HAPPY 2ND BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can I just say, "Wow!"

Wow!

Two. Two whole, entire years. Already. Just...wow.

Last year at this time you weren't even walking. Now you're running, climbing, talking, dancing, singing! So many changes in such a short period of time.

The time is flying by and it's like...it's like...being on a roller coaster. Thrilling and nauseating all at the same time. Thrilling because each day is something new. A new skill, a new development, phrase, a new reason to smile, to laugh. Nauseating because it's going by so fast, each day is one more day closer to you being all grown up. I want it to slow down. But it's not going to, so we're enjoying every second with you. You're so wonderful! Such a beautiful boy!

And I hope you had a wonderful birthday today. It was just you, Papa, Sushi (that's what you call Lizzie/Sissy), and me celebrating today. We'll have a "real" birthday party next weekend, but today it was just us, a cake, a present, and an Elmo balloon (because you have developed a passion for Elmo, after watching "Elmo's Potty Time" on DVD--totally Mommy's fault).

BTW, the cake says "Happy Dirthdy" not because Mommy cannot spell, but because that's how you say it. We've been talking for about a month now about turning two and having a birthday and having people sing "Happy Birthday" and every time you sing "Happy Dirthdy to you!" which is, of course, extraordinarily cute!

Happy birthday Do-Dah!!!

Love forever,

Mommy

I have a very good excuse for not writing on your 22nd month birthday: We were in France. You were with us. We were busy. And we frequently did not have internet access.



See, told you it was a good excuse!



I'm happy to report that you were an excellent traveler! I was more than a little concerned that you'd be so totally off schedule and out of sorts that the whole trip would, well, completely stressful. But that wasn't the case at all. You adjusted your schedule on the first day and besides some normal toddler tantrums here and there, we all had a great time.



I have noticed, since we returned, that you seem to have...matured some since we left for France. Your level of understanding has increased, as has your ability to communicate verbally in response. I thought maybe it was just my perception after spending 16 uninterrupted days together, but Papa says he's noticed it, as well, and since he spends every day with you I feel he's a good judge of these things. I guess this shouldn't be too surprising--you are almost two-years old--but I think it's interesting that there was a perceptible change.



So besides taking a 16-day vacation in Europe (most of the time in France, but we also visited Switzerland and Italy), you spent your 22nd month adding more words to your vocabulary, being incredibly silly, and getting cuter everyday. Now you're almost done with your 23rd month and I've already begun planning your second birthday party. Wow. Just...wow.

Wow, 21 months already!

Time is just wooshing by!

*Woosh*

Sigh.

New things:

"Rock-rock." This is what we do at night before you go to bed. It's also what you ask for now when you've hurt yourself. Sometimes you want to do this after you wake up in the a.m. It consists of the two of us (or you and Papa) sitting in the glider in your room and rocking. Generally you have your head on my (or Papa's, whichever the case may be) shoulder and you suck your thumb while we rock.

"Nobody home." This is what you say when you and Papa check the bluebird houses in the back yard. There was somebody home for awhile. A house sparrow used one of the boxes for a nest and got to watch three baby sparrows grow up and leave home this past month.

Anything else in particular? I'm sure there is...but once again Papa almost has dinner done and I have to run. Suffice it to say that you're adding new words everyday and watching you grow and learn remains a treat. You're so darned cute! I love you so much.

Oh...and you weren't afraid of the 4th of July fireworks. You enjoyed them! You also enjoyed the bag of cotton candy we bought for you.

Well, it finally happened. Mommy became such a blog slacker that she absolutely forgot all about posting on (or around) your 20 month "birthday."

Bad, bad Mommy!

I'm sorry! I really am. I have just been a bit overwhelmed lately. I'll do better next time!

So because I'm limited even now on time and attention (Papa just came home from work and I want to go spend some time with him), I'll try to just hit on the highlights of the previous month:

Your language skills improve everyday. Really, they do. Everyday you say a new word or phrase.

In fact, that's probably the biggest "milestone" event--phrases. You no longer just say "vroom-vroom" when you see my car, you now say "Mommy vroom-vroom." Some other phrases you're using are: "Mommy hold!" (you also say "Papa hold!" but Papa hadn't heard this until today), "No more monkeys" (from the song "Five Little Monkeys"), "Tree broke!" (we had a tree fall in the back yard), "Tree gone" (we hired a company to clean it up and haul it away), and "See birds!" (another recent addition as we had, just in the past day or two, a nest of sparrow eggs hatch in one of the bluebird houses). And these are just a few examples. You can pretty much communicate anything you need to now using two word "sentences." It's so exciting!

So what else?

You're still fascinated with trashcans.

And door knobs.

