22 months

We've been so busy this summer. It's been so much fun, but a little exhausting!! It's not about to slow down this fall either. This past weekend we had my niece's first birthday party!! I had so much fun being part of the planning. It was fun to plan a pink party! We also celebrated the 50th birthday of the church we go to (I have gone my whole life except while I was away at college). We had a great time with fun bounce houses, games, food and worship!




















So James is actually 22 1/2 months now, but at least I am getting this written! It's been in the back of my mind for awhile now I just couldn't seem to get it done. I've also been debating if I was going to continue updating each month for the rest of his life! I've decided to stop at 2 years old, so I only have a couple months left. I have a lot of fun thinking through and writing out the progress he's made each month because it seems like there is so much growth each time. But guess it will slow down here at some point.

For now..here is what my busy boy is up to:

-Still taking 2 naps a day. It's unbelievable to me that he still takes two. I thought this was suppose to end at one year. I have experimented with putting him down later and just doing one, but it hasn't turned out well. He sleeps about an hour maybe an hour and a half and then it's 1:30 and too early for him to be up but too late for him to take another nap before dinner. It's nice he takes two naps when I'm home, it would just be more convenient when we are out and about.

-Great eater still. We did have our first stand off yesterday. For some reason he didn't want to eat the rest of his mac n' cheese. Well I knew he wasn't full so it was just because he wanted to play. He tried all sorts of things to get out of eating. We sat there 45 minutes before he finally decided to finish. He didn't throw a fit, he whined a bit but it was more a test of who was going to be more stubborn. I won! :)

-Talking, Talking! He's up to 3 word sentences and 3 syllable words. He's so funny how he jabbers so much. He of course doesn't have the ending to all of his words, I can understand him 95% of the time and a stranger probably 75%. It is getting harder though, even Mike has me translate sometimes because he has so much he wants to say now the words are smashed together sometimes! Like the other day we were driving home and he was talking about what he wanted for snack he said, "going home. grapes. bar. choc. milk. outside." It's so fun.

-We have been practicing our somersaults and I got out a piece of wood yesterday so he could use it as a balance beam. He thought it was great. He loves a challenge.

-"Say hi tooie" loves his grandpa's tools. My dad and Mike's dad both have plenty of tools, and James thinks it's pretty cool when they let him play with them.

-He recognizes all simple shapes (I can ask "where is the..." and he will hand it to you) and can name a lot of them. He can name: circle, oval, triangle, star, moon, heart, diamond. He is inconsistent with square, rectangle and octagon.

-We have also been working on our colors. He can recognize red, blue, yellow, orange, white, black and green. He can name black and white and is inconsistent on red, blue and yellow.

-He also likes to count. He can count to 10 (most of the time) and can count 3 objects on his own and sometimes more.

-Still loves the phone and his new one is the "papa ipad" He loves to watch the Wheels on the Bus song and helicopters. On my phone he colors, and watches himself on video (while going potty only!)

-Speaking of..potty training is going great! He is completely trained. He wears a diaper at night still because there are random wet diaper mornings, but for the most part he is dry! He now can pull his own pants down and climb up on the toilet on his own. He does a great job!! He loves to run around in his underwear. After he goes potty he tells me, "no shorts?"

I have been waiting for the day when I thought he was ready for playdoh..today was the day! I used a really simple recipe from pinterest and he loved it. He told me, "fun toy!" Here are a couple pictures of him today.

 

He is such a fun little boy. I love him so much and have really been trying to stop and enjoy each moment of the day. It's so easy to wish the time away each day. It's going way to fast and he'll be in school before I know it!

4 months

My baby is growing up fast! Eli has changed so much. He is developing his own unique look and not a twin of James. We are getting to know his sweet and sensitive personality and love him more every day. Eli is quite the mommy's boy. I always thought James was, but Eli is 10x what James every was/is. Eli has to be just fed/woken up to be held by anyone besides me. He gets a quiver lip and breaks down in tears pretty quick if it's anyone else. Mike can hold him sometimes, but if he needs anything there is no calming him down without me. It's really sweet actually, although a little tiring! Eli is also quite the talker. Wow, James and Eli are going to have to fight each other to get a word in. Eli loves to laugh and gets a good belly laugh going too.



What else he's up to:

-Eating every 2-3 hours. He has a lot of body to fill up!

-Finally has a nap schedule. Takes 3 naps a day, sometimes he needs an extra before bed but I try to hold off! He is sleeping about 6 hours at night before he wakes up to eat.

-Talks non-stop and gets pretty loud!

-Loves to be swaddled still. He actually laughs when he's being wrapped up because he's so excited to get wrapped up and go to sleep. It's funny!

-Reaching for toys. loves his play mat!

-Kicks with his legs and moves himself around, lifts his butt off the ground. He moves himself off the play mat.

-Loves to watch James. He follows him around the room and smiles and laughs at him. Melts my heart.











-Still doing well with tummy time, but not rolling over much yet. When I took him in for his 4 month appt I talked to his doctor about his head forming a flat spot and how he really prefers to look to the right over the left side. He said it's called torticollis, a congenital stiff neck muscle, which also makes it more difficult to roll over. About a month ago I noticed all of this so I researched it (of course) and found some exercises to do to stretch the muscle. I did them pretty half heartedly but thought I noticed a difference in him looking to the left more so I quit (it's not fun pushing his face to the left and making him cry!) plus I didn't really know how often or much I should push it. So I was happy when the pediatrician referred us to a ped. physical therapist. So we go next Tuesday (8/14/12). I am anxious because I just want to get a few answers. I hate laying him down because I don't want his head to get flatter! So if you could pray for him that would be appreciated!