Lewis is 8!

8 years old

Height: 54.8 inches [97th percentile]
Weight: 79 pounds, 12.8 ounces [96th percentile] 

What he's up to:

• He is in 2nd grade. The school year has been stressful for me, but not so much for him. He seems happy with how things are going, but I feel like his class itself is more distracting than in years past. He is still doing well and learning. Kevin and I are just not feeling great about how well he 'could' be doing. 
• He is doing Cub Scouts this year, which is going well. They have meetings 3 out of 4 Wednesdays a month. That initially seemed like a huge time commitment, but it hasn't been too bad. Our weeks off feel really nice, but the 1 hour meeting has been ok. He had a campout in the fall that Kevin went to, and he has one this spring that I'm going to go to. 
• Because of Scouts, we haven't done any sports this year. He was going to do basketball, but then he decided against it. He now says he wants to do spring soccer and summer baseball, but we haven't signed up yet. (Lenore also wants to do soccer, so we are waiting to talk about it again before signing anyone up.)
• He is going to be in his school's talent show next week. Three girls from his grade asked if he would be Slimer for their Ghostbusters act. They have a routine choreographed by one of the girl's big sisters, and it is adorable. 
• His favorite things to play with are still trains and Legos. If he was locked in a room with only those two things (and the thousands of pieces that accompany them), he would be perfectly content. He is amazing to watch. The stories he creates, the intricacies. He is going to do something in the STEM field.
• He and Lenore have been giving me glimpses of playing well together the past few weeks. We'll see if that keeps up. She is such an instigator and drives him insane every chance she gets. He takes thing so seriously (and she is such a shit-stirrer). They wear me out, but hopefully we are seeing a light on the horizon. Maybe.

That's Lewis at 8. I'm sure there's more to him, but these are the basics. :)

Lewis Turns (Turned) 7

Yesterday at the doctor.

 The night before he turned 7.

With Lenore. Story of my (our) life.

LEWIS IS SEVEN!! It happened 13 days ago now, but we've been busy. The way his birthday and Valentine's Day fell this year, we literally had some sort of celebration for 5 out of 7 days. It was a lot of cake and ice cream and candy.

He just went for his 7 year check-up yesterday, and I feel like I haven't written a post like this in forever (because I haven't).

Weight: 71 pounds, 9.6 ounces [97th percentile]

Height: 52 inches [97th percentile]

Kevin said he still needs to grow 2 inches before he's tall enough to ride this one particular coaster at Holiday World this summer (The Thunderbird), so we'll have to make sure he's eating his Wheaties these next few months. ;)

School is going well. His teacher this year is just phenomenal--she's been teaching for 23 years, I think, and she cares so much for the students and knows what she is doing. His favorite subject is science (yay!)--they have science every day in class, plus a weekly visit to the school's STEM Lab. Still very much loving our choice of schools.

We have started looking at camps for the summer. He's signed up for one week at the history museum, one week at the nature center where he went last summer, and one week at a Lego camp with the theme 'Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.' We are deciding on probably one more outdoor option, and the other weeks will be spent at home, at a pool, and on vacation--we are venturing to the Oregon coast with my parents and my sister's family for a week, which we're looking forward to.

He's not doing any sports at the moment. We did a short fall basketball season, but he seemed to lose interest (so no winter basketball for him). He just finished a soccer skills class that was offered after school, but he decided not to sign up for spring soccer with the Y. He is definitely looking forward to doing baseball again, especially after I told him it is machine pitch at this level. Baseball might be his thing, or it might not. Not sure yet. We might look into soccer again in the fall if he shows interest again, or we might not. Everything is kind of up in the air right now!

He is currently obsessed with the Titanic and asks me multiple times a day why they hit the iceberg, why the 4th smokestack fell, why they didn't put on enough lifeboats, etc. He is full of questions, over and over. We are going on spring break to Pigeon Forge, and coincidentally there is a Titanic museum there (woot woot). That should be fun for all of us.

He still loves his trains, Legos, riding his bike, and going for hikes in the woods behind our house. He also loves drawing--vehicles, usually, or scenes.

He has lost his top two teeth, bottom two teeth, and he has a very wiggly bottom tooth just next to the middle two.

That's all for now. I'm working on typing up his favorite things list. He's answered the questions--I just need time to type it. It's been busy around here!

Lewis at SIX!

Lewis is SIX!

It's so hard to believe that our once tiny baby boy is now riding a bike, drawing, spelling, reading, writing, etc. He has grown up so much since starting Kindergarten. It really is incredible.

