17 Months and couldn't be happier

It's rare I hit a monthly "birthday" on a blogging day, but today is Theo's 17 month "birthday". At some point I will stop acknowledging the months, but I think that doesn't happen till he turns 2.

With his newfound walking skills, he's a man on the move. He went from not walking, to his first steps on a Wednesday night to walking on the soft sand that weekend! Clearly he was ready physically, but mentally, had to get there.

He's got 8 front teeth in and 2 molars mostly in. Poor guy, those things are taking their sweet old time. He is a trooper, but man, those have to hurt!

He's also working on the words. It's interesting when the second child begins to speak. I've become so accustomed to Sophia's full and rather extensive vocabulary, that I forgot that baby speak starts as exactly that.

Theo's had the Mama/Dada words for awhile. But he's not particularly interested in using them. We had a mad range of gestures and he made it pretty clear what he wanted and we got it. There was minimal frustration. He can go completely quiet for awhile, especially with new people or if he's tired. Only recently has he really begun to chat it up.

The two big advances he's made with language are

1) Picking up more sign language. This has been propelled by Sophia being re-excited about it (we have the Baby Signs book and she loves reading it). Anything Big Sister does, little man has to do too!

2) Actual verbalization. Again, I was forgetting and expecting "real" words to come out, so my guess is there have been more of these happening than I realize or have noticed, sadly. The other night at dinner
he was intent on dipping his cracker into his Tzatki sauce. I had been doing it and handing it to him and he blurts out "IDOIT!" When I handed him the cracker to do it, he just smiled, dipped, and ate. So very cool.

It's amazing to watch the development from a whole new angle. My little snuggler is growing up.

Big Bike Rider

We had gotten a balance bike for Sophia a few months ago. She was all excited to ride it. So we strapped on her helmet and headed to the park. Where she proceeded to look at it and go, "No Thank You" much to my dismay.

We knew it would take time. She slowly started riding it around the Condo (inside) and then outside on the patio with our neighbors Eleanor & Zac (who are speed demons on theirs!) and finally, a ride around the block.

We brought it to Newport with the hope she'd take to it more. And she did! (Despite dawdling - see previous post) we made a round trip to the Ash Mart (including bringing the bike inside - but luckily nothing was destroyed).

Here's the little biker girl:

Next up - Tour de France. :)

3 months of Theo

Theo turned 3 months on Monday. It's hard to believe that 3 months have gone by already, but life has been going full-tilt, so I can't be that surprised.
He is still a happy, wonderful little guy. He is becoming more interactive every day. We recently brought up the jungle playmat for him and he loves it, fascinated by everything hanging down and able to be touched.
Sophia insists on climbing under with him - it's very humorous. She's still really good with him, though her favorite complaint is that "He Licked Me" to which I respond "his tongue is only 1/4" out of his mouth...I'm thinking you were too close to his face!"

He's cooing and "talking" up a storm and getting bigger by the day. He's moved into the medium sized gDiapers and we've rotated out a bunch of his clothing.
Here are some 3 month shots of my little man.

 First self-portrait with Mom!

 My happy little man

 Chatting up a storm with Nonni!

 Snuggling with his Owl.

Going big-boy style in the stroller.

2.5 years old...time flies!

Last week, Sophia turned 2.5 years old. Somehow, this seems like quite a momentous occasion. It is amazing the difference that 6 months makes in someone of this size. She's lost her baby fat and is growing tall and somewhat slender.
Here she is in November:                                                 Here she is today:

While I realize this is a publicly viewed blog, please know that my goal is to capture and record her milestones, not to brag about her accomplishments.

Her verbal skills have grown by leaps and bounds. When she is comfortable, she is just a chatty cathy..though in a group, she tends to hang back a bit until she is comfortable. She still loves playing by herself, especially with her little figurine animals or her Micky & Pooh bear figures.

