You're Two

So it's been a very long time since I've last updated but I thought you're second birthday was a special enough occasion for me to blow the dust off this thing.
Just a few of the things you do:

- You can count to 12, when you're in the mood of course. But in fact the same day I announced you could count to three, you surprised me by lining up and counting eleven clothes pins without assistance.

- Colors? Puh-leeze you got those in the bag



- You selectively pick out the letters you decide you want to know. M is by far your favorite, P, Y, X, A, F, O, B, and C are close behind

- You love to now jump off our bed. Before it was just sofa shenanigans and jumping ON the bed but now you like to leap off. This is really quite impressive because our bed is about 12 feet off the ground. The first time your daddy saw you do it he said "that's nuts!" to which you replied "more nuts!" and repeated the jump endlessly.

- We're in that everything is a hat stage and it really is literally everything - pottys, swings, if it's not nailed down, it's a hat.



- You still nurse a lot

- You can pretty much understand any direction. Your Pop was stuck on the pot with no toilet paper. Out of curiosity I asked you to go get some for Daddy. Without hesitation, you ran into the bathroom where he was and went right for the toilet paper and then realized it was gone. You immediately, with such an urgent look in your eye, ran to the upstairs bathroom and grabbed a roll and brought it right down to him. You're now our little gopher, we've been waiting a long time for this.

- You know how to BS. We'll ask you questions all the time which you can normally answer but when you can't, you don't even pause you just throw out any nonsense and make it sound like you know just what you are talking about. Your standard response when you don't know is "Ah-pee-tee." Oh right, it's ah-pee-tee. Gotcha.

- Sippy cups are becoming a thing of the past. Hands optional.




- You still have yet to sleep through an entire night, never thought I'd be waiting over two years for this.

- You are now constantly saying "oooohhh" when you've come to the realization about something. The other day while reading you were going to point out the various insects like you normally do. You got to the ant, which you've named a billion times and you would start to speak, then stop. Start, stop. You seemed confused. You then shouted out "on-yion" which is your word for ambulance. I corrected you and said "ant" and a look of relief came over your face and said "ooooooh ant!"

- You help me make my coffee every day, scooping out the beans as we count them and you get excited to push the "big red but (button)" to start the grinder. You must stir and keeping asking me to add more milk.



- You're doing well with the potty training as previously mentioned but I think we still have a long way to go.

- You eat entirely way too much sand, by the shovelful. You know it’s wrong and you know it drives me crazy. Please stop.

- You're officially a Daddy's boy right now. You get so upset when he leaves for work and I can't mention him during the day without you saying "Daddy home soon" repeatedly for the following 3 hours.



- You love singing the two little red bird song with me and are now very good at the quiet and loud parts.

- You always were a sweet, cuddly and loving baby but hearing you clearly express things like "I missed you Daddy," "I love you Mommy," "I'm sorry Daddy" and "Bless you Mommy" has more of an overwhelming effect on us than you can ever imagine. I guess that is pretty much true for the entire last two years. I'm not gonna say they were always easy but if I'm gonna raise someone, I'm sure glad it's you.



Happy 2nd my love.

Live from lunch!

I took a couple short video clips of Julian testing out his vocab while at lunch yesterday in our soon to be new neighborhood.

Click here to hear him make his favorite animal sounds and click here to hear a few of his favorite words.

Merry Christmas!

Take away my Mom of theYear award

Wow, I'm the worst Mother ever - I just noticed I haven't updated this thing in over a month and a half. Tsk, tsk! And it's not like we haven't had plenty of things worthy of an update!

I don't even have enough excuses to use but the last few weeks have been very busy. Busy and I was sick and Julian had a cold which is now a permanent runny nose apparently. Bryan just caught it all today. But I should have a few minutes before Julian has his first night waking to get something out here, now where do I begin?

Before I forget I guess I should let everyone know that we're not sending Christmas cards this year. So don't wait by the mailbox and don't take it personally. Things have been stressful lately and I didn't want to kill myself trying to get cards in the mail. Hopefully you don't need a Christmas card to know we're thinking about you and wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas.