If there's a trashcan or door knob at an event, playground, museum, etc. we can pretty much give up trying to interest you in anything else going on.

You have a fantastic sense of humor. Did I already mention the "hibou/cat" game in my previous post? I'll have to go check and, if not, explain it when I come back.

Your motor skils, both gross and fine, are progressing normally. You have no troubles scaling stairs and we've been drilling into your head that you must turn around and climb down backwards. You can pick up the tiniest piece of dirt. No problems putting your chunky puzzle pieces in their places. That sort of thing.

Off to go be with Papa now (Mommy loves being with you, but she also enjoys when you're sleeping and she and Papa can just sit and relax a bit). :-)

Love you!!

Mommy

I've done it again! Your "birthday" has come and gone and I've failed to update your blog. Sigh.

Well, again, mommy apologizes for being a slacker.

So now that we have that out of the way, let's talk about your 18th month. What all happened? Hmmmm, let's see. . . Papa built you a sandbox and last weekend we filled it with sand that Aunt Lizzie was kind enough to pick up for us in her truck. I love it. You could take it or leave it. You'd much rather wander the yard picking up gum balls and leaves and looking in the blue bird houses. But I'm hopeful that as you get older you're going to enjoy it more and more.

The weather has gotten warm enough that we filled up your wading pool a few weekends ago and we put it and your sand/water table in the driveway for you to play with. You enjoyed that for the short time that your attention span held out (roughly ten minutes, max, at any one activity).

Otherwise, it's been a fairly quiet month in terms of family activities. In terms of your development, though, I've seen quite a bit of change. You are acquiring new verbal skills on a daily basis. You can put more than two words together (as I think I reported last month) on a consistent basis. And you even put three words together at least once this month when you told us to "Turn roundiround off!" (Translation: Turn the ceiling fan off!) Honestly, everyday you say a new word. Some of the "better" ones (don't get me wrong, they're all great, just some are more...interesting than others) are: cucumber; ravioli; tushy; chicka; and macaroni.

And you understand so much now, it's amazing. Over the past two or three months you've really begun transitioning from baby to little boy. Which, of course, is bittersweet for a mom.

So in other news (I was thinking today that I should be sure to include some current events in these posts so you won't think that our lives revolve solely around you, although they really kinda do...), the economy is still the hot topic. The housing market has crashed, the stock market crashed a while ago and remains crashed for the most part, unemployment is at an all time high, and the government is deficit spending. Fun times. I cannot fathom how or when we'll pull out of this, but certainly something has to give.

As far as our contribution, I continue to work, Papa continues to keep the store going, and we're planning a trip to France this summer that we really can't afford but which I feel strongly we need to take anyway (not just because we need to do our part to stimulate the global economy, but because Papa needs to go see his friends and show you off). I've never traveled on a plane with a child your age and quite honestly I'm imaging it's going to be hellish, but I do hope we can pull it off and that it will be mostly enjoyable for all concerned.

That's all for now!

See you in a month!

Love and kisses,

Mommy

I'm technically late. Again. But it's been an extremely busy weekend, between going to Greensboro to visit Alex & Nikki and celebrating Easter/William's birthday. In fact, if it weren't for my insomnia, I'd be much later than I am posting. Not sure if this thing says or not, I can't remember, but the time is now 1:42 a.m. Naturally I have to work tomorrow.

So I won't stay here long because I really really need to sleep.

Happy 18 months!!

Everyday you add a new word to your vocabulary. You can say so many things now, I couldn't possibly count them. You've even, technically, said your first sentence (Bye-bye Papa/Mama/Doggy/Froggy, etc.) Your gross motor skills continue to advance (e.g. you're practicing going down steps, you can climb into your push car, you can run now). And obviously everything else you do is more advanced than what it was a month ago. You're simply growing by leaps and bounds and, truly, every day there's some new progress being made.

You're just so much fun to be with--even when you're being pushy and difficult, because along with all these advanced skills comes an advanced awareness of yourself and a desire to have things completely your way (otherwise known as the Terrible Twos! :-) ). Everyday it's still a joy to see your smiling face in the morning as you go through your wake up routine of throwing everything out of your crib! And every night it's still a joy to hold you and rock you and put you to bed (placing all the objects you've tossed out earlier around you just so, like you like them).

I love you madly! And now I'm going to try to sleep again.

Yesterday you were 17 months old.

And I bet you're curious to know what a typical day in your life is like these days, aren't you?