•  If you ask her who her favorite Red Sox player is, she'll promptly respond: Saltalamacchia.
• She also knows how to spell her name & how to spell Mickey Mouse (with a little MI...prompting). 
• She's all over counting (she can make it up to 30 - thank you Whole Foods for all thost steps to count!)
• Her favorite song is "Twinkle Twinkle" which we sing to her at bedtime every night. (Sidenote, there is a mysterious 2nd verse that one of her books has pointed out..we're working on learning it).

We moved her to a big girl bed two weeks ago, as she had climbed out of her Pack n Play in Newport (walking in to the room in the morning was like going to the zoo and the animals were out of their habitats!) The transition to big girl bed has gone remarkably well. She loves her Mickey Sheets and sleeping bag. We're going to have to think of a warm weather solution to the sleeping bag, as she is waking up sweating during the hotter evenings. We also have it so she knows not to climb out of her bed. She still hollers for us in the morning - we're really hoping this keeps up.

 Testing out the bed with Baby Theo (Theo now resides in the crib in his room)

She has taken the corner on walking distances too - she can walk close to a mile now - and walking is usually comprised of a combination run and stutter step. The one thing I love is that she always stops to smell the flowers.

Our little girl is growing up - a healthy balance of smart, silly, happy tom boy and girly girl!

What's going on at 16 months?

With all the excitement we've had going on lately (hospital visits, travel to London, etc) I wanted to give an update on what Sophia's doing development wise.

It's amazing to see how much she understands now. We have a pretty solid routine with her every day, so she knows what to expect, but she's been impressing us left and right with some new skills.

At night, before bath, she and Dave always go downstairs to get the mail. The other night he told her they were going to do this. She ran off - we looked for a moment and then found her waiting patiently by the front door for Dave. She climbed all the way down and up the stairs by herself. Very cool.

She loves dogs - everywhere we go, we see them. She greets them with an "oof - oof" of her own. In fact, we have a book all on dogs. When I ask her to get it, she finds it off her shelf and brings it to me and says "oof-oof".

She's totally into brushing her teeth with a "big girl" brush now.
She also is mostly feeding herself. She has her own plates and silverware and is quite content to munch away - new favorites are: Chicken Salad, bagels, fish nuggets and chicken patties. After our stint of sickness, she was drinking Rice Milk (or Drink) for awhile quite happily.
Apparently, it's also very fun to wear our food. (I guess I used to shove a black olive on each of my fingers - so why not tortellini!)

She also has some new words: "Nonni" is for her sitter Lidiana (we just figured this out yesterday!) She has also started to say "Mama," but not with much consistency. (When you say it back to her, she responds with "Daddy." Hmmm...) She also says "Yurt" for yogurt.

Nice work my little one. She's growing big and strong - I definitely think we're in the midst of a growth spurt judging by the way she's eating and sleeping lately. Now if only those 2 ugly molars would come through!

Where did the time go?

As we are rapidly approaching Sophia's first birthday, I realized the other day that she is becoming a real little person, right before my eyes.

It's sometimes difficult to notice the changes when we're together day after day for all her waking hours. But something struck me this week - she is becoming more and more independent. Clearly, she still needs me for most all of the important stuff, but her desire to do it on her own is growing greater by the day.

From food, to moving around, even to playing, it's definitely on her terms. She is fabulously content to play in her room in the morning after eating amongst her books and toys. When she hears us in the kitchen being productive (usually, we're unloading the dishwasher and she has a very current love affair with the door!) she'll crawl on out and down the hall.

The crawling happens full force when she is motivated, but she loves to walk while holding your hands/fingers now. She even has begun to balance on her own for a good 5 or so seconds before plopping onto her cute tush!

On the food front, she had her first introduction to cow's milk. I introduced it earlier this week in a sippy cup at lunch & dinner. Just a few ounces to get her warmed up for the transition. We're working on the mechanics of drinking, as she hasn't quite figured out how to tip the sippy cup all the way back to get the milk into her mouth. But I'm sure it'll happen soon.

I am constantly amazed by her growth and development. I'm sure there are kids her age who are doing so much more, and others doing so much less. As far as I'm concerned, she's doing exactly what she needs to on her own time frame. And I couldn't be prouder.