Terrible (and Terrific) Twos!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Bud!

Birthday donuts!

Well, we've hit another milestone, so I guess it's time to update the blog.  Hopefully I'll have another blog to post before he turns 3. :)  It's been a very interesting year watching him grow.  It's still amazing to me the process of toddler's learning and how their knowledge seems to grow exponentially, one week he's saying a few words and a few weeks later he's talking in full sentences.

He has two main obsession in life these days: TV and Snacks (or in Seth terms, TZ and Nacks). Pretty much from the moment he's up until the moment he goes to bed, all he asks for all day are nacks. "I want a nack, mommy!" I ask him what he wants for breakfast and the answer is always "a nack" I try to be good about only giving him 2 snacks a day when we're at home and the afternoon snack is now usually some fruit and maybe a few pretzels.  When we're out in public, though, it can be a totally different story.  We were at a play date the other day and after I'd refused him a snack 5-6 times, he goes over to my friend and asks her for a snack.  I've seen him occasionally do this with his grandma, but never with anyone else.  Sounds like we may have a little moocher on our hands!

TV is his second favorite thing in the world, but I'm much better at only allowing this certain times of the day and not every time he asks.  He will only watch a couple of shows and doesn't really like to watch anything new, but once he does like a new show, it becomes an obsessions.  His new favorite went from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to Dora.  I've heard Caillou is pretty annoying, so I do not allow that to be on, but I think Dora might be right up there with him!  He does actually learn stuff on the show, so from that aspect, it's not too bad, but some of the characters on the show have the most annoying voices ever, especially Dora!

I'm also amazed at how much he has learned already.  He can count to 11 and knows a few shapes.  He's still working on colors, but seems to be getting more consistent with guessing them correctly. In the past two weeks his desire to color/draw has really increased.  Before, I could get him to color for maybe 20 seconds.  Now, he actually asks to do it and he seems to like to draw more than coloring pictures.  I've now started to ask him what he's drawing and he goes through phases.  For a while it was seahorses, now it's snakes.  Sometimes he'll say he's going to draw something and then ask me if it looks right.  What am I supposed to tell him?  Of course it doesn't look right!  You're 2 and just draw a bunch of squiggles, so I just ask him back if he thinks it looks right. Most of the time he says no.  At least he's a good critic of his work.
 

Hard at work on his drawing

We went out trick or treating for the first time this year!  We did a practice "Trunk or Treat" at Aunt Mitch's church which went great and he really seemed to enjoy himself, even wore the costume happily (after refusing at first to put it on). He didn't say trick or treat to anyone there, or even on Halloween night, but we had fun going around seeing the neighbors in the rain. I even made him wear a poncho over his costume that I worked really hard on and didn't want ruined!  We had another Halloween party for my Mom's Club, and I didn't want him to ruin his penguin costume, so he went as Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory.  I thought he pulled off the costume well.

Another wonderful thing about two year olds is that they can be just a slight bit stubborn, or in our case extremely strong-willed! I blame it on his Italian genes, since we all know daddy can be a little quick-tempered as well!  Time-outs are becoming a daily occurrence and we just had out first public time-out yesterday.  He kept trying to take a toy off of a little girl at the library, so I whisked him off to an unused room for timeout. I'm sure it's only the first of many that we will have and hopefully he'll be a better behaved child because of it.

Speaking of stubborn, we had our first swim lesson last night.  He was super excited to go and even willingly put on the swimming cap (which I thought was going to be a fight).  Everything went downhill after that, quickly. He liked the water, just didn't really like to listen to the instructor or participate in any of the activities.  He screamed for at least 25 of the 30 minutes we were there.  Hopefully things will get better as we continue to go.  At least he looks cute in his required attire!

All in all he's a pretty good kid and a quick learner.  He's all boy and loves sports and dirt.  Can't wait to see what this year brings for us.  Should we start that time-out counter now? :)

Playing his "harmogiga"

Pumpkin painting

Riding in the longest grocery cart in the history of the world!

Singing his favorite song

Feeding a sheep at Soergels

Long Lost Friend

Dear blog,  I'm sorry we haven't hung out in a while. I've been busy.  I promise to pay more attention to you soon. :)

Blabber Mouth

From the minute he wakes up until the minute he falls asleep, this kid talks. I don't really understand all of it, but I understand quite a bit of it and he's really just a huge imitator.  I'm shocked at how much of a vocabulary he has already, and secretly long for some silence every once in a while!

Since I'm terrible at keeping up with the baby book, here are the words that he knows at 16 months:

mamee, dada, bye bye, shoes, socks, coat, hat, kitty, duck, snake, monkey, moose, animal sounds (moo, baa, meow, ribbit, hop, quack, panting like a dog, neigh, oo oo like a monkey, elephant sound), cookie, snack, banana (nanner), muffin (mama), Boo, Gigi, Grandma, Pap  Pap, CD, tractor, snow, spoon, bowl, bib, Emma, baby.  He knows that a car says beep, a truck says honk, a tractor says chug chug, a train says choo choo, and a fire truck says nee naw.

It's also been funny to see him trying to associate things.  Steve was out of town a few weeks ago, so anytime we were out, Seth would point to any man we passed and say dada.  He also often thinks he sees Gigi, and I think he's convinced that gigi is the guy from the Baby Einstein logo (see below).

