LANCE
He can correctly count to 20 by himself and sing the alphabet.
Lance loves to sing all sorts of songs. He knows the Cougar Fight Song (with help) and the first verse of I Love to See the Temple and Child of God (by himself). He likes to sing Rock-a-Bye-Baby and the 2 songs that we made up for Afton. He is really great about singing to Afton to make her happy. He will sing, "Lil baby Afton, Afton, Afton. Lil baby Afton I love you." and "I love you Afton oh yes I do. I don't love anyone like I love you. When you're not with me I'm blue. Oh Afton I love you, you, you, you, you!"
He loves to play make believe. He creates all sorts of things in his little brain. He pretends to be different animals and requests and I be different animals too. He notices the texture on the walls in the Master Bathroom and will tell me what animals all the shapes are. He pretends that he has a pet dinosaur (which he has had for a while) and he will pet it and feed it and share his sippy cup with it. He also has named some of his favorite toys and pretends they come to life. Grandma Felt gave Lance a baby Leopard stuffed animal for his first Christmas and Lance loves it. He calls it his "Tigress" and insists that it is a baby tiger. He also pretends that objects around the house (it doesn't really matter what it is) are animals and he will tell me what they "really" are.
Lance loves to have dance contests with his cousins Lizzy and Ali, and play Duck - Duck - Goose (he wants to be the goose every time and will run around the circle even if he wasn't chosen as the goose).
He LOVES to read. At Afton's baby blessing his Uncle and Aunt, Christopher and Hailey Liechty, gave Lance and Afton a lot of really fun books. Lance has been obsessed with them and wants to read them over, and over, and over... he really can't get enough. He especially loves a book by Dr. Seuss called Go Dog. Go! and another book called The Belly Button Book. They are adorable little books. Lance basically has Go Dog. Go! memorised. I will point to the page and he remembers the words! It is a very simple book with lots of repetition and he just loves it! Sometimes I will hear him when he is looking at the book by himself or playing with other toys rehearse some of the lines to himself. It makes me so happy to see him so excited about learning.
Lately Lance loves to play the "which one" game where he holds out his hands and wants Michael and I to pick a hand. he will say, "Yook Mommy! Yook Daddy! I make-a magic! Which one?" He will have a toy or utensil in his hand and he switches it back and forth behind his back to show us an empty hand each time. But sometimes he starts switching the object in front of himself and it's so funny when he doesn't realize why we are laughing. He will also hide things in the sleeves of his shirt and say, "Yook! Ta-Da! I make it disappear!"
We always love to hear Lance pray and he usually says every prayer possible. If someone else is saying the prayer he usually tries to say his prayer at the same time, or he wants to have his own turn after. Here are a few typical prayers combined into one:
"Heavy Fader, tank you for this day. Tank you for famie. Tank you for Daddy and for Mommy and for baby siser. Peese bless the food. And bless this (holding up his fork) and bless that (pointing to a pot). Peese bless the rice. Peese bless the lion and the monkey. Tank you for Lizzy and Ali and Aiden and baby Johnny. Tank you for our home. Tank you Daddy came back. Help us not be sick. In name Jesus Christ. Amen."
AFTON
Our sweet little Afton is just a bundle of joy. She is such a happy baby and our little sweetheart. When she wakes up for the day Lance and I go into her room every morning singing, "Little baby Afton, Afton, Afton. Little baby Afton I love you." She hears us coming and by the time we reach her crib she is squirming around and smiling just waiting to see us. She is honestly such a good little girl and brings us so much joy.
Afton is always quick to smile and doesn't get upset very often. She has had an earache the past few days and was perscribed some liquid medication to take from a syringe. The first time I gave it to her she was smiling so much that instead of swallowing the medicine (or crying and spitting it out) she just gave me the biggest smile and let it drip all out of her mouth. Now I give it to her in a bottle, but it is still hard to get her to drink it because she smiles so much she won't suck on the bottle! =)
Lance and Afton are great friends already. Lance loves to get right up close to her and put his face next to hers. He loves to sing to her and if ever she is upset he will do his best to comfort her. Often times Afton will have peanut butter or whatever Lance has recently eaten all over her cheeks and forehead because Lance kisses her so much.
One thing that Lance and Afton like to do together is to sit on Afton's floor in her room and sing the Cougar Fight Song. Lance will dance around the room singing and I will help Afton to be the cheerleader and do all the moves. When the song is over Lance will get on all fours and pretend to be a cougar a growel. Lance thinks this is so much fun. He also loves to give Afton piggy back rides (with Mommy's help) and will say to me, "Mommy, put her on my back! On my back!" as he kneels on all fours waiting to give her a ride.
I am so excited to see how Lance and Afton's relationship grows and develops over time. I have an older brother and he and I were always so close. I was so happy to find out that I was having a boy first and always hoped that I would have a girl next... lucky for me I did! Lance and Afton are so wonderful and I feel so lucky to get to be with them every day. I am so blessed.
