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| photo bombing Dragon |
Harry finally had his 18 month check-up this week. (He's almost 21 months old, but we were a little off schedule because of the timing after our move.) All is well and he finally let the Nurse Practitioner examine him without screaming or writhing in my lap. We'll request her in the future!
We're working on toddler time here, constantly balancing between Harry being amazingly cute and frustratingly independent. Harry has never been a go-with-the-flow kinda kid and if he's not on board with what you want to do he will make it known. Unfortunately, he also appears to be fairly intuitive and if we are in any hurry at all, that's when he sits down on the stairs to play or decides he absolutely needs a toy he left upstairs in his room once we've finally made it to the first floor... Any attempt at trying to get this guy to do something when he's not ready typically ends in screaming and thrashing!
We've also developed some well defined rituals, particularly at bedtimes. We head upstairs, play for a few minutes, read a few books, and then sing a few songs. He's great at delaying, and he'll always say "mo mo" (one more) with a little smile on his face. Sometimes it works too! Eventually I make sure all of his stuffed animals are in with him, along his bus, zoom (excavator), and "guy" (the toy figure of the week). Most of the time he's ready to sleep and snuggles into the pile of animals in his crib. When he wakes up, we go through the reverse ritual starting by taking out every item he put in his crib before his nap....
I try to add a 15 minute buffer before we leave to go anywhere. Fortunately, we don't have many pressing engagements and Livi's school drop off/pickup is regular enough that he mostly goes with the flow on that one. That being said, there have been many wrestling matches to get him into his "zootsuit"(fleece onesie outerwear). Oscar can usually get him moving if I can't and cookie bribery works too.
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| Who doesn't love having pockets? |
He loves to jump. Sometimes when he gets in a good mood he'll just start jumping up and down with two feet. Sometimes he finds a comfy surface to jump on but the floors work fine too:
He's really chatty, and seems to pick up new words everyday. Some are more recognizable than others, but one of his newest is a doozie:
f*$% = truck (hoping this one morphs soon...)
He was also repeating sheep the other day which is unfortunately coming out sounding a lot like sh#&. Hmmm, an interesting trend....
Ah-cars = Oscar (Oscar's name is plural since we always say something is "Oscar's")
He-vi = Livi
Cars - the cars cartoon he likes to watch
play
A quiet chat one morning after naptime:
Harry still loves his vehicles and typically leaves the house with a truck in hand (Baby comes along for the ride sometimes too).
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| Finding baby around the house makes him smile, say "baby", and give her a snuggle. |
He's never cared about clothes, other than not always wanting to put them on. He does have a first favorite shirt now though, which he's usually pretty excited to wear:
He likes trains too and usually plays with them in his room before or after nap time. He has a wide array of sound effects, most likely from Oscar's influence!
Harry adores both Livi and Oscar, and he may be the luckiest boy in the world to have them as his big brother and sister. Together they give him anything a little boy could want and they both melt when he gives them one of his sweet hugs or kisses. Every night he takes a bath with Livi, and they giggle together the whole time. Whenever Harry is going a little crazy and needs to do puppy sprints, Livi joins right in. Harry shares her wonderful spirit and energy and they make quite a team. We got to school to pick Livi up a little early the other day and he cried when I kept walking past the school! Oscar loves for Harry to come in and snuggle with him when he wakes up. Oscar's Legos are sacred objects, and to be allowed to play with some of them is very special indeed. Harry copies Oscar's sound effects and pretty much wants to do everything "ah-cars" does. When Oscar heads off the the bus stop Harry shouts "bye-bye" over and over again until he turns around and waves.
The other day Harry spent 15 minutes running back and forth between me and Oscar - I'd set up the nerf gun and he'd run to Oscar to pretend shoot him and Oscar would oblige with some fake dying. This was followed by a dance party with Livi.
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| heading up for "bubbles" (bathtime) |
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| there's always up to something |
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| TV time |
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| Harry snuggles are the best |
We've been trying to find indoor outings in the colder weather this month, although we haven't really been successful. I will always count grocery shopping as an outing (especially if Harry's into the free samples!), but has to be timed right...a squiggling Harry in a shopping cart is quite the force to be reckoned with. We all went to Target for the kids to spend some of their Christmas money and we outstayed Harry's happiness in the cart. I mistakenly let him loose thinking he'd stay close but he quickly took off. We quickly caught him but it reminded me that Harry does not have the fear of getting lost...
I finally managed to get to a story time at the local library and it was by far the worst one I've ever been to - tiny room, lots of kids, 100 degrees, and a grouchy librarian. Harry lasted 2.2 seconds and then wanted to get the hell out of there. I couldn't blame him and we'll try a different library soon. I'm also a bit terrified of everyone getting the flu so I haven't been that adventurous this past month. Here's to warmer weather and a break in the flu season for February! And Dada coming home in a few days!!!!
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| improv |
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| he had to try out Elly's birthday present |
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| organizing Oscar's stuffed animals |
