23 Months

[12.28.10]

It's hard to believe that this little munchkin is almost two!  These last 23 months have slipped away so quickly.  It's unreal that its 2011 already and that my little son is going to have another birthday in less than a month.  I am so grateful that even though I haven't been the best blogger or journal keeper, I do have lots of pictures and these monthly posts that I can look at to help me remember my baby.  

Things to remember about Drake at [23] months:

He is quite the little talker.  He can say just about anything these days.  Its still hard to get him to repeat what you want but he will always repeat something that you don't want him to!  He surprises me everyday with the things that he says.  It's amazing how quickly little ones pick up on things.  The other day he grabbed chris' Wallet and said, "daddy's wawett."  How he knew what the wallet was, I have no idea! Today he started saying "choo choo boogie" from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and yesterday he started to say Buzz Lightyear instead of just Buzz.  He has a funny little accent and sometimes has a lisp.    He pronounces ice with a "th" instead of a "s" sound but pronounces other words with a "s" correctly.  It's interesting.  He is getting better with his pronunciation in general, but he still has a few favorites that seem to be hanging around... wadie (water), seekies (socks), nokie (milk), cicle (popsicle), dammies (jammies), nackies (fruit snacks), dessie (jessie from Toy Story), boonie (spoon), coo (cool).  He is also getting better with his sentences.  He can now tell me exactly what he wants and doesn't want either with his words or with the sentences that he knows.  His most recent and most frustrating is, "I don't wike (like) it!"  He usually says this to me as he spits out his food.  

He is a monkey.  He climbs up on everything and then usually proceeds to jump off of whatever he has climbed up on.  I am 100% positive that he is going to break an arm or a leg any day now.  Right before Christmas, he started jumping off of the couch right onto the floor instead of onto the pillows.  He just pulls his legs up and jumps, landing flat on his bum.  Most times he laughs and does it again, but every once in awhile he gets hurt and comes running for a kiss.  He has also discovered how to pull all of the cushions off the couch downstairs.  He yanks them off and then jumps into them.  Most of the time he ends of getting stuck and I have to rescue him but I'm grateful that he at least has something to break his fall.  He's a wild man!

He is STILL the world's pickiest eater.  It is becoming quite exhausting.  There is no such thing as meal time at our house.  He will not sit still for more than two seconds and will definitely not sit down to actually eat anything.  If I want him to eat at all, I have to bribe him or leave a plate with snacks out all day long.  It's ridiculous.  It's amazing to me that he hasn't started to lose weight because there are days that he eats next to nothing.  I really don't know what I am going to do about this.  I guess for now we'll just keep bribing and feeding him cheese, fruit, an occasional hot dog and the always popular fruit snacks.  Hopefully he out grows this faze. 

He has quite the sleeping arrangement these days.  He now has to sleep with his pillow, big blankie, little blankie, bink, Mickey, Goofy, and Buzz all in his crib at night and for naps.  Each "guy" has to be in their "bot" (spot) before I can leave the room.  It's really funny.  He also requests that I do "singy" every night before bed.  We usually end up singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Give Said The Little Stream, I'm A Little Tea Pot, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, or Popcorn Popping.  He still seems to sleep better when I put him to bed versus when Chris does.  We still haven't figured out why, but hopefully he out grows that too.

He loves to play with "phonies." He got a Mickey phonie for Christmas and he loves it! He carried it around for days.  He is getting better about talking to people on the phone but is usually more interested in just holding it and walking around the house with it.  He is very good about bringing Chris and I our phones if we leave them laying around and he knows which one belongs to each of us.  He also knows what his grammy's phone looks like.  

He talks about going poop on the potty all day long.  He tells me he needs to "a poop a potty" at least twenty times a day and sometimes its twenty times in ten minutes.  We bought him a Cars potty that he loves.  Now instead of just telling me "a poop a potty," he says, "a poop a Cars potty."  It's hilarious!  We've only made it to the potty three or four times before he went in his diap, but he definitely understands the concept and thinks it's really cool!  Hopefully the actual potty training won't be too bad.   

