Happy 16 months baby boy, you are getting too big way too fast!!
A tiny bit late, but as always, better late than never! Jacky Boy is 16 months old and I think a lot has changed over the last month! He is a super happy, super funny little boy and I LOVE him so much!! Let's go with the basics first... He weighs 25 pounds now, and wears 18-24 month clothes. He is a walking, climbing, jumping machine! He is super fast and tries to run everywhere. He LOVES playing chase with Riley, giggling the whole time. He is a climber, and will climb onto anything he can (couches, strollers, beds, chairs). He loves going up and down the stairs, and would do that over and over and over again. He loves jumping OFF of things as well, crazy little baby!! He loves playing with anything on wheels that he can push- baby doll stroller, shopping cart, walker, large trucks... he loves to push things around and around and around. He loves all trucks and cars, and he loves his shape sorters, although gets very frustrated when he can't do it himself! He loves playing with stacking toys/rings and spinning tops! The toys below are two of his very favorite!! He LOVES being outside, and would stay outside all day long. He loves anything involving water- pools, hose, water table, sprinklers, etc. He loves the sand pit, but has a tendency to eat the sand... a lot of sand. He loves trying to climb UP the slide, and he loves running around on the trampoline while Riley jumps and knocks him over. He thinks it is so funny to get bounced all over the place! He is a feisty little thing, and is not afraid to let you know when he's not happy! He will throw things, scream, and sometimes throw himself on the floor. He is quick to try and bite Riley in self defense, and sometimes unprovoked as well. He is obsessed with eyes and will try and pinch ad gouge them if you aren't careful! He loves songs, and I swear he can hum to tune of a couple of different ones! He thinks his daddy is the BEST and funniest person EVER, and gets so excited to see him every single time. He takes on big nap every day around 11, and goes to bed around 6:30 or 7. Some days he wakes up at 6, other days he will sleep until 8! He still loves his bottles, and drinks lots of rice milk during the day. He is an incredible eater, the kid eats a LOT! He loves all kinds of meat, and he will pretty much eat anything I make him! Words... the kid can understand pretty much everything we say to him... he knows what all his toys are, listens to instructions, and overall has an excellent understanding of what we are saying to him. He doesn't have that many words to communicate back to us though. Currently he says: mama, dada, Riley (pronounced Ni-nee), dog, deer, more, all done, again, and I think that's it. He signs "all done" and "more" but only if we really ask him to, and I THINK he has started to sign "help". We have been horrible about doing signs with him, but I guess we should do it more since he doesn't have the language to tell us what he wants! Jack LOVES trying to put everyone's shoes on, especially Riley's shoes. He also loves to try and put on her undies and gets so mad when he can't do it! He LOVES dogs, and he love love loves his grandpa. He loves going for walks, and if you tell him we're going for a walk he will go and climb right into the stroller. He loves looking for birds and laughs and laughs when he sees one. He LOVEs waiting for daddy to come home from work and helping him "drive" the car up the driveway! He knows when the oven or microwave beeps that food comes out, and when someone gets water from the fridge that he gets to have a drink! He hates having his diaper changed, and he finally actually likes books! Only a handful, but that's better than none! He is such a little cutie and he is more and more fun every single day! He is still pretty mama obsessed, but I'm okay with that :) Mark is making me take him to get his hair cut pretty soon, which I am totally dreading but know it needs to happen!! His little blonde locks are getting too long!
Happy 16 months baby boy, you are getting too big way too fast!!
