Thursday, February 25, 2010

quickie

I just have a minute to post something, before the guilt I feel over taking ME time totally overcomes me... sigh.
Today, a few REALLY cute things were said. The last week, you have started to want to get in the car seat all by yourself. We finally turned your car seat around facing forward, and you LOVE it. Not that you ever hated the car seat, but now you call it 'new car'.. which I guess it is, new perspective at the very least. Anyway, when you climb up, it's a long climb up that takes time, and the whole trek you quietly repeat to yourself (a mantra perhaps?) 'all by self.. all by self.. all by self' I truly think you would backhand me if I even attempted to help you! And the kicker: when you FINALLY get yourself maneuvered in, facing forward, you said 'suuuch a big boy!'... hahahaha! I suppose enough times of ME saying this finally stuck in your brain somewhere.
You really are putting short sentences together more and more.. you just today said 'two and zero make a twenty!' .. I knew that you knew 'one and zero make a ten'.. but you put the twenty together on your own! Impressed much.
One little thing I say sometimes when you show your belly is: 'belly belly shake it like jelly!!'.. and you really try hard to say it on your own.. it comes out like 'belly belly.. shaka jelly!!!' :) 
And nowadays, instead of a simple 'poop' (to inform me of your dirty diaper) - you upped the ante and say GOT POOP! And every time, I think of the Got Milk campaign.. 

Sunday, February 14, 2010

23 months

One month shy of two years old.. MERCY!

I know that next month's summary will be a doozy of a post, so I'll keep things light this time around.

Lately, as the picture sums up, you have been sticking your hands and fingers (and sometimes almost your ENTIRE fist) in your mouth. Not sure if this means your two-year molars are about to erupt or what, all I know is that I spend my life saying 'GET your hands OUT of your MOUTH!'.  I think the more I tell you not to, the more you're motivated to do it.. but I can't not say anything..  oy.

Speaking of conundrums, you have officially mastered the art of the Terrible Twos Tantrum. Well, I don't know.. I know it could be worse. You could do lots of crazy bad-behaviour things, and I know we're blessed (for now) that you don't.. but damn, child! You have some anger management issues sometimes. You almost growl sometimes, you get so bent out of shape. And it's always such an exhausting judgment call.. do I address it before it gets overblown and coax you to verbalize your anger? Or do I acknowledge that you're mad and that everyone gets mad sometimes and just let you get it out of your system? Each time I have to mentally calculate what went wrong and the best (or closest to) way to handle it. I'd say that 6 out of 10 times I do things right. Not bad! But you aren't a bad kid. Oh no.. you're sweet as pie, really. You haven't yet developed (or maybe it's just not there) the inclination to destroy things when I turn my back or to be a naughty child. I am betting big money that we won't luck out so much with the next child, whenever that time comes!

You manipulate without really knowing you manipulate. You have heard me say the word 'nicely' about a thousand times.. when you ask us something, if it's high pitched and impatient, I always say 'well, please ask us nicely..' SO, now you just come up to me and ask me something, and if I say no (for whatever reason), you say PLLLEASE.. and if I still say no, you say 'NICELY'!!!  haha.

You are now very obviously proud to walk around counting things. Especially stairs. You absolutely LOVE to go up and down stairs while you count aloud each step. You can count to ten, no problem. And just recently you give your best shot at counting to 20. Sometimes if you take it really slow you can get each number correct, but usually, around 14 or so, you get super excited and go 14.. 15... 18.. 20!!!!!! And the number 20 is always shrieked at the top of your lungs. And I just happened to discover you can say your ABCs.. they're mostly all intelligible, but a lot of time you get really shy about it and mumble them. You only do these skills around people you're most comfortable with, so thank goodness we have these all on video!

Oh yes, and the record snowfall this month. Three days ago, it snowed about 12.5 inches total. Which is a huge record. I myself have never seen so much snow here in Texas. I was hoping you'd be super excited to play in it... but I guess I forgot your go-at-your-own-pace nature..  You were much happier just sitting on your bench, watching US play in it. When we tried to get you to walk in it, you simply stood there, arms outstretched, screaming 'carry me pllllease!!!' I wanted you to play in it so badly, but I had to appreciate your concise way of communicating with us.

