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!

Toys R Us and The Zoo (Same Thing?!)

This weekend was a good one! Great weather (in the 70s), and we didn't have any plans to speak of for the first weekend in like 8, I think. 

At dinner Friday, Kevin reminded me/informed me that I only had 3 weeks until Adie's baby shower that I'm co-hostessing!! I thought (for some dumb reason) that I had like a month and a half (I obviously haven't looked at a calendar recently). I sort of totally went into panic mode and spent the 2nd halves of Saturday and Sunday in the basement, sewing and crafting away, furiously. I'm happy to say that things are in good shape now. :) For now. I've called in reinforcements (Kate) to help me with one of the projects this week, and I think I'll be in good shape as long as do a little each evening (since we'll be have more plans again next weekend and week for Thanksgiving). So exciting!

Onto pictures, which might be a little 'off' for a while because our camera is broken. It says there is a lens error which I read is from too much dust getting in/on the lens (which you might recall started as that shadow-y spot I've been dealing with in pictures for a few months now). We're keeping an eye out for a Black Friday deal, so until then, we are using our old camera.

 One of Lew's favorite reading spots--the middle of the kitchen floor! :)

Snuggles for Peter and Hattie :) Poor Hattie girl. 

I found an awesome race track for Lewis at Goodwill a few weeks ago, but it didn't come with any cars. It has two spirals where cars can race down it, but only one his matchbox cars was close to being small enough to go down it/fit under some obstacles. We did some research but couldn't find replacement cars anywhere online, so we decided to go to Toys R Us on Friday evening to see if they had something that would work. The good news is they did, the bad news is it was a madhouse! At like 6:45pm on a Friday, two weeks before Thanksgiving and six weeks before Christmas. It was horribly busy and people were pushy--maybe there was a sale going on that we weren't aware of? Not sure, but I hope to never go back there. :)

Lewis did find a Jeep to sit in. :)

Here's Lewis playing with his new cars on Saturday morning, which sort of made the hellacious trip to Toys R Us worth it, maybe:

 

 

 

 He is obsessed. The cars we got are very small and lightweight, so they don't always make it all of the way down. When they do, he gets really excited and claps. He's very careful placing two cars at the top starting line, and he pushes on the lever to start the race. He carries the four little cars in one hand (and drops 1 or 2 as he walks) and the track in his other hand and follows you to whichever room you are in.

Sunday morning was beautiful so we went over to the zoo for a few hours.

 Checking on the elephants

 The lions were laying in the sun and snuggling. :) 

My friend Tonya had mentioned going into the petting zoo, so this time we gave it a shot, and Lewis did surprisingly well! He patted them all on the butt, didn't grab any horns, and did not get bitten, so a victory, overall.

 

 This one is smart--getting up to evacuate the area. :)

We spent some time in the gorilla area--there was one big one who was freaking me out with his human-like movements. It was seriously like a man was sitting there thinking, scratching his head, furrowing his brow, etc. It was awesome.

 Hello!

The big one was coming up and sitting next to the glass, so we were waving and saying hi. All of a sudden, Lewis started waving and saying 'Hello!' He's been waving and saying 'Baaah Baaah' (in a thick Kentucky accent :) ) the past week or so, but this was the first time he's said Hello like that.

There were four gorillas outside (plus the 4-5 inside). I didn't realize they had so many--I guess they aren't usually all out on display when we're there during the week.

That was our weekend!

Painting Our Bedroom (Finally!)

Kevin's parents watched Lewis last weekend when we went to Waycross, and they'd planned on taking him to the Science Center. However, there was a mini-marathon downtown that day that halted their plans, so they offered to take him during the week so that I could have time to paint our bedroom. Sooo, that finally happened on Friday! I checked the can of paint, and I purchased it on July 23, so it only took me 3 1/2 months to actually get the painting done. Oops!

However, in that time, I switched out the curtains and found two duvet cover sets at Target (at 70% off each!!). The duvet below is off-white with gray flowers and leaves. The 2nd one is a less-girly gray and off-white stripe (kind of seersucker-esque). Sooo, some progress was made, but it feels great to no longer have sample squares painted on all of the walls (although I was kind of getting used to them! :) ).

Before:

And After:

I also repainted all of the trim and doors white and (in doing so) covered over the remnants of the original mint green wall color that had been bugging me since we bought this house. :) (It was just visible along the window trim where someone had painted sloppily.) Now if only we could do something about the mint green tile in the bathroom...

On the left side (above our TV and dresser), I have plans to hang pictures of us, the dogs, Lewis, family, etc. I already have the frames, so I just need to choose the pictures and print them off!

A great big thank you to Jim and Sharon for taking Lewis and also to Kevin for doing laundry, watching Lewis, and helping me put the room back together Friday evening.

Fall Work Weekend at Waycross

This weekend, Kevin and I went up to Waycross to do some volunteer work while Lewis stayed back at our house with Kevin's parents. It sounds like they had a good time (despite him giving them a very early morning wake-up Sunday), and we had a good time. (Thanks again, J&S!)