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Little Mister is now 15 months old! He is growing up wayyy too fast, and this last month has brought some big changes in our little man's life! First, he is a full blown walker these days. No more crawling for him, he's pretty darn steady, and getting faster and faster daily. Crazy how he went from taking 3 or 4 steps for weeks to just all of sudden walking everywhere!! And he is definitely a SIGNIFICANTLY happier baby now that he is a walker, he loves being able to walk around everywhere and explore! He has turned into a good sleeper these days (well, at last compared to the last year of his life!) For the last week, he's been going to bed around 7:30, waking up at midnight for a bottle (yessssss he still gets a nighttime bottle), and then sleeping until 8:30 in the morning. He takes a nap from about 12-3pm every day. Goes down easily, no crying, same routine every day. :) He sleeps with his paci and his blankie. He is blankie obsessed and will not go to sleep without it! He has turned into quite the big baby! He eats and eats and eats, and I've been kind of slacking with his doctor appointments, so I have no idea how much he weighs, but it's a lot. He's in 18-24 month clothes, no idea what size shoes since we just started putting him in them since he just started walking! I get lots of comments about how big and "thick" he is....indeed. :) He loves: sitting on Riley's white chair, climbing onto anything and everything (lately his fave thing to do is climb up into the double stroller), going down slides, going to the playground, and walking all around the kitchen. That might sounds like a weird thing to say, but while he was a crawling baby we didn't allow him in the kitchen because of his allergies. Now that he's walking and not on the floor so much, we let him come in the kitchen, and he is SO EXCITED about it! He also loves pushing around this little shopping cart we have, and gets so mad when it gets stuck!. Oh and I almost forgot, the kid LOVES the vacuum cleaner. He loves to sit and watch me vacuum and follow me around, not scared in the least! He loves playing with water, especially running water (faucets, hoses, sprinklers, etc). He likes puzzles and playing with shape sorters and anything where he has to put small objects into something bigger. He doesn't have a ton of words, but his receptive language is pretty darn good these days. If we ask him where something is he will go to it or look at it, and he even follows some of the directions I give him! He is seeming older and older every single day! He loves all animals, especially dogs, birds, and cows. He laughs and laughs and laughs at Bailey, and loves to look at all the cows on the hills by our house. He loves playing with crayons and pens, but mostly just putting them in and out of things, and chewing on them. He loves being chased by his daddy, and he's super ticklish. If you say "I'm gonna get you..." he takes off running and laughing! He loves climbing up the stairs, and can actually get down the whole flight of stairs by himself too. He loves to play with Riley, and loves chasing her around and getting in to all of her things. :) He loves to have "tea parties" with her and do puzzles and knock down the towers she builds for him. He loves going for walks/runs in the stroller, and he is getting much much better with new people, even approaching and smiling at new people he's never met before, but still is NOT happy to be left at the gym daycare. He is such a happy boy lately, and I'm sure I'm forgetting all kinds of things for this update. But HAPPY 15 MONTHS baby boy!!
Little man is 14 months old! Okay, what he has been up to... He is dappling in the idea of walking, taking 6 or 7 steps here and there, but prefers to crawl. I am just waaaaaaiting not so patiently for him to be a full time walker. He's just not that interested in walking around! If you say "Jackson, stand up and walk!" he might humor you and stand up and take a few steps, and then he gets down and crawls. He is the fastest crawler though, and he can regular crawl and bear crawl equally fast. At this age Riley had been walking for 4 months, sooooo needless to say, he's a very different baby! Talking... he says mama, dada, hi, dog, duck, bay (for bailey) and he can "bark" like a dog, although it sounds more like rorororo, which Riley is sure to tell him NOOOO a dog says woof, not rorororo! He is starting to wave, and he claps like a madman, especially when I sing If you're happy and you know it.... He is a super loud babbling baby, so he has lots to say, just not the words to say it! The boy loves to be outside. He loves playing in the sand and in the water. He loves to swim! He especially loves any sort of running water, so hoses, faucets, water being poured from a bucket, etc... He LOVES animals. He gets all giggly and will crawl over to them as fast he can!! He's still super attached to me.... he will smile and flirt with strangers as long as I am RIGHT there... but if they get too close, or try and pick him up, he starts to WAIL. I tried to leave him at the daycare at the gym one time, and he completely freaked out, and could not be calmed. Poor guy. Needless to say I didn't get a workout in. :) He's really into grabbing people's faces (and eyes) and giving big slobbery kisses. He likes to be thrown up in the air, and he loooooves dancing to music. He loves it when his daddy tosses him on the couch and tickles him... He is super ticklish!! He loves to play with phones and remotes and things with buttons. He likes knocking down towers and taking things in and out of other things. He likes to idea of TV (as in, turning it on and off) but is not really super into the shows. He will watch bits of Mickey Mouse if Riley is watching (he especially loves the songs), and he loves this Vinko DVD (think tons of songs/nursery rhymes), but other than that.... not super interested. He's just starting to take a liking to books. And we have tried and tried and tried and he just would NOT sit to read with us. And now we've got about 5 or 6 books he likes, so we're getting somewhere! He has 4 teeth now (2 top, 2 bottom), and is in mostly 18 month clothes, I think he's around 23 pounds these days. He does this super cute thing when he's throwing a tantrum, he will put his head down and stick either a leg or arm up in the air, like he's doing some yoga headstand pose. He is a very tempermental baby, and will holler and cry and either arch is back or go all floppy fish on me when he doesn't get his way. He can be a bit tough to take on errands, but we try our best and move as quickly as possible! I can go through target in record time if need be! His favorite foods are: sausages, bananas, waffles, rice cakes, and sliced apples and oranges. He loooooooves his rice milk! I don't see us eliminating a bottle anytime soon... Riley was never really a bottle baby, but this little boy LOVES his bottle. He's alright with a sippy cup, but he prefers to take huge sips and then spit it out everywhere. Cute, huh? We've reached a pretty good place with his allergies... it's no longer this new thing we have to deal with, and we've found lots of stuff to feed him, and avoiding all of his allergy foods is not as challenging anymore. Still sad that we can't ever ever feed him anything from a restaurant, but we're adapting! As long as we bring special "treats" for him, and sort of isolate him from all other people and food, he's good to go. He loves going for walks/runs in the jogging stroller, riding in the car (as long as Vinko is on), and climbing up the stairs. He loves to play with Riley (as long as she's not hitting/kicking him!) He loves shoes, and will crawl over to anyone who happens to be putting shoes on. He loves crawling races and trying to climb up his mama's legs. He is (hopefully) starting to grow out of his super high maintenance needy phase, so let's keep our fingers crossed that it continues!!