His stats:
Height: 49 inches [96th percentile]
Weight: 58.64 pounds [94th percentile]

What he's up to:

• He loves riding his bike. He'd ridden a few times without training wheels last summer, but then he got a bit of a mental block, both from crashing and from not being able to go as fast. We reattached the training wheels and let some time pass. With the crazy warm winter we've been having, we decided to give it a go again a few weeks ago. Sure enough, he was ready, and he hasn't looked back, since. For his birthday present from us, we got him a bigger bike--still basic with pedal brakes and no gears or anything fancy. His first bike was just too tiny for him now (think knees in the handlebars), so it was time. He's JUST a bit too short to get started on his own with his new bike, so he's still going back to his old bike when he wants to ride independently. If we help him get started, though, he will take off on the new one.
• We have new neighbors! It is great. One of the girls is in Lewis's class, and her older sister is in 3rd grade. They are the sweetest, and it's been so nice to get to know them and shuffle kids to and from each other's houses.
• School is going really well. The work that Lewis does astounds me--the concepts they are learning at such an early age. And he gets it. His teacher and assistant teacher are absolutely wonderful, and Lewis adores them. 
• He is still very much into trains. Over winter break, we had train tracks set up all over the house. Legos are big, too, as well as drawing and writing and drawing and writing some more. He pretty much wakes up and goes straight to the table to draw. He still watches the Kindle some (Lego videos, educational videos that he sometimes watches at school i.e. counting to 100), but he spends more time than anything else, putting pencil to paper.
• He is about 2/3 through his first YMCA basketball season right now. He says he enjoys playing, which is what matters. :) He's still working on learning the basics, of course. I'm not sure yet which sports he will sign-up for again. He played soccer and baseball through the Y last year. He says he wants to do golf, so we might look into getting him into a golf camp this summer. I'm pretty sure he thinks golf = putt-putt, though, so he might be disappointed. Although, maybe somewhere has a putt-putt league?? He also wants to go out for his school's track team this spring, which we are still on the fence about.
• Lost Tooth Count: still 2! The bottom middle ones. His dentist said the top middle would be next, but they aren't wiggly yet.

Lewis at FIVE!

Five Years Old

----------Updated 2/23/16 with doctor's appointment findings:

His stats from the doctor:
Height: 46 5/8 inches [96.4th percentile]
Weight: 54.1 pounds [99.6th percentile]

His appointment went very well. They tested his urine and blood and screened his vision, hearing, blood pressure, handwriting, colors, walking on toes/walking on heels, touching his toes (to check for scoliosis), and a few other things I'm probably forgetting. It took longer than any appointment we've been to, but Lewis seemed to enjoy the tasks, except for the finger prick. He was VERY brave while the nurse pricked and then squeezed his finger, but after she left, he was VERY upset that there was a hole left in his finger. I'm talking sobbing tears, upset about why there had to be a hole left in his finger. I tried to calmly explain to him that his body would repair the hole right away (definitely by bath time), but he was soooo upset! 'But why does there have to be a hooooole?!' Thankfully all looked back to normal by bath time--phew!

All checked out well except for his iron. It was just a little low (11.8, and the minimum should be 12), so we are going to get him back on a multivitamin with iron. He didn't have to get any shots and is up-to-date until 2022!
----------

It's hard to believe that Lewis is turning five years old. My memories are a little foggy from his birth day now that time has passed and Lenore has joined our family, but it definitely feels hard to believe he's been with us for five years. Kevin and I have been parents for five years! [Ten years, if you count the dogs, I suppose. ;)] 

Here's what he's been up to lately:

• He is doing very well at preschool. We had a parent-teacher conference in the fall, and they said he was pretty much on track, as far as Kindergarten-preparedness goes. At the time, he did need to work on gripping a pencil and using scissors, so we've been working on those. He's just starting to want to color and draw more--it's just not been something he's been interested in before. His handwriting needs some fine-tuning, as well. In time. ;)
• We have applied to his elementary school, which is a whole process here in Louisville, even with the public schools. Everyone lives within a cluster, and you rank your choice of schools within your cluster, and you hope that you get your #1 (or #2) choice. Our #1 is just a mile away from our house, so I really hope we get it. There is a more well-touted school in our cluster that we hope others will try for, so that should leave us a better chance of getting into ours. We will find out in March, I think.
• He has played soccer at school last fall and this spring, and we are going to sign up for T-ball this summer with one of his buddies. I need to sign him up for swim lessons, again, too.
• He very much loves his trains. He caught Hand Foot Mouth disease at school right before Christmas break, so we were home in quarantine for a week, and his love of trains kind of got re-energized then. He spent hours working quietly and built the most elaborate set-ups. He can be so meticulous and patient when he is in the train zone, unless he gets frustrated or Lenore gets too close. We actually got him a beginner's model train set for his birthday that is meant for a slightly older age group, but he can handle it.
• He loves to play outside in the yard, either digging in the dirt or playing in the sandbox. He likes to pretend that he's camping, and he loves when we build a real campfire. He loves to collect things he finds outside in the yard and/or on bike rides, and he brings them home and puts them in a treasure box (a small box he made at school). He has feathers, acorns, rocks, pine cones, etc.
• He does have some angry outbursts at times, which are usually followed by a big hug. I feel like he is definitely working through how to express his emotions properly, so we work on using our words. Sometimes he tries to hit or kick/trip Lenore or twirl her hair aggressively, hits a toy, shrieks, or stomps around. We, of course, are trying to teach him that it's not okay to put his hands onto other people out of aggression, but it's an ongoing battle. He has twirled my hair and her hair as a comfort thing for a while now, which is fine, but it's not fine when he pulls her hair as he does it.
• He has started saying he wants to be a firefighter when he grows up. We have started seeing a particular fire truck more often on our way to/from school, one with a REALLY long ladder on top, and he wants to have the job of the 2nd driver of that truck. Someone sits on the top of the back of the truck to help the truck turn corners.
• He's starting to try to tell jokes, which is funny in itself. He hasn't quite gotten the comedic timing down yet, but he's trying. And he cracks himself up, just walking around saying silly words.

