Little man - 2 years old!

Well kiddo I can't believe you're already two years old!!!!

What a whirlwind these first two years of your life have been.

You are the funniest, sweetest and smartest little guy - and I feel so proud every day to be your mama.

Play

You are really into imaginative play - you will play with pots and pans and pretend to cook for the longest time! You like to give everyone a "taste" of what you're making and recently you like to pretend to use spices just like mommy does.

You are also super into trucks - especially garbage trucks - and you like to watch garbage truck videos on YouTube. We don't let you watch very much tv or videos but when you do that is always your first request. Or Mickey Mouse! You love Mickey and I hope you are excited to see him in person at Disneyland next month.

Talking

The past month you have had a talking explosion.  You will try to say pretty much anything and you copy everything we say. You also like to give the play by play of what's happening. Dylan - down. Mommy -eat. Jon - shoes. You are putting together a couple of words at a time and you are making connections that amaze us! You are starting to remember things and we can ask you questions about what you did or who you saw and you will tell us.

This month we realized that you know the words to a lot of the songs that we sing together. If we stop singing you will fill in the missing word or phrase. You do this for Wheels on the Bus, Row your Boat, some of our nap/nighttime songs and the one that blew me away was the ABCs!!

You also know some of your letters! You know D for dada, J for Jon, G for gram and M for mama. Such a smartie!

And you can count! To 5 for sure and sometimes higher.

You said your name at carpet time at school for the first time this month. We had been practicing and when we asked "what's your name?" You would say "you" and then finally you started to say "Jon" 

Eating

You have some days where I can't give you enough food and other days where you only take a few bites - even of your favorite foods. You are trying more new foods and you like to eat the "same" food as mommy and daddy.

You like chicken strips, chili beans and hot dogs but you would eat preztels, veggies and fruit for every meal if we let you. You still love your milk and pouches of any kind.

You recently discovered that you like sweets - just like the rest of your family - and now you ask for a "treat" much more often. If we are eating anything sweet you will always ask for a bite and then you always ask for "one more" even before you've finished the first bite. Ah yes - a true sweet tooth just like your mama!

Sleep

Your sleep has been consistent this month with one long nap in the late afternoon around 1-1:30 and bedtime around 8. Over the past several months your daddy has started putting you to bed and you love this new bedtime routine.

You love to be in your bed and often don't want to get out in the mornings. You like to talk and sing and snuggle with your animals - you sleep with your Ellie and a stuffed hippo aptly named Hippo.

You are a great helper around the house - you love to unload the dishwasher, help to put clothes in the laundry basket and of course "clean up" - your favorite thing is to use the DustBuster or vacuum to clean up messes.

This past month we have watched you turn into such a little boy! You are asserting your independence every day and always want to do things yourself with no help. 

Can't wait to see the changes over the months to come! 

Love you sweet boy

Xo

Little man - 23 months

Hard to believe that you are almost 2 years old! Your personality is so funny and you have a great sense of humor. You like to tease us when we ask you silly questions (who loves you the most? You'll say Duke or Dylan the dogs) and you definitely know just how cute you are. You are the sweetest kid and you give big squeeze hugs and of course big kisses too.

We've had some big changes this month and you've handled it like a champ. We moved to a bigger house at the beginning of the month. You love your new room and bathroom and you especially love your play area and the yard!!!! You could stay out there all day looking at leaves and pretending to water all the plants with a hose.

Play

You recently discovered play dough and you love it. We roll it out and make cookie cutter shapes. You also like to color with crayons - for a short time. Your favorite thing is cooking with my pots and pans and using your Pom poms to cook. 

You like to pretend to clean by sweeping, using the DustBuster and vacuuming.

In the middle of playing you will stop and walk to the door like you're leaving. When we ask where you are going you always say "poppa" - sometimes you will carry something with you to the door like you're going to work like daddy :)

Eating

You are expanding your eating choices - finally! You like scrambled eggs and you are back to eating spaghetti and turkey meatballs again. You tried taquitos (Annie's organic black bean and cheese) and you liked them! It's nice to see you trying new things, even just a taste. You are still obsessed with pretzels and pretty much all fruits and veggies.

Sleeping 

You go to bed around 8 and sleep until 630/7. You take one afternoon nap - anywhere from one hour to 2 1/2 hours depending on the day! It's been colder this month so you are sleeping with heavier blankets in your crib but you mostly like to cuddle with them rather than actually use them as covers.

Talking

You mimic everything we say! We have to be careful about our choice of words. You have started saying "you" or "me" when you want to do something yourself. You are very clear about what you want - you will take our hand and say "up" and "walk" and then take us to where you want to go. You understand EVERYTHING! It's amazing. We can give you two step directions and you totally get it. Following them is another story..... No actually you are a pretty good listener and you are very helpful around the house.

