Pacifier weaning and crib climbing

You stopped sleeping through the night after we started your pacifier weaning. We took it away on January 1st. You got sick the next day though and we gave it back. Then we cut the tips off. You  handed them straight back to us. Then you wanted them again. At first you were content with holding them since they didn't work anymore. Then you decided that you would just hold them in your teeth. Fast forward a few weeks later. You have figured out how to get into the drawer where we store your pacifiers and are helping yourself when our backs are turned. We are gradually cutting the pacifiers shorter. You still don't sleep through the night. In fact, you usually get up 1-3 times between midnight and 6 am. You don't go down very well in the evening either. You usually cry anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour on average with us checking on your periodically to calm you down. You also have added your musical stuffed dog to your  night time routine and we have to re-start his music box to get you to lay down again. And when it stops playing music you cry again. (Mom, I know you are chuckling right about now- I guess I deserve the music box thing!)

However, night time is much easier than nap time. You completely stopped naps at first when we removed the pacifier. Then you went to 20 minute naps and now you'll sometimes take 1-2 hour naps. I miss those 3 hour naps you used to take but I'll take what I can get. ;-) Nap time starts off with lots of crying (once again 30 minutes to 1 hour) before you settle down. 

With you not sleeping so well I've been tired so when I put you down for your nap I decided to lay down and sleep for a bit. I dozed off and on for 10 minutes, then checked on you. Then I went back to my room and dozed for 15 minutes and noticed you were talking as well as whining so I wasn't sure if I should check on  you yet or wait a little longer. Then you started talking excitedly and I noticed you seemed a lot louder. The next thing I know I see you across the living room from my open door. Then you run into the room and walked right up to the bed talking excitedly. You were SO PROUD of yourself! And I was horrified. I think my mind went into shock because it took me about three minutes before I realized that I needed to put you back in bed and act like nothing had happened. I even went to the front door and checked to make sure it was locked. In my sleepy brain I think I was checking to make sure that someone else didn't come inside and get you out of the crib. Which is crazy because no stranger is going to come in off the street to liberate you from your crib. It was obviously all you! I put you back in and watched you climb out again. By this time you were really tired though so you had trouble getting out again though you tried and tried but eventually you laid down and went to sleep. 

This is what your Dad said over google instant message when I told him what you had accomplished:


Garrett:  "lol, still can't believe that kiddo

I have to admit, I'm proud of him. 

I might get him a D-ring key chain as a memento
the whole "climber" reference."

 {Un-related picture of you playing in your closet and sticking your head out to talk}

*Sigh* I had to laugh. Your Dad is so proud of everything you do!

 

24 Month Update

Ethan at 24 months:

Weight: 29 lbs (70th percentile)
Height: 35 inches (75th percentile)
Clothing size: 24 month, size 6 shoe.
Diaper size: 5
Sleep- Roughly 11-12 hours total though you are no longer sleeping through the night. More on this later.

Your current list of words:

Mama (though lately you are calling me M- M- M- MOM! Guess all the work on phonics is back firing. lol)
Dada
Cat
Kitty
Shoes
Stack
Drop
Uh Oh 
"A hug"
"Your welcome"
Help!
Dog
Cow

You are intonating back phrases and words that we say more often as well so I'm sure in your own time those will become words too. We are so proud of you! In fact, I pulled up an animal sounds video clip and as soon as I was out of your sight you started trying to copy the sounds. They weren't quite exact but when you are sitting with me you won't even try. You seem to be a bit of a perfectionist.

We are locked in a struggle over pacifier weaning. Right now you are winning more of the battles but in the end I know we'll win the war. You are so stubborn and resourceful though. You went into the kitchen and learned how to get into the drawer with your pacifiers because we wouldn't let you have it when you were awake. We started with the 3-4 day pacifier weaning method and then had to try the 2 week method. Its now been a month and we aren't much closer than we we began.

You have learned how to climb up into your high chair all by yourself. Yikes! luckily your highchair lowers to "toddler" level so now you can safely get in and out without any acrobatics.