Outtakes from this morning:

 Snuggles

His CHEESE Face

Lewis at 4 Years

Four Years Old

His measurements (percentiles from World Health Organization because he's too old for the BabyCenter one now):

Height: 44 inches (97.7th percentile)

Weight: 48.2 pounds (99.8th percentile)

We go to the doctor on Tuesday for his 4-year check-up, so I'll see if they agree with our measurements.

What he's into/what he's doing:

• Trains! Everything is trains right now! He still very much loves tractors and planes and construction trucks and the like, but he's been especially fond of trains these past few months.
• He knows his numbers, and we are still working on letters. He was doing pretty well with them, but recently he's either forgotten them, or he thinks it's 'funny' to get the letter wrong when we ask what it is. He's really good at 'reading' signs and brand names.
• We haven't begun to work on writing at all, but I think that will happen soon. He's doing better with coloring (scribbling, holding a crayon, etc.).
• He LOVES his sister. He gives her a hug and a kiss goodnight every evening, and they've started interacting more during the day. For instance, I can put her in the jumperoo, and he'll talk to her and play with the toys with her--she just giggles her head off at him, so I think it's safe to say she loves him, too. :)
• School is going really well--he loves his teachers and classmates so much. They've started Show and Tell this semester, so he's started taking in a toy one day a week to share with his class. We are trying soccer again this semester, and it seems to be going much better this time around (he bowed out last year after just the first week, I think).
• We are starting swim lessons again in April (we last took them when he was just over a year old). Hopefully now he's old enough to learn to swim on his own! I don't have to get in the water with him now, so Lenore and I will just watch from the sidelines.
• He asks great questions! For instance, in the car the other day, we were jamming out to Throwback Thursday, like we do every Thursday on the way to school. I was dancing like a fool (as usual) and said something like:
• Mama: Man, these are all the songs Mama used to dance to when I was a kid.
• Lewis: Who drove the car when you were a kid?
• I told him that it was Gramma or Papaw. Then he asked if they drove my car, to which I explained that my car wasn't around back then, but that we drove Gramma and Papaw's cars. We then went on to talk about what their cars were like, and he asked if Gramma's blue car was kind of like Dada's blue car and so on. It just kept going. It was sweet to have a whole conversation with him, with him actually thinking and inferring and contributing to it. He seemed so grown up!
• Sleep isn't the greatest at times. He hasn't napped in months (except for the occasional one in the car if we're driving a long distance). He still goes down for the night at 7:30pm (sometimes earlier if he's wild), and he's been waking up around 6am (maybe 6:30 if he's 'sleeping in'). A few weeks ago, he put himself to bed at 5:30pm and didn't wake up until 6:30 the next morning. The end-of-the-day-sleep-deficient-Lewis is quite a sight to behold, let me tell you!
• Eating is meh. He would definitely survive on bread and crackers alone if we let him. I didn't realize just how appalling his appetite was until we were in Boise and I saw how well Juniper and Otis were eating. [To be fair, we'd fallen into a particularly deep granola bar and peanut butter/cheese cracker sandwich habit between Lenore's birth and the Boise trip.] When we got back from there, we implemented a fruit-only snack policy, which helped immensely. (I've loosened a little on that, but he doesn't ask for granola bars or cheesy crackers anymore, thank goodness.) His list of foods he will eat is still fairly small, but we're working on it.
• He is wearing 5T shirts and pants right now and size 12 shoes. Some of the shirts and pants are getting a little short, so it depends on the brand--we've moved up to the XS (4/5) boys size in some pieces. His footed pajamas are size 6.
• We love him to pieces! Looking forward to 4!

Here is his 3 year post.

And his 2 year.

And his 1 year.

Three Years Old!

Lewis is THREE!

Here he is at two.

And at one.

We went to the doctor today for his 3-year check-up, and everything looks good! He was very good as they took his blood pressure and heart rate and checked his ears and mouth.

Here are his 3-year statistics and percentiles from BabyCenter:

Height: 41 inches (above 95th percentile)
Weight: 40.9 pounds (above 95th percentile)
Head Size: 21.5 inches (above 95th percentile)

I was a little surprised that he's still considered so big because he seems to have plateaued with his weight, at least. Looking back, he was 37 inches tall at 2 years old and weighed 35.3 pounds, so I guess he HAS grown. It just doesn't seem as obvious to me.

What he's into/what he's doing:

• He still very much loves all things that move--construction trucks, planes, trains, tractors, fire trucks, etc. He loves watching Mighty Machines to learn alllll about his favorite things.
• He loves doing puzzles (24-30 pieces).
• He loves books. He goes through phases where he'll want to read the same few books for 4-5 days, and then he moves on to a few different ones.
• Some of his favorite phrases these days are, 'What's that, Mommy/Dad?' or 'What's it doin'?' He wants to know what everything is in the pictures of his books and wants to know what their purpose/function is.
• He likes to sing. He's been learning 'Silly Songs' (a book) at Grandma and Grandpa T's house, and he'll walk around the house, breaking out into those songs a lot. I think he's been learning some at school in music class, too.
• Just the other day, he broke out into 'Oh, my darling, Clementine'...I started singing it with him, and after a few minutes he busted out singing the days of the week instead of the usual lyrics! We had no idea that he knew them, but he apparently does and he sings them so sweetly. :)
• He loves to help. We got him a stool for the kitchen, and he likes to stand on it and help us cook--he will measure pancake mix, help get the peanut butter out of the cabinet, pre-eat his food, etc.
• He also moves the stool around to be able to reach things that were previously out of reach. He'll move it to the hall closet (our pantry), turn the light on (a pull string), and reach up and grab the big plastic Cheerios container.

