2 Years + 1 month? 25 months?

I don't know what to title this month's update.  2 years + 1 month is so long but 25 months sounds so weird.  In France, little kid's sizes go to 36 months, at the least (the last size that I bought for Emma- since she's 6 I clearly need to get back to France ASAP!), so maybe it isn't so weird.  I'll have to try them both out to decide!

Ryder has been having a blast this month.  Finally the weather has started cooperating and we have been able to go outside a lot more and for longer.  Janda was home sick the week before vacation and we went outside for at least 4 hours to give him some time to rest.  And still Ryder wasn't ready to come in!  He still likes to be pushed in the stroller, he loves to take walks and play in the yard and street (we're at the end of a dead end road), he will dig in the dirt until the cows come home and he loves loves loves seeing and especially following the big trucks.  We followed the recycling truck all the way around the point one day.

He hasn't learned too many new words this month, although he is getting better at repeating words that we say.  Mostly his new vocabulary this month has come in the form of onomatopoeia.  Some are from before this month, but most are new.  He has been doing cat, dog, lion, owl, monkey, cow, sheep, pig, motorcycle, truck and Cookie Monster.  There may be more.  My favorites are cat and Cookie Monster.  The cat's meow that he does is very soft and gentle, unlike most of the other sounds.  The Cookie Monster is hysterical "Um yum yum yum yum!" with the accompanying head shake that Cookie Monster does.  Janda is quite partial to the motorcycle, of course!

The Legos still get dumped out every morning and the trucks are pushed around the living room all day.  The bouncy balls are thrown and lost to be found later throughout the day also.  This month I got Ryder some small 12 piece wooden puzzles, because  he loves his Little Blue Truck puzzle so much, and he is a champ at them.  There was no picture to look at, so he needed a little help at first, but now he does them almost completely on his own.  He continues to love to draw and color- I am amazed that he can draw very good circles and once he even turned the circle into a face, with eyes, nose and hair, and said "Daddy!"

We have introduced him to his big boy room and we have been playing in there quite a bit to get him used to it.  Any day now we will be trying to sleep in there. Hopefully he takes to sleeping in the big boy bed, because we need that crib for Vivi!

Two year old tantrums aside, he is very happy!

He loves to draw.

Watching everything that is going on outside.

Even though he has 3 friends of his own, somehow Vivi's Ducky friend is the one he wants.

Always building with those Legos!

4 months!

I'm not sure if it's because I'm busier, less worried or it's the second time around, but Vivien seems to be getting so big sooo fast!  I can't believe that she has hit the 4 month mark and is less than 2 months away from moving into her own room and eating solid foods!

She still sleeps a ton, of course, but she is certainly awake for longer stretches than she used to be. When she is awake, she loves to be looking around at everything that is happening and she loves eye contact with me.  When Ryder was little, he got loads of tummy time because he was always on my chest, but Vivien hasn't been interested in being held like that for quite some time, unless we're walking around and she can see the sights.  At night, she is still waking up between 1 and 3am occasionally, but more frequently she sleeps through til 3-4am and then wakes up every couple of hours thereafter until she gets up for the day at 9am.

This month she was introduced to Ducky friend (no doubt, a distant relative of Monkey friend, Froggy friend and Elephant friend who came to stay with Ryder 2 years ago) and she loves to grab the blanket part of the "lovey" and move it around.  Except in the bassinet, she always has Ducky friend with her- for now as something she can grab and hopefully later as something that will help her sleep!  When she's not grasping Ducky friend, she likes to get a handful of hair.  Usually it's mine, but she has gotten in a pull on Ryder's hair a few times- turnabout is fair play for all the rough housing she has had to endure!

She is getting stronger as the days go by.  When she is able to lay down on the blanket, Vivien is constantly kicking and moving about.  She can sit up in the corner of the couch for quite some time without tipping over or sliding down, but she does wiggle and get out of position when she wants to.

We are very lucky that she is a super happy baby and smiles all the time.  All we have to do is look at her and she busts out the biggest smiles.  She has started to giggle a lot too.  She makes a ton of cooing noises, to us and to herself.  Sometimes when she is up in the bassinet, all we hear is cooing over the baby monitor.

Sitting up like a champ

All smiles!

"You want a smile?  I'll stick my tongue out instead!"

"Even though you've taken a million pictures of me, this camera thing is surprising!"

There's the smile, just a half though

2 Years Old!!

My teeny-tiny, premature first born baby is now 2.  His new clothes no longer are measured in months, but years and now that we have a baby again, it's so obvious that he isn't a baby anymore, although I still call him my baby!

The word of the month is definitely "bubble."  As the snow has been melting, there have been constant puddles on our street and Ryder discovered he can make bubbles in the water in a variety of ways.  He got a bubble mower for his birthday, so that completely cemented the bubbles as his new favorite discovery.

His favorite outdoor activity as Spring has been creeping in is definitely puddle jumping.  No matter what he is wearing, no matter how cold and wet he gets, he loves puddle jumping.  Inside it has still been all trucks all the time.  We have many kinds of trucks here and he loves them all: "big truck," "dump truck," "fire truck," "mail truck" and of course "daddy truck."  This past month we have made infinite Lego trucks.   He can sit and play with his Legos or coloring supplies for quite some time.  He certainly prefers to play with one of us, but he will play with them himself for a while too.

Ryder has been giving lots of love to us this month and also frustrating us with many mini tantrums.   He loves to give us hugs and kisses, especially Vivi!  When he wants to kiss her, or someone else (maybe a cat!), he says "Mwah" to let us know what he wants.  It is so very cute, as long as he is gentle, which isn't exactly always the case!  He has been having mini meltdowns at the drop of a hat lately.  If I don't know how he wants his Lego truck to be built and build it the right way, he cries.  If I can't figure out what he wants from the kitchen, he cries.  Don't do something fast enough, he cries; don't play with him exactly when he wants, he cries; change his diaper, he cries.  I think you can see how this is going.  Luckily us he calms down very quickly and moves on.  We just sing to him "put your head on my shoulder" and he relaxes and gets over it.

Happy Birthday Ryder!

Ryder with his birthday banner.

 

Playing with those Lego trucks.

We either make balls or snakes with the Playdoh.

When we ask "How old are you?" he holds up his thumb and pointer.

What a face!

What a smile!