Generally you awake anywhere between 6:00 a.m. and 7:15 a.m. (Normally you reserve the earlier wakings for the weekends, for some reason!) You drink a sippy cup of diluted juice--apple, orange, or pineapple usually--and after Papa has made our coffee, you eat breakfast. Breakfast could consist of eggs and cheese, or oatmeal (though you don't like the steel cut stuff we've been buying), or cold cereal, or if you're really lucky, Papa's French toast. After breakfast you play. (Hopefully soon you'll start going with Papa to the gym nursery, but for now you guys have just been hanging out at the house.) During the weekdays Papa tries to get some chores done while you play, but here lately you've been a little crabby and haven't wanted to entertain yourself so Papa has had to entertain you. On the weekends we'll take turns playing with you or, if you're in a good mood, reading the paper while you play.

A month or so ago you started moving to one nap a day, which meant that you were up all a.m. and through lunch, but lately you've gone back to taking a morning nap. So depending upon your mood and sleep needs, you'll either stay awake all morning and have a snack around 9:30 or you'll go down for a nap around that time. Either way, lunch is around 11:30 and, if you haven't taken a a.m. nap you'll go down for your daily nap directly after lunch. Nap or not, you have a snack around 2:30-3:00 and then dinner is between 6:00 and 6:30. Bath time is 7:00 and your bedtime routine--PJs and a book, followed by rocking and singing--is directly thereafter.

You go to bed easily these days and for the most part stay asleep all night. Lately you've woken up during the night screaming for some unknown reason, but even when you have those kinds of episodes you end up going back to sleep.

So anyway, that's a day in the life of YOU!

You keep us busy, but we're enjoying every minute.

Everyday it seems you're adding a new word to your vocabulary and a new skill to your repetoire of them. You can ride your ride-on bumble bee (I'l'l have to be sure to take a picture of it because I could you scratching your head over this) all by yourself. You can walk, run, squat, and stand on your tiptoes. And you completely understand what we're saying most of the time, even though you don't always have the words to respond.

As far as big events that happened this past month, the two things that come to mind are Papa's birthday and Alex's wedding. Papa turned 64 (remind me, one of these days I want to be sure to talk to you about Papa's age) and we celebrated by having family and friends over. Alex married his finance Nikki at a church in N. Wilkesboro. Lizzie and William were in the wedding and we spent from Thursday through Sunday in a cabin in the mountain. Peepa and Aunt Liz went with us and Aunt Liz helped watch you. It was a little stressful because you get out of sorts in a new environment, but overall it was not too painful. And of course the most important part is that Alex and Nikki had the wedding they wanted...or at least that Nikki wanted, which is all that counts.

I would discuss national and world events...but those are just too depressing right now with the economy and the housing crisis, so I won't go there. All that you need to know is that Papa and I are doing well, all things considered. And we love you and will make sure that you're safe and well taken care of, no matter what.

I love you! Happy 17th month!

Love,
Mommy

I'm late! I'm sory, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Slacker mommy! Baaad slacker mommy!

Forgive me?

I'm only...five days late. Not too bad. Considering everything going on these days, that's actually pretty good, really.

So what happened over the last month? Well, you can put two words together. Not exactly a sentence or anything, but you can say "Bye-bye ball" and "All done!" And of course you're able to say just about anything (one word) we ask you to. For example, you can clearly say "Cheese!" and "Keys!" and "Num-num!" (aka milk, juice, water, etc.). You communicate extremely well, in my opinion, considering you're only 16 months old.

And speaking of...I can't remember if I mentioned this last post or not, but when you are not able to say the word for what you want, you are usually successful at making us understand by grabbing us by our hands and leading us to the desired object or task.

You have four more teeth working their way in (finally!). Two on the bottom and two on the top. I don't know my teeth IDs well enough to tell you which ones they are exactly, but they're back there near your molars.

You're walking much better nowadays. You have much more stability and speed. You're so fast now, in fact, that I often find myself surprised at how quickly you can move from one place to the other. We have to keep a sharp eye on you all the time lest you disappear and get in trouble.

This weekend we're heading up to Wilkesboro to attend your brother Alex's wedding. Lizzie will be in the wedding (bridesmaid) and your brother William will be, as well (groomsman). You will also be meeting your other brother Ian while we're there (he's a groomsman, too). It should be an...interesting...weekend. We've rented a cabin that has two bedrooms and a pullout sofa and you, Papa, Lizzie, William, Peepa, Aunt Liz, and me will all be staying there together.

Lizzie, who is lying next to me while I type, just asked me a very good question: Have I ever mentioned that Aunt Liz watches you sometimes during the week so Papa can get some work done on the computer. I'm pretty sure that I have, but just in case I haven't, consider it mentioned. :-)

*YAWN*

I'm sleepy. Going to go do something mindless now until your Papa gets home.

I love you sweet boy! Everyday is a wonderful day because you're there!

