34 months

Well, here we are.  Another month closer to three.

I have to say, this winter is slowly sucking the life out of all of us.  I don't think we've seen the sun for more than about 12 hours in the last month - or more.  We have had bitter cold days we've had to hunker down.  Or, it takes 30 minutes to get bundled up to head outside, and then we only last 15-20 minutes.  The hot chocolate is always good, though.  We're all ready for some sunny days.

The month start out like a lion...Kyalo was not napping.  He also decided that sleeping in our bed was preferable to his, so he'd wake up in the middle of the night and climb into ours.  Which meant that we had limbs in our stomachs, elbows in our noses, and Dexter was on the couch.  So I wasn't sleeping at night, and then Kyalo wasn't napping.  Which would be fine if he'd play quietly in his room for a bit but instead he just ran around the house laughing.  I tried everything I could think of to get him to stay in his room for 30 minutes so I could have a rest.  I begged, bribed, pleaded, cajoled and nothing worked.  I was sure that naps were behind us and was quite distraught by this fact.  I relish that hour or so I have to myself.  I am not ready to give it up just yet. (Let's be honest, I may never be.) So the beginning of this month got off to a rocky start, and I wasn't sure my relationship with Kyalo was going to survive.

But we kicked the sleeping in our bed habit, and suddenly he started napping again.  I'm not sure what changed to make him suddenly nap, but I am rejoicing.  It isn't every day usually, but 5 out of 7 is manageable, esp since mostly they're about an hour and a half.

And I can love him again.  Besides, how could you not love this face?

Kyalo is especially excited about his birthday.  I've heard him singing 'Happy Birthday' in the bathtub, and he has said to me several times, 'I'm so happy for my birthday! April Sird!'  I'm feeling a bit of pressure to actually plan a party for him since we haven't done anything too big for him yet.  Who wants to come help me plan?

Other things from this month.

Being home bound hasn't been all bad.  Last week his friend Griffin (just 2 weeks younger) came over for finger painting while his mom, Gina, and I chatted.  It was mostly a success.

pals

And, unlike last time, Kyalo painted the paper, not himself.  Bonus.

On Saturday, he and Dexter did some cleaning of our kitchen floor.  We have the world's worst mop so Dexter used some old t-shirts instead.  Kyalo thought it was pretty great.

He didn't last too long, but it was still a good activity for him.  Start 'em young!

Other things:

Potty Training

I can't believe we haven't nipped this in the bud yet.  It is becoming slightly frustrating...because I know he could do it, but for some reason, he refuses to poo in the potty.  He'll tell me, 'I'm not big boy, I'm little boy, poo in diaper.'  Kind of hard to argue with that.  Still, there has been some progress. We're no longer doing diapers at nap time, and he'll climb out of his crib and announce 'I have to go pee' even before coming to see me.   We've been working on this since last summer (when he was taking his diaper off and peeing in his bed, remember?) and I can count on one hand the number of accidents he's had.  The best is when he suddenly disappears and then we hear the toilet flush.  We're not all that involved in it that much in some ways....I recently tried to get him fired up for pooing in the potty, but that resulted in tears and anxiety, so realized I needed to just leave it.  I'm trying to avoid using candy as a reward, but have promised him both stickers and a new drawing book if he does it.  Some days he'll talk about how he'll poo in the potty, but then nothing happens. We continue to talk it up and live in hope that it will happen by his birthday.  (And that was more information than you needed, right?)

Talking

I've had a few people ask me -- or comment about -- his talking lately.  He was (very) slow to start, with barely 10 words by the time he turned 2, I think.  But sometime over the summer it just exploded, I guess.  He may still be a little behind in some ways, but not in any noticeable way, I think.  This is a huge relief to me, of course.  I love hearing his thoughts, and the stories he tells.  He tells a lot of stories that start with 'One day. . .' which then morphs into a retelling of his entire day, or some specific event from that same day.  We really can communicate easily with him now and it is just so much fun!  And makes life easier, too, of course. 

Reading and numbers

I admit, I haven't worked hard on getting Kyalo to read or recognize numbers or letters.  We sing the ABC song, and have plenty of ABC books.  I point to the letters as we read them, and what not, but there haven't been flash cards or specific times to drill this into his head.  I figure he doesn't need to know his letters yet, so why rush it.  Still I was pleasantly surprised yesterday when we were at a friends doing some stamping and he'd say, 'I need H' and proceed to get it from the jumbled up box of stamps.  Sometimes, I think he is just holding out on us. . . 

Some other cute things he says:

adocado for his afternoon snack of avocado

'I DO have. . . ' and then he'll tell me what he has (hiccups, a book, whatever.)  The emphasis is so cute to me.

And here's a funny story.

A few months ago while Dexter was reading him bed time stories some fireworks randomly went off in our neighborhood. It wasn't the 4th of July or anything, so we don't know what the point was.  But it freaked him out and he didn't want to watch them.  And ever since then, several times a week as he's heading to bed he'll tell us, "I don't like fireworks!"  I think he is a verbal processor, because he can't seem to stop talking about them.  

Thus ends another long-winded post.  

Spring, come quickly!!