26 Months

Holy crap! It's been two months since my little guy's 2nd birthday! How did that happen? I'm finding that time is going a lot faster now that we have seasons again. In Arizona, every day looked the same - bright and sunny - and the temperature changed so gradually that I barely noticed. By the time Thanksgiving would roll around I'd have to blare the Christmas music in my car just to remind myself it was the holiday season. This year, since we've experienced fall and are clearly headed into winter, it seems as though the time has flown right by.

So what's new with Caleb? Since I never did a post about his birthday or really about what he was up to at 25 months, I'll try to list as many of the things that he's doing now...mostly so I don't forget how awesome this time in his life is!

Vocabulary: I can't believe just how much his vocabulary is still growing and changing. He's constantly coming out with new words and phrases. I'm most impressed with how quickly he picks up on things that Andrew and I {or others} say, not just repeating, but actually using phrases appropriately. Around the time he turned 2, we were driving in the car, and stopped in traffic {this happens A LOT here}. From the back seat, Caleb yells, "GO DUDE!" Whoops! The one time I'm patiently waiting for the guy in front of me to go, Caleb chimes right up with momma's usual "road rage" phrase. I'm also amazed at how much he makes connections between different things. Often he'll see something that will remind him of something else, and then he'll be off on a tangent talking about something. He still remembers things from "Art Show" even though we haven't watched that in at least 10 months.

New skills: Within the last few months {thanks to Word World}, he's really become obsessed with letters. Anytime he sees letters, he starts naming them off. He loves to sing his ABCs even if that means skipping a few letters here and there. Also, thanks to Word World, he can spell a few words if you either as him, "how do you spell?" or "what does P-I-E spell?" He knows PIE, RADIO, DUCK, TRUCK, and possibly a few others. Obviously he is memorizing, but I'd like to think that Word World is also helping him to identify letter sounds {they work on this in the show}, so that he might be able to build upon what he's learning now in the not too distant future.

He also enjoys singing nursery rhymes. Favorites are "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "I'm A Little Teapot." We've been working really hard on numbers, but they don't seem to be of too much interest to him. He'll count to 11 - Caleb style {1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 11}. Then if we say 12, he says, 13. If we say 14 he skips 15 and says 16. And that's about as far as it goes.

Eating: We have ups and downs in this area, and I guess that's to be expected. But for the most part, I think we can say that we have an excellent eater. However, he has developed an unhealthy attachment to ketchup. There are only a few things we allow him to have ketchup for (hot dogs, hamburgers mostly). So the other night he was having a hot dog, and he decided to start dipping his green beans in the ketchup. Tonight, we had green beans again and he requested ketchup again and proceeded to dip the green beans in and eat them. At least he's eating veggies, right?


Favorites: This has really changed a lot over the last few months. He still loves trains, but has now also gotten into the movie Cars {thanks to those two sicknesses he's had}. He loves all things "Ighting Mmmmqeen" {Lightning McQueen} and Mater. He's also very recently become interested in a TV show called "The Cat in the Hat Knows a lot About That." He even asks for this before asking for Thomas most days! Andrew and I are fine with this because the show actually has a lot of educational value unlike Thomas which I think may only be useful if he grows up to work on a rail yard. And he's OBSESSED with "car carts." You know, those grocery carts that-they-really-have-everywhere-not-just-at-the-grocery-store-anymore that have plastic in the shape of a car and a steering wheel and are the devil to push through the store? Yeah, those! I swear this kid gets more excited to go with me to the grocery store than he does to go to the park.

Misc: Fortunately, he's still napping well. We had a rough week leading up to his birthday where he refused to nap and would scream bloody murder when we put him in his bed {day or night}. We have no idea where that came from, but for my sanity I can say, THANK GOD, it only lasted about four days {felt like an eternity though}.

I knew there was a reason I haven't been good with taking the "month" pictures anymore. This kid does not sit still, and just like his father, he does not like having his picture taken. I'm not kidding when I tell you that if he knows I'm trying to get one of him smiling, he'll do everything but look at the camera and smile. See what I mean...


He drank from this cup for at least 2 minutes while I snapped away {hoping that eventually he'd put the cup down and I'd get a lucky shot of his cute face}.




