Trackcat: May 2016

Friday, May 13, 2016

37 months!

It is amazing to me how different Ryder is now compared to a year ago. He talks non-stop now, in complete, complex sentences. Everything we do is narrated by a constant string of descriptions and occasional questions.

There is nothing that Ryder more loves than helping us. He always happily jumps in when I am doing chores. Many mornings when we are at home, I clean when Vivien naps and Ryder loves helping. Dusting, vacuuming, washing things, picking up toys, even unloading the dishwasher are all chores that he helps with. He absolutely loves cooking. He helps makes breakfast every morning- whisking, stirring, sprinkling, pouring, flipping; he does it all. He loves to help make any kind of food. Whenever he sees us cooking anything, he drags the stool over to help.

Now that spring is back, he is loving being back outside every day. Every day after school he likes to stay outside to play on the swingset, run around like crazy, ride his bike and take walks until the minute he has to go in for Vivi's dinner. He has helped me in the yard a lot too, while we're out playing. He helped me plant seeds and is loving watching them grow. We go check out the seeds and the strawberry plants every day.

Everything here is still about the fire trucks. He watches Fireman Sam, runs around putting out fires and pushes fire trucks around all day!

He is still/even more so "pushing his boundaries." We know that this is a natural phase that all toddlers go through, but boy is it challenging if you are a parent!

He really is good at these photo shoots now!

What a smile!

What a sweet face

And a funny one!

Someone crashed the shoot

So cute on the floor

Working hard and deep in thought

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

16 months!

Boy Spring has gotten the best of me this year. I'm so behind on everything, including monthly updates!

This past month Vivien started the eating slowdown that her pediatrician warned us about. It was a reasonably gradual change and before we knew it, she was only having a portion of the food she used to eat, but still drinking the same amount of milk. She still loves clementines and bananas, but she hasn't been that interested in berries so far. Pasta and pancakes are still huge hits, so at least we have that.

She is definitely firmly a walker now and only resorts to crawling to be funny or silly. She is still getting the hang of balancing but little trips and mishaps don't bother her at all. For a long time she has really loved sitting on the edge of things, like a step or a box, but recently she realized that she can sit on us the same way and often walks over to where we're sitting and has a seat right on our leg.

Vivien, of course, still loves playing with Ryder. In the morning before school, I wake her up first and bring her in his room while he wakes up. She loves to peek under the covers and just generally run around his room. They play in his tent together and occasionally he lets her use some of his toys.

She is starting to make more sounds and words now, but mostly she's still focused on "mama," "dada" and "bye-bye." She definitely tries to imitate and makes a few other sounds now, but there haven't been too many clear new words yet. She has been getting molars, so maybe her mouth is busy! She follows directions really well and obviously understands a lot of what we all say to her, so it's only a matter of time til she's chatting up a storm.