Happy 23 Months, Sean!

Well, it's hard to believe that next month we'll be celebrating Sean's second birthday on October 1st and with a party on October 14th!  While it seems strange to fathom having a two year old, there's been so many things that he's been doing and saying that makes me look at him and realize that he's really a little boy now.

This past month has been busy getting things ready for Sean to be a big brother, transitioning to a new daycare since the school year is off to a start, and trying to spend the last few weeks as a family of three on our summer vacation.

Favorite Toys/Activities:

• Things related to Disney's "Cars" movie.  Despite him never having seen it, he loves Tow Mater and is starting to get into some of the other characters too.  I see the movie as a birthday gift in the future...
• The alphabet!  Or "A, B, C's" as Sean calls them.  While he can't sing the song by himself, you can ask him what a certain letter is and he's pretty good at naming most of them.
• Numbers!  Thanks to watching The Number Train video on Youtube.com, Sean is really good at counting to 10.  He certainly gets a few of the mixed up at times, but it's so cute to listen to him count.
• Making siren sounds!  He runs around the house imitating a fire truck or ambulance and plays with his cars and trucks making those sounds.  
• Firetrucks!  Thank God the fire station and police station is right next to the library.  We can go to story time or pick out books, visit the police cars and firetrucks, and pick up a video like Elmo's Fire Truck on DVD all in one trip.  And he's in heaven the rest of the day...
• Nana's "horse".  She has one of those old-fashioned pretend horse that Sean can sit on and ride.  He used to be so afraid of it every time he'd go over there, but now he's gotten the courage to ride it and will even scream, "Wheeee"...reminds me of that Geiko commercial with the pig.
• Somersaults!  He is such a daredevil it's crazy.  Somehow we started the habit of him going in our bed in the morning and he'll lean against the headboard and do somersaults on our bed.  He goes so fast and can do them so well!  Maybe we'll sign him up for a tumbling class this winter...

Favorite Foods:

• Grapes.  
• Chicken and noodles.
• Mac and cheese.
• Strawberries.
• Cinnamon toast.
• Waffles.
• Bacon.

On other notes, Sean is really getting better with putting his words together in long phrases and has even said his first sentence this month, "I want more."  We're really pushing him using the word "I" since he started going down the path of referring to himself as "Sean".  We didn't want him talking like Elmo!  He continues to amaze me more and more each day with how much he's picking up from people just saying something once and him using it in the right context.  Just the other day he told me to, "Go away".  While it hurt my feelings, it surprised me that he picked that up from us telling him to say that to the dog if she bothered him while he ate.
He goes potty on the potty chair all the time, but only when we ask him to.  He doesn't tell us when he needs to go and doesn't tell us if he has gone in his diaper, but at least he enjoys going on his potty when we ask him to.  I figure it's going to baby steps to get him ready for the full transition.  And I figure there's no immediate rush with baby Evan's arrival and all the changes that will come with that.

He survived his first week at the new daycare last week while Scott and I attended our mandatory PD for the school year.  His new school is great!  They serve organic milk and meals for him all day, email me everything they did in his room each day including names of books and songs they read or sang that day so that we can sing them with him, and even gave me a courtesy call one day last week to let me know he was having a great day.  It was really nice to receive a positive phone call instead of the usual negative ones.  While he doesn't love going there quite yet, we're hoping that as he gets more comfortable with his surroundings and friends that he'll start to enjoy "school".   

On a more exciting note, Sean is now facing forward in his car seat and I'm honestly proud of us for making it 23 months before changing him around.  I have to say...it is so much fun having him face forward.  He can see me in the rear view mirror and we make faces at one another, we have conversations about what he sees out the window while we drive, and I can easily help him with something that he needs or just look to see if he's fallen asleep.  It's been exciting!  He loves to point out all the "big crucks" he sees on the roads and we're working on the colors of them.

He's getting so big and now that Evan is here, it's going to be a very exciting and I'm sure challenging next month to see how he does as the role of a big brother.  But, I'm glad that his birthday is next month too so that he can have a day that's all about him!