I did trick him into taking a quick self picture with momma. He looks cute, me, not so much!


Happy 26 months, little man! Now stop growing up so fast!

25 Months

Caleb turned 25 months old today, and I still haven't done a post about him turning 2. Arghh...I'm going to do it this week! For now here's a picture we had taken today. This one is from my dad's cell phone, but it was taken during a session with my brother-in-law. We hope to use some pics from today on our holiday cards.


{Andrew has worn that same shirt on our holiday card the last two years. When I realized that he was going to wear it again this year, I told him that it should be worn every year from now on.}

24 Month Well Visit

This afternoon we had Caleb's 24 month well visit. The first at our new doctor's office, and I have to say that I really liked our new doc. He spent quite a bit of time with us getting to know Caleb before doing his exam and talking with me afterward to make sure he had answered all of my questions. Caleb is right on track with all of his milestones, no surprise there. This kid thinks he's about 5 years old when we're at the playground and started using two word sentences almost 6 months ago. I also made sure to check with the doc about a small, pea sized lump that I noticed on his neck about a month ago. Doc says that it's nothing to worry about, but keep an eye on it for any growth. Probably just a lymph node. There hasn't been any change in size in the last month, so we'll just make sure to check it every now and then. Here are the stats from the appointment:

Vaccine: 1 routine shot, and 1 flu mist up the nose. Flu mist was first, and it was not easy holding his head still while the nurse shot that thing up his nose. Not too bad though. Next came the shot, and for the 1st time I felt HORRIBLE when he got it. Usually I am able to detach myself from the crying by telling myself that vaccines are good for him. This time I felt awful as I held down his arms while he got the shot because I knew that he just couldn't possibly understand why mommy would do that to him. He screamed and cried for a few minutes, but calmed down pretty quickly.

One more stick came when he got a finger prick to check hemoglobin levels and test for lead. Hemoglobin was great, and we'll know about the lead tomorrow morning but I suspect that it'll be just fine.

Weight: 28lbs, 10oz (50th percentile)

Height: 35.75" (75th percentile)

The doc said he has a great ratio of height and weight, and to keep putting good food in front of him.

So that's pretty much it. A successful trip to the doc for our 2 year well visit. Next well visit will be in 6 months, but I'm sure we'll be there sooner with cold and flu season in the northeast.

23 Months

Last year at this time I was trying to do everything I could to slow down the next month to keep my baby, well, a baby. This year I'm finding that I'm already telling people he's 2 years old when they ask. Why? Because I feel like he is. I just can't believe all the things this little guy can do, and he's not even 2 yet. I am constantly amazed by how smart, funny, loving, and completely adorable this little person has become.

Vocabulary: I don't know if this belongs under the "vocabulary" heading or not, but I'm not sure where else to put it or what else to put in this category, so here goes...The little man has started negotiating with us. Just this morning he asked for 3 episodes of Word World. When I told him that wouldn't be happening, he said, "2 esipode worworld." As if dropping off one episode was going to make me change my mind. The other funny thing he's started doing is asking for something, then when we repeat it, in question form, back to him he says, OK, as if we just convinced him to do something. For example, he'll say something like, "Cay-yub get some fruit." Then we say, "Would you like to eat some fruit?" And he responds with, "OK" while simultaneously running to the kitchen.

New skills: Jumping (about 1/4 inch off the ground, but nevertheless that is jumping); peed on the potty 2x, but not since. What can I say, my kid is terrified of the potty.

Eating: I can't believe that we're almost at the 2 year mark, and we really haven't had a battle with eating. Caleb's favorite foods are still fruits and veggies, and he's definitely been enjoying all the farmer's market fresh produce we've been able to get since we moved.

Favorites: Trains and Word World. I'm fairly certain that Caleb would be just fine for an entire day if I left him in the living room with an endless loop of Word World on the TV, a creatively designed (by daddy) completed IKEA train track, and a large bowl of fruit...ok, he'd probably need someone to "change you diaper" since he's afraid of the potty and hates having a poopy diaper.

Since we moved C to a full sized bed when we moved, I thought I'd try to take some pictures of him sitting on the big boy bed...


FAIL!!!

Here I got him laughing (he thought it was hilarious when I'd flip him over to try to take a picture), and even though he was laying down and had his eyes closed, these were the best ones I got.


