Happy Saturday!

Desmond is 20 Months Old!

At least he was, as of July 24.  Today, it's September 3. I'm not even going to apologize anymore, because it's just sad.

I did get LOTS of pictures of him. And to make myself feel better about not blogging his stats, I'm going to put a lot of them in here. So there.


One thing - he definitely still has his gorgeous blue eyes!

And goofy expressions that make us laugh:

He hasn't quite mastered clean eating (despite his top canines popping through on July 23!):

And he still really likes TV. Kung Fu Panda (the original) is by far his favorite thing to watch, though he'll also accept Finding Nemo or Monsters, Inc.

So, that was our Desmond in July. Smart, sweet, funny, and incredibly handsome. But you already knew that. :)

Dexter is Two and 3/4!

Here it is! A Dexter update! 

I promised myself both kids would get monthly updates for their first two years. Then we'd see what happened.  Eh. this is what happened.

In a way that surprises almost no one, Dexter has become quite a force of nature. He is FULL OF ENERGY in the way most two-year-olds should be, and then some. He's also incredibly smart and very very funny.


...... Note that this is another blog post interrupted. Grrr.

Big Fun for the Fourth!

Desmond's Words

Fish
Uh-oh
Blue
Dad
Airplane
Ball
Dexter
Pop
Please
Diaper
Thank you
May 29
Hot
Mine
Mom (finally!)
More (though this is still always accompanied by the sign)
Up
Down
Apple
Horse
May 30
Boat
Bear
Book
Birds
There (as in "it's over there.")
Spoon ("pooooooooooon!")

June 1
Bread
Pee-pee (penis)

June 2
Feet
Bus
Car (maybe)
Outside
Downstairs

June 6
Arm
Baby
Bee :(
No ("oooooooh")

June 8
Sip (VERY clear)

June 9
Truck
Car
Dirt
Stuck
Help

June 11
Tractor
Flowers
Table
Shoes
Chair

June 14
Whale (used for both whales & sharks)
Foot
Arm
Eye
Nose
Lawnmower

June 15
Train
Light (this is an old one I missed!)
Wheel

July 2
Share
Turn
Sad
Happy
Pacifier
Nap
Milk ("muut")
Yogurt ("yoyut" - Dex *still* days "moyurt," so yay for getting that Y in there!)
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Bus
Truck
Train
Swim
"I do it!"
No (now with initial N sound!)
Yes (very clear with ssss at end)
Done (one of his very early words - how did I miss that?!)
Eat
Snack
Juice
Bar (every morning before daycare!)
Hammer
Sorry
Purple
Jump

July 3
Duck
Panda (Actually sounds like "pee-ba!" asking to watch "Kung Fu Panda")
Yucky
Frog
Fork
Bowl
Pacifier ("ah-fah-wuh")
Crab
Octopus
Bubbles
Sun
Hard (as in effort)
Big (as in desired portion size)
Caboose (on the toy train)
Shower
Giraffe
Zebra

July 4
Leaf
Cereal

July 5
Dessert

Desmond is 19 Months Old!

'sup?
(Photo taken June 25, 2011.)

As I type, it is July 3. So I am only ... something like 9 days late posting this one. Which, comparatively speaking, is pretty awesome. 

The most exciting thing about Desmond's progress this month is just his explosion of personality (and words!) He does his own thing, talks to you (in a fashion), has definite evolving likes and dislikes, plays, and laughs.

Before we get to the good stuff, here are a few more pictures from June 25.  (I was out of town on June 24, so really, that one is not my fault!)  He was playing on the crib mattress on the floor in Dexter's closet. I mean, it was seriously fun.

I'm a sucker for those tiny lips!

Action shot!

FUN!

And now, the details:

Teeth: No new teeth. Sorry to start off with something so boring. We're still waiting on those canines.

Sleep: He still has the pacifier. ("ah-faw-uh") He loves it. He sleeps well. There's enough other sleep drama going on (::cough:: Dexter ::cough::) that we aren't tackling the pacifier issue just yet. It is so strange and amazing and awesome (the theme of today's musings, I suppose) to behold a child who willingly goes to sleep and sleeps well. He even takes naps! Will run down the hall saying "Nap! Nap!" when we say it's naptime. Craziness.