Our Cafepress store is doing awesome, Bryan gets all the credit. When we first started it we were hoping it'd make a few bucks that we could put away for vacations or special occassions but we've been very fortunate to have it bringing in enough to cover our mortgage. It's a very nice buffer since we still worry about being a one income family.

Our other baby shop: www.urbanbabyrunway is also doing well - I get all the credit for this one! OK 99% of the credit. And the holiday business has really been keeping me busy which is good but can be stressful at the same time when I really only have a couple hours at night to pack up orders and respond to customers. But it's fun and we have many goals set for the store for 2007.
More importantly - we'll have a home to call our own very soon! We sold our city house and closed on that the end of November but also put a contract in on a single family. We wanted to move in as soon as possible but they needed more time. For some additional money off the price, we allowed them to pick the closing date since we could continue to stay with my parents. So we'll be closing on the new house 12/27. It would have been nice to be in our own home for Christmas but it'll be worth the wait. We're extremely excited. See, ain't it pretty?



Cedar shingles - which I like to call scales. Our house will be scaly - like a fish.


Our cool new bathroom sinks

The first room you see, the living room which flows nicely into the dining room.

It has 3 good sized bedrooms, a big attic and basement, plus a big den downstairs. We plan on updating the kitchen in the near future. Oh man I canNOT wait to have all this space to ourselves, with a yard even!

It's in a very family friendly area, I've already met a bunch of local moms. It's within walking distance of an awesome children's book store and cafe that has weekly singalongs and a little play area. I really feel the area is made for us. Now if 12/27 would just hurry up and get here! I think my excitement over moving is overshadowing my holiday excitment this year.

Julian has been awesome lately. There were a few weeks in a row when it was pretty nightmare-ish. Getting him dressed was torture and I would have to give up, going somewhere with him was iffy - you never knew when he would go from Angel to "that kid" with the flip of a switch. He was cutting like 4 teeth at the same time but it made for very miserable days and being sick on top of that was just icing.

But it seems to be passing although he continues to test the limits and I have to work on consistency and being firm with him. Not an easy feat when he is so darn cute. Speaking of cute, he did some modeling for a local baby shoe company. You can check out his photos here, here and here!

Julian had a well-baby last week - I don't even know what month we're supposed to be on but it fell on his 17 month birthday. It was the usual - you know trying to keep a naked baby still on the scale for weight and measurement checks, take the naked kid into the cold exam room, take him back out to get re-measured since he appears to be shrinking since there seems to be no accurate way of measuring a kid under the age of 4.

I'm so indifferent to these appointments. I think it just measures your level of comfort with being a parent. Julian's first one I went in with questions that I rattled off a scroll. Now I just nod my head, yeah yeah, blah blah..are we good? OK - see you next time. I just go for the free board books.

No vaccinations again and our doctor is surprisingly cool about it. Cool in the sense he doesn't push it at all even though I know he really wishes we would. We're waiting until he's older before making the final decision which I wish we did for all of them.

Everything is good and he's still in the 90% for height at 33 1/2" and 60% for weight at 25 lbs 13 oz but I'm happiest to report his head is finally catching up with the rest of his body now at 75%. I was also able to check off all the developments through 24 months, thank GOD because I'm hoping they will quit giving me the same darn thing to fill out every time. Although by his next appointment in 5 months or so I'm sure there will be a whole new one to deal with.

He loves helping us these days. I can say "bring this to Daddy" and he'll carefully carry it over with such pride. He also enjoys helping me bake:





Screw the pie, I just want an apple.
His vocabulary has really increased lately too, it already surpasses mine which doesn't say a whole lot. Here's the latest:

Ball
Hot - complete with the fake touching of a hot item or blowing off imaginary food in his hands
Yellow - occasionally actually in reference to a yellow object
Doggie
Kitty
Yummmm
Turtle - the cutest version of turtle EVER.
Dolphin
Elephant - more like "el-lay" but it works
Bye
Pop pop - for my dad
Apple
Truck - which sounds remarkably similar to "owe" but it's clearly his word for truck.
Bird
Moon - "mooooooo-n" it took us awhile to get the "n" on the end. He finally realized there was no cow in the sky.
Wow - in whisper form because he's that impressed.
Uh-oh
Down
Out
Hi
Thank you
Mommy - and the millions of variations: Mama, mom-meee, mah-may usually accompanied with running in circles as in "mommy, come chase me!"
Daddy
Donna - for Bryan's mom
Jojo - for our dog Jolie
Me me - whenever he wants anything
Sadie - for my parent's cat
awwww - usually when he's hugging (or headlocking?) the dogs or us
Bus
And most importantly...tattoo ("tah-toe")

Some brand new ones that are inconsistent:
Purple
boat
tiger
zebra

One hit wonders: or close to it
Water
Puzzle
Horse
Love you

Sounds the doctor refuses to acknowledge as words:
Moooo - when seeing a picture of a cow or asked what a cow says
Baahhh - ditto for sheep
Oo-oo-ah-ah - ditto squared for monkey
Snorts - for piggy
Woof - when he hears a dog barking, or upon meeting other kids at the playground

Signs: He doesn't know many but the few he does know seem to really help us communicate with him
Ball
Water
Dog (uses for almost any animal he sees in person)
Music
More
Milky
Shoes
Tree
Change diaper - very rare

Do they ever stop impressing you? I've been catching him repeating a word to himself as he plays, I'm not sure what word it is but it sounds like a very define "what" but I don't think that is what he's trying to say. We'll find out soon! He's just very good right now about repeating a word almost perfectly when you tell him to say it. It usually takes him some time then to be able to use it in context or on his own but this is such an advancement from where we were a couple months ago.

Another milestone happened recently...Bryan and I stayed the night in Annapolis without Julian. Yes his first night away from us and very first night without nursing. He slept with my mom and it seemed to work out OK. It doesn't mean it'll happen again anytime soon though, once was enough for me! I thought this was the best time before we moved out. That way he could be in his own bed and my parents would be here like always. So it wasn't too different for him aside from both of his parents totally abandoning him. It was nice to have time alone but we sure did miss him! And I was pretty uncomfortable going that long without nursing. Not a good idea, another reason why it won't happen again before he's weaned! I think it had an effect on him though, I can't leave the room if we're not home alone because he assumes that means I'm leaving. If it's just he and I home, he's all over the house but as soon as my mom comes home he's glued to my leg.

Speaking of separation anxiety, I tried to get his picture taken with the white bearded man and he wasn't havin' it. He screamed so I couldn't torture him for the sake of getting a photo with a stranger in a mall. Maybe next year!

Well hopefully this caught you all up on the last month or so. Before I go, a few more photos - you really can never have enough, can you? Or is that just me?

Best Halloween Ever

Julian looked so cute. And ohmygawd was he awesome.

His nap was messed up today because we wanted to stop and have lunch with Nana since I had Julian in his costume since he woke up. I wanted her to see her hard work in action. So I had to wake him up after he fell asleep in the car for 10 minutes. His Nana gave him his treats in the form of board books which he LOVED. Especially because the one had a big, black cat and the other came with crayons.



We then repeated the sleep scenario on the way home. Normally he'll transfer to the bed but not today so we had a very delirious boy for the afternoon until he surrendered to a very late nap - which then led to a very cranky boy when he woke up. And he cried through most of dinner which I blame on his totally purple, almost bloody looking gum where his bottom molar is poking through. He kept grabbing at his mouth and I felt so terrible for him. It wasn’t looking good for our night ahead. But many bites of Pepper Steak later he was better and we headed out.

We kind of pushed him along to the first house.


He left there with a bewildered look on his face thinking "what just happened?" But he kept on going and carried his glowing candy receptacle the entire way. We didn't plan on going far but he was having fun and so we kept on chugging.

He was seriously the hit of the neighborhood. He had people ooohing and aahhing over him all night, the attention was overwhelming. Little kids were saying how cute he was. Well how cute SHE was but we're used to that. He wasn't really grasping the concept that you needed to actually get within inches of the person handing out the candy or that you should proceed to the next house instead of turning around to go back to the house you just came from. BUT by the end of the night he was getting the hang of it. His candy basket was getting too heavy for him so he handed it to me but when we got to the next house he politely asked for it back and went up to the door. He knew he needed to bring his pumpkin to get the candy. Man this kid just kills me.