Later that day he was eating pretzels and dancing around the living room. Gah! He's just a little boy now!

22 Months

I'm not sure what happened exactly, but I've been completely unmotivated to blog for the last month. It's gotten to the point that my sister had to remind me that I keep this up so that family and friends can see pictures of Caleb. And then I had to remind myself that I keep this up so that I have a record of all the craziness that is Caleb. For now, I'm just going to stick to the 22 month post, but I promise that I'll do my very best to write an update on life (MAJOR changes) and on all the hilarious things that C has been doing lately.

Vocabulary: Since the last time I wrote about C's language skills, he's taken it to a whole new level. It isn't uncommon to hear him say 6 or 7 word sentences, and sometimes he even strings a few of these together.

New skills: Putting together his train tracks and his train cars. The cars are magnetic, so if you don't have them facing the right direction, they don't stick. I taught Caleb to remind himself, "If it doesn't stick, turn it around." So now, he's a pro at building 15 car long trains. The hardest part about this was getting him past his own frustration when things didn't work. He always wanted mommy or daddy to "fix it" when things broke or didn't work quite right. Finally, he's able to play with his trains independently.

Eating: Mostly eating well. He'll usually eat at least 1 good meal (most of the time 2) out of 3 meals in a day. He still LOVES fruit with any kind of berries being his favorite. Cantaloupe is no longer something that he enjoys, but I don't think there are very many other fruits that he doesn't like. We've tried everything. Yesterday he had his very first whole apple at his friend Easton's house.

Favorites: Caleb still loves animals, and thoroughly enjoyed our trip to the San Diego Zoo and the Scripps Aquarium last month. I'll have to write a separate post about that. He is completely obsessed with anything trains. We read train books all day long over and over and over. The first thing he says in the morning is "play choo choos." And he'd do this all day if we let him. But mommy needs to get out of the house sometimes!

I haven't taken a "month" picture since the ones I posted at 19 months. This month I almost forgot again, but then I happened to have him in his room sitting quietly on his chair with one of his choo choo books, so I thought I'd snap a few for the blog.

This face has become known as his "ugly face" when he scrunches up his nose, squints his eyes and pushes out his top teeth with the adorable gap between them. He does this when he doesn't want to do something we ask of him, or sometimes just when he wants to be silly.





Big cheese, Caleb! Love those cute toes!


I promise more posts soon with pictures of a bunch of stuff C's been up to in the last month or so, and hopefully a story or two to show how much his awesome little personality has developed!

19 {and a half} Months

Well since today is the first day of May, and Caleb turned 19 months old last month, I guess I should finally get around to posting the pictures we took on the 17th and give an update on where Caleb is at now.

Vocabulary: I stopped keeping track of the words after 18 months, but everyday he adds at least a few more to the ever growing total. The most significant development is his use of 2 and 3 word phrases almost all the time now. It is so great to hear him say little sentences.

New skills: Throwing {EVERYTHING}. This is actually incredibly annoying. I'm proud of him for doing so well with throwing, but we obviously don't want him throwing things like the remote control directly at the television...or a board book at mommy's head. Caleb has moved up to the Advanced Snappers class in swimming. He was running circles around the other kids in his old class, so our instructor took it upon herself to just move him into the other class. Been with the other class for 2 weeks now, and it is amazing how quickly he's continuing to pick things up from the more advanced kids. Won't be long before he's able to back float independently.

Milestones: Finally got his last canine, and has been doing a little better with sleeping the past few days. I'm hoping that keeps up now that school is about to let out. I'd love to be able to sleep in a bit!

Eating: Back to eating like a champ. I think he's been going through a growth spurt lately. He's super tall and skinny!

Favorites: Animals of all kinds. Frequent trips to the zoo are in our future. Books of all kinds. He rotates his favorites every few days, which is nice for mommy and daddy who get sick of reading the same book 18908209 times a day.



We bribed him with some ice to get him to sit still. Worked pretty well for about 30 seconds.

18 Months {The Details}

Stats:
Height - remained steady at 33.5" from three months ago (still 90th percentile). I find it very hard to believe that he hasn't gotten any taller in the last three months, just that the archaic measuring system they use ridiculously inaccurate for a kicking and screaming toddler.

