Well, it looks like the weather finally caught up to the season. I'm definitely ready to put away shorts and sandals and get out the sweaters. But it has been nice to have the kids play outside so much. The sidewalks are, once again, covered in chalk drawings. We're ready for a nice rain to wash it away and start fresh. We haven't been able to get outside too much though. I found a broken bottle in our driveway that left little shards of glass all over. I tried my best to sweep it up but with Sadie crawling and Caleb is almost impossible to keep in shoes, I figured it would be easier to keep them inside.
This weekend we're off to Philadelphia to visit Aunt Betsy and the New Jersey G'ma and G'pa. Caleb is very excited to see Aunt Betsy. Sadie is getting more teeth so this could be an interesting trip. We'll be sure to pack the tylenol.
Andy and I are convinced that Sadie knows how to walk but doesn't like that she can't go very fast so she continues to crawl. She certainly can balance- we've been catching her standing at the fridge, playing music and bouncing up and down without holding onto anything. She's also started just grabbing fingers and taking people for walks. But if you try to let go of her, she either carefully squats down or dives down on the floor and crawls. And she is so quick with her crawling. She's hurt her lip a couple of times because she crawls so fast that she can't keep her arms going fast enough.
Caleb has become our little mimic- repeating everything. He seems to be having fun trying out new words and combinations of words. He's also continuing to try singing. It's hard for him though because he can't remember all the words. Right now, his favorite songs are Ants go Marching, ABCs, Alice the Camel, and Are you Sleeping.
He's also been having fun doing nosey nosey. It's a little game where we touch noses like giving Eskimo kisses. He's given g'mas and g'pas nosey nosey, Sadie, and even gr-g'ma Rogers.
He's also been sitting on the potty a little but we're still no where near potty training.
Wow, October already. I swear, I blinked and September was gone. It didn't seem super busy but I guess things move fast as you plow through the days.
Caleb is full on into the two's. Tantrums and shrieking are becoming regular parts of our day. Balanced out only by the incredible cuteness of the things he's beginning to say. Andy and I have practically given up on keeping track of what all he says. He repeats everything and with pretty good pronunciation. I've tried testing him just to see if he can say things, not expecting him to and being surprised when he does. My example... chimpanzee, a difficult word for any 2 yr old and not one used very often. Well, we were checking out Nation Geographic's website (awesome website, thanks Shayna for mentioning it in your blog) and I thought I would print off a coloring page for Caleb. He chose the monkeys (one of the first words he figured out how to say). As we waited for it to print out, he kept saying "montees" and so I said, "well, actually they're not monkeys, they're chimpanzees." Caleb says "montees" again and then "no no, timpan-zees." He later shortened it to just "panzees."
Tonight he surprised me by saying "touchdown" after throwing the football. Very funny.
He continues to amaze us with his memory. Andy informed me tonight the he thinks Caleb has memorized Curious George goes to the Parade. You can not miss any words in that book or he gets mad. He's also started singing more and more. Tonight it was Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star but he's also been working on ABC's for a while now and almost has it. He's made up a song he sings while working on puzzles- puzzle piece, puzzle piece, puzzle piece... you get the idea.
The other big change this month has been starting Sunday school. He's moved up into the 2 yr old room at church and they actually have a little Bible lesson and activity during the service. This week he learned about Noah and the "big boat." However, when I asked about what went on the boat, he said "vrooom, vroom."
Now for the Sadie girl. We're still waiting and waiting for her to walk but she is getting closer. She loves pushing the Winnie the Pooh train up and down the front sidewalk and is very steady when she's doing it. When I try to get her to take a step on her own though, she seems to have more fun just letting herself fall into my arms. She's such a daredevil.
We cannot let her alone for even a minute in the highchair, stroller, grocery cart. Even strapped in, she's able to wriggle around and either get out or get stuck. This makes even small shopping trips quite challenging. Last week, I went to try to get some clothes for myself and resorted to leaving her in the carrier in the stroller- she can't get out of a 5-point harness but that also makes her really mad.
Sadie's favorite thing to do is dance. She loves dancing and will dance even without music, sitting on the floor. And she's so cute to watch, I can't describe it well enough so I'm hoping to catch her on video soon. Between Caleb's singing and her dancing, the house has been very musical.
She also loves talking on the phone. She's been playing with one of the toy cell phones, picking it up and saying "hi" or "hello." Then she puts it down and this toy phone we have rings on it's own so it becomes a bit of a cycle for her. Every time she tries to get away, the cell phone rings and she just has to answer it :-)
Sadie has also started trying to wash her feet in the bathtub. She watched me use the sponge to get her feet and then started picking it up to do it herself.
