Hello Alec and happy year and a half birthday! We are back home from our summer travels. Mimi and Grandad are touring around the area for their summer vacation and stopped in for a visit and took us to a most yummy local winery for lunch. You are quite the cosmopolitan kid let me tell you, this is the third winery you have been to and eaten at in your 18 months. Luckily you are a very good diner and do well out to eat.
At the winery you were so excited to see butterflies out in their garden. You chased them and of course they flew away but you still had fun.
You are so attached to your Mimi! All you want is to be with her, have her read to you, just anything. Everyone else gets ignored when Mimi is around!
While they were here we also took them to a local state park and did a nice easy hike up to the waterfall and then spent some time at the playground and playing in the water on the lake's shore. You love to play with sand toys in the rocks and you even took off your shoes and waded in the water - which of course meant I had to do the same!
You can run now. Before it was more like a fast walk. Now it is a full out run. Funny to watch your little legs and arms all flying around. You sort of bounce while you run and of course make some sort of nonsense yell/hum. I got it on video for posterity.
We are finally childproofing our apartment and Dada was anchoring the dresser to the wall and of course you thought you should help him. You went right in there with your toy drill and got to work. So funny. I love the picture I got of the tow of you at work.
You are really mastering control of your body, you are much more graceful - well as graceful as a toddler can be I guess. You are just moving better, more coordinated, not falling as much, you swing your legs over things (like ride on toys - facing the right direction now!). You even climb over the couch. Ack! And you climb up and stand on your lego table. Looks like you will be an adventure lover like your dad.
When you really want something you do this funny whole body shake. Your legs stay planted but your torso shakes. You know what you want! You'll also point with an open hand and open and close your hand, no idea what it means!
Since you love to play in the sandbox at the park so much I wanted to get you one for our patio. I got very lucky and dragged my cranky tired baby to a garage sale and scored a big plastic turtle one with lid and a bag of sand for only $5. You love it, I love it. We're all very happy.
You are so happy to be back home with all your toys. Also to go to our favorite park. I think you missed the lake and the ducks! All you want to do is go see the ducks, you call them, walking towards them yelling "duhcks, duhcks".
I think you may still be a bit out of sorts from the move back, or maybe you are in a clingy stage. Last night I ran out to a meeting and left you with Dada. As I was locking the door I could hear you right there at the door crying. Broke my heart! You've been doing the same when Dada leaves too so I know it's just not me. Don't worry sweetie, we would never ever leave you.
You know all your face parts and can point to them when asked. face parts
New words for you - broom and backpack. Backpack sort of sounds like ack-pa ack pa - you sing it like the Dora the Explorer song.
I bought you a new, cool, electric toothbrush with Buzz Lightyear on it. My dentist recommended it as it would clean your teeth better since its hard to ge tin your little mouth. I turned it on to show it to you, not even put it in your mouth and you were freaked. You just kept saying"bye bye" to it. Poor guy.
You got Bob the Builder Bubble Bath which you think is the coolest. You especially love the plastic toy "Scoop" that came on top of it.
I told you we were going to the library and you told me "choo choo book" so I guess we'll be getting a train book!
You are such a different kid than you were in the spring. It;s so amazing to go to the park now and see you climbing, sliding, not asking for help. My baby is disappearing.
Your new thing is not wanting to hold onto anything now when going up or down steps. You're still not old enough or coordinate for that buddy. Sorry! So I make you hold my hand :)
You're so kissy and affectionate lately. I am just eating it up.
I signed you up for swim lessons again this fall since you loved going to the pool this summer. You did good, except for the fact that you had a fit when we tried to get in the pool because you didn't want to get in the small pool, you wanted to get in the big lap pool. Ugh. The teacher thought you were scared of the water. But you were fine once we got in and I turned you so you couldn't see the big pool. YOu are so stubborn. Just like your dad.
We went to a local burger dive with our school club for dinner. It's a great place for families and we go there a lot. Unfortunately they only have these tiny plastic hook on hi-chairs. There was no way I was getting your big fat legs into it, so you had to sit in a booster. Chaos. You need containment! I need you to be contained! Oh well, all the kids were running around so I guess it would have been hopeless anyway.