Pumpkin patch and Halloween!

Picking pumpkins at underwood farms. You would have stayed here all day if we could :)

Trick or treating at your school

Halloween night - we went trick or treating with Makoa and you guys had a blast! Your favorite part was after you got the candy saying "bye byyyyyyyyyy" to the people at each house. Hilarious.

Little man - 22 months

Play 

You are obsessed with cooking! You take out all the pots and pans and you pour and stir beans or your Pom poms in them. You also shake your spices into the pot.

You love to sing and dance and you have started doing hand motions when we sing Twinkle Twinkle and Wheels on the Bus.

Behavior

You are such a big kid now. It's amazing to see the changes in your personality as you discover the world. You are becoming more independent every day. You have started throwing tantrums when you don't get what you want - when you want it. However you also understand when we say "first we need to do ----, and then you can have ----." Sometimes this appeases you for a short time.

Eating

You are starting to try more "regular" food - meaning you will eat what mommy and daddy are eating. You love chili beans, and you like my homemade pizza - yay!

You have started trying sweets too. You like vanilla ice cream.

You like bacon too!

Sleeping

You are an amazing sleeper. You sleep with a lightweight cotton blanket now.  You take one nap in the afternoon from about 1-3 and you go to bed around 745/8:00.

Talking

I started a list of words you can say last month - and we got up to about 50. Now the list is so long I can't keep track. You try to copy everything we say! And you've started carrying on these long conversations of jibberish that I'm sure will make sense very soon.

Little man - 21 months

Ohhhhh the changes this month! You are so aware of the world and very sure about what you want and when you want it.

Talking

Your talking and vocabulary have grown in leaps and bounds. At last count you say about 50 words and you understand hundreds! Recently you've been trying to carry on conversations with us by stringing nonsense words together.

Behavior

You are a kissing machine! Oh how I love that kissey face. You will stop in the midst of pretty much anything to give a kiss. You also lean in with the sweet kiss face any time you are in trouble or we reprimand you for doing something naughty. You are incredibly hard to resist! Little stinker :)

You understand what you should and should not do but you test the boundaries all day every day. Sometimes you are a great listener and you can be super helpful! 

Play

You love books and you love to read the same books over and over again. You like to find pictures in one book and then find the same pictures in a different book. You also find the hidden pictures - like the tiny mouse on every page of your zoo book or the balloon in Good Night Gorilla.

You are still obsessed with cars, trucks and planes.

Dylan is still your favorite toy and the two of you play together all the time. You recently started trying to hug and kiss him a lot which is does not like but he tolerates.

You like to watch Play With Me Sesame on tv and you like to play on the iPad. There is a counting game you like and also a matching game.

Eating

Some days you will eat whatever I give you and other days you have a very strong opinion about what you want to eat. You have started eating oatmeal again after a few month break :) you still won't eat eggs or any meat besides chicken hot dogs. You are a fruit and veggie kid!

Sleeping

You have gone back and forth on your naps this month but it seems we have finally settled with one afternoon nap right after lunch. Your night sleep is the same - you sleep from 8ish until 6:30-7ish.

Little man - 20 months

Talking

Your talking has exploded this month!

Noooo... You started saying no this month and not just shaking your head. Right now it is the cutest sweetest no ever and you use it a lot! Sometimes you say no when you mean yes but other times your no can be very helpful when deciding what you want to eat or which shoes to put on.

Bam has now taken the place of please, plane, paci, plant.

You call daddy "daddam" and you started saying "poppa". You called poppa George poppa on our last visit to see him before he passed away. Such a bittersweet memory.

Climbing

You can climb up into the glider in your room and you will sit there to read books. You can also climb up onto the couch by yourself and you bury yourself in the pillows. We had that part of the living room blocked off with our big ottoman but even that doesn't stop you now.

Books

You are obsessed with books this month. You point to the pictures and we say the words or we ask you "where's the ___" and you point to it. Your favorite this month is your new truck book, Where do Diggers Sleep at Night? You are also fascinated by all of your first words books. You like to connect the pictures in the books with real things or with other pictures of the same thing.

Phone

You still love to carry around your phone. This month Grammy bought you your own phone that talks to you and plays music. You carry it with you everywhere.

You have a short attention span for watching TV this month. We started watching Mickey Mouse playhouse and Play with me Sesame.

You have become a great helper around the house! You love to clean and you love to help in the kitchen. 

You like to eat things whole this month or have them cut up in a very precise way. If they're cut wrong you won't eat it. You are deciding things that you do or don't like. You won't eat veggie burgers anymore but you love pickles! Funny kid.

Sleeping

We are almost ready for one nap! When we have class or an outing in the morning you take one nap and on other days when you're home you still take two. It's very hard for you to fall asleep at night on two nap days.