You have become pretty resourceful. You know that I keep food for you in your backpack so at a play date you went over to your backpack dug around for a banana, brought it to me, and then sat at the table and waited for me to open it. You also learned how to open the refrigerator when I said you couldn't have any more milk and would have to drink water. I followed you  into the kitchen in time to see you hefting out a full gallon of milk out of the fridge. You had already pulled out the bottle of chocolate syrup.

Now that the fridge is locked you stand outside the pantry or fridge and ask for "hEELP!" when you want snacks or milk.

You have discovered chocolate. Chocolate milk is your favorite thing in the world. You also know what Hershey kisses are and you just discovered m&m's.

You threw a 40 minute tantrum because I put your milk in the red sippy cup instead of the green one. It took me 40 minutes to figure out that this was why you were upset but once I did you were as happy as could be! I had to go into the other room and laugh. To your credit you were sick that day and unusually crabby and cranky.



You have started singing the clean up song when we put away your toys. (You are singing the tune, not the words.)

You love baths and insist on taking Ghost Bear into the bath with you. We usually struggle over it for a few minutes but I've learned to give in because the only way you are getting in that tub is with your special friend. This does make it easier to wash him though. Getting him way from you to put him in the dryer is still a bit of a struggle however.

I thought it was cute that when I took out the tub stopper to drain the water you said "uh oh"! I don't think you were ready to get out. :-)



You are so silly. You have started this new little routine where you lick a toy, pause and make a face and say BLEH then grin and repeat. You saw something similar on Shaun the Sheep when Shaun licks cabbage and you are imitating him.

You have started giving High Five's.

You have a special song that you want us to sing when you go to sleep. Your dad started you on it. The song is "Soft Kitty" from the show Big Bang Theory. Whenever I sing it to you Bailey comes in while we sing and meows the whole time.



Your bedtime routine consists of a short cartoon, several books, then you take one book to bed. Then we turn on your turtle night light and sound machine and sing to you. Right before we leave we pull the wind up cord on your musical stuffed puppy.



Now that you are TWO this is the last "monthly" post that I will be doing baby boy!. I will still write periodic updates though.

2 year pictures

I am woefully behind on your 24 month update [not to mention Christmas pictures and the whole month of December ;-) ]  but I decided to do these posts out of order and go ahead and share the pictures that I took of you this weekend. At 2 you run faster than my auto focus and do not sit still or pose for Mommy (though truthfully its been some times since you did) so I feel lucky to have these few candid shots of you. In the picture above you were running holding an acorn top and a leaf and you fell down in the grass. You thought it was so funny and I snapped this quick picture of you. No amount of trying to re-create it would work. You work strictly on candid shots.

You received this beautiful hand knitted sweater from one of my mother's friends. She did such a beautiful job knitting it and I am blown away by the time and love that went into such a project. She is a very sweet lady and I knew as soon as I saw it that I wanted you to wear this sweater for your 2 year portraits.

The sunflare washed you out quite a bit in this image but since I had only 0.3 seconds to take it before you ran off again I figured I'd take what I could get. ;-)

Keeping it real. Once you tired of running up and down the hill we spent the rest of the time keeping you out of the flower beds and water.

You love to give hugs. I thought this image was sweet. You ran up and gave the tree a big hug and then I snapped this photo seconds later.

2 years old. It feels like you have always been with us sweet boy! Try not to grow up too fast. ;-)

6 wonderful years ago...

I married my best friend.

Happy Anniversary! It's hard to remember life without you in it. :-)

23 Months

Height: 33.5 inches
Weight: 27.8 lbs.
Clothing size: You are still able to wear your size 18 month fleece PJ's (in Carter's brand only) as well as your fleece sleep sacks. This is fantastic! Some of your 24 month/2T fleece PJ's fit okay (but baggy) but the Gerber ones are impossible to keep your feet in (They are size 3 but the same length as your 2T's). As for the sleep sacks I'm grateful that they still fit since you were loosing paci and ghost bear in your blankets and then crying several times during the night. You sleep so much better without your blankets! As for your other clothes, you wear 18-24 month pants and tops. I did discover that a couple of your 12-18 month tops from last year still fit you though!