And I promise I'll do better next month about being on time. ;-)

(Sissy says she loves you, too!)

Today is your 15th month birthday! Happy fifteen months to you!!!

Because I never go back to read what I posted before, I apologize ahead of time if any of this is redundant. As quickly as the time flies by these days, I tend to get a bit mixed up about what happened when.

But...let's see...between Dec. 11 and Jan. 11 what's happened?

Well...xmas happened. It was your second one and Santa Claus was good to you again this year. He brought you a Brio train table with a Brio train set already set up on it! He also brought some big cardboard blocks for you to build with, two puzzles, an inchworm that zooms across the floor when you push down on his middle, a bathtub squirt toy, and a wooden push toy that makes tons of noise. Here's a picture of it all: http://zeppmusi.vshost.com/Family/2008_Christmas/

Then we celebrated New Year's eve. Peepa, Nana, and Aunt Liz came over. You went to bed at your normal time and we all ate dinner and then had foie gras and sauternes and on TV watched the ball drop in Times Square. Wheee!

Then your sister had her 14th birthday. It was relatively low-key this year. No ten girl sleepover or anything. I think she must be growing up! (She really enjoys you, I hope you know. And she's good with you. Appreciate her, 'kay?)

Then you had your first playdate. A friend I met from Triangle Mommies who also happens to work in my building has a little boy, Remy, who was born in December 2007. She and her husband, Jerome, and Remy came over for lunch and play last Saturday. You had a pretty good time--that is, until you started getting sick. Not sure where you picked it up, but suddenly you came down with bacterial conjunctivitis and we ended up spending our Saturday evening in the ER (as that was the only place open). Turns out you had infections in both ears, as well. They gave you drops for your eyes and an oral antibiotic to take for ten days (you finish up day after tomorrow) and you were much better the next day. Your second illness. I blame it on the shopping cart at the North Raleigh Freshmarket. But honestly, who knows where you picked it up. Luckily your little friend didn't catch it. (I was worried!)

In other news, you're getting much better at this whole walking thing. When I chase you around the house you even try to run--although invariably you trip and fall down, giggling the entire time. Yesterday you tried to climb up the slide part of little plastic indoor slide we have. That was a first. You're a tad bit behind (as compared with your brother and sister only) on your motor skills development, but you'll get there.

Your vocabulary increases daily. You can say "All done!" and "Bath!" and "Doggie" and "Bye-bye Papa" and tons of other words. Papa tries to speak to you mostly in French, and you seem to understand a lot of what he's saying, but you're not speaking in French too much. The only exceptions I've seen to this are when you "count" (using that term loosely because you're way to young to actually count, you simply mimic what we do), you will say "un." And then today when I asked you what the baby was holding in one of your books (he was holding an apple) you said "pommes."

A new thing you've started this month is grabbing our hands and leading us over to what you want or need. The fact that you can identify something that you want, and then work to physically encourage/manipulate those who can help you fulfill your goal is pretty amazing stuff to me. No need to sit around and cry about something when you can walk over and make the grown ups go see what it is that you want!

Oh, and kissing! You've become quite the kisser lately! You kiss everything. Our toes, your blocks, the trashcan. Name the object, you've kissed it! You blow kisses, too. Sometimes just with one hand but often lately with both, as though you're practicing for your Mr. America acceptance award. It's very sweet and very funny, all at the same time.

As far as your schedule goes, this is your "typical" day:

6-7:30 a.m. Wake up
7-8 a.m. Eat breakfast (Generally one or more of the following: eggs; oatmeal; Cream of Wheat; Wheatabix; yogurt; Cheerios. Plus a cup of juice.)
9-10 a.m. Morning nap
10:30-11 a.m. Snack
12-1:00 p.m. Lunch (Mostly whatever is in the refrigerator. You essentially eat our food now almost exclusively.)
2:00-3:00 p.m. Afternoon nap
4-4:30 p.m. Snack
6-6:30 p.m. Dinner (Same as lunch; although I do still give you chunky fruit bits and Gerber Graduate dinners)
7:00-8 p.m. Bath and bed. You really, really like bathtime! You're also quite fond of your "night-night bed" with Boomer Dog, Fargo Frog, and comfy-cozy blankie. Oh, and your "TV" (i.e. the sights and sounds music thingy).

I know I say this every month...but it's true...I don't know where the time goes. It's so hard to believe that last year at this time I was an absolute basket case about breastfeeding and whether or not to let you try putting yourself to sleep. On the one hand it seems like eons ago and on the other it seems as though it was just yesterday. You're growing so fast! Keep it up...but slow down, would ya?

Until next month!

I remain,

Your number one fan and someone who loves you without end,

Mommy