Well, this month should be busy. We have a wedding and a trip out to Phillie and getting ready for Sadie's big birthday. Not to mention, Halloween with two little ones.
We had an exciting day as birthday celebrating continued. We got to visit G'ma and G'pa Bush out in Derry. They weren't able to make it into the party because of the wonderful construction and traffic on the parkway. We spent the day visiting and opening presents- a big fire truck and rescue helicopter that make noise, a new puzzle, a special book to read with daddy and some special coloring books. After celebrating though, it was time to go back home and Papa Joe had to take his backhoe to work. We went outside and Caleb started getting upset. He didn't seem to want to go. Then he said "Papa ride?" Well, Papa Joe couldn't wait so he took Caleb and set him up in the cab and then climbed into the backhoe. Then he pulled Caleb up onto his lap and started it up. First he raised and lowered the scoop for him and then thy pulled out and went for a short ride up the road and back. Caleb loved it!
I took him from G'pa's arms to put him into his carseat and he babbled non-stop. I could only make out a bit of what he was saying but I did hear "batto, voom, voom, whoa." I think G'pa really enjoyed the ride too.
It's only fair that I give Sadie a post since Caleb got two posts this week, so here it is.
Sadie-girl has definitely inherited my nickname- Monkey Woman. She is a daredevil and is not at all afraid to crawl or climb anywhere. This is probably why she started climbing up the stairs just short of turning 10 mos. We have become a "gated" community which has been hard for all of us. It was so nice having freedom from stretching and contorting yourself to make it over the gates. We have also discovered that we absolutely cannot leave Sadie in any kind of seat without being strapped in and even then you have to watch her like a hawk because she'll wriggle out of things. We've given up on the bathring entirely because even strapped in she could stand up and get out of it. Bathtimes are very quick with her. I caught her a couple of times in the grocery store, standing up in the cart and bouncing her knees up and down like she's dancing. At home in her highchair, she loves to spin around to get a complete view of everything that's going on around her.
When she's crawling on the floor, I really have to watch her. She puts everything in her mouth (doesn't help that she's teething too). Several of Caleb's crayons have teeth marks in them and we're thankful that they're non-toxic. Last week, she managed to eat cat food- she was just too quick for me. On the good side, she hasn't tried to go near the bowl since.
Sadie is getting very good at walking with a walker. She will push the Pooh train all around the dining room and living room and she does really well with it. Lately, though, she'll start pushing it and Caleb will decide that he wants to ride and will sit down and ride along with her hanging on for dear life in back of him. She's a tough girl though.
I think she might have picked up "hi" because she's been saying that a lot and will get mad if you don't respond to her. She's also pretty consistent with saying "mama" and "dada".
Sadie's favorite toy is still her bear but she's also showing a love of music like her brother. She's discovered a little magnetic barn we have on the fridge that plays music and loves to have it play for her. She's also mastered the Dinosaur ball toy, where she puts the ball in the hole and it plays music as it comes out.
We're counting down to her first birthday and are very excited to see her growing each day.
So I posted about the birthday party, now I thought I would update you on what all the big man is doing (don't worry, Sadie will also get a post-equal time and all)
We were at the doctor's today and Caleb is 34 and 1/2 inches tall and weighs 29 and 1/4 lbs. He's still on the tall side of things but is leveling out. Hopefully all the 2T clothes we have will last a bit longer.
Caleb did not like the doctor's visit at all which is surprising because he's never gotten that upset about going before. He didn't like the nurses, hated having his head measured and wouldn't talk to the doctor.
Talking Caleb's vocab has really taken off over the past couple of weeks. He's regularly combining words together to make short sentences like "read, please." That's one we hear a lot but how can you say no when he asks so sweetly.
As I mentioned earlier, he recognizes all of the alphabet and can say all the letters except W. He's recently started trying to sing the alphabet, which is really cute to hear. He recognizes and says his numbers 1-10 and loves counting steps. However, we counting on his own, he doesn't seem to like the number 7. He'll only say it when he sees it.
He has also picked up his primary and secondary colors, thanks to the book Mouse Paint.
He's finally started saying cat and dog instead of "eow" and "woof." And he's also started saying Sadie but it sounds more like Sa-ie.