Little man - 19 months

Talking 

You are saying so many new words! This week you started using "up" and "yummy" all the time.

You say "dupahdupdup" all the time - we have no idea what this means yet but it sounds so funny.

You also shrug your shoulders and make this funny little "hmm" sound when I ask you "where's daddy? Or where's grandma?"

Play

You are obsessed with your baby and your other stuffed animals this month. We bought you a Shamu when we went to Sea World and you love him.

You LOVE trucks! You get so excited when we see trucks driving on our street and on the freeway. You point to your ear when you hear a truck or motorcycle go by and you ask to see the garbage truck every morning when you hear him out front of our building. You get super excited when you hear sirens too. 

You like playing in the kitchen with pots and pans more than anything. 

This month you've started to really enjoy playing chase and hide and seek. You get it and you love for us to chase you and you like to try to find us when we hide.

Eating - from one day to the next you change your mind about what foods you like and don't like.

Sleep - we are trying to transition to one nap a day. Most of the classes and storytimes for your age are in the mornings and we don't want to miss out! Most days you take one nap - often with a morning catnap in the car - and some days you still take two naps. Nighttime you have been waking up more this month - could be new teeth or just another growth spurt.

You have started to give real kisses when we ask you. Oh my word it is the sweetest thing ever. This month Grammy also taught you how to do "fishy face" so now we do fishy kisses too. 

You are getting good at following directions when we ask you to do something or when we are singing a song. Like in "Happy and you know it" you will clap your hand and stomp your feet. 

You LOVE to help clean. When something spills you ask for a paper towel and you help me to clean it up. You also point out each little spot that I miss when we are cleaning.  You are starting to help clean up your toys when we are done playing. It's often very directed clean up but you are definitely catching on!

We went to the beach with friends this month and you loved it!  You played in the sand for hours and you were brave enough to walk down to the water too. Once the waves got to our feet you immediately wanted to be picked up - but still a huge improvement for last summer!

Travelling with a toddler

And a husband....

Lots of planning and preparations are necessary to keep both of them happy.

We took a family trip to San Diego and took the little man to Sea World and the Wild Animal park (which they now call the Zoo safari Park and it is not at all how I remember it) for the first time. He loved both places - in fact he loves everything about travelling with the exception of eating unknown foods.

One of our hotels had a splash pad and the little man loved it! He was super brave from far away but them when he got close to the water he wanted dad to go with him. So cute.

Overall the trip was a success! We learned a few things to do differently next time but the little man had a blast and that's the most important part. He loves being in a hotel room and also loves exploring new places.  Right now he is obsessed with trucks and one day we were waking in Coronado and it was packed with delivery trucks - literally one after the next driving down the street. He was in heaven!

Talking

You are starting to copy things that we say and you will attempt to say most things that we ask you.

The newest word is your version of "thank you" and "you're welcome". You say what sounds like "cook em" or "coke em" which must be "welcome" but you mostly use it for thank you. It is quite hilarious.

You have also just started signing and saying "please" (peas) pretty much simultaneously. You rub the whole front of your body to say it - and your back too! After a few days of saying please you have now started saying "bee-yum" which comes out "bam" ??? Not sure why or what it means but it is so funny.

You say wow, plane, go, mama, dada, ssh, muh (milk), thank you, welcome, please, Dylan, pee pee and baby. 

You try to say up, car, boat, truck, all gone, and will repeat most other words we say. You are getting good at repeating the first sound in most words.

First trip to urgent care

18 month milestone

You fell and bonked your head on that shelf under our desk and split your forehead. Poor kid! It bled quite a bit but you were such a trooper. We took you to urgent care and they cleaned it out and glued it shut - I guess stitches are no longer the way to go?! So you've got a purple blob of glue on your forehead.

A few minutes after it happened you were already waving and laughing. It was definitely way more traumatic for mommy and daddy.

Little man - 18 months

You are such a friendly little guy! You love to wave at everyone including strangers. 

Talking

Your sign language has taken off this month and the cutest new expression you do is for "I don't know" - you put both arms out and lift your shoulders with the funniest little "hmm" sound. You also motion for us to "sssh" when Dylan is sleeping or anyone is sleeping in a book. When we tell you something is hot you hold your hand to your mouth and blow in it to cool it down. Hilarious.

You are trying to say some new words this month - the best new one is "thank you". It gets clearer every day. Sometimes you even try to say "thank you dada". The number of words that you understand is astonishing to us. We ask you to get things from around the house (your milk, socks, shoes,etc) and you understand all of it. 

You also say "plane" and point to the sky when you and Daddy go outside together.

More words are coming - we often think we hear you saying something once but then you won't repeat it. Stubborn.