Food: No big changes here, though he seems a little less willing to try new things. He is also playing more games at the dinner table. Stuff along the lines of "Hey watch me while I be sneaky and throw this food on the floor! And my fork! And I'm going to knock my sippy cup over!" Except he's so freaking cute when he does it that it's tough to be angry at him.  But there is indeed a reason that there are TWO bath towels under his "eating chair."

Words: Holy explosion of words, Batman!  There are so many that I think I may stop counting as of today, and I'll put a separate post listing all of them. It's pretty awesome, though. (See? Awesome!)  I do think I figured out today that what we thought was "happy" is really "help me." Clearly, he's never been in real peril - we never looked at him stuck beneath a giant rock or something, saying "happy!" and we just smiled and said, "You're happy?! I'm happy, too! Everybody is happy!"

Mostly, though, he is surprisingly easy to understand, even for people who don't see him very often.

Books: Desmond still LOVES books and will ask you to read a book randomly in the middle of the day sometimes. Of course, bedtime books remain a staple.His favorite at the moment seems to be "Mystery in Bugtown." He mostly just flips through it, tells us who is sad, then talks about all of the bugs listed in the back. (Ant, Bee, Cricket, Grasshopper, Centipede, Spider, Slug, Cockroach, Ladybug, Katydid... maybe some others.)  And then he tells us that the little bug on the last page is "running." (which he is!)  It's really cute. Awesome, even. :)

TV: Desmond does love TV, too. I'm not sure what would win in a book vs. TV contest, but it's sadly probably the TV. If he hears mention of any of their movies ("Monsters," "Fish," "Two Frogs," or "Panda"), he is in his favorite TV-watching spot before you can finish your sentence. It's seriously a case in which we watch what we say, because something like, "After lunch, we can watch TV" will turn lunchtime into a whinefest.

Speaking of TV, his favorite thing lately is Kung-Fu Panda. (The original one.) We realized today that he says "Pee-ba!" ("Panda") when he wants to watch it. There also seems to be an arm motion that goes with it. It's pretty freaking cute. Hilarious. (And yes, AWESOME! - The Panda says "awesome" a lot. Maybe that's why it's in my head.)



Likes & Dislikes: You know how you write a blog post and then realize later half of the stuff that you should have put in it? That's what happened with Desmond's 18 month update. And I was going to fix it, but I did that one so late that by the time I kept NOT getting around to it, it was pretty much time for the 19 month one.  So, anyway. Desmond really really really likes SWIMMING! Since he loves floating around in the bathtub so much, we started doing swimming lessons a while back. (Hopefully there will be a backdated blog post about that sometime. Maybe.) He loves them! And he's getting pretty brave. He doesn't need to hold your hands to jump into the pool. And he really isn't even all that clingy, although he certainly can't swim by himself, even with a bubble belt and pool noodle. But yes, the kid loves swimming. LOVES it!

He also likes the usual stuff - being outside, going downstairs. Those are pretty big.  He likes cars. A lot. He likes playing with cars and driving them around on the furniture, complete with sound effects. He likes watching cars driving through parking lots or down the street. He likes playing inside Mom's and Dad's cars.

And how best to combine cars and outside? A lawnmower, of course! He doesn't have a whole lot of patience for actual mowing. (It is pretty hot, after all.) But he LOVES sitting on the lawnmower when it's parked in the garage. He just climbs up into the driver's seat like it's exactly where he is supposed to be. As I've said before, I hope their love for the lawnmower and all things outside and yardwork-related sticks around for the next 18-20 years or so.

No big dislikes. He doesn't like it when Dexter "dog piles" on top of him. He isn't a fan of diaper changes. But he is mostly smart enough to avoid things he doesn't like. See above about actually napping when he's tired. And if he's too hot outside, he will actually come inside and drink some water instead of soldiering on.

See? Happy AND smart. (And awesome!)