Oh one more thing... he LOVES his grandpa... grandma too, but he has a special place in his heart from grandpa. Like, he gets so so so excited every time he sees grandpa and lunges for him and smiles and laughs. They are best buds! Happy 14 months baby boy!! How is she almost 3 years old already??? I didn't do an update last month (did I?) so I thought I ought to do one now for little miss Riley Bug. Where should I even begin? This little monkey is FUN FUN FUN. And super cute, yes? Current favorite things: playgrounds, playgrounds, and playgrounds! Girl loves her slides and swings and climbing structures, that's for sure. We could just playground hop all day long and she would be he happiest girl in the whole wide world. And she can do some pretty impressive things on the playgrounds these days, climbing up all kinds of things with no help at all! Gives me a mini heart attack every single time, but the look on her face when she gets to the top is totally priceless. So so proud of herself! 90% of the time she absolutely adores her little brother. She loves to play with him and give him kisses. She lets him snuggle her and grab her hair and face. She chases him around and tickles him and shares her toys. She also has her moments where she just wants him AWAY from her stuff and she will snap if he gets too close or messes with her things. But overall, she an awesome big sister, and he's pretty lucky to have her. She loves to be outside... jumping on the trampoline, playing in her sand pit, drawing with chalk, playing hopscotch, riding her scooter or her bike, anything outside! We planted her very own veggie garden and she loves watering it and watching her veggies grow! While she loves to be outside, there are plenty of things that she loves to do indoors as well. She's really starting to get into real little kid games, things like memory and bingo and connect 4 (all things impossible to do with a 13 month old around, of course). She loves doing "magnet shapes," which is basically a magnetic board where she makes all kinds of cool pictures using different colored shapes... things like flowers and "red moons" and anything else her little mind can create. She loves playing with marbles and doing all sorts of puzzles... she is really really good at puzzles!! She is constantly asking questions... why this? why that? who is that? what are you doing? why why why why? i try and answer with as much details as possible, but to be honest, sometimes I don't even know the answers. Then google is our friend. :) I like the inquisitive mind of a 2 year old! She loooooooves to draw. She will color and draw for a very very long time. She also likes to paint and do art projects of any kind. She can draw straight lines and circles, and can do a "follow the dots" kind of drawing. She is really into words and seeing what letters on the pages mean what words... she will point to words and say "does this spell _________?" She loves reading the same stories over and over, but is open to new stories too if I ask her to read something different with me! Riley gets dressed every day by herself.. picks her outfit, takes off her PJS, and puts on all her clothes all by herself. She loves to dress up like a princess with her princess shirt and dress, princess shoes, etc.. She likes to balance on one foot, and can walk on a balance beam like a pro (thank you dance class and gymboree). She has an AWESOME imagination... Things on the floor become "mud puddles" or holes... she will play for a long time making "decorations" or solving "emergencies." We think she may have made up two friends, one she calls "Mary" and one she calls "Singa." I seriously love listening to the things she comes up with every day! She sings all the time, and her newest fave thing to say is "awww shucks!" Pretty darn cute, if you ask me! She loves to "paint" her nails by coloring all over them... that, I do not love. :/ She has learned the days of the week and can count to 30, she loves to say "hola como estas? muy bien!" and count in spanish. I'm sure there's so much more but that's all I've got for tonight. She is growing way too fast!!