He LOVES to watch Mickey, Go Go (Diego), Toy Story, Cars, Goofy (the Goofy Movie) and Frosty.  He is his father's son and loves to have the tv on in the background... constantly.  He still doesn't sit and watch for very long but he definitely likes the noise.  We've really spoiled him with movies in the car.  He wants to watch shows every time we get in the car.  The stubborn mom in me makes him go without his shows sometimes because I don't think it's necessary, but most of the time he wins simply because it's easier than having him whine.  We even borrowed a friend's portable dvd player the other day for our trip up to Brian Head because we took Mom's car instead of our own and she doesn't have "shows" in her car.  Pathetic, but peaceful!    

He still sleeps with his bink at night and during naps and I am seriously dreading taking it away for good.  I know the time has come to just bite the bullet and get rid of it, but I am so not wanting to.  I tell myself that its fine that he has it because its only in his bed but in reality, I know it has got to go.  I've decided that I'm going to do it right after his birthday, so we'll see how is goes.  I'm so not looking forward to those first few days without the bink!

He LOVES to play cars and was so thrilled with his new Matchbox track that he got from Omie for Christmas.  He did not care about one thing after he opened his track and we had to hide it from him in order for him to pay attention to the other things he had left to open.  When he plays cars, he really only cares about putting the cars on the track.  He doesn't usually even watch to see where they go after they leave the launching pad.  He'll stand at the launch and put cars down until his box is empty and then go collect his cars and start over.  He also loves to play with Pop Pop's Little Tikes track.  For some reason he calls it choo choo.  He pretty much loves anything that has to do with cars. 

He has discovered the art of "cully" (coloring) and has even drawn me a lovely blue picture on one of my walls.  He was so proud of himself when he did it.  It was hard for me to be mad at him!  We have tried the Color Wonder books but he hasn't really taken to them like he did the good ol' crayola crayons.  I guess I'm just going to have to pay more attention and not leave his side while the crayons are out!  His favorite thing to cully is Mickey.  I started drawing him Mickey's and Minnie's awhile ago because that's about all I can draw and I am now required to draw Mickey and Minnie's over and over again.  He hands me the color he wants them to be, points to the spot on the page where he wants them, and tells me "draw Mickey."  On any given Sunday, I usually draw 20+ Mickey's during Sacrament alone.  It gets really old, but it keeps him quiet.  I guess I need to practice my skills so I can start drawing something else.    

He still loves his "Ooie." (Otie)  He has become quite the good little playmate for Otie.  He has learned how to throw Otie's toys, which is wonderful!  They usually don't go too far, but it keeps Otie occupied and Big loves it.  He also loves to tell Otie to "top it" (stop it) when he's barking.  I obviously yell that way too often!  Letting Otie out to go potty is also a treat.  Big gets really concerned when Otie won't come in and usually won't let me close the door until Otie is in and safe.  Sometimes I even have to stand outside with Big until Otie comes in because he is so worried about him.  It's kind of strange and a hassle sometimes, but I'm grateful that he loves Otie so much.  

He now calls Bird and Bear "B and Bah."  I'm not sure how he came up with Bah, but he did and it's stuck.  This past week Bird and Bear have been in STG with us and Big has become really attached to both of them.  He gets really upset when he can't find one of them and usually cries when they leave.  The other day we were watching Mickey and he saw a little bear on the episode we were watching.  When he heard Mickey say bear, he repeated it but said Bah.  It was funny to see him associate the actual bear with what he calls Jare-bear.

He still refuses to say Snipes and Lissa.  He can and will say it when they are not around, but say it when they ask him to... not a chance!  It's so funny!  He totally knows their names and can actually pronounce them really well, he just chooses not to!  Little stinker!

He is quite the little manipulator already.  He knows exactly how to get what he wants even when I have told him no.  The other day he wanted to have another Fruit By the Foot and I told him no and wouldn't let anyone else give it to him.  He of course threw a little fit and marched passed all of us with a pouty look on his face, and headed straight down stairs to his dad, who he knew would say yes!  He does this kind of stuff all the time!  It's hilarious and maddening all at the same time.  He is the king of sh@# eating grins and flashes them my way every time he gets his way after I've told him no!  It's crazy how smart he is.  I'm fairly certain that this is going to be an ongoing battle for the next 16-18 years.  It's kind of rough to have a child that is as stubborn as I am and smarter than he should be when it comes to this kind of stuff.  

