43 months!

This entire month Ryder has been out of his mind excited about Halloween.  On October 1st we started decorating the house and we have been doing Halloween activities the rest of the month.  October 1st we put out our decorations and made pumpkins, ghosts and bats to hang up on our fireplace.  Ryder was super excited and put some of the decorations in his room too- he has a bat, some pumpkins, a "spooky tree" with Halloween balls and some lights.  He decided where to put everything and when I have moved anything (such as the dead leaves that he put in a vase!) he noticed right away and put it all back!

At the beginning of the month Ryder as hanging onto summer, as we all try to do, and only wanted to wear shorts and t-shirts.  He totally resisted long sleeved shirts, pants and jackets for quite some time.  I just noticed that he has figured out that it is cold out in the mornings and no longer gives me a hard time in the morning.  That makes it easier to get out the door!

Talking to Ryder is pretty awesome now.  He knows so many words, says so many funny things and knows about so many things.  He says "Of course I can" and "Of course I can't" about everything, which is hysterical.  One day we were talking about chickens and eggs and he said "Chickens come from eggs?  No...they wouldn't fit!"  So funny that I had to write it down!

Ryder has been practicing writing letters and numbers in a wipe-off workbook and loves it.  He finishes the 4 or so pages and then shows me how well he has traced the letters.  We talk about letters a bit and he talks about numbers all the time.  He reads the time off the clock on our stove all the time- he's knows what time certain things happen and likes to figure out when that will be.  He is pretty good with 2 digit numbers and is starting to talk about 3 digit numbers.  He doesn't always know what order to read the numbers in, left to right versus right to left, but he still is pretty good at saying the name the right way.

It as a little tricky to get him to put that apple down!

Vivi got involved in the action shots

Climbing all over stuff as usual

What a smile

Loves those cheeks

Pure joy!

22 months!

Vivi has settled in very nicely to her new schedule.  Her mid-day nap is a very consistent 2-2.5 hours now and she goes right down to sleep/does not fuss when we put her down.  She goes to bed either a little before or just after Ryder and almost never fusses at bedtime either.  She is getting a lot better at sleeping while there are other noises in the house, which is also very helpful.  She almost never wakes up before her wake-up time of 6:30, which is very nice on weekends.

Vivi is super active, I would say that she is pretty much equal to Ryder at the same age in activity and energy levels.  She loves running, jumping and climbing and she seems to have no fear.  The heights that I have seen her jump from are enough to make my heart jump into my throat.  She is much more coordinated now while running and enjoys running back and forth and in circles in the house when we can't be outside.  Just like Ryder though, her favorite is jumping and bouncing like crazy!

Vivi is getting to that age where her speaking skills are starting to snowball.  She has added loads of words this month: "pumpkin," "apple," taco," and a few different kinds of trucks.  She now plays the "Find a truck" game with Ryder and I on the way to my mom's in the morning.  Even when she doesn't see the truck first, she loves to yell "I got it!" which infuriates Ryder.  She has been using a lot of action words lately too, like "Wait," "Help," "Carry you," and of course she has been saying "More" for quite some time.

My two favorite phrases this month have to be "Watch this" and "Whatcha doing?"  Everything that we do all day long is accompanied by a handful of "Whatcha doing's?"  It's so darn cute.  Lately Vivi has been into showing off all of her new skills and she always wants us to "Watch this."  I love it she comes over to me, grabs my chin and makes serious eye contact while she says "Watch this."  Then she continues to check that I am still watching until she does her trick.  Then she comes over and does it all over again.

She loves her little rocking chair

What a smiley girl!

She was rocking like crazy

She loves that little fire truck

Taking a reading break

Chilling on the couch with her friends