A verbose week!

A certain little Mr significantly expanded his vocabulary this week! He went from 14 words to 24 words. And the part that cracks me up is that he pronounces them perfectly (except for the word "Help"). No less than perfect attempts from this kid.

You can imagine my surprise when he held up a giraffe puzzle piece and said "Giraffe" loud and clear. I asked him to repeat it and he ignored me and went along with his puzzle like nothing had happened. Pretty much par for his language. Most of the time he doesn't see much need to repeat himself. ;-)

I also think its funny that he will say "juice" yet the only time I can entice him to drink it is when he is sick. Milk he would live on if I would let him but yet he won't even attempt to say it. Closest I've gotten is getting him to repeat the "Mmm" sound. Once. Ha.

We are so proud over his new words! :-)

new words:

giraffe
eye
truck
car
bee
hat (also said "Dada's Hat")
juice
go! (uses it by itself or will finish the phrase "ready, set..")
ow!
ball

(old words)

Mama 

Dada
Cat
Kitty
Shoes
Stack
Drop
Uh Oh 
"A hug"
"Your welcome"
Help!
Dog
Cow
ceiling

{Picture: Ethan can use a spoon perfectly without spilling a drop but he has decided to shake things up lately and eat creatively. Sometimes this involves using a spoon with no hands and sometimes this involves eating yogurt with his fingers. He keeps it interesting over here!}

someone noticed....

...that he could see his own reflection in my big 'ol camera lens. ;-)

 

(ps- I know the processing is atrocious. haha. Drives me nuts. The lighting was horrible and I can't spend much time at the computer finessing images these days. Come on 2nd trimester!)

Time to fess up...

I know I've been absent from this little blog of mine for quite a while. Part, I know I've explained and part I haven't. January started off busy but since then I haven't been on the computer much at all. I've hardly taken any photos and nap times and evenings have been used for sleep instead of editing.

But I have a good reason.

A good little reason. :-)

And this little reason is due September 17th, 2012.

{Garrett was working really late the day I found out. I couldn't stay awake any longer so I borrowed a sticky bun from Ethan's play food stash and left it in the oven for Garrett to find when he came home. He woke me up holding the bun and asked me if it meant what he thought it meant. Yep, honey, it does!}

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.