He is beginning to form his own opinions when it comes to what he wears.  Luckily for me, he has only formed opinions about his "dammies" and maybe his shoes so far, but I'm sure there will be more to come and battles to be had over what he wears.  Right now his jammies of choice are his "mickey dammies."  He will tell you he wants to wear his mickey jammies every single night if you ask him.  He also likes his monkey jammies, but the mickey's are his favorite, hands down.  He has also become picky about his shoes.  I bought him the most adorable high top shoes a few months ago and tried to get him to wear them on Christmas Eve.  You would have thought I chopped his toes off by the way he was acting.  It was a joke!  He cried and carried on until I finally yanked them off and put his Converse back on.  He wouldn't even walk normal while he had the high tops on.  He walked around like a little Frankenstein baby.  Unreal!  I tell myself that I am NOT going to put up with that from my not-even-two-year-old, but  let's be honest, is it really worth the battle?  We shall see, I guess.  I haven't tried the shoes since so maybe he'll win this one!   

He has the most kissable, baby soft, sweet smelling skin.  I'm sure that all babies have their own distinct smell that their momma's love, but oh man... I sure do love how my little man smells!  Sure, he has his moments when he smells like a puppy, but even then, he smells like heaven to me!  

His toe nails are so dang strange!  He has Weaver toes to the max and the toe nails are no exception.  They don't even grow normal.  They are completely flat.  No curve whatsoever, and they grow into weird little points.  I have to clip little hang nails all the time which I'm sure hurt like crazy.  I'm not sure what to do about them though.  He also has a funny second toe on both feet.  Both second toes are higher and cross over his third toe.  Not completely over, but a little bit.  Enough to notice.  Chris and Mom say it's because his shoes are too narrow, but I know that is definitely not the case!  It's the Weaver toe! 

He is such a wild sleeper.  I have absolutely no idea how we are ever going to be able to transition him to a regular bed.  He will never stay in it.  He is completely miserable to sleep next to, even in a king size bed.  He is like me in the sense that he likes to be right next to someone, but he beats us up all night with his tossing and turning.  It's amazing to me that he stays asleep through all of his thrashing.  Oh... this is funny and worth remembering:  A while ago while we were at mom's, his bedding was all in the wash and it was time for bed.  I had never tried to put him in a regular bed, so I figured it was a good time to try.  Every once in awhile I'll make him a bed on our floor and have him sleep there if he's had a night terror or if I'm home alone so I figured that he'd be okay in the bed.  Surprisingly, he did great and fell asleep fairly quickly without putting up much of a fight, so I went ahead and went to bed in the other room.  The next morning when I woke up, having slept all night without any interruptions from Big, I was thrilled!  It wasn't until I went upstairs and talked to Mom that I realized that it hadn't been so easy!  I guess Big had woken up in the night, crawled out of bed, walked upstairs (in the dark), went into M & D's room, stood beside Mom's bed and said "Gommie, nackies!" I'm not sure why he didn't come into my room which was right down the hall from his, but I guess he thought he had a better chance getting his nackies from his grammy!  We haven't tried the bed since and I don't really plan to move him out of his crib until I absolutely have to, but it was a worth a try and is a funny story.  My child is so obsessed with fruit snacks, he even wants them in the middle of the night!

