Happy 22 Months, Sean!

Let me start by saying, I can't believe in two months my baby will be two!  Seriously.  Two.

Considering this month has thrown us some pretty challenging moments, like Sean having hand, foot, and mouth disease and him being dis-enrolled from his daycare because of his biting, he's also had some really fun and exciting excursions while in Chicago and has expanded his speaking to some funny phrases!  With a new daycare center in place for him to start the end of this month, a time-out routine that has already caused some improvements in his biting, and a new big boy bedroom all set-up and decorated (pictures to come!), we are ready for what lies ahead this month.  Maybe a new brother at the end of the month??

Favorite Toys/Activities:

• Farms!  Farm animals, barns, and tractors, he sure has a new found love of all things farm related!  Which has led me to buy him a nice wooden barn and animals for his birthday (yes, I'm shopping already).
• Animals still.  My parents gave us this free calendar from some organization to support animals and he loves flipping the pages and trying to say all the names and sounds the animals make.  Even though he calls a Zebra a "bucee" and an Elephant a "A-bant", I'd like to think we're making progress here.
• Books!  Especially when we get to go to the library and get new ones.  He loves the whole experience of saying hi to the fish, riding the elevator down, going through the "wa-wa" (streamers that he thinks is water), etc.
• Puzzles.  I'm so glad we have 3 wooden puzzles because he loves dumping the pieces out and putting them back on.  And he's so good at them!  In fact, the shape sorter, he can do all by himself, which I think is pretty impressive because some of those shapes are very similar.
• His swing!  When he was sick he even fell asleep in it during the afternoon while I was pushing him.  But, the latest and greatest is twisting the swing around and around and letting it go.  

Favorite Foods:

• Mac and Cheese!
• Green Veggie Pancakes.
• Strawberries with sugar on top and watermelon.
• Cereal!  Like a big boy with milk and a spoon and all.
• Sweet potato fries.

With him being sick and us being in Chicago for five days, a lot of things got thrown off.  Like his sleep schedule for one.  And the start of potty training as another example.  But, we're learning to just roll with the punches.  He now prefers that we stay in his room until he falls asleep, but after 9 nights of that routine, we're slowly trying other approaches and are hoping to eventually be able to just put him down awake like we used to.  And instead of telling us when he's gone "Poo-poo", he now lies about it and tries to hide like he's embarrassed.  Ahhhh...the joys of this age....

On a positive note, he is just a chatterbox!  A lot of times it's just gibberish, but he's really taking to the art of conversation.  We've now progressed to saying, "Yup" instead of "Yeah" and "No way" instead of just "No".  But, it's so cute to hear him say things like "bless you", "thank you", and "please" without being prompted.  And even cuter when he says, "hello mama" first thing in the morning and "night-night mama" at bedtime.

We've been working on his ABC's a lot and he's getting better at them.  We are even using flashcards and an occasional youtube.com video like the alphabet train.  He knows his numbers two and three.  I had high hopes of starting Spanish with him, but he's being a little stubborn and is only repeating words he wants to repeat.  Aside from "Hola", none of them are Spanish.  But, that's okay.  He's still so little.

His second birthday party planning is well under way and the invitations are ordered and waiting to be printed!  I can't wait to celebrate that milestone with him and see how he reacts to being a big brother!  We're hoping this is a much more positive month than last and can't wait to see how he matures this month.

As always, a few photos from today's horrific attempt at a photoshoot.  Clearly he was unhappy about being unable to play with the cars in my neat photo idea I saw on Pinterest.  But, he cheered up when I gave up all hope of getting a good picture and just let him play with the cars...