Left Handed or Right Handed??

It's been so interesting watching our girls over the last year and a half (if not longer) ... from the beginning as they would scribble on their Magna Doodles or with chunky crayons on construction paper. Watching their hands as I attempted to peak their interest in writing letters or drawing shapes; I would notice which hand they would hold their pens, pencils and crayons. I remember a period when L would randomly switch her writing utensil from one hand to another trying to figure it out. 

I never interrupted this process of letting her figure out for herself which hand her pencil "felt right in." Once this became clear to me that she was going to be left handed, this is when I began to teach her how to hold her pencil/pen/marker/crayon properly. Every now and again she will try to switch (I do think she does this, because when I show how to write or draw something, I show her with my right hand). I'll gently remind her to switch hands, that she writes with her left hand. 

Today I realized that over the last 2 months I have been interrupting this process with M. When we sit down to do a craft or activity M will sometimes hold her pencil in her left hand. I've been correcting her, remember, you write with your right hand... WHAT WAS I THINKING? Well, I was thinking she holding her pencil and trying to write with her left hand just because L was. I've been interrupting her process of figuring this out on her own! Her figuring out which hand her pencil "felt right in." 

This afternoon I was taking a break, sitting on the couch watching the girls play. M was drawing faces and proudly showing me her work. L wasn't actually drawing faces or any pictures at this 26 months. Truthfully, it's just been within the last month that L has been drawing pictures. Real distinguishable pictures! M is starting this process very early in comparison. I believe this is because she see's L doing it and is really trying on her own.  I sit down (often) and draw with them too! 

But today as I was watching M draw, I noticed she would draw a face or two with one hand, switch hands then draw a few more faces. This triggered my mind, this is what made me remember L going through this process. It was most likely around this same time last year; As I've known she's absolutely left handed for several months now. I've been interrupting her process!! 

Some things you read about this says this could be obvious as early as 6-9 months. Most of the time, you can tell around 2-3 years old. But some little ones use both hands equally until they are around 5. I'm so glad I realized sooner rather than later what I was doing and that I need to stop!!! I won't interrupt this any longer until it's noticably obvious that she is right or left handed!

Catching up ...

December 19, 2012 

I have fallen behind with blogging. There are so many things happening these days, I hope I can think of everything to include. I suppose I'll start with today and work my way back. This morning we worked on writing capital letters. This was only the second time we have done this in the last month. The first time, it didn't go so well. Today watching L write, you would have thought she had done it several times. It is new to her and she is excited about it! She concentrates so hard while she is working on her letters!! She wants to do good and she is so proud of herself when she does it well!

THEN HER FOOT FELL ASLEEP... that's never happened before!  While we were sitting at the kitchen table writing her letters, at one point, L was sitting on her knees. All of a sudden she tells me there is something moving on  her foot. I looked at it and didn't see anything. She insisted something was moving all over, I still didn't see anything. I asked her if she was just sitting on her knees, when she confirmed what I was thinking, I gently squeezed her foot and tried to explain to her that her foot fell asleep and what she was feeling was her foot tingling!! Not such an easy thing to explain. She didn't like this feeling at all!

Yesterday L looked at M before we ate lunch and said, "I want you to eat your vegetables for you to be healthy and grow big like me. I'm going to eat my vegetables and be big like Mommy. I want you to grow big because I love you!" I thought this was the sweetest thing! L has been openly expressing her love lately. Saying things like, "I love you more than all the times for always!" (I always tell her that I love her more than I could ever tell her... Her way of saying it is, "I love you more than all the times for always"... I LOVE THIS!!

Yesterday L told me that she loves when I teach her things. I asked her if there was something that she wanted me to teach her, she said, "Yes, Santa Claus is Coming To Town". There is nothing I love more than hearing them sing! I could listen to them sing all day!

L loves to know the schedule and what we are going to be doing throughout the day... she likes to know this ahead of time. I like we may have a little planner on our hands, just like her Mommy!

They are both very excited for Christmas. Counting down (We have a nutcracker and a snowman that we change the numbers daily to countdown). They are very excited about Santa! All of the fears of being scared of him in the past is long gone! They have specifically seen him 3 times (not counting the times that we've just walked passed him in the malls). 

Driving to see Santa the morning after Thanksgiving, Daddy asked me how I thought it was going to go. I wasn't sure at the time. But from the get go, they were both in awe. Smiling from ear to ear, talking nonstop, and not wanting to leave him! Poor M couldn't get a word in... They were so excited after as well. When they would look at the picture of them with Santa, they tell me is it their favorite picture. I love it. That night, we brought out our Elf of The Shelf. 

L named our Elf on the Shelf Tutu. Tutu was doing some fun things. The first light she was hanging on a swing from the ceiling fan (and she brought presents), then she laid on top of a ceiling fan blade (they did not like this), Tutu rearranged their rooms, getting rid of the cribs and transforming them into toddler beds... and then Tutu wrote on the bathroom mirror. L was very serious about the mirror and said, "Mommy, Tutu is bad or somepin     (this is the way she says "something"), Tutu doesn't make good decisions. We should talk to Santa and Santa can talk to her when she goes to the North Pole tonight. Can we talk to Santa? Can we go see him?" ... so I took them to go talk to Santa about Tutu. I do wish I had this on video. It was so incredibly cute! I did walk up to Santa before this conversation to give him a heads up... I'm sure this isn't a normal conversation for the average Santa at the mall. 

I've been wanting to baby journal/blog for days, thinking that I need to put some things down so we won't forget. Even today while we were driving, things were coming to mind. I'm going to have to start making myself notes again because now that I'm sitting here doing this, my mind is drawing a blank!