A little late, but better late than never! I swear he JUST turned one, right?? This little guy has changed a lot over the past month! He is still not walking, but he is cruising all over the furniture, standing independently, and getting really good balance so I'm sure it won't be long! I try really hard not to compare him to Riley but it is so weird to me that at this point she had been walking for 3 months! I know my little Jacky Boy will walk when he's good and ready, and really, we have not even really tried to encourage him to walk. He much prefers to speed crawl all over the place, which is fine by me! This month my little boy has developed his very first curl... ooooooh boy looks like he will be taking after Riley afterall! Jackson has become an extremely opinionated little boy. Things he LOVES (and will throw a big huge tantrum if he doesn't get to have): going outside, crawling up the stairs, sausages, smashing computer keyboards, and his water table, and his bottle the boy loooooooves his bottles.. LOVES all those things. Things he doesn't like? Being confined by baby gates, sitting in his high chair (unless eating sausages), being pushed/squished by Riley. It's fun to watch him play and watch his mind work and how he explores the world. He loves putting things down his car ramp and watching them go all the way down to the bottom. He likes to climb all the way up his slide, and then slide backwards back down on his tummy, and the repeat.... He loves putting things in containers and taking them out one by one. He loves destroying towers and throwing balls. He loves to be tickled. He dances every time music comes on, especially if Riley is singing! He tolerates the car most of the time, especially now that we have a DVD player in there. He likes Mickey Mouse the best. He is learning all kinds of new words and we are learning that he understands more than we give him credit for. With Riley, I remember quizzing her at this age to see all the words she knew... well, sorry to say, it just totally never crossed my mind to do some of these things... like teach him all the funny/cutesy gestures we taught Riley, or all the animal sounds she knew and did at this age... he seems like such a baby to me, which I guess makes sense because compared to Riley he IS a baby... but he knows lots of words, and he says "mama" and "dada" and I swear he says "up up" and "no no." We are working on teaching him more but he just mostly just gets mad. :) He was down to one nap a day, then he had a few days where he was just super tired and cranky, so went back to two naps, now we're at one again, so who knows. Probably in some weird transition phase for naps. He is FINALLY down to waking up ONCE at night. Never thought I would be so happy to have my 13 month old waking up once at night, but I am! So much better than 5+ times per night. I attribute this to (1) his allergen free diet (2) his strict skin lotion/creme hydrocortizone regimen and (3) his regular doses of benadryl/zyrtec to combat his itchiness. I was reluctant to give him all of that stuff on a regualr basis, BUT his allergies are no joke, and he was a crazy itchy baby and just not happy, and sleep is so important, that I think we are doing the right thing. He is a bit of a needy baby, and constantly wants me to be holding him and playing with him, and he will crawl over to me to be picked up, and lay his head down on my shoulder and snuggle. He makes this cute little squeaky noise when he's happy or when he sees something he really wants (i.e. a bottle). He loves to grab Riley's face, and he loves to climb on everything. He loves anything with buttons. He loves to hold two things and bang them together. He loves destroying everything Riley is trying to play with (puzzles, towers, buildings, etc) He loves to eat sand (yuck).
He is my little cutie patootie and I love him to pieces!! It has taken me forever to write this update! I still can't believe baby boy is ONE!! I had a lot of fun with his one year photos, that's for sure! Okay here we go... this little guy has changed so much in the last month! He is a super speed crawler, and can get from A to B in no time at all, all he needs is the right motivation... things like computers, marbles that have been left out by his sister, remotes, etc... He pulls up to stand, cruises along the furniture, and has started letting go to stand on his own. He can walk pushing on to a walker, but doesn't have a lot of interest trying to walk holding our hands. We're totally okay with that, it's hard on our backs anyway. :) Now he may not be a walker, but he is a total climber. He can almost climb all the way up Riley's big slide all by himself. He climbs onto and over anything he can. He climbed all the way our flight of stairs the very first time we let him even try, he didn't even look back. He is pretty fearless, that boy. He LOVES music, and he loves to dance. He will stand up and shake his booty, and bob his head, and rock side to side. He loves when Riley sings to him, and if he's crying, it almost always makes him stop when Riley starts to sing. He doesn't ever really watch much TV, but he has recently decided he loves Mickey Mouse (thanks to his sister), and he loves Baby Einstein on the ipad. In fact, he also recently decided that he does NOT like being in his car seat, so we hooked up the car DVD player so he can watch Mickey Mouse in the car, and VOILA, now he's happy in the car. THANK. GOODNESS. He loves opening and closing doors, he loves balls and balloons, puzzles, and banging objects together. He loves trains and cars, and he loves his sister's old favorite toy, the shape sorter! He tries really really hard to get the shapes in the right spots, and he can get the square and the triangle in almost all by himself. He FINALLY has started eating more "real" food. As in, not pureed foods. He of course still