There were three crews of volunteers on Saturday--one cleaned the retreat house at Hickory Hill, one cleaned the Lodge (and lifejackets and paddles), and then one (the one Kevin and I were on) helped with clearing out the woods for a new trail that is being built. When it is completed, it will be for hikers, mountain bikers, and will be ADA certified (wheelchair accessible). We got a pretty good section cleared out on Saturday in some cold rain (and even a few minutes of hail!), but there is still a loooong way to go as it will be a very long trail out to the outer boundaries of camp (near the Tecumseh Trail, Yellowwood State Forest, etc.) that normally don't get utilized. It will have no more than a 5% grade, so it should end up being a very nice trail for all once it is completed. I have a feeling when we return for the spring work weekend, we will be tackling it again. :)

Our motley crew, heading out into the woods

The 'Before' shot, first thing Saturday morning.

The guys had just started hacking away at the small trees. The trailbuilders/ visionaries/whatever have flagged out the trail, so we followed their flags with a tree removal crew, then a raking crew to clear out the leaves, then a digging crew to actually start digging into the hillside and creating a shelf which will be the trail. It has to be a certain width and have a certain slope to a) be certified and b) not erode as badly.

The 'In Progress' shot of that section.

Trees out, leaves raked, but hillside hasn't yet been cut into.

And the 'After' shot at the end of Saturday.

This section still isn't finished, but it is getting there.

We all did a little bit of everything (raking, cutting trees, digging out the hillside) and just kind of leap-frogged each other along the trail. Speaking of frogs...

Anne with her tree frog

She thought she killed him with the rake, but he just wasn't moving much in the cold weather, thank goodness.

Letting her know he was, indeed, alive by releasing bodily fluids on her glove. :)

What up?

It was raining when we woke up Saturday morning but let up in time for work to begin. Sometime between breakfast and lunch, it started sprinkling, then raining, then hailing! I grabbed my coat and ran under a tree (with no leaves) to try to get some cover (which, thinking back, was probably dumb...that's how people get struck by lightning). :) Anyway, it only lasted a few minutes, but it left us very cold and soggy and muddy.

Here were a few pictures I took while it was coming down:

I guess it's hard to tell what's going on in the pictures.

Anyway, we also found quite a few salamanders as we were working:

Alan's

Anne's

Tony's and Anne's, together :)

And we had a canine friend out helping us--one of the director's dogs, Maya. Here, she was supervising Alan. :) I might have accidentally lightly tapped her on the head with a tool as she darted in the path of it while I was swinging it. :( I felt so bad--I totally saw her coming and was able to slow my swing, thankfully. She is a good (and smelly) dog.

After lunch, we had some thunder but no more rain, thankfully. We crossed a creek and cleared out another decent-sized chunk of trail. It's pretty steep so will require a lot of cutting into the hillside. We didn't focus on that aspect of this section just yet--just cleared trees and raked the leaves away.

This was the view I had in the afternoon from the 'new' section of trail we were clearing, looking across the woods to the 'old' section we'd cleared that morning.

I'm excited to see what it will look like once it is finished! Kevin went back out Sunday morning to clear a small section at the head of the trail while I did some gardening. It was really cold Sunday morning and motivation was riding pretty low. :)

Playdate with Carlton

 Tonya and Carlton came over to play today, and we had a great time! Lewis was a bit of a punk, stealing the toys that Carlton wanted to play with a few times (mainly the walker), but they got along pretty well, otherwise.

 Working a puzzle together

 

 Reading two books at once!

 

 Problem-solving together

There were other sweet moments of them cracking each other up by the slide and chasing each other around, but I didn't catch them on camera soon enough. Lewis did take a longer-than-normal nap, so I'm really, doubly glad for Carlton helping tire him out. :)

Happy Halloween!

We've been to a few Halloween-y events already, so we didn't go trick-or-treating last night. We did, however, pass out candy to one very cute and polite kid in our neighborhood. One is actually better than our first year here when we had no one come by. Another year we were out of town and another we just didn't turn our light on. So one kid is actually okay with us. Maybe next year we'll get two!

I did put Lewis in a jack-o-lantern shirt to run errands yesterday (and he got some candy everywhere we went):

 

We camped out on the porch after dinner:

 

Lewis helped himself to the candy. :)

We had some fun in the leaves while waiting for no one to come by...

 

 

 Lew kept throwing himself down on the ground, over and over.

We actually didn't get around to carving our pumpkin until today (though we did carve one last month when the Butts came to visit), but who's counting? 

 Checking out the ooey gooeys.

 

Chocolate? What chocolate? 

While I was cleaning out the pumpkin, Lewis found an opened Hershey's bar in the freezer, so I gave him pieces to keep him happy and occupied for a few minutes (and of course he made a mess of it).

Here's our finished product (it's our initials): 

 

 

And the roasted pumpkin seeds were the best!