(Everything you are wearing in the pic above is from last year's wardrobe) You love to go outside. On the day you turned 23 months old you went into your room, grabbed your crocs, tried to put them one (they are a little small) and then came to me for help. Once you had your shoes on you went and brought me on of my shoes and then ran to the door. :-) You didn't want to change shoes and I decided that the battle wasn't worth it this time. ;-)

You are getting so good at the playground. On the little kid side of the playground you go up the steps to the slide, slide down, and then back up the steps all by yourself! You've got the circuit down. We follow you and block off the places were you could fall so you are far from unsupervised but you are proud that you can do it "alone".



Food battles continue this month. Sometimes its funny to see the look on your face when I put your dinner in front of you and it isn't what you were hoping for. You get this look on your face like "um..this? really mom? Uh...I guess I'll take a bite..." and then you gingerly take a few bites with a wary look on your face. cracks me up. Other times you just make this face and ask for us to take your food away untouched.
 

You love hats! You pulled your Halloween costume "hat" out of the laundry hamper and wanted to wear it.

You HAD to have this hat when we went to Michael's. We let you wear in for a few minutes in the store thinking you would get it out of your system but nope! So it came home with us.

Before we decorated the Christmas tree you decorated it for us. You liked how well your play food stuck on the branches.

You are trying your best to avoid verbal communication. When I ask you if you want to eat and I play dumb to try to motivate you to use words you run over to the highchair point, and when I still ask if you want to eat you drag the highchair over to me so that I can put you in it. Cracks me up. It doesn't matter if I am in the kitchen or dining room, you will try to drag that chair to wherever I am.

This isn't new but its a sweet little detail that I want to remember. When I get you out of your crib in the morning we head straight to the changing table. As soon as I lay you down you cover your face with Ghost Bear to block out the light. Next you come into the living room and crawl up on the couch grab the remote and hand it to me and point at the TV. You are asking for a cartoon. We usually put on a Wonder Pets or some other short cartoon that you watch while I get our breakfasts prepared. During this time you cuddle with Ghost Bear until I come back and join you on the couch. You love cuddling with Mama and  I love it!

Your love/hate relationship with baths is currently in the "love" stage. You have become so much braver with the water too. When you splash water on your face you ask for the towel to wipe your face off and then continue playing (instead of trying to leap out of the bathtub like you have been bit). Also you slowly tried to lower your face into the water. You came up sputtering but then you tried to lower your face again and stopped before putting you nose in. Maybe you'll actually enjoy the water at the splash park next summer.



Aside from the glass balls which have been removed from your reach, your favorite ornaments are the toddler safe blocks. You like to take them off the tree and stack them. You also like to throw them over the couch and yell "d!" (for drop) when you do it.

You have a new word! You say Stah! for "Stack" when we are stacking your blocks.

You have started inserting real words into your jabber. Over Thanksgiving you said "jabber jabber...Cat.. jabber jabber jabber...kiddy (Kitty)...jabber... dada. You want us to look at you when you talk too. If we aren't you will take your hands and turn our faces towards you.



In addition to the new words you have intonated several phrases and sentences. This is great!

You have learned how to do your chunky puzzles and now have the patience and skill to turn them so they will fit. Previously you just set them in the right area.

You like to climb up on the dining room chairs and then throw your arms up into the air like you are saying "I'm king of the mountain!". Scares me to no end.

You run up to us and hug our legs all the time. its so sweet! You also have been a cuddle bug and want to sit in our laps and give lots of hugs. You have also become even more attached to your paci and Ghost Bear. You set them down all the time and forget where they are. I know that's what is going on when in the middle of playing you'll stop and run crying to your room and try to get in your crib. You know that you have them when you are in your crib so its the first place you always look.

Only 1 more month to go until you are TWO! (The pictures and text are from your 23rd month, but I took too long processing the photos so your post is late. Now you have 1 week until you are 2!)

The Red Balloon

{Goodnight Moon}

Last week while at Chick-Fil-A you were given a red balloon. When your Dad was reading Goodnight Moon to you before bed you pointed to your balloon when he got to the part about the "red balloon". Then you wanted to get down and play with your balloon. This ballon has been your prized possession! It is fun seeing you make connections as you learn vocabulary.

I'm coming to tickle you!

This boy loves to be tickled. He runs and squeals and then comes back for more tickles. He likes to tickle back too. I think his favorite part of the day is when Dada comes home. He loves playing with his Daddy!