It has been an ongoing battle of mine to get you to sit still at a storyhour. All you want to do is run around, hardly listening to a story. So frustrating since you love to read at home. This time you finally sat for the Borders storyhour. I think it was a combination of sitting between Caro and Kanav and having a snack and drink. Unfortunately this performance has not been repeated and you are back to your old running ways. No rest for me!
We were in the Halloween aisle at Target and you weren't too thrilled with the costumes. You kept saying "bye this". Hmmm. Does not bode well for Halloween. We'll see what we can do.
You had your 18 month doctor's appointment. You didn't need any shots so that was good. The nurse measured you at an inch shorter than you were at your 15 month so I asked her to remeasure. -And you are huge and off the charts as always in height and weight. I wonder when your growth will slow down? You'll be bigger than me by the time you are six. We left our pediatric practice and this was your first appointment with my family doctor and I am so glad I switched you. She is just the best. And you loved her too - you even asked for "more" after she checked your ears. Weird kid!
We had a welcome back ice cream social at school and I pulled into the parking lot behind the building to see if there were any parking spots and of course there weren't so when I had to drive down to the lower lot you started to flip out because you thought we weren't going to school. You love to be there with Dad and get so excited every time we go there.
You played ring around the rosey at playgroup for the first time and you thought it was the funniest thing ever. You had fun holding hands but your favorite of course was falling down. You laughed and laughed. I love your laugh.
You got to see your first friend Rachel again. It's so cool to see you guys together now since the first time you "met" you were only 6 weeks and she was 10 weeks. Such a difference. You guys had fun, you played trucks and golf clubs, and even held hands. You fed her raisins which I thought was priceless and you even gave each other a kiss bye. I love watching you interact with other kids and seeing your sweet personality.
One of your favorite treats is to go to McDonalds with our friends Viviane and Carolina. You love the fries, nuggets and of course the toy. And you and Caro look so cute sitting in your matching highchairs.
More proof you are turning into a climber. You climbed up on the dining room chair to get something off the table. Nothing is safe from you now!
"Bye this" is your new expression for - I don't want that or get that away from me!
Another garage sale find - a ride on train from Little Tikes. The last thin gin the world we needed but I couldn't get you away from it and it was only $5. This is why our playroom/living room looks like an explosion of a toy factory. Ugh.
You really make these great truck noises now. Vroom vroom and unh unh unh. And of course wooowooo for a firetruck. It's fun to watch you play with your trucks and hear you make the noises.
I think you understand the word hurt now. Poor baby. When you bump yourself and I ask if it hurst you nod yes and get all sad.
You are really really into body parts now. You know where your heart is!
You like to crawl under things, like your highchair or the table and peek your head out and say hello, or "a-whoa".
You love to color. Occasionally you get the wall but for the most part you are really good and love coloring books or plain paper. If I ask what you are drawing you usually answer mama or dada.
You think sneezing is so funny and whenever you or someone else sneezes you yell achoo! achoo! Must be your way of saying bless you .
If you see a race car you say "dada"
New words - dig and seatbelt. Mimi got in the car next to you and didn't put her belt on and you started yelling "bel, bel" at her.
You love Kindermusic more now than ever before. You are just so full of energy and you love to dance. You get out there in the middle of the circle and dance to your own beat, ask for more when the music ends.
Carolina came over to play and you both got on your ride on train and you were on the engine and she was on the caboose and you were pulling her around the room. It didn't work the other way since you outweigh her by about 10 pounds - she couldn't pull you!
We went to the park down the street where we hadn't been in awhile and there is a covered tunnel like thing connecting two slides and as soon as you crawled through it you said "choo choo" - I guess you were pretending to be a train in a tunnel. Funny, train obsessed kid!
You now say "mama and dada" - so cute! We'll be in the car and you'll just start saying "mama and dada mama and dada".
Poor baby! I was swinging your friend Clio around at the park and I clubbed you in the head with her foot. You survived but talk about feeling like a sucky mom.
Then, later that afternoon you were "cooking" and you sort of lost your balance and fell and hit your eye area on the corner of one of my pots. Poor beat up kid!