loves his pureed sweet potatoes and carrots, but he also loves pasta (gluten free), sausages, bananas, hamburger, sweet potato fries, and whatever else we are having for dinner! Hooray for graduating from pureed fruits and veggies!! if he sees a banana anywhere, he goes nuts and crawls over towards it and cries until he gets it! He gets MAD when he sees us eating something that he doesn't get to have. He still only has his two bottom teeth, although one of his top ones can be seen through the gums, but it hasn't broken through yet. I don't see signs of any other teeth!! Which is good because he's already a little biter, he tries to bite Riley all the time, that little monkey! This boy loves to be outside! He loves the trampoline and loves going for walks/runs in the stroller. If he sees the front or back door open, and then he doesn't get to go outside, he throws a big fit! He loves to clap all the time, he says "mama" and "dada" and "hi!" and he is just super loud and vocal. The funniest is when he and Ri Ri squeal back and forth. Riley will do a high-pitched squeal, and then Jack will, and then back and forth... sometimes it's hard to tell which child is squealing!! He loves to give kisses, and if anyone is laying on the ground (normally it's Riley) he will crawl over and plant a big wet one on her face. He loves to be tossed in the air, and he's SUPER ticklish. He loves to play baby chase, and if you say "I'm gonna get you!" he takes off crawling and laughing. He loves when we pick him up and round round the house chasing Riley. He loves when we make him jump all over the house, and he is determined to race off and get into the kitchen because he knows he's not allowed in there. He adores bath time, but he is one crazy little boy. He is constantly trying to stand up and crawl around and dunk his face under the water and splash and just get into trouble! He knows the sound of the bath water and as soon as we say it's bath time he heads straight down the hall and right towards to the tub. And he is NOT happy to have to get out! His allergies are currently under control, we haven't had any more incidents lately. His skin is still itchy and red, so something is still bothering him, but we're working hard trying to figure it all out. We go see the allergist again this week so maybe we can get some more answers! At his one year check-up he was something like 21 pounds (30%), 29 inches (50%) with a head circumference in the 70th percentile. This surprises me because I always think of him a such a big boy, so I couldn't believe he was only in the 30th percentile for weight! But I do think he's lost a little bit of weight and slimmed down recently, probably a combination of how active he is and all his dietary restrictions. I'm still breastfeeding him, but he will also take bottles of rice milk, which is so nice! He has no problem taking bottles as long as the milk is nice and toasty warm! He's not that awesome with a sippy cup, but we're working on it. Weirdest thing... this boy does NOT love books. Riley was such a book worm, and still is. At this age, she would sit and read books forever! Jack? No way. He has one or two books he likes, and that's it. You try and read him a story and he either (1) crawls away (2) grabs the book and shoves it in his mouth or (3) tries to rip the pages. He's just so different than his sister! It makes it so much harder to actually read to him, since he just won't stand for it! Oh well, we'll get there eventually What am I forgetting... he hates having his diaper changed, or basically anything that involves staying still against his will. He's not a fan of strangers and will play "shy" when meeting new people by buring/hiding his head in my chest. He always pulls his socks off, and he's not really a big fan of hats. He takes two naps a day, usually 1.5-2 hours each, and still wakes up around 3 times at night. He's super fun, super cute, and just the cutest, best little one year old we know!
My baby is totally growing up. She is such a little girl now and I just am loving every single second of it. She wild and she's sassy, she's hilarious and goofy, she's energetic and cuddly, she's totally brilliant and pretty much the best toddler ever. This little girl is totally into pretend play. Pretend make-up (which is funny because she never ever sees ME wear any make-up), pretend cooking and eating and drinking, pretend tea parties and playing with baby dolls and stuffed animals. I love seeing how her little mind is working and the things she comes up with. She's started dance class this past month, and totally totally loves it. She talks about it all the time. Talks about her friends and her teacher, the things she does in dance class, how much she loves it, and she practices her move while we're at home. She loves to put music on, and she loves doing her "shake your booty dance" and demanding that everyone dance with her. She loves dressing up like a princess and accessorizing... or "getting super cute" as she calls it. She wants to pick her own outfits, from the undies all the way to the headbands she wears. She loves to sing. She sings CONSTANTLY. Everything turns into a song. She knows tons and tons of real songs, and then she makes up her own songs too. Some are to the tune of popular ones, and some are her very own version. :) And yes, she does have her very own microphone, so that makes it even more fun... and loud. She has finally started sleeping better at night... more than half the nights she stays in her bed the whole night. The other nights she comes down the hall and climbs in our bed with us. She takes a nap 50% of the time, which I can't decide if I like that or hate it... if she doesn't take a nap, she gets SUPER tired in the later afternoon, but then she goes to bed by 6:30 at the latest. If she does take a nap, she might not go to bed until 8:30 or 