Julian kept pointing out the moon and stars over and over. He walked the whole way home, we didn’t' have to carry him at all and then he had just as much fun handing out the candy as he did collecting it. Then the big, bad Mama had to take it all away.


Cute costume but sure is reflective.

Mr. Roboto

Happy Halloween!



Our playgroup met up at the apple orchard yesterday hoping we could get a picture of all the kids in their costumes. Half wouldn't wear theirs and the other half had theirs off by the end. Except for Julian of all kids, he left his on the entire time, didn' t mess with it or anything. Although I took the head piece off since it was just under 70 degrees yesterday. Which meant the bees were out in full force and I had to sacrafice a cider donut because of it so you know how serious it was.

So here it is, his handmade original robot costume. Everyone said how cute he was and cute indeedy.




I hope you all have a safe and enjoyable Halloween and your teeth don't rot out of your head. More trick-or-treating photos to come tomorrow!

She's a Star!

If you happen to be cruising your mall, swing by your Limited Too and see if you see this picture:



Here, this one.


That's my niece, ain't she a beauty? She's also somewhere in their catalog that came out a couple days ago which I still have to go pick up.

Foto Friday: Head Shot

Foto Friday: Ride 'Em Cowboy

"Hiiii deee-eeee"


Hmmm, he feels nice and springy.


Julian! Do NOT jump on the dog!


OK, I'll gouge his eye out!

What does a train say? How the heck should I know?

We've skipped a couple playgroups the past few weeks. Well one absence was due to Vegas, and then I needed a week to recover, and another week to recover from my recovery week. Plus when they are outdoors at our big, old beloved city park, the time spent with the group usually consists of Julian way on the outskirts away from everyone and me yelling "Hi!" as I run by the other moms to catch up with him. I figure if we're gonna be hanging out alone, we might as well pass on the drive through rush hour and stay local.

But since we've been a bit isolated the last couple weeks I wanted to make sure we were going to Monday's playgroup. Much to my delight, we were all going to meet at the B & O Railroad museum which happens to be their free day.

We were the first to arrive, surprisingly. Then one of the dads from the group followed shortly behind us. His little boy who is a couple months older than Julian was in tow. He had on his conductor overalls, carrying an all about trains board book and could answer "what does a train say?" with an excited "choo choo!" Wow. Then there is us. Oh yeah well "Julian, what does a train say?" Instead of a similar response I received a look as if to say "Mom, you aren't fooling anyone. You know darn well you've never told me what a train says. In fact, I don't even know what a train is, how should I know what it says?" We were clearly unprepared for this trip. My preparation consisted of me printing out directions to the museum at the last minute.

Regardless of the fact Julian had no interest in the trains, even the ones you could go inside, it was a fun day. He only wanted to run on the stroller/wheelchair access ramps. I thought the one leading up to the train would catch his interest but he'd get halfway up only to run back down. And up. And down. And up. Never making it to the top where I thought I could push him inside where he'd be wowed by all the old metal and knobs and things he could touch.

He did however show a large amount of interest in a rock outside.



"What the heck is this thing behind me?"


And the Foto Friday I forgot to put up: Bones Brigade

Foto Friday: Hay, hay, hay!

We've been Jekyll and Hyde around here lately as I found the possible explanation for the demon that appeared in Vegas; he's getting TWO molars - judging by the top right poking out and the bulging purple gum on the top left. These will be teeth 9 and 10. So these are from our lovely day at the Apple Orchard last Saturday. We enjoyed ourselves immensely, especially the apple cider, cider slush, cider donuts as well as our cider overdose. Sadly we didn't actually get to pick our own apples because by the time we were done eating and playing, it was closing. Besides, I really don't know what I'd do with the 8lb minimum but watch them rot.




He's no dummy, no rat caught in this maze. It wasn't quite so easy in the bigger kid maze we advanced to.