You love Bob the Builder. You even sing your version of the theme song. All you can say is "bob bob" but it is too the tune of the song the way you say it. And if I say "can we fix it?" You answer "shshshshshsh" nonsense but in the right tone for yes we can!.
You obviously watch a bit too much TV because you can also sing " i'mma" for the I'm the map song from Dora.
new words - wow! oh no! there is "bob" hippo, pop, pa, pump, cow is boo, there is boo boo, bye this, bye +name , oh what is this, this is boo
You are can climb up all the furniture now. The only piece you still need a boost on is the bed. Mr. Independence.
Your friend Clio came to stay with us for a night while her mama was having a new baby. You thought it was pretty cool that she was here to play and then that you guys had your jammies on and we all got snuggly in bed to read books together. Very novel for you - I think you'd like a sibling, you just love having people to play with. Though a full time sibling might change your mind!
Well we went to Florida to visit Grammy and Paw and had a ton of fun as always. Unfortunately we did get attacked by a wave at the beach and you were just covered in sand! I am so glad I was holding your hand when it happened. We were all pretty knocked around by it so if we were shaken you had to be three times as much. So you are pretty sworn off the ocean for right now. Hope you aren't permanently scarred. You loved it so much before!
But you still had a blast in the pool so that is good. You would go to the steps and lie flat then lift yourself up on your hands so you were sort of "floating". We'll have you swimming yet!
You also got new shoes while we were in Florida. My you have huge feet! You got size 9.5. You ar only 18 months old. That is 3 year old feet! We'll be custom ordering them in a few years. ANd they are still wide as ever. Only one style in the whole store fit you. Wow.
It's been quite a harmful trip for you buddy! Grammy and Paw bought you this awesome huge bob dump truck thing with a scoop attached to it and it comes with lots of mega blocks for building. You love it. But then you lost your footing or something or tripped and somehow smacked your lip good and hard on it. Poor guy. It was so hard to see all that blood from your mouth. I think it looked worse than it was, but still. You recovered quickly though and were back playing in no time.
This time it was a joy to travel with you Alec. You were so good just all around. Maybe it was the new toys I brought, or maybe you just felt sorry for me traveling all alone but either way the traveling was good. Made up for you being a night terror while we were there. I swear you were trying to kill me with lack of sleep - so unlike you!
You give eskimo kisses now. Enough said. I'm sure you can imagine how sweet it is.
We went to the zoo with our playgroup and you had even more fun than when we went in the spring. It's still hard b/c if you ar in your stroller i have to keep taking you out to hold you up to see but you aren't ready to walk the whole zoo yet. So a bit exhausting for me! But you loved it, especially the monkeys and elephant.
The Wiggles sing a song that goes something like "do the monkey, monkey monkey, do the tiger, tiger tiger, do the elephant, elephant elephant" and if I sing it you will do the right dance moves - basically pretending you are a monkey, tiger and elephant. Your favorite place to do this is in your carseat which keeps me laughing in the car!
When you eat something tasty you say "yum".
You have a Little People car ramp and for the most part you prefer to put your matchbox cars through it. You literally sit for hours some days just shooting cars and trucks down the ramps. I know it won't last forever but I'm enjoying the quiet for now!
You are becoming interested in clothes now, or at least shirts that have something cool on them - like Bob the builder or trucks.
You love to talk on the phone to dad. A typical conversation goes something like this "hi dada, oh dada, choo choo!"
Stop it! You are starting to call me mom! Ack. I like mama. At least while you are a baby. Kids say mom! Stop growing up so fast!
I was upset the other day and was crying and you got so upset. You mad e your fake sad cry and sad face and came over and gave me the biggest hug and pat pat. I instantly felt better.
You are getting more interested in building with blocks now and can build a tower. At Grammy and Paw's you were really into the Mega Blocks they had for you. We have big legos here but you aren't as into them, not sure why. Hmmmm.
You don't even try to say your ABC's but you like to hear me sing it, like to hear others sing it, you point to letters in a book, and you like your alphabet ball and you like to press the letters on it and hear their sound. Someday maybe you will attempt to sing along with me!
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