swaddle, nurse her, etc. It is so sweet and I absoutely LOVE to see her being such a little Mama! I think she has completely forgotten life before Karlie and now taking care of a baby is just what we do :) Did I mention that I love it? :) It has also made mursing times so much easier, for which I am thankful!
This month has also really been fun in watching Karis' language develop. She has so many phrases now that are so cute! And she has named almost every item in the house as either Mama's or Daddy's, depending on who she seesusing it the most. Anytime she sees a ball anywhere, it is Daddy's :) She can now pick out certain words in songs that she will sing over and over. Dancing is undoubtedly her favorite thing to do. I seriously have a hard time completing any task before she is begging me to dance. And to her, dancing starts out as a long hug/snuggle time and then progresses to getting down and dancing in circles in the living room. Her absolute favorite song is Father Abraham and she will randomly start pumping her arm or leg up and down no matter what we are doing, begging me to put on the CD. I've undoubtedly listened to that particular CD about 10 times a day for the last 2 weeks! And certain songs are "Daddy's" and certain ones are "Mommy's" and she will request to dance with us when our song comes up :) It cracks me up everytime but really, its hard to get anything done when you are dancing every 10 minutes! So she is definitely learning disappointment.
Which brings us to the next issue -- discipline! The swats on the bum that used to be so effective no longer work AT ALL! So we are bumping up our discipline a couple notches and I'll probably blog more about it later in the week. This past month Karis has gotten extremely playful in a disobedient kind of way. She makes a game out of anything we tell her to do, sqealing and trying to do the opposite. Definitely frustrating and calling for a higher form of discipline! But she has already started to respond to us better so I am encouraged :)
Karis loves to play so much that she would rather not eat a meal. Snacking suits her just fine, but boy does she hate being strapped to the high chair! But sitting in Mama's chair is ok because she feels like a big girl and can get down whenever she wants :) We obviously have to make her eat in her highchair, but she will say "down? down?" every 10 seconds :) Dinner is especially hard on her because she knows that playtime with Daddy is right after dinner! She is still a pretty picky eater, but loves anything with beans, cheese, or "gooda-gooda-gooda" (granola). She always tries to grab her favorites when I open the fridge and sometimes, I let her just pick what she wants for lunch. On Saturday, she picked beans, quinoa, and cheese, so I just layered it with some shredded chicken and she and I were both happy with her lunch :)
Karis loves to write with a pen. We've given her crayons and markers, but she gets bored with them pretty quickly. B ut she will draw with a pen for quite some time -- I guess its because that is what she sees us doing all the time. And most of the time she holds it the correct way, too, because we have fixed it in her hand so often.
She loves for us to pray and hold her hands. The other day at the lunch table, she asked us to pray about 6 times :) She also loves for us to ask her "who loves Karis?" We started it just at bedtime, but now do it several times a day.
Karis likes to look pretty for Daddy. If I put her in a new outfit and say its pretty, she will say, "Daddy?" Last Wednesday afternoon when I was changing her diaper, she asked to put on a dress for Daddy. She also loves to have her nails painted :) I love having a girl to dress up!! Its just so much fun!
Karis is growing and changing so much I can hardly believe it. I guess because of Karlie, she just seems like such a big girl now. I love her soo much!
Like I mentioned in Karis' monthly update, we have really been struggling with discipline lately. Its mainly because Karis likes to play so much and makes a game out of everything we ask her to do. For example, she wants Daddy to chase her instead of coming when called, etc. We used to tell her no and spank her little thigh immediately, but it just doesn't seem effective anymore. So we talked and prayed about it and knew we needed a new method of discipline. We plan to follow the guidelines in Shepherding a Child's Heart by Ted Tripp and use these charts to really reach her heart rather than just force obedience. But we don't think she has the understanding or attention span yet to jump right to those methods. So I talked to my sis-in-law who has shepherded 2 children through this stage already, and she was really encouraging to me and gave me a lot to think about. So we came up with a simple, abridged version of the SaCH method and it really seems to be working! When I ask Karis to do something and she doesn't, I tell her to look at me and say, "Karis, Mama told you to do.... Did you do it? Karis will seriously and sadly shake her head no, and it is so precious! Then I tell her that I have to spank her because she didn't obey and she puts her hands on me or a chair, I pull down her pants, and give her 3 swats. She cries and I hold her and tell her that I love her, etc. Its so hard to do because she is so stinkin' cute and so sweet by this point! But I can tell a difference already. Please pray for us and me especially, because it is really hard for me to put Karlie down to discipline Karis when Karlie is nursing or almost asleep, etc. But if I don't discipline her right away she will never learn.