• Kind of along the same lines, he is Mr. Independent. He was saying, 'My do it!' a lot...now he has figured out the pronoun and it's, 'I do it!' We've been trying to stay patient as he learns to do more and more for himself.
• He's a very sweet boy--he'll say, 'I love you, Mommy' and 'I love you, Dad,' unprovoked.
• He's also started being snuggly again. Sometimes he'll crawl up on my lap on the couch and just say 'snuggle' and sometimes he'll take my hand and lead me to his room to sit in his recliner to snuggle.
• Sleeping and napping are still going well. He was napping again pretty consistently for a few months, but lately he has started being more sporadic again. He still takes some 'quiet time' in his room every day, regardless of if he sleeps. I'd say we were at 85% success on naps, and now it's more like 40% the past few weeks.
• Eating is mildly improving, I would say. He is eating more vegetables, but he is still not a big fan of meat. He sustains himself most days on bread, fruit, yogurt, and milk. And cheese and PBJ. I see slight improvements, though, on his willingness to try new things.
• He wears size 4T or 5T shirt and 4T pants. Shoe size is 10.
• He has started yoga as an extra-curricular at school this spring semester. While soccer was a big fail last fall, yoga is going so well and we couldn't be more pleased with what he's learning. He'll show you his yoga poses if you ask him to. Downward Dog and Mountain pose are his favorites/most known ones at this point. It's pretty cute. :) The instructor said at his first class he kept saying, 'I'm doing yoga! I'm doing yoga!' as he practiced his moves.

That's all I can think of for now. We are very much looking forward to the warmer weather and playing outside. Today is shaping up to be very nice, so I think we'll have lunch outside. Come on, spring! :)

From There to Here, Part Deux

I know Auntie Schwee liked seeing this post of pictures from the early days through year one, so I thought I'd post his year one through year two all together for her (and others) to see.

 One Year Old 

13 Months

14 Months

15 Months

16 Months
(in Duck, NC)

17 Months
(in an outfit from when I was little)

18 Months
aka Cheeseballs!

19 Months
(I remember this morning was difficult and whack because he's slouching and the dog is on the wrong side.)

20 Months

21 Months

(my favorite, I think)

22 Months

(Kevin's favorite)

23 Months
(another favorite of mine)

Two Years!

(and another fave) :)

Two Years Old

Happy birthday, buddy!

And the slacking begins. I've been a little busy with finishing the kitchen, cleaning the house, and preparing for the birthday party, so I haven't written a two year post. We'd planned to stop the monthly pictures at two years, so I guess this will be his last (I'll have to double-check with Kevin on what we decided). Maybe we could still do a picture but not a full write-up. We did get a picture this morning and his measurements at his doctor's appointment, so I'll at least share those today. :)

Two Years Old

His stats (from the doctor's office):

Height: 37 inches (97th percentile)

Weight: 35.3 pounds (98th percentile)

No head size this time, but I'll just venture a guess and say that it is large. :) The appointment went well--I actually had questions this time about crib vs. bed (for our climbing monster), potty training, language, Mom's Day Out vs. preschool (for the fall), etc. He didn't receive any shots, but they did do a finger prick and squeezed and squeezed (Adie, I thought of you!!) to fill the little tube of blood. He didn't like that one bit, but the exam itself went well. He won't go back for a check-up now until February of 2014!

23 Months Old

23 Months Old

His stats (from BabyCenter):
Height: 37 inches (above 95th percentile)
Weight: 33.5 pounds (above 95th percentile)
Head Size: 21 inches (above 95th percentile)

He lost 1.3 pounds since last month but gained an inch in height and .5 inch in head size. He was extra wiggly this morning, so height and head size could be off a bit.

What he's doing this month:

• Letting us read entire books to him. Well, one or two books, in particular. It's a start.
• He really likes a Thomas the Train book called A Crack in the Track. I think his favorite part of the book is when the bus (Bertie) arrives at a broken down Thomas to take the passengers on to the next station. We read it every time we sit down to read.
• Making the connection between items in his books and items around our house.
• If there is a picture of a baby in a book, he might go and point to the Huggies wipes packaging that has a baby on it. We were doing a puzzle of a construction site the other day and I asked him where certain types of trucks were on the puzzle (dump truck, roller, concrete mixer), and he would go over and find his toy version of that truck and lay it on the puzzle and drive it around the scene.
• His words are many now! My favorites are Haaht for Hattie and Boo-uh for Peter.
• He is also saying his s's and sh's and ch's. So Bus sounds likes bus instead of bah.
• He will try to repeat most anything we say to him. Sometimes it sounds very close--sometimes he can't quite get it out. Our favorite thing he repeats is Lewis Pete!
• After Kevin reads to him and puts him into bed at night, Lewis says Night and Bye-Bye (in the sweetest southern twang) when Kevin leaves the room.
• He is very much into his toys.
• He loves building things with his Mega Bloks. The past few times I've gone to pick him up at the Y, he has snubbed me (by pretending he didn't see me) and kept on building with his blocks. He loves them--we have a bunch here at home, too, and he's really started stacking them high.
• He's also still very much into puzzles.
• There is a Cars book that Grandma and Grandpa Thompson got him for Christmas, and he loves to push the buttons to play music and shake his booty to it. He bounces up and down and is so cute.
• He's getting more into coloring. We had one yellow crayon + couch incident and some scribbles on the tabletop, but otherwise he's doing a pretty good job of keeping crayon to paper.
• He really likes dunking outside on his basketball goal. We might have to look for an indoor version for the winter so he can continue working on his skills. :)
• He's really funny about putting trash (or occasionally non-trash) in the trash can and laundry in the laundry basket. He's become a very good helper, for the most part--I can ask him to go put something in his laundry basket (and he will) or ask him to go put something in the trash can (and he does).
• Gramma and Papaw Carter watched him for a few days this month and taught him to blow kisses and say tugga-tugga-tugga-tugga-...-TOOT-TOOT.
• He now walks up the stairs with ease. He still scoots down them on his butt, but sometimes he gets brave towards the bottom and walks down the last few by holding onto the wall.
• Slooowly becoming a more adventurous eater. 
• I realize it is my fault. I just haven't quite gotten into the swing of feeding him our normal meals. It's so much easier for me, logistically, to feed him 'his' food (mac and cheese, PBJ, etc.) in his high chair while I prepare dinner for Kevin and I. But then Kevin and I are trying to eat dinner with Lewis climbing onto the coffee table, and it's madness.
• Since the new year, I have started starting dinner with him still playing, and then I put him in his highchair to have some fruit while I finish up the main course. It has worked out the past few weeks that Kevin gets home right as dinner is ready, so all three of us have been able to sit down and eat together (what a concept!). He sometimes eats what I've made, and sometimes not (still PBJ or mac and cheese). This is definitely something I'm working on.
• And when he does have mac and cheese, it's Kraft's veggie mac and cheese (made with cauliflower pasta) with smooshed sweet potatoes and parsnips mixed in.
• Napping well and sleeping well overnight.
• Over Christmas, he had a few days of bad naps. 45 minutes in the car one day, no nap another, and 30 minutes in the car the third day. Even when we were here at the house, he was having trouble going down (too much fun to be had!). Now that we're back to our 'normal,' he has started napping better and sleeping better overnight (sleeping in a little later).
• Current Tooth Count: all 20!

22 Months Old

22 Months Old 

His stats (from BabyCenter):
Height: 36 inches (between 90th and 95th percentile)
Weight: 34.8 pounds (above 95th percentile)
Head Size: 20.5 inches (above 95th percentile)

So his head stayed the same yet again and he didn't gain any height, but he did gain another pound (which is shocking that he gained any weight at all since he's been eating like a bird the past week with teething).

What he's doing this month:

