31 for 21 Day 18... The boys are FOUR

Today at church the boys got lots and lots of birthday wishes. Many comments on how grown up they look with their hair cut, many comments on how they can't believe its been three years already, many comments on how far they've come, and then more comments on how they can't believe they are three already... LOL

I think that this is something that I really have to come to grips with too. I still call them the babies. And I do this DAILY! They aren't babies anymore. And where did the age of three go?? Its like they went from 2 to 4 way to fast. I know that this is a personal struggle for me, treating them like they're younger than they are. Now YES I'm very aware that they are delayed and they still need me more than a typical four year old but I often wonder if I were to be a little more tough in what I did or did not do for them, would they do it for themselves? Now I don't mean that if I didn't spoon feed them their meals for a day and they were starving I wouldn't feed them to see how long it would take for them to be self feeding.

Self Feeding. This is an issue for us right now. Isaac is self feeding himself cereal, but thats it. He won't self feed anything else but a bowl of cereal. But at least he's doing that. We put a bowl of ice cream, yogurt, rice, anything else, he'll sit there and stare at it or throw it?? Caleb is still hand over hand to even get him to bring a spoon to his mouth. Am I babying them by caving in and feeding them?? How do I just say OK BOYS, your four now, time to feed yourself. I'm struggling with this.

Potty Training. Every parent gets anxious and excited to get their child potty trained and parents of multiples get even more excited. I am dreading it. I just don't know if they are ready, but how will I know if we don't at least give it a running chance? What is a good age to try? When did you all start training your child with Down Syndrome?

Drinking out of a straw.. That's something else we just have not been able to accomplish. We're working on it but not there yet.

Blowing.. I was hoping that they would be able to blow out their candles when they turned four but we are no where near that yet.

Throwing Stuff Oh my gosh do the boys throw stuff. Non stop. They want a drink, they chase me around the house signing milk milk milk. I get it for them they take two swigs and THROW the cup!! They pull anything off the counter they can reach and throw it, they want you to change the TV station so they bring you the remote and after you change it to what they want.. They THROW it. They come into our bedroom and throw Tom's alarm clock everyday?? If you put food on their high chair that they don't want they throw it. This gets frustrating for sure.

I guess this turned into a ranting blog entry. I guess I'm just trying to come to grips of needing to treat them like toddlers instead of babies now that they've reached the age of FOUR. But its the things mentioned above that I struggle with that perhaps keep me from treating them like big boys. I think we're in the terrible two's!!!

Any suggestions and comments welcomed :)