Play

You are obsessed with your toy phone and you carry it with you everywhere. Hmm I'm guessing you are mimicking our behavior?! So sad that we always have our iPhones. But adorable that you understand what phones are for - you pretend to push the buttons and you hold the phone up to your ear to talk.

Kisses - you blow kisses all the time. Well you hold your hand to your mouth and say "mmmm" but we haven't quite got the next part yet. 

Books - You love reading books and this month you especially like your First Words books with the pictures and the labels. You will point to each picture in a book to have us tell you what each thing is. You ask us to read the same books over and over. You still love Good Night Gorilla and Brown Bear.

Climbing- You are climbing on everything! You try to balance on books, bins, toys, and your ride on toys constantly. You want to reach up to anything that is higher.

You love to dance! We have a dance party every day. You often ask for me to turn on the music by going in your room and pointing to the iPod. 

Eating - you are getting really good at feeding yourself with a spoon and fork! Amazing. You love chicken hot dogs :) yay! Finally some good meat protein in your diet.

Sleeping - we had a few days this month where you only took one nap during the day! I thought for sure we had turned the corner but you weren't quite ready and after a few days the lack of sleep caught up with you and we are back to two naps per day. You still sleep at night from about 8-6:30. Bedtime has been a bit later since you are still taking your afternoon nap.

Bath time - you like to pour the water from your cup onto your face and pretend to "drink" the water. You often actually drink more than I would like.

We got you a potty this month just to try it out. Sometimes you like to sit on it just for fun and read a book or magazine of course!

Sign language

Your sign language has exploded this month! It's so fun to be able to communicate with you and for you to respond back.

You started signing "more" and "all done" fairly consistently when you are eating and you will do both signs on command.

We also sign for "are you hungry?" and you will sign back "eat".  We have our own sign for washing your hands and you have started doing that one too! 

Even better, you use the sign for "more" in other contexts too - when we're playing a game you like or you want to read a book again. 

We were at Old Navy yesterday and they have this big neon sign with huge lights. Your dad took you over to see it and you were amazed - then you signed "more" and pointed to the sign while we were waiting in line to pay. You make it very clear what you want and when you want it.

This is your new favorite face!

Little man - 17 months

It feels like you do something new every day! You have such a fun and playful personality and you are quite sneaky when you're doing things you know you're not supposed to do!

Talking

You are babbling a LOT with new sounds and you copy sounds and words that we say. Lately you've been doing this "rahrahrah" sound with a deep voice a lot. We're not sure what that's from but it's funny to hear. You will copy mama, dada, ball, gaga, lala, Dylan (you say deelah but it sounds really close), go go, and wow. It's funny how some words you will copy easily and others you won't even try (like up or please).

You have started signing "more" in the right context. You do one hand the right way with all your fingers together and the other one is an open palm - your own sign language - I love it. You also sign "all done" when you're done eating.

You shake your head "no" all the time but sometimes you use no when you really mean it. Like when you're getting in the bathtub you like to pick out your bath toys by shaking your head no for the ones you don't want. You also like for me to turn on the shower when you're in the tub. I bring the shower head down low so we can use it on your body and over your head too. The other night you turned on the shower when it was still up high and you freaked out for a minute - but then you liked it!

We went to Underwood Farms with your class and went on a strawberry picking tour. You loved the tractor ride and you really loved picking strawberries! You ate so many berries while mommy was picking the ones to take home :)

Sleep 

You are such a good little sleeper. You still take two naps each day and you sleep about 11 hours at night. We still put you to bed around 7:30-7:45 and you wake up around 6:30-6:45. You did have one day this month when Grandma took you to school that you only took one nap just like a big kid.

Eating

You are feeding yourself with a spoon and fork and you are getting really good at it! You have also recently liked having bigger pieces of food and taking bites of them yourself instead of me giving you the food cut up. Here I gave you a whole hard boiled egg for the first time :)

You have two more teeth coming in on top next to your molars. I see the little white points poking through so I'm sure they'll be here soon. We had a few days this month of super cranky teething baby and you had a low fever too so it's always nice when the teeth start to show through and the crankiness goes away. You are a trooper, I can only imagine how much it hurts.

Books

You are starting to get better at really pointing at things while we are reading. Your favorite book this month is Good Night Gorilla. You will ask us to read it over and over and over again. It's not one of our favorites but we read it anyway ;)

Climbing

You now use your stepstool in the bathroom to wash your hands and brush your teeth. This is so great except now you think everything is a stepstool! You climb on your toys and use them as steps to try to get things that are out of your reach. We have to watch you even more carefully now!

You now "blow kisses" when someone is leaving or to say goodnight. You put your hand up to your mouth and go "mmm". It's adorable. Sometimes you will give me a real kiss when I ask for it and you lean over with a big open mouth to get your kiss. Too cute.

Love you more every day.

Xoxo