Weight - Gained about 2 pounds since December now at 26lbs, 1oz (50th-75th percentile)

Shots - No immunizations this month, just a TB test which we'll check in two days to make sure he hasn't been exposed yet (freaking backwards United States refusing to vaccinate on this because then we wouldn't be able to test for it)!

Overall - He hated seeing the nurse, hated when she layed him down to measure him, hated when I took away "his" keys while he was weighed, hated when the doctor came in, and REALLY hated the TB test. But...he is getting two teeth (see below), was up at 5:30am (ohmygoshIamsotired!), and did sit still in his car seat without saying, "stuck" every 10 seconds while I ran a few errands after the appointment, so I headed to the McDonald's drive through and him his very first chocolate milk (and an iced vanilla coffee for mommy)!


A few seconds after I took this picture, the stuff was gone!

New Words: At the end of February we sat down and took inventory of all of the words that Caleb was saying to that point. It was somewhere around 130 words. For about a week after that we were pretty good about keeping track as new words popped up. Then we started to slack a bit again. But the list now stands at 193+. As you can see, he seems to be picking up ~10-20 words/week. I think you can click on this to make it larger.


New skills: Kicking and throwing {probably not so new, but definitely something that he's really enjoying now}. Running faster than ever. Trying oh-so-hard to jump but ends up doing something that looks more like a gallop. Swimming lessons are going GREAT despite the change of instructors twice since we began in September (and you know, Caleb's stranger anxiety). He's so, so close to being able to backfloat on his own, and he's become quite the little fish in the pool. He kicks his little legs as fast as he can to bring himself up to the surface, and is starting to be able to roll himself onto his back (with some obvious help from Mommy). He's even started using the word pool (don't think I have that on the list above - 194+ words) when we talk about going to swimming lessons.

Milestones: Last month I was wrong. He only had 1 new tooth (upper, right canine). The second upper canine came in this month and he's also on the verge of popping through both of the bottom canines. I suspect that the bottom right one will arrive within a week, and the other will definitely be here before next month's updates. Fingers crossed we should be done with teething for at least a few months after that and back to sleeping in a little later in the morning. Doc says that his teeth look great, and we'll start brushing with baby toothpaste this week.

Eating: Not doing too bad. There are definitely meals where he really doesn't eat a whole lot, but in the course of a day he will typically eat at least one really good meal.

Favorites: Still pretty obsessed with rabbits. I took him to see the Easter Bunny earlier this week since he loves bunnies so much, but apparently 6-foot tall bunnies are pretty scary! New obsession is gorillas thanks to Memaw. We {randomly} have several books with pictures of gorillas, and Caleb will find those books in the pile and demand "go-wil-wa." He also LOVES keys, but not just any keys. We used to be able to get away with giving him "Pop Pop's Keys" {a set of keys for my in laws cars that we keep at our house}. Now he knows that those keys don't do anything cool like, you know, set off the car alarms outside the house, or make the lights flash on mommy's car or cause the trunk to pop up. He insists on having our keys any time he so much as catches a glimpse of them or hears the shake. Which brings us to....

Toddlerhood! Not even a week ago I was having a conversation with some of my mommy friends telling them that Caleb rarely has tantrums, we think because he can communicate so well. Well, I should have knocked on some wood because we've been rocketed into full blown toddlerhood this week. Tantrums and outbursts have become a common occurrence. Today he kicked and screamed the whole way to the doctor's office (about 5-10 minute drive from our house) because I had to take my keys away from him so I could drive! It was definitely an adjustment the first few days, but Andrew and I had a talk about how we're going to deal with these outbursts, so we feel prepared moving forward.

All in all, Caleb is doing great. This is truly an awesome age/stage, as we get to watch Caleb soak up every little thing. I can't tell you how many times in a week I say, "I didn't know he knew that word/how to do that!" He's growing and changing everyday, and I just want to freeze time and have him stay this age forever. Hard to believe that we're well on our way to 2. I feel like I'm gonna blink and he'll be headed off to college. Even in the midst of those tantrums, I find that I'm continually reminding myself to cherish these moments, because they will be over all too soon!