He's also been working on his dance moves and tries to sing along to row, row, row, your boat.  I didn't realize that I was humming the tune the other day while he was in the other room, and all of a sudden I hear him going "merrily, merrily, merrily" (well, his version of that, anyway).  He also likes to do the wah wah of the babies on the bus, not the words, but the motion for it. He loves to give high fives, and is unfortunately starting to hit when he gets mad.  I can't wait to see his language develop over the next few months!

Life According to Seth

If Seth could talk (legibly), this is what he would have to say about life...

• Nuh Nuh (Snacks) are the best things in the world and I would probably sell my firstborn child for a Fig Bar.
• Only Mama can read me books.  Seriously, Dada, don't even try. ever.
• Please show me pictures of keeessshhh (kitties).  all kitties.  in all books. all. day.  long. I LOVE KITTIES!
• No I will not eat that food you put on my tray.  Wait, I can use a fork?  I can probably eat the food if it's on a fork.  Oh look, it flies through the air when you wave the fork back and forth. 
• Not the changing pad!  Please don't lay me down! NNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Ha! I can roll!  I'll roll on my stomach to make my escape! Uh oh, I'm on my back again. NNNNNOOOOOO!  Oh, you'll let me play with a thermometer?  Look, it beeps when you push this button!  How fun! Oh, we're done?
•  One drink?  Seriously, mom.  I would like to have milk and water available to me at all times and yes, I will carry them both around with me and alternately drink both.  Although, it's hard to carry my book with kitty pictures around when I have two sippy cups.  Can you please call the 90s and get me a fanny pack?
• Was that a noise?  Dada?  Was that the ice dropping in the fridge or was that Dada? Is that a truck outside? Dada? Oh, a wall.  *knock knock* Dada?  Dada? Dada?  Where does he HIDE all day?
• I keep signing please but she's not getting me what I want.  I'll try again *please* *please* *please*  What do you mean "please what?"   *PLEASE* *PLEASE *PLEASE*
• What is this word "No" that you keep trying to tell me? You say it an awful lot.
• Can you please show me some more kitties???
• Real men wear crowns, not headbands...

 

Me and my BFF!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful Holiday spent with family and friends.  We're feeling extra blessed this year with our little one and our new home.  Here are some pics of our celebrations:

TL: All tired out from presents. TR: Opening presents with Pap Pap! BL: All the cool kids take their pants off (PS - I think he kind of looks like Gru in this photo with his big sweater and tiny legs.) BR: All ready for Church!

L: Not a huge fan of Santa! TR: Emma got Gunkle a puzzle with Tinkerbell on it. BR: Cousins in their Christmas shirts!

Some family photos and opening gifts Christmas morning.  Best Gift?  Why a box, of course! :)

No Place Like Home for the Holidays...

Even if that home is scattered with boxes and a huge mess, right? Our house is finally done and we are mostly moved in!  Still have a few things at the In-Laws house, hopefully they don't need their shed for anything too soon! :)  It's been an interesting process watching the house being built and I think we're pretty happy with everything.  There are a few issues here and there, but nothing major.  The last big piece of the puzzle is the fridge, which was supposed to be delivered tomorrow and we got a call today that it's not coming until early January, so we're very much disliking Whirlpool right now.  At this point, we can't really get anything else delivered much sooner, but I think we should consider cancelling and buying another fridge to prove a point to Whirlpool.

I got all of my Christmas shopping done before we moved, so I'm glad I don't have that to worry about, but I'm getting the urge to start making cookies.  I told the hubs that I would make his two favorite kind (Layered Cookies and Reese Cups) and that was it, but I'm really in the mood to make cut-outs.  I have no idea why because they make a huge mess and are very time consuming.  I think they're one of the cookies I always remember making with my mom and really put me in the holiday spirit.  There aren't many decorations out this year, but we do have a small (live!) table-top tree and the stockings.  I guess I'm just having a hard time getting in the holiday spirit.  Not that it's totally different from other years, unfortunately.  I'm just not one of those people that really get into the season. Hopefully as our little one gets older, I'll be better about the whole thing and not be such a bah humbug mom!

The Beginning of Temper Tantrums

I always thought that I had until our little one was at least 2 before I would have to deal with temper tantrums.  Boy was I wrong!  I suppose it comes with the independence that he is constantly seeking. Today has been one of those days and it's not even 11:00am, yet.  I'll cut him a little slack because he's had a cold and is teething, but my patience only goes so far.  He's starting to get more independent in eating, and I'm trying to embrace it and let him hold the spoon to feed himself.  I help him put some oatmeal on the spoon and then watch as he gets half of it into his mouth. After a few attempts, he decides he wants to hold the bowl of oatmeal himself, which I will not allow.  This results in screaming and flinging of the spoon with leftover oatmeal on it, and the signal of breakfast being done.  A little later, I put him in his outfit for the day and when I get his fleece coat zipped up, there is more screaming and trying to pull the fleece off right before flinging himself onto the hallway floor and screaming some more.  My two tactics at this point are trying to distract him or ignoring him.  Ignoring only works for so long, though, because he inevitably hits his head on something in his rolling/screaming fit of rage. Any tips on how to control these outbreaks before they get worse??