9... so we take it day by day and decide what will be best for her (and us) as we go. We also started a sticker chart to encourage her to stay in her bed all night, and it seems to be working (although it has only been 2 days so.... we'll see). She loves copying us, and picks up on every little phrase we say, whether we want her to or not. Some current faves include "Holy moly!" and "What the heck!?" (thanks Grandma for that one), "oh snap!" and many more. She loves to do "photo shoots" with her animals/dollies, and she wants to use my iphone all the time to take pictures of things. She is currently obsessed with playing with marbles. She is not allowed to play with them when jackson is awake, so the minute he gets put in his crib, she gets excited because "now we can play with marbles!!!!" She also loves any and all art projects, particularly glitter paints. She loves drawing and painting and playing with stickers. She can draw circles and ovals (although they kind of look the same) and straight lines, and she can do a dot-to-dot if I make one for her and draw lines from one dot to the next... she was pretty pumped that she could make all kinds of shapes that way!! She is still obsessed with Mickey Mouse, but has also decided she now likes Hello Kitty, Dora the Explorer and a few other random cartoons. She loves going to the library, to target, to the supermarket... pretty much anywhere, actually. She is SUPER awesome at riding her scooter, and can ride her tricycle pretty well too. I LOVE watching her ride her scooter it is super cute! I've been having fun teaching her all kinds of fun and random things, and I've been teaching her different faces and emotions... so I tell her to make a happy face or sad face or mad or tired face and she does.... Mark hates it though because after I taught her her "mad face" she now goes around and practices, so randomly she will just have this sort of creepy looking mad face on.... but then she also does her super happy and excited faces, which are pretty hilarious (see below). Other things she loves: chasing baby around the house, having races, jumping off of things (like the couch, bed, etc), talking on the phone, getting her hair dried after bath, going in the hot tub, painting her nails, listening to toddler music on spotify, and lots lots more! Aaaaaaand a video... scooter super star... The day Jackson turned 11 months, we were in the hospital. I was going to take him out for a little photo shoot, but really, he has been so irritable and it's been so cold, we just didn't get around to it. Plus, I'm saving it up for his big one year shoot. I have big plans. :) My big 11 month old! He is super active, and does not stay still for two seconds! He crawls at lightning speeds these days, and is pulling up to stand and will stand just barely holding on with one hand. He's not cruising, not walking, and I think we're still a little ways away from those milestones. I don't mind one bit. :) He loves to dance when music comes on! Especially if Riley is dancing! If we say "Jack Jack make your excited face!" he clenches his body and his face and gets, well, very excited! He gives kisses and loves to headbutt people. He is always trying to lick Riley's face when she is laying on the floor. Either that or bite her toes (with his two teeth, yup, still only 2!) He loves computers and cell phones and anything with buttons. He loves opening and closing doors and drawers, and has just started becoming much more methodical in his play. As in, stand up, get a block, put it in a bucket, and repeat repeat repeat. He loves anything with wheels, especially Riley's Minnie Mouse scooter. He is like a magnet to the kitchen, which is unfortunate because he is no longer allowed to crawl in there due to his allergies! (Note the puff stuck to his pants in the photo below. Classic) He still loves jumping, but not so much in the bouncer as just bouncing around while standing or while sitting on something soft like a bed or couch. He adores playing peek-a-boo. He plays with himself in the mirror, he will play with anyone that's around by ducking behind something and then popping up to see you. He gets MAD when he can't do or have something that he wants, and he has started arching his back and acting like a floppy fish in protest. He will also just randomly throw himself backwards, with total disregard for what is behind him or what kind of surface he's on (i.e. tile...) luckily i have some darn good reflexes (or am good at predicting when he's about to do it) so we haven't had any major injuries!! It's hard to say anything reliable about his sleeping habits, since this month has been pretty rough with all his food allergies. But the kid just does not sleep well at all. He's itchy, or he's got stomach issues, and he wakes up anywhere between 4-10 times a night. Every single night. He went through a week of screaming and fighting his naps like crazy, and I really had no idea what was going on, but clearly there was something! We're sill trying to figure it all out, I would be pretty unhappy too if my body was all flooded with toxins (well, they are toxic to his little body!). He is still breastfeeding and at this rate, I see no end in sight. Ever. No, I mean with all his allergies, I just have no idea what's best anymore!! We will see what the allergist says, but for now I have basically cut everything out of my diet and we'll see what happens. We did try and give him some rice milk before all these allergies, which he likes, but it's not a good main milk source, so we will see! I really want to write more details, more info, more fun facts, but this is already over a week late, AND this cutest little face does not give me more than 2 hours of sleep in a row and with Mark out of town I am STRUGGLING right now! But man is he cute. And guess who ordered his birthday invitations today!!! Woohoo!