• His two favorite words are Hat! and Hot! Both make me nervous. :)
• Hat! might mean that he wants us to put a hat on, or that he has placed some other object on an object as a hat. An apple on his sippy cup is fine, but a bowl of food on his sippy cup can get messy if there is still food in that now-upside-down bowl. :)
• Hot! used to mean that the food was hot, but most likely is just an excuse for not eating something. He'll say Hot! and blow air out of his mouth to cool it down. Then he probably throws it on the floor.
• After a 6ish month break, he is back on yogurt with a vengeance! There is a strawberry honey Greek yogurt that he eats like a mad man. I tried getting just honey (because he was out and we were at Trader Joe's and that was the only flavor they had)  and that was a no go.
• He is still not great with vegetables, so I've been making a lot of veggie pasta macaroni and cheese (from Kraft, made with cauliflower pasta) and smushing steamed sweet potatoes into it, too. I've also started giving him a pouch (of puree) a day that has vegetables and fruit (instead of just fruit or fruit/yogurt) so he can get some veggies in that way, too.
• He's good with fruit--blueberries are the clear favorite (and he asks for them...he can say Blueberry now!). I've been buying big bags of frozen berries and thawing as needed.
• He still rather hates having his teeth brushed, but this past week he has started climbing up on the table to get his toothbrush and toothpaste. He likes to carry them around, at least. I think he just wants to have Thomas the Train in his hands (he is on his toothpaste).
• His speech continues to grow. He's getting better at saying words back to us if we say them first. His favorites/most used are probably Hot, Hat, Plane, Car, Vroom Vroom, Train, Choo Choo, Bat, Ball, Bowl, Balloon, Dog, Woof, Mama, Dada, Blueberry, Mmm (if something tastes good), Tree, Star, Santa, Ho Ho Ho, Hi, and Bye Bye. He has even started saying Bye Bye to strangers (usually cashiers as we are leaving a store).
• He also says Bye Bye to his toys if we are going from house to car, car to store, upstairs to downstairs, etc. I'll say "We need to leave those here, we're going ___" and he puts them down and tells them Bye Bye. :) It's pretty sweet.
• Sometimes when he hears dance-worthy music, he will say Dance! and wave his arms in the air for a few seconds.
• He is more and more into his train set. He pushes the train cars around on the actual tracks now instead of just driving them along on the furniture or floor.
• He really likes his basketball goal--he likes to put the ball through the hoop, clap and yell with excitement, and chase after the ball as it rolls down the driveway. He'll get it and run back and shoot it and chase it all over again.
• He is into turning the faucet on, closing doors, flushing the toilet, and flipping light switches.
• Kevin has been working some loooong hours this week, so I've been doing bedtime. It's been neat to have Lewis show me their routine after I normally leave the room. After a diaper and pajama change, Lewis goes over and selects his books. He is so damn cute about picking just the right ones. He will pull one off to see what it is, then put it back if it's not what he wanted. He stacks up the books on the arm of the chair as he selects them and has ended up with 2-5 books on any given night. Once he's done choosing, he'll come sit on my lap. He doesn't seem to want the words read to him for the most part--he prefers to turn the pages and point to things he knows (ball, star, car, tree, etc.). Kevin said he will ask him where certain things are, and Lewis will point to the right thing most of the time.
• When we are done reading, I say, 'Okay, it's time for bed' and he will walk over to his crib and wait to be lifted into it. I'm so impressed by the routine that he and Kevin have developed together. :)
• Speaking of bedtime, sleep has been great the last week or so. We're back to almost 12 hours a night. I'm sure it will be short-lived, but for now it's great. Nap is 1 1/2 to 2 hours, creeping more towards 2 hours lately.
• He has officially moved up to 3T sleepers--the 2T were so tight on his thighs and his big ol' feet were barely fitting anymore. The 3T are a bit baggy, but I think he's much more comfortable. He's wearing 18-24 or 24 month jeans/pants (the true 2T are still a bit baggy in the waist and long in the length). He is wearing 2T and some 3T shirts. Size 7 1/2-8 in shoes.
• The past week or so, he has been not eating as well and has been chewing/sucking on his fingers. It has to be teething, but he doesn't seem to be in as much pain as usual. I did give him Tylenol one day when he did seem to have mouth pain before nap, but otherwise he's just had his hands in his mouth a lot. I haven't gotten in there to see if his molars are coming in or not--that's all he has left are those last 4 2-year molars.

That is Lewis at 22 months. We're really looking forward to Christmas and having Kevin off of work for a week!

21 Months Old

21 Months Old

Cheese!

His stats (from BabyCenter):
Height: 36 inches (above 95th percentile)
Weight: 33.8 pounds (above 95th percentile)
Head Size: 20.5 inches (above 95th percentile)

I thought he was eating an awful lot a few weeks ago! His head stayed the same size, but he grew an inch and gained 4.3 pounds. (Though he'd had a heavier day before last month's post where he was around 32 pounds, I think, which would mean he only gained 2ish pounds.)

What he's doing this month:

• He is still loving all things car, truck, Jeep (he can pick them out of a crowded parking lot), train, bus, plane, construction vehicle, ambulance/police/fire, helicopter, bicycle, etc.
• He loves his racing track that I posted pictures of the other day and he likes to roll his cars and/or trains around (pretending to drive them) and says vroom vroom or choo choo.
• He is really into the noises that things make, like car, plane, ambulance/police/fire, dog, bear, dinosaur, and lion. He gets REALLY into his vroom vroom-ing. He'll say it over and over, gradually getting louder until he's just about screaming.
• He says Baah Baah so sweetly and flops his little hand (waving bye). He doesn't wave hello, but he does pick up cell phones and holds them to his ear and says Hello.
• He also 'knows' the U of L cardinal, so when he sees him around the house on a shirt or hat or glass, he gets really excited and yells out something that sounds like 'bird,' maybe? And then he throws up an arm and says 'AH!' and we say 'Go Cards!' He's starting to do the same with the Cubs symbols, too.
• To counteract the Cardinal (over)exposure (love you, Kevin!), I have been teaching him Indiana, Our Indiana on the side. :) And Let's Go IU!, Hoo-hoo-hoo, Hoosiers!, and Go Big Red!
• Lately, most anything can be accomplished if singing The Wheels on the Bus (we have the book). I can tie his shoes and cut his fingernails without him squirming as long as I'm singing it. Anytime he sees a bus in real-life or in a book, he asks us to sing it by just singing 'Ahhh?' (like a question/ohsosweet demand). Once you finish a verse, he 'Ahhh?'s again. He's relentless with it, too--after I go through the verses I can remember, I have to make up things that are on the bus. He usually gets on a roll in the car or at breakfast (after Kevin prompts him to do so as Kevin and I are switching breakfast duty).
• For brushing teeth, I found some Thomas the Train toothpaste, thinking it might help ease the struggle a little. So far, so good! He likes to hold the tube of toothpaste while we are brushing, and when we're finished, we say Baah Baah to Thomas until the next time. He still doesn't love having his teeth brushed, but he's getting better about it.
• He loves hats. Moreso, he loves pulling hats out of the basket in our room and making Kevin and I wear them. At like 6:45am yesterday morning, he was saying 'Haaaa! Haaaa!' in our room and we realized he had two hats in his hand, wanting us to put them on (we were still trying to pretend to be asleep). The other day I had 3 hats on my head at once, along with 2 of Kevin's shoes. We're like his little paper dolls. :)
• Talking overall is really coming along this month. He seems to use more and more words and less 'dahs' every few days.
• Kevin also has started asking him where things are, and he totally knows (just prefers not to say). :) He'll ask him where random things are (i.e. the wall, banana, TV, Peter, table, mama, hair, raisins, door, etc.) at mealtimes, and Lewis has gotten really good at pointing things out accurately. 
• He still surprises me with things he 'gets' that I don't think he'll get. The other day I couldn't find his water, so I went out to see if I'd left it in the car. It wasn't there, so I said, "Lewis, where did we put your water?" kind of talking to myself, and he walked over to the back of the garage, behind his car and under his chair, pulled out his water cup, and brought it to me.
• Daylight Saving Time didn't throw him off too badly. I think by about 4 days after, we were back to 'normal' which is a 7:30pm bedtime and 6:30am wake-up. Right BEFORE the time changed, we were getting closer to a 7am wake-up, even 7:30 one glorious day. Oh well. 
• I should add that the night of the time change we were at Waycross, and Lewis woke Sharon and Jim up at 4am (which was 5am if we were in the time our bodies were used to). It was a brutally long morning and day for them, I'm sure.
• He's really into opening and closing doors. He'll open a door, go in the room, and close himself inside. (And sometimes can't get himself back out so we have to go get him.) He's pretty good with the long door handles but can't yet turn the round knob ones.