18 Months

Just posting pictures today. We've got Caleb's 18 month well visit on Friday, so I'll post all the updates then.

I tried a few times throughout the day today to get pictures of Caleb, but he just wouldn't sit still. Finally after dinner I had Andrew help us out. It started out as a struggle to even get him on the couch...


Then Andrew gave him keys...


And we remembered to throw the bear in the picture...




Not too bad for an active 18 month old!

17 Months

New Words: Oh My Gosh! After I did last month's post I decided that Andrew and I were going to try to be better about keeping track of all of Caleb's words. And then...his vocabulary EXPLODED! It is next to impossible to keep up with all the words this kid is learning on a daily basis. So, I honestly am only going to be posting a fraction of the new words this month: book, moon, one, broke, plant, two, three, star, bath, "hop hop" {for bunny, currently his OBSESSION}, seal, giraffe, elephant, turtle, bear, shoes, socks, shark, teacher {from the book Brown Bear - he also can name all the animals in here}, poop {he now uses this to tell us both when he's about to pee or about to poop, so we've ordered a potty and will probably start working with him on potty training when it arrives in the mail}

New phrases: in bath (again, I've heard more of these, but wasn't good about writing them down)

New skills: I'm sure he's been able to do this for a while, but when you ask him where his toes or feet are he'll bend down to touch them. Very close to being able to jump on two feet thanks to Willow and Zoe at daycare. And he's this.close to climbing out of his crib.

Milestones: Two new teeth {for a total of 14}

Eating: NOT still eating like a champ. I *think* that he still prefers vegetables over meat, but sadly he's discovered bread. Andrew and I can't even enjoy bread with our meals anymore because if he sees it he won't eat anything else. And the ocean is refusing water...he's no longer gobbling down fruits at the end of a meal.

Favorites: Right now Caleb is absolutely obsessed with rabbits. Anytime he sees anything that even remotely looks like bunny ears he starts yelling, "Hop Hop!" over and over and over. He's also obsessed with his Baby Signing videos that we were given for Christmas. When he wants to watch he uses the sign for "signing" which kinda looks like the hand motions for "false start" in football. He also says, "yi yi" for "signing." No longer so into the Classical Baby video. We limit him to two viewings a day - one before nap and another before bed...but he begs for it all day long!

I took the pictures below on a few different days. Getting a good one of him sitting still is not going to happen unless we plop him in front of one of his Baby Signing videos {I'll have to try that next month!} PS. If anyone out there in blogger land {cough, cough...Memaw} is looking for an Easter present for Caleb, he's in need of volume 3 and 4 of these videos.

16 Months Old

I've had this post set up with pictures and notes on all the new things Caleb has been doing this month, but I just couldn't bring myself to turn it into paragraph form. So I decided to leave it in bullet form, and I think it worked quite well {in fact I may just do this every month}.

New Words: book, shark {a bath toy}, frog, car, Gold {for Goldilocks in the Three Bears book}

New phrases: big boy, bad car/bad dog

New skills: climbing into his high chair alone, running {and I thought he was running before...ha! Now he can and does actually run away when we try to put a coat on him among other times throughout the day.}

Milestones: Two new teeth {for a total of 12}, dropped down to 1 nap at the beginning of January {I am amazed at how quickly this happened...literally overnight.}

Misc: still eating like a champ, prefers vegetables over meat, now enjoys swinging on big boy swing over sliding, took his follow up flu shots {seasonal and H1N1} without even a whimper.

Getting pictures this month was a challenge, and I forgot to put the bear in the shot {same thing at 8 months, see picture on the side. I must have an issue with multiples of 8.}

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?"


Temper tantrum city! Caleb is officially a toddler.


Here are some better shots from earlier that day (Jan. 17th)


"Are you talking about THIS book?"


"See Mom, I told you this is the book with Gold {Goldilocks}"

15 Months

The photo shoot started out like this. Caleb was NOT interested in sitting at all. He wanted to climb over the back of the couch to check out the Wii guitars that we have stored back there.


So, we pulled the guitars out, and C was all smiles!


But not for long...


Ahhh...that's better. Now I can get a good look at this thing.

Alright, I'm done with these pictures!

Caleb's 15-month well visit is on Monday, so I'll update after that with all of his stats and latest tricks!