19 Months

Things That You Are All About Right Now:

* Feeding Bailey. This is your 'chore' and you love it. Frequently you try multiple times a day and get disappointed when we say you  have to wait. 

* Really trying to talk and repeat words we say. We went around the dinner table the other night when we were with friends and had you repeat their names and you tried every person's name. 

* Walking up the stairs like a big boy. This means not crawling, but rather holding on to the railing. (You have also tried to go down the stairs this way too, but often times the railing is too tall for you to do this)

* Using your chairs as step stools to get to things you need. This includes: reaching for bananas on the counter, getting in to your high chair, helping mom cook, and getting to anything else you want. 

* You figured out how to open the baby gates on the stairs. Fortunately you know how to go up and down the stairs so at this point they are more so to keep other friends that visit off of the stairs or Bailey out, but you do know how to do it!

Vaccum

You hate the real vacuum, but you love your toy vacuum. Today you did something that I just have to write down to remember...

You threw your goldfish crackers on the floor. I wasn't happy about this but sat and watched instead of saying anything because I was curious as to why you did this since you know we aren't supposed to do that. You then proceeded to take your toy vacuum and run them over the goldfish to try and pick them up. Once I realized why you had thrown them on the floor, I smiled and laughed out loud a little. You looked up at me slightly puzzled as to why the vacuum wasn't picking up the crackers. You certainly are an observant little boy!

New Words

Your vocabulary and willingness to try new words is starting to take off, especially in the past few weeks. I know I mentioned the story about the waffles a while back. Now you wake up in the morning and when asked what you want to eat you will say "wa-wle" for waffle.

The other day your Dad said that he thought he heard you say "I love you" to him. So tonight when we were talking on the phone to Dad and saying goodbye I told you to say "love you" and you did. It was more like "wa wu" , but you definitely were trying. I love it. Hearing your little voice is the sweetest sound in the world.

Peaches

I made more peaches off of our peach tree tonight. I just baked them in the oven with a little bit of butter, brown sugar and pumpkin pie spice. We had this with a small bit of ice cream. You loved it. After each bite you kept signing "food" as you said "mo" to me. It was quite adorable. Once round one was gone you were left repeating your sign language and saying "mo." I couldn't resist so we shared one more half peach with no ice cream and you still enjoyed it all the same. Happily after that one you still asked for more but seemed to resign yourself to being okay once I said we were done.

It's a Sad Day For Mom

Well, at not even two years old you have decided you are grown up enough that you no longer need to snuggle with me before going to bed. For the past week that I have put you to bed if I try to rock you in the glider and read or sing to you, your response is to point to the crib and indicate that you want me to put you in it immediately. I will even straight out ask you if you would like to snuggle and you instantly shake your head no at me. I must say this is a little sad for me since you are clearly growing up.

For the time being I will take all of the other snuggles when I can get them. Like when you awake in the morning, or aren't feeling well, or just want to snuggle with me when I get home from a long day at work. I know at one point those will go away too, so I will cherish each and every one of them while I have them. I guess on the bright side it makes putting you to bed very easy because it takes two seconds to put you in the crib and tuck you in. Who knows, maybe it is just a phase and I will be at a point in the future where all you do is stall in going to bed...time will tell.

One of Your Future Best Friends

We had John and Loren and their son Sean over for dinner on Sunday. I like to think that you two will be best friends for many years to come. He is about 9 months younger than you and he is finally getting of the age that the two of you can start playing together. Once he starts walking it will really be a go! You two bonded over your love for food.

Batman!!

I came home from work one day and found you in this shirt, and not to mention your Dad in his shirt. He bought this for you because he just couldn't resist. And I find it absolutely adorable. I had you wear it to daycare this week and they also found it absolutely irresistible.

Your First Time Throwing Up

This probably isn't something that you think I should be documenting as a first, but for me it is something that I don't think I will forget. You went to be early last night (8:30) and were tossing and turning for the next few hours. Around 10:15 I heard you fussing and making noises so I went in to find that you had just thrown up all over your crib. You were pretty much asleep when you did it so I found you crying with your eyes asleep not understanding what was going on. Your Dad came up to help me clean the mess up and make you a new bed. I rocked you for a while and then you pointed to your bed that you wanted to go back to sleep. So I laid you back down and no sooner had I done so that you started throwing up again. This time you were awake enough and started crying out 'momma' as you were throwing up. It was pretty sad because I knew you didn't understand what was going on and you just wanted it to stop. After the second bout of throwing up you wanted nothing to do with your crib, and so of course spent the night with us. 

Which brings me to another thing that I absolutely love about you. Your Dad and I were both hugging you and loving on you in the bed after you threw up and you just smiled this sweet smile of contentment because you absolutely love "family hugs" as I call them. You can tell that they just make you feel so loved, secure, and content. We have been doing these for quite some time and every time we get the same sweet smile from you. 

Today you wound up with a fever of 103 and weren't eating much, but you seem to be turning the corner tonight. After much fussing and not eating for quite some time, you took a nap this evening and woke up and almost immediately walked to the fridge. You proceeded to point to the syrup and look at me. I was puzzled but then asked if you wanted waffles. You looked at the freezer and sure enough I pulled them out and that was what you wanted. Way to communicate your needs, even without using words! Now that you have some food in you, you are back to your usual ways of running around the house with your balls and bats, and climbing on things. Needless to say, I think you are on the mend!

Produce Excitement

I love that I can't take you to the produce section of anywhere without buying you something. You love your fruit so much that the second you see it at a market or in the store you instantly get excited and start 'ooohing' and pointing at the fruit while frantically signing please by rubbing your chest to make it very clear to me that you want the fruit now. I took you to the store today and you got all excited when you saw the bananas, then when we rounded the corner to the blueberries there was even more excitement. You practically jumped out of the cart once your eyes landed upon the blackberries. Since these were by the pint and open, I let you start eating this and by the time we made it to the register you were covered in blackberry juice. It was absolutely adorable, and let me tell you the people at the little farmer's market thought so too.

Fast forward to later this afternoon. I was working on cleaning up our wonderful new peach tree in the back yard. This included trimming the tree, picking up all of the old peaches that had fallen to the ground, and of course gathering a bowl of ripe peaches. As I was carrying the old ones to the garbage I came back to find you wondering around in the yard with your very own peach that you were eating from the bowl of peaches that I picked. I have a feeling you are going to be just like your Dad was when he was little....caught out in the back yard eating the peaches off the tree when we can't find you (or in your Dad's case he was eating tomatoes).

Regardless, it is so cute to see and I love that you choose to eat fruit over sugar desserts any time of day.