You repeat and remember a LOT more than I realize. You love love LOVE numbers, especially the number zero for some weird reason, and when you used to see a number 10, you'd SCREAM 'zeeero!', and I'd acknowledge that yes, it's a zero, but I'd always say 'a one and a zero together, make TEN!' .. so randomly the other day at lunch, you sat there and said 'one and zero make a ten!'..  You verbalize things only I would understand, too. Looking through photo albums (still a fave activity of yours), you point out things I've labeled hundreds of times.. one of which are pics of our trip to Turks & Caicos. You point to them and say 'Tur Cackas!' You see a pic of Mamaw w/a big chicken fried steak in front of her (classic Mamaw), and you'll say MAMAW EATING! Or you'll see a pic of Grandpa and go, 'who's dat?? GRANDPA!' Or a pic of a big balloon and go 'big balloon! whoooa!!'..   the things you say..  love it.

And one thing you just started doing today actually.. you have heard me say this a few times, and now you repeat it word for word, so clearly proud of yourself (because we flip out when you say it). You say 'Mommy and Daddy and Andrew .. make a FAMILY!' Clear as day, and sweet as can be. Yes, even at almost two years old.  LOVE!


Friday, February 12, 2010

NO SNOW! NO SNOW!! CARRY ME PLEEEASE!

 We don't see a lot of snow here in the metroplex, so when we do get snow, it's a BIG DEAL. But the Squirt wasn't too into it, in any case. And why would he be? It's something that 99.99% of all kids go nuts over, so yes, we have to be the odd ball. :)








This is the face of mild tolerance. He humors us for as long as he can stand, then the screaming commences. More like the demands of CARRY ME PLEEEEASE. And you know he means business when that 'please' is PERFECTLY pronunciated.






 

We did love to eat the snow..  it was cold and wet. That's about it. :)

Someone was a good sport though, and decided to build a snowman. We watched from the kitchen. Like smart people. 
 
Strawberry eyes and a carrot nose.. and a veggie stick mouth. You make do with what you have.

 
 
He loved his new bench.. more than the snow.

And this would be his 'snow is for losers' face. 
Peace!  

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

this & that

I told myself I'd wait til Feb 14th to do a proper 23 month (omg) post, but even if I wait 5 days to do that you will STILL be doing new cool things by then. And I just have to document a few things before I what? forget things.
Lately, during mealtimes and diaper changes (times when you're physically restricted to places and require some conversation from us) you will list off almost EVERY animal/object that is currently on your mind.... but not just that. You'll list them off after you say Uncle Roger Aunt Kelly. You want us to put this endless stream of animals in a verse of The Wheels on the Bus, with Uncle Roger and Aunt Kelly. It goes a little something like 'Uncle Roger Aunt Kelly biiig elephant rhinoc biiiiig truck whale dolphin peeeacock????' So, I try my very best to make that a verse of your fave song. It's tiring and challenging. But oh so cute.
What's more cute is when I throw out a way awesome word to add in, and you stop and your jaw drops and you go 'OoooooK!' Like this: 'How about Uncle Roger Aunt Kelly and the... BIG! RED! CAT!' And you are absolutely floored at my combining of awesome words.
Every morning that you wake, I ask you what you dreamed about. Maybe someday you'll say something other than a passionate BLUE AAAIRPLANE!, but I don't think it'll be anytime soon.
You're still using the manners-card to get what you want. When you want to see some vimeos (videos of yourself on the computer), you'll say 'up on mommy' (sit on my lap).. and if I say no or wait or whatever, you'll lock eyes with me and go 'puuuhlllleeeeease!!!' A perfect please. PERFECT. How can I say no??? But I do. But not all the time.
I finally figured out a no-fail way to get you to come to the table to eat your meals (knocks on wood that this doesn't fail me today because I dared to talk about it)... which was always a bit of a struggle because you could never be interrupted to eat. Nowadays, when I go sit down to eat you always follow and want to get up in your chair to eat and join me. I love this. You then take inventory and point to my food and say 'mommy food!!', then point to your own and say 'Andrew food!'.. and if you father is home, you do the same to his food. And when I am done, you wave and say 'bye mommy food!'... 
Yesterday you asked to go to Cabelas...  (your way of asking was to look at me and go 'Cabelas? Elephants? Rhinoc? - as yes my child, it is one big dead zoo) So we went because we had not much else to do. As we drove towards it and started to pass it on the right, you saw a smidge of the building and said 'Caaaaaa...'  then when you saw the remainder of the sign you went 'BELAS!!!!' 
More to come in 5 days!