I think I have to stop calling you a toddler. You are suddenly so grown up, and I have no idea how this happened. I miss my baby a bit, but it’s also a lot of fun to watch you become who you are.
You are still my sweetness, completely. You often come up to me and tell me that you have four things for me, and then you give me a kiss, a hug, a squeeze and a cuddle. While you fight with your brother often, you are just as often sweet and caring to him as well.
Two. TWO. TWO?????
Have you really been here for two full years?
I feel a little bad that this year is starting with so many changes, but I’m sure you’re going to be absolutely THRILLED with all the upcoming visitors. I have a feeling you’ll be a little less thrilled with my maternity leave ending. For whatever reason, you’ve decided that you need to be attached to me at all times. You want me to put on your bib or lift you out of your high chair or clean your hands. You want to be in my arms, carried everywhere, in my sight, with me, at all times. You ask for me the minute you wake up. And lately that’s been fine, since I’m always home. But tomorrow you’re going to wake up, and I won’t be here, and it breaks my heart to know how unhappy you’ll be. Because I live to make you happy and hear those giggles.
Is 21 months a thing? I did 3 months updates for the rest of this year, so I guess I’ll continue it here, but don’t expect a 27 month update… maybe I’ll do every 6 months after the 2 year mark?
Nick Names: Bubba, Sweetness
Height: 33 inches (Estimated)
Weight: 25 pounds (Estimated)
Teeth: 11? (It’s getting harder to check!)
Words: 30+ (list below)
Favorite Things: turkeys, elephants, trucks, baby shark/row row/wheels on the bus, art projects of any kind, the color orange, his iron pills, baby brother, being tickled
I have this weird thing now, where I’ll want to post a cute picture of either E or G, and then I think, wait… is it weird to post a picture of only one of them? Do I need to post two pictures? Do I need to have a running tally where I make sure I’m talking about each kid the same amount?
Same thing with blog posts.. I had things I wanted to say about E and how he’s doing lately, but then I think I should do the same thing about G! I can tell I’m going to be struggling with this for a while…
I absolutely do not have the solution yet, so instead I’m going to do a double update!
E is officially a year and a half old!
It’s been quite a journey, and in about a month we’ll be embarking on our next journey when E becomes a big brother. So before life gets super crazy, I wanted to post an update of what’s going on in E’s world. A lot has changed in the past few months, but even more has changed in the last few weeks. It seems like every day there is something new that he can do, or some new thing that is so adorable and makes me melt.
It’s a weird period of time with E.
I’m both excited for what comes next, but sad about what’s ending.
For example, his language. I’m really excited for him to be able to talk and communicate and to hear all the funny things he’s going to start saying in the next 6 months. (18 months - 2 years old is a GIANT language explosion). But I’m also going to really miss how he is now. He “talks” all day with great expression and passion.
I like looking at sibling names. You can usually learn a lot about the parents by looking at sibling names. There's usually a similar sound, or feel, and you can see what was important to the parents. What their style is like.
Maybe all of their kids have names from the bible. Maybe they all start with the same letter. Have the same number of syllables. Have repeating double letters. Are contemporary. Are spelled uniquely.
Perhaps you've met our cat, Maia. If so, you probably have opinions about her. Especially depending on how much of a cat person you are.
If you're not really a cat person, you might be a bit afraid of her. She always seems to show up in random places that may startle you - behind your head, watching you sleeping, jumping out at you in the dark. She may have even swiped at you, scratched you, or tried to bite you. (In which case, I'm very sorry!)
I knew I was in trouble the minute I walked in the room. E had a fire truck with a working ladder and was completely enthralled with moving it up and down. I knew I had no chance of getting it out of his hands and getting him out of the room without a meltdown. Normally I'm super thankful that E loves school so much, but I do miss the days when he used to run into my arms with a smile at pickup. Instead, I dealt with a meltdown as predicted and tried not to take it personally.
He's been a little cranky lately. A little off. Quick to whine or get upset, waking up more at night, crying in his sleep. We're not sure why.. growing pains, being a toddler, getting sick...eventually he'll actually be teething one of these times.
Tom and I have long been a fan of Ikea. It's one of our favorite places to visit together - weird I know. Instead of stressing us out, it makes us excited with possibilities. It helps that our mammoth of a car Penny fits almost everything we could possibly want fairly easily. We don't get there often, so by the time we do, we'll have a years worth of ideas and projects and things we want to get while we're there.
I don't worry too much about E.
I know that he will have struggles in his life, ups and down, things to get through. But he's got a pretty awesome dad to look up to, and who will hopefully show him what it really means to be a man, and it's nothing to do with how tough you are, or how sharply you dress, and everything to do with how you treat people.
I’ve been ignoring it, but I’m not sure I can anymore.
We have a walker.
E’s been taking steps for a while now. Since before his birthday. One, two.. occasionally 4. Not very frequently though. Maybe once a day? He’d do it to prove he could, and then move on. Crawling was faster, and he didn’t seem interested. We could never make him do it.. it would just randomly happen.
We survived the first year. We celebrated the birthday. We still have no teeth, but we now have a toddler on our hands. Can you call them a toddler if they still don't walk? He's definitely not a baby anymore, though.
I miss the baby stage. Even when he wasn't sleeping through the night. It was easy - you fed him, you cuddled him, you could spend your weekends on the couch and he'd be happy to just look at your face.
It's special that E and I get to share a birthday weekend. It's also a little crazy - there's a lot of celebrating to do in a small amount of time. The good news is, we had a nice long weekend to spread out the festivities in. Daycare was closed on Friday, which left E and I with a free day. We started the day off by going out for breakfast, and ended the day with a birthday play date.
Nick Names: Bubba, Sweetness
Height: 28.75 inches (13th percentile)
Weight: 21 pounds, 8 oz (54th percentile)
Head: 18 inches (40th percentile)
Special Outings: Panera, Market Basket
Visitors: Grandma & Grandpa, Becca & Joe, Nicole, Alice & Stephen, Aunt Joanie, Uncle Rick & Brooke
Loves: Laundry baskets, coat hangers, walking by pushing furniture
Hates: Waking up during the night, empty bottles, getting hurt
I just posted April's video - it's funny to see how much time E spends with Maia. I can't wait to see how much their relationship grows over the years.