He experienced snow for the first time this month.  We haven't had a ton of snow in Orem but a few weeks ago we got quite a bit and Chris let him play in it for a few minutes.  We really weren't prepared and didn't have snow clothes for him so they only made snow balls.  He seemed to really like it at that point.  For Christmas, Grandma and Grandpa got him snow clothes so while we were at the cabin this weekend, we bundled him up and headed out into the snow.  Although he liked his first experience with the snow, he was not impressed the second time around.  He HATED his snow clothes and cried as I dressed him and while he was outside.  He only stopped crying when Chris told him he'd take him for a ride in the Rhino and even then, he whined a bit about his boots.  I was really disappointed and told myself that he was only acting like that because he didn't feel good.  I was so hoping that he'd love the snow and want to play outside for hours like he does in the summer.  We decided to give it one more shot the next day to see if his mood had improved.  We started by telling him that we were going to go on a ride (which he loves) and that he had to wear all of his snow clothes if he wanted to go.  He was excited about the ride and ended up letting me dress him without putting up a fight!  Once we got him all ready to go and into the Rhino, he was totally fine.  Not even a single tear.  Thank goodness!  He loved the ride, once again, and when we got back to the cabin Chris convinced him to play a bit in the snow drifts in the driveway.  I was so happy that he was in a better mood.  He ended up playing with Chris for  15 minutes or so and even looked at my camera a few times! (a hard thing to come by these day!)  It's a bummer that he's so funky about the snow clothes, but hopefully he'll get used to them and enjoy playing outside during the winter. 

He is starting to learn his colors.  So far he knows blue, green and red.  I don't know why I'm still so surprised by the things that he does, but I am!  I have been talking to him about colors for the last month or so but I didn't think that he was really understanding until he surprised me a few weeks ago.  I was in the kitchen doing something and he came walking in and asked me for a green apple.  It took me a second to realize that he really knew what he was saying.  I honestly didn't think that he was comprehending the whole color thing, but he obviously was!  He now talks about blue, green, and red things all the time.  Mostly crayons, cars, or cups but he'll point to anything in those colors if you ask him to.

He still loves the water and has recently learned how to kick in the water.  We let him get in the hot tub with us while up at the cabin and he loved it.  He kept talking about the big tubie and had a great time jumping off the benches and kicking his legs.  He still has no fear when it comes to the water, which makes me really nervous, but I'm glad that he likes it and isn't afraid to get wet.  I'm just going to have to get him in swim lessons asap.

He has recently started to count for us before he jumps off of something.  He doesn't quite get the entire "1, 2, 3," out before he jumps, he only usually says, "free (three), GO!"  He started doing it a month or so ago while playing with Chris on our bed.  Now whenever he wants Chris to throw him into the pillows on our bed, he grabs his hand and tells him, "free go."  He loves to be tossed around and thinks it's so funny when he gets stuck.

He has just recently started to use "uh huh" to answer yes instead of the constant "no."  Thank goodness!  Don't get me wrong, we still definitely have days that he answers, "NO!!" to everything I say to him which is so irritating, but he's getting better.  He at least understands that "no" doesn't mean yes, no, i don't know, etc.

He did not like Santa this year.  I tried to take him to see the santa at the Dicken's Festival but it was a total bust.  I was able to convince him to walk up to Santa as long as I was holding him, but there was no way he was letting me put him on Santa's lap.  I wasn't really surprised but still a little bummed that I didn't get a picture.  I just didn't feel right about torturing him just because I wanted a pic!  He did like the candy that Santa gave him though, and will tell you about the candy every time you ask him about Santa.  He also likes to point to santa's in movies or on tv.  Along with Santa, he also likes to point out all of the characters of Frosty and Rudolph.  Mom has all of the Rudolph figurines and Big loves to look at them and point to the Bumble, Yukon, Santa, Rudolph, and the Man (the snowman).  It's amazing how quickly he picks up on things and how well he remembers the characters.

He says, "this" and "that" all the time.  Whenever he wants to show us something but doesn't know the word for it, he calls it "this" or "that."  Sometimes he just says "this a that" over and over again and points to random things.  It's really funny.

He has discovered grammy's dog stairs and LOVES to carry them around her house.  The stairs are almost as big as he is, so it's pretty funny to watch him carry them around.  He hauls them all over.  His favorite spots are against mom's bed, against the front of Pop Pop's chair and against the coffee table.  Occasionally he'll get frustrated when he gets stuck somewhere with them and will whine until someone comes to the rescue.  It's pretty darn entertaining to watch!

Drake is undoubtedly the light of my life!  I love him to pieces and am so grateful to have him as my baby son! I am thrilled for this new year and can't wait to see what's in store for all of us.