That is Lewis at 21 months!

20 Months Old aka Older Than Dirt

20 months?! Wow, that sounds old!

20 Months Old

His stats (from BabyCenter):
Height: 35 inches (between 90th and 95th percentile)
Weight: 29.5 pounds (between 75th and 90th percentile)
Head Size: 20.5 inches (above 95th percentile)

So that's no change in his height or head size this month and a loss of .8 pounds. Kevin did weigh him the other day, and he was 32.5 pounds that day--he must have been having a fat pants day that day. :)

What he's doing this month:

• Talking more and more each day! He still does a lot of pointing and Nah!-ing (instead of Dah!-ing), but he has clearly said: Mama, Dada, Ball, Bowl, Brown, Black, Broom (we were on a B kick one day), Vroom, Dog, Woof, Yes, No, and Jeep (he yells out Jeep! when we see one in a parking lot). He is getting close with Plane and Bus--they are Pluh and Bah, but he uses them in context so I know what he means. He WANTS to say Tractor and Car, but they sound nothing like what they are supposed to just yet.
• He is Mr. Independent when getting things in/out of the fridge. We made him his own shelf at his eye level, so now he can go and get his water, milk, strawberries, or other food when he wants them. It is a blessing and a curse--when he was first opening and closing the door to get things, my reaction was to lock down the doors (and I did with safety straps). The straps got in MY way, though, when I needed to get things out, so I took them off. If I'm trying to cook dinner or he's just opening it too much, I do attach the strap again just for my sanity (and tell him it's 'closed' for now).
• He's making more and more connections about which things go with which/what things are supposed to do. 
• For instance, he will get my hair dryer out from under the sink and reach the plug up towards the outlet for me to plug it in. 
• While we were camping this weekend, he took Ben and Adie's keys and went over to their car's keyhole and tried to put the key in the keyhole. 
• He (ewww!) grabs the toilet brush and tries to clean the toilet. 
• He will put his burpcloths away when we're putting away laundry! (They have a drawer, and he will take them over, open the drawer, and put them inside--awesome! I no longer use them for eating, obviously, but I do use them under his bum on the changing table so I don't have to change the cover itself as often.) 
• He just grabbed the Q-tips this morning and held one up to his ear, like he was cleaning it (I kept a close eye in case he accidentally jabbed it too far in his ear.) 
• He's also getting much better at puzzles.
• He is still obsessed with the Cars movie and Thomas the Train stuff at Target. We've borrowed Ben and Adie's copy of Cars for now--we might take it with us on our car trip to Michigan in a few weeks. I found a few Cars books at a garage sale last week, so we've read the whole story (I think) and  also a book just on Mater, so we are learning the story and characters with him. [Side note: Kevin does a hilarious Mater voice when he reads to Lewis--it's awesome.]
• He is still obsessed with cars, planes, buses, Jeeps, planes, tractors, etc. in all of his books and out in the world.
• He is getting much better eating with a spoon and fork, and he is starting to take small bites off of bigger things (toast, pizza, banana, etc.) instead of us always cutting things up into smaller pieces.
• He dances quite a lot--usually in his high chair. His signature move is swaying his arms back and forth (like 'Throw your hands in the air and wave 'em like you just don't care'). Sometimes he also shakes his head or claps his hands. I still need to get video of it!
• Sort of along the lines of dancing, he has started going this funny little scoot with his feet. I call it the 'Truffle Shuffle,' but it doesn't look like the one from The Goonies. It's just his feet--he'll just shuffle them and kind of smile to himself--almost like he's found a much better/more fun way of getting from Point A to Point B.
• Just this morning, he started spinning in a circle (and eventually falling down from dizziness). Just one more way for him to get some bumps and bruises! :)
• He has become a lot more steady on the stairs, going both up and down. We still trail him, just in case he slips, but he'll really gotten surefooted on them.
• After Kevin reads to him at bedtime, he'll tell him it's time for bed, and Lew walks over to the crib and grabs the railings (ready for Kevin to boost him over the side). We've been a little out of sync the past few weeks with naps (and some early wake-ups) because of allergies/a cold, but things seem to be getting better the past few days.
• He has not made any more escape attempts since the Great Toddler Bed Debacle, thankfully. I still put him in a sleep sack at naptime (with his t-shirt underneath), but we are putting him in footed pajamas at bedtime and he has been fine (hasn't escaped yet). So hooray for that!