G'pa Joe taught him what fire crackers say so if you make a whistle like a bottle rocket, Caleb will supply the "bang". Speaking of bangs, dump trucks go "ee, ee, boom" according to Caleb and we've taught the boy that bears say "aa, aah, choo". That's from Bear Snores On.
I'm sure he says more but it's hard to keep track and you never know what he's going to decide to repeat. I told him last week "you're so funny" and he turned around and said "i so funny" back to me and has since started laughing and saying "ah's so funny". He also loves saying "eeinside" and that's to go inside and outside.
Moving Caleb has gotten very good at climbing up and down the stairs and does it by himself sometimes (but I still get nervous not watching him). He's started running a little bit but it still looks a lot like a fast walk. At the playground he can climb up ladders and has climbed the cargo net with just a little help from mommy. And he loves going down the slide.
The boy still loves music and dancing and has added coloring and drawing to the mix. Outside it's with chalk- our sidewalk is almost always covered with drawings and marks of some sort. Inside it's crayons and markers. I'm slowly coming around to introducing him to paint. We'll see. He's also started playing with playdoh but isn't too into that. He really doesn't like touching weird things. But he did taste the playdoh and made a lovely face before deciding "yuck".
well, I think that's all I can think of for now. These past two years have gone by so quickly. I'm so excited to see him learning new things every day but sometimes I miss how small he used to be.
We wrapped up his 2nd birthday party this evening and I think it went well, except for the singing of Happy Birthday, but I'll get to that in a bit. Caleb had a big day today. It started this morning with a Storybook Walk through Frick Park with daddy. I think it might have been the happiest place in the world. It combined all of his loves, a playground, books and even a bookmobile. Apparently, they set up little areas throughout the park and had story times (complete with carpet squares to sit on). They had crafts for the kids, snacks, face painting and plenty of books. One of the highlights for Caleb was seeing the buses that were shuttling people to and from the parking areas. He kept telling Andy "yeyo skool bus" (that's the best I can do with typing it phonetically). They were at the story walk from about 9:30 this morning 'til 1. Then we got him home, gave him quick lunch and sent him off to bed for quick nap. G'mas and G'pas and aunts and uncles were coming in at 3 for a little cake and ice cream...or so we thought. Well, the parkway coming into Pittsburgh was shut down (for hopefully one final time) and that meant even more traffic than usual. On top of that, I'm sure the Pitt football game also added to the traffic. Shortly before 3 we got a call from my dad saying that they were stuck in traffic. Then a little while later, my mom called saying not only were they stuck in traffic but also having car trouble and they wouldn't be able to make it in. Finally at 4 my brother showed up, thinking he was late only to learn that they were the first ones to arrive and then my dad pulled up right after that. During this time, Caleb had not taken a nap but Sadie managed to sneak one in since everyone was late getting here.
The party went really well after the rocky start. Caleb was really excited to see everyone and after Sadie woke up, she was happy to see G'ma and G'pa. We were able to comfortably stay inside since it was so muggy outside, it was nice to be in air conditioning. After some play time and munching on snacks we started opening presents. The highlight of the presents would have to be a birthday card from G'ma and G'pa that played "Celebration" when you opened it. Caleb and Sadie would both stand at the couch dancing to the music and there were a few times where we had to stop with the presents to play the music. G'ma and G'pa also got him Elmo and Ernie bumper cars. Those were quite the hit. Both kids loved chasing them around the dining room. Caleb got a soccer ball from Uncle Jason and Aunt Lindsay that Sadie really liked and grabbed onto several times this evening. Andy and I got him some Thomas tracks and Edward because he's the number 2 engine.
After playing with new presents and coloring new pictures and reading new stories, it was finally time for cake. We set Caleb in his seat. He tasted the icing a bit. Then we lit the candles and began to sing and Caleb began to cry, not just cry sob. We don't know why and can only guess that our horrible singing offended him so greatly that he was driven to tears. Well, I don't know that that was really the case but he was not happy with us singing and attempted to push the cake away, getting icing all over his fingers and then tried to climb into my lap. We cleaned up his fingers and then I held him and he finally let us sing but we could only whisper. He liked the candles but wasn't quite ready to blow them out even though he's spent many meals blowing on his strawberries because they were hot. Caleb got a special cupcake that he mauled but seemed to like and we all enjoyed gluten-free cake and ice cream. The cake wasn't too bad, just very heavy. Gluten apparently makes things lighter.
After cake, we played some more then said good bye to everyone. Both little ones were very tired and happily went to bed.