The day after Christmas, Riley turned two and a half. So this is a few days late, but it's sort of a big update, so I wanted to be able to sit down and write it and try to remember all the cool and funny things she's doing these days. I love being able to look back at these monthly/milestone updates and see what she was doing! So, without further adieu... Ri Ri.... 2.5! At 2.5, Riley is one funny, silly, energetic, strong-willed little girl. Currently her favorite things include: Minnie Mouse, playgrounds of any sort, trampolines (or really anything that she can jump on), puzzles, taking whatever her little brother is playing with, painting/drawing all over herself, riding her bike, and playing with playdoh. She is also just starting to get into playing with her baby dolls... feeding them, carrying them, brushing their hair... but who knows if this will last. She is such a little smarty pants it blows me away. She knows all her letters/numbers/colors/shapes, and has for many many months. She can count to 20 in english, and to ten in spanish all by herself. We've been introducing her to more and more spanish in preparation for her spanish immersion preschool she will probably be going to in the next 6 months or so. I got her a "my first spanish" sort of book, and she loves looking through it and having me tell her what each thing is in spanish! She knows a ridiculous number of songs, and will sing all day long. She makes up her own songs, and changes the words in the songs she knows to try and be funny. She knows how to spell a couple of words (just memorized them), and she knows the sound every letter makes, and a bunch of words that start with each letter. So if you ask her "what does monkey start with?" "Or "what letter makes a sssss sound," she knows all the answers. She says some super funny things lately too. For example, Mark was talking to Riley about the beach one day, and she goes "You can't eat the beach, but you can eat a SANDwich!!".... blows my mind that she could think of that all by herself! And she still loves to make jokes by saying the wrong things... so things like "ABCDEF....K!!" or her new favorite... abbreviating words. Or making up words and giggling hysterically when you ask her what in the world she just said. She loves playing with my parents' two dogs. She makes sure that you know that Penny (the puppy) is the crazy one and Bailey is the calm one. When we let them in she yells "innnnnnnnnncoming dogs!!" She loves to feed them and pet them and lay with Bailey (since Penny is too crazy). She doesn't mind if they like her in the face, she just absolutely adores them. She adores all dogs, really. She's little miss independent. She want to do everything herself... get dressed, take her pants off to use the potty, get her own water, climb into her car seat, buckle her car seat, wash her hands by herself, etc... She can mostly get dressed herself (t-shirts can be a little tricky), put her shoes on by herself, and of course, work her ipad and our iphones better than most adults. No seriously, she has passwords memorized, and finds all her apps and knows exactly what she is doing. She can work the camera and loves to do "photo shoots like mama," and still adores watching videos of herself and her baby brother. She asks us questions CONSTANTLY. "Who is that? What is that? How do I do this? Where is it?" And on and on and on. She wants to know about everything, and is constantly asking questions. "What kind of moon is that?" (crescent moon), "Where is grandma going" "What are you eating"... the questions never end. And some new phrases she has picked up: "Oh my goodness!" "Man down!" (when she drops something), "look at that good standing baby!" and "Mama has two big boobies and Ri Ri has teeny tiny boobies" (thanks for that Ri Ri)... Her manners are pretty darn good these days. She says thank you more often than not, and is getting good at responding with either "yes please" or "no thank you." The place where her manners could use some more work is when she wants someone to do something, sometimes it comes out as more of a demand rather than a request ("daddy i need a drink!") so we're working on it. :) But there is nothing sweeter than hearing exclaim "oh thank you mama!" or respond with "ummm, yes please!!" She loves swimming, and she goes with me in the hot tub a few nights a week since it's too cold for swimming! Lately she's super into jewelry and hair accessories, and will say "mama I'm busy just trying to get super cute!" while putting on 15 bracelets and headbands. She also frequently tells me "she's just gonna go write some emails" on her pretend computer. She likes to boss grandpa around and tell him to "do exercise!!" on his exercise bike. Speaking of exercise, she loves to jump around and do jumping jacks and workout exercises with mama and daddy, and she can do a mean push-up! Now... tantrums. Hooo boy, well, we definitely have them. She has started hitting people in frustration, so if we tell her she can't do something, she will occasionally try to hit us. That gets her a timeout, as does hitting/kicking her baby brother. She has started occasionally hitting him if he tries to get into her stuff while she's playing with it. 90% of the time she is the sweetest, most loving big sister, and she likes to play with Jackson and she shares well with him, but 10% of the time she refuses to share, takes his toys, and tries to hit him or push or kick him if he gets in her way. MOST of the time it's pretty easy to see it coming, and we can avoid it with a little re-direction, but sometimes we aren't so successful and in that gets her in big trouble and she knows it. Mark has taught her how to use a computer mouse as well as the track pad, so she is now a computer master. She can scroll along and click on her special nursery rhyme youtube videos. She loves her music videos on youtube. Favorites