27 months!

Ryder's vocabulary has had another big month!  I feel like his vocabulary tripled this month.  Last month I was thrilled when he learned his colors and some new trucks.  This month he's using verbs, pronouns and making sentences!!!  What a change!  He regularly uses "go," 'try," "like," "have," and "want" now, plus "eat" and "drink."

It took him two years and three months, but he also learned the word "NO."  Boy, I could have kept waiting!  He says "NO" to everything now, even things he actually wants.  Instead of asking once and trying to figure out if he was saying "uh-huh" or "uh-uh," now I have to ask three times  (at least) to figure out if he really means "NO" or just likes how it sounds!

He has been learning longer words too: excavator, bulldozer, front loader, and ambulance (see a pattern?) among others.  He also learned "help" and sometimes yells it during diaper changes, which is awkward if we're out somewhere!  Phrase of the month is absolutely "I love you."  When I taught it to him at dinner one night, he said it a few times right away then he started listing everyone he loves, an idea he came up with himself.  At naptime he has spontaneously said it to me and most days he yells it over and over as I go down the stairs.

He is as into drawing as ever and his drawing are getting good.  He draws really good trucks (duh!), all different kinds even.  They aren't perfect of course, but I can tell which kind he is drawing.  I found some awesome fully-articulating mini construction trucks and gave him a pan of rice and he can entertain himself for a very long time scooping, pushing and dumping that rice.

He got his summer haircut this month and he looks so old!  He still hates haircuts and fought this one like we were removing an important appendage.  It seems like he hit a mini growth spurt this month too, he's just a little bit bigger all of a sudden!

He didn't want to leave his friends out of the photo shoot!

Big smiles!

Funny face!

Finally convinced him to put his friends aside, but I didn't get a decent smile!  

Look at that charmer!

6 months!

A half a year with this cutie already?  How is this possible?  Maybe it's because we're so busy or more likely because this is our last little baby, but I feel like Vivien's getting bigger much faster than Ryder did!

She is a very vocal baby so far, making many different sounds.  Soft, cute cooing, louder cooing, little shout-like grunts, tons of giggles and laughing now and of course, various levels of crying.  When I leave her alone in the living room to get some chores done, she talks to herself like crazy, always with a smile on her face!

She is doing great in the Bumbo chair now- she loves to sit up and look around at what is going on.  If Ryder is awake, I put her in it while I'm doing the dishes and she plays with her toys and chews on the straps.  When she hears me making noise behind her, she turns right around to see what is going on.  She can't quite sit up on her own yet, but she's close.  She tries really to sit up from a reclined and even a laying-flat position.  If we give her our hands to pull on, she gets up quickly.  As long as she's leaning on something or has an arm rest, she can sit up for a bit.  She rolls onto her side a lot and has rolled over a couple of times, but she doesn't get much floor time with that aggressively affectionate older brother!

She now reaches out for her toys and grabs them if we hold them out to her.  She has very good control to get them right into her mouth!  Even when Ryder hands her some of his toys, she is able to grasp them, although not as well as her rattles.  She really loves to play with her Ducky and Tiger Friends.  She will grab one, look at it intently and then, of course, put it in her mouth.  She pulls them onto her face and now can pull them back off.  She likes to sleep with one on her face, so a few minutes after I put her down it the bassinet, I go move it to the side for her.

She no longer fits in the bassinet at all and has moved into the crib in the nursery now that it has been vacated by the previous occupant!  She has been having a bit of a backslide with sleeping this month, due the to move or not, I don't know.  She hasn't napped in the crib in a couple of weeks, although she usually chills out up there for a while awake before the loud protests begin.  I even have a hard time getting her in there at night- usually it takes a couple of tries.  So, now that school's out we're going to have to get serious with some sleep training!  Really fall-asleep training is what she needs- good thing we've got all summer!

Next we're onto solid foods!  Where is my baby going???

Sitting up nicely!

I love those eyes!

So easy to get a smile out of her!

She loves that Tiger Friend

Just tipping a little

Caught it with her elbow

Or not!