19 Months Old

19 Months Old

(Best we could get with the squirrely monkey this morning)

His stats (from BabyCenter):

Weight: 30.3 pounds (between 75th and 90th percentile)

Height: 35 inches (95th percentile)

Head Size: 20.5 inches (above 95th percentile)

What he’s doing this month:

• Trying to communicate – He is getting better at answering questions with ‘yea’ but has yet to say ‘no,’ so that is only a marginally effective way of communication. J The pediatrician also suggested we ask questions with two options instead of just yes/no, so I’ve been trying to do more of that this month. This morning at breakfast I heard him say ‘done’ and passed it off as another ‘dah!’ but then I caught it and said, ‘Did you say ‘done’?’ And he looked at me like YES! I DID say DONE! Then he started to unclip the tray from his highchair and lifted up his cup for me so I could take the tray off to wash. We had a moment. J
• Other words are few – He points at things and uses ‘words’ that only we understand. Finally the other night, he very clearly used the word BALL for the first time which was very sweet to hear. He also said Vroom Vroom yesterday when we were playing with his cars. He really likes when we make sound effects/funny noises with his cars, and he tries to mimic them (especially siren noises). His other ‘words’ (that aren’t quite words) are shirt, shorts, socks, shoes, dog, tree, plane, truck, and car.
• Sleep is getting back to normal, still. We were back, then we weren’t, and now we’re getting back. He had a few days this week where he did not nap—one of the days he just kept popping back out of his crib with the greatest of ease. He’d been staying in since the whole crib-bed-back to crib fiasco, but that day, he figured out  that the pillows we’d put down to cushion his fall were actually great landing pads (making climbing out easier/less scary). I tried putting him back in and walking out a few times, but he was out again by the time I got out the door, so I gave up and just let him roam his room (he pulled out all of his books and made a mess of his room) for an hour or so.
• Eating with a fork/spoon – He all of a sudden figured it out! We were out to dinner a few weeks ago, and we had ice cream after our meal (free at Jason’s Deli). We were giving him bites in between our bites, and then he grabbed the spoon and started scooping it out and feeding himself. Apparently we weren’t getting it to him fast enough! Since then, we’ve been consistently giving him a fork at meals, and he’s really getting good at it. He still has trouble stabbing some foods at times (like blueberries yesterday), but they roll, and he’s just learning, so that is to be expected. J He also tries to stab unstabbable foods (crackers, cheerios, etc.) so we’re working on distinguishing the two.
• Dancing on cue – If a song comes on, we can say, “Lewis, can you dance?’ and he’ll start shimmying his arms and twisting and bouncing. I’m going to try to get it on video because it’s awesome.
• Become a slave to marketing – We were perusing sippy cups the other day at Babies R Us, and he saw a Cars cup and flipped out, pointing and ‘Dah!’ing. A few days after that, he pointed out Cars and Thomas the Train items at Target. He’s never seen or read about either, but just the pictures of the cars, trucks, trains, etc. have sucked him in.
• Throwing a ball better – Kevin brought a play ball outside so Lewis could throw and chase around something other than tomatoes. J He’s getting pretty good at it!
• Climbing the stairs more efficiently – If he’s not distracted, he can zip up and down pretty quickly.
• Being a good helper – We try to include him in sorting recycling, putting laundry in the washer/dryer, carrying things, picking up his toys, etc. It takes a little bit longer to get things done, but I want him to learn how to do things for himself.
• Throwing tantrums – This has just started happening the past few weeks or so and have been mostly minor, and I’m pretty sure they’re directly related to him trying to communicate with us. His pointing and ‘Dah!’ing can only take him (or me) so far, so in Target the other day, for instance, he was pointing and ‘Dah!’ing and I didn’t know/didn’t pay attention to what he was trying to get my attention about—it just escalated until he started shrieking and bucking in the cart. I took a deep breath and channeled my deep-inner-calm-voice (it was difficult) and kept walking. He did eventually calm down, but shoo-wee. He did it again in another store on a non-nap day (the Target day might have also been a non-nap day, come to think of it)…I tried to stay calm and gave him my phone to try to distract him, and he promptly flung the phone through the air and under a shelf. Picture me on the dirty store floor on all fours, reaching under to get my phone. I was very happy with life at that moment. (Not at all.) That was the day Kevin got home from work, and I greeted him by breaking into tears. Oh, parenthood. J The past few days were great, though. I’m still trying to relay to him that shrieking is not an acceptable form of communication and that it hurts my ears (and my nerves) and that we need to use our words and use an inside voice. One of these days it will pay off. One of these days…

So that’s Lew at 19 months! Family pictures today and (Carter) family reunion tomorrow! Hope everyone has a good weekend.