include "5 little monkeys" anything with ABCs, spanish twinkle twinkle little star, and probably more that I don't know about, she only watches them with my parents for the most part. She still adores her baby brother, and gets so excited to see him. In the morning when he wakes up she yells "BEEEEBEEEEEEE!" and runs to give him huge hugs and kisses. And she does that after every little absence from him during the day. She loves kissing him and hugging him, and she's mostly very loving towards him. She calls him either baby (pronounced bee-bee). Jacky Boy, or boo boo. She loves feeding him little snacks and playing chase with him, and she loves that she can say "come here baby!" and he will crawl to her. She got her first haircut this month, which, believe it or not, made her hair even MORE curly. She likes to wear headbands and clips, but NOT ponytails. No thank you. So her hair is a disaster of curls 90% of the time. And I love it. Now let's talk sleep... she doesn't take a nap every day (although she definitely NEEDS a nap!), but when she does, it's normally a 2-3 hour nap. She also rarely falls asleep on her own (she wants me to lay with her and give her tickles), and about 75% of the time she wakes up in the middle of the night and comes into our bed. She is the snuggliest little toddler I know! Luckily for us, for the most part she no longer wakes up before 6am, but she rarely sleeps past 6:30. This little munchkin loves her books, and loves to pick out her favorite stories to read before bed time. She often gets fixated on certain stories which we read over and over and over until she has them memorized and then maaaaybe I can convince her to read some new ones! Her current faves involve a duck and a pigeon, and they are the stories her daddy bought her for Christmas. :) Overall, Riley is super fun, amazingly adorable, and so super smart I don't even know what to do with her! Oh and? Girl's got some killer dance moves. :) I did a little 2.5 year on the fly interview with her, and here's what she said:
Favorite color: I want pink. Favorite food: Ummm, I like strawberries (she doesn't). Favorite drink: I like orange juice. Favorite toy: Ri Ri toys! And baby's toys. Favorite movie: Brave (she's only seen it once) Favorite thing to do with daddy: ummm, paint his nails (insert laugh here, she was joking, she's never ever painted his nails before) and play Boom Blox Favorite animal: I like giraffes, and not crocodiles. Oh and I like chickens too. Favorite dessert: MARSHMALLOWS!! and ice cream too. Favorite person: Baby is my person. What do you love: Baby. Favorite number: 4 with green on it. Favorite song: ABC song. Favorite letter: R! My little boo boo is 10 months old, and 10 month old Jackson is the best version yet! This past month has been FULL of changes. Good changes. FUN changes! Let's start with... little man is CRAWLING!!! he was up rocking on his hands and knees for a little while, and after we got back from Hawaii he decided it was time, and off he went! He is now a full blown crawler, cruising around the house. He's pretty darn fast now too!! Speaking of crawling, now that he can get himself wherever he wants to go, that boy is trouble! He can find any object he's not supposed to have, and he RACES over to get it. He loves computers, keys, remotes, cords, anything teeny tiny (notice a theme here?) He loves crawling races/chase, and for some reason he loves to crawl under coffee tables and through tiny spaces and tunnels under/between furniture. He loves playing peek-a-boo with anyone and everyone. He got his first tooth, but still only has just the one. He is getting better with his food, and loves pretty much most fruits, any orange vegetable, and anything he can feed himself! He would eat hundreds of puffs all day long if he could. He's still nursing 3-4 times a day, and yes, still at night. He's stubborn and we just can't seem to break him of the night feeding. All in good time, right? He has become fascinated with wheels- so he loves cars/trucks/bikes, etc. He likes to spin them and touch them and will just watch them, fascinated! He also loves this train we just bought that goes around the Christmas tree. LOVES it. He likes sticking stuff in his mouth and crawling around with it in there. He is trying to pull up to stand, but has not been successful yet, but will stand holding on to things for a really long time. He loves to open and close drawers and cabinets and doors. He always wakes up happy in the morning, and just plays in his crib until someone comes to get him. And as soon as you walk in the room he kicks and flaps and flails with happiness. He takes 2 naps a day, that are usually 1.5-2 hours, although he had a 3 hour nap the other day! He goes to bed around 7 at night, and then is up 3-4 times after that. He loves jumping, and being tickled, and doing anything with Riley. He's a smart little guy, and will sit there and play with his shape sorter truck until he figures out how to get the shape out that he wants. He has a temper and gets super mad if you take something away or if he wants something he can't have. He is not afraid to let you know when he isn't happy! I have no idea how much he weighs, but he is in 12 month clothes. He knows who mama and dada and Riley are, and he is one loud, chatty little duded. He says lots of different sounds, but dadadada is definitely his favorite thing to say. He loves the water (bath and pool) and cries every time he has to get out of the bath at night. He LOVES dogs, and will crawl right over to Bailey and pet her and grab her and kiss her. He has tons of amazing facial expressions, and the best is when he clenches his whole face in excitement. He is just the sweetest, cutest little monkey and he seriously gets more and more fun each and every day. LOVE love love him sooo much! |
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