23 Months Old

Caleb is 23 months old!  This month, I'd say the biggest change has been in his vocabulary.  He is trying to say all kinds of things and starting to repeat more and more of what we say.  It's so fun to hear him attempt to say things and it sure makes communicating with him a bit easier.  He is even saying many three-word phrases/sentences and he's just become quite the chatter box!  A lot of things that used to be his own interpretation of the word (like "tie-tie" for "outside") are now sounding more like the actual word ("out-tie" for "outside" now).  I haven't been good about keeping up with things this month, so let's see what random things I can think of....


* As I said, he's saying all kinds of words and phrases now.  I really couldn't write them all down but here are a some I can think of:
chicken ("tick-en") - what he used to say didn't really sound like chicken, but now you can clearly tell what he's saying.

syrup ("surra")

pancake (pretty much like it sounds)

grapes ("gapes") - he used to say "gee" and now you can tell he's saying grapes.

wagon (pretty much like it sounds) - used to be "wa-wa"

peaches ("pete-es") - he LOVES peaches now, whereas he used to not eat them.

wood ("woo") - he wants to cut and build with wood like daddy!

hammer ("hay-ya")

drill (sounds kinda like "dill")

book (just like it sounds) - he's added the "k" sound to the end now

read ("ree")

I love you (sounds like "I do")

Home Depot ("home bepo") - it sounds so cute when he says it!  he loves going anywhere with daddy, including the HD!

all done (like it sounds)

friends ("fins")

get down (like it sounds) - umm, he might have heard us say this a time or a two to the dogs, ha!

big tee-tee (like it sounds) - we always say he has a big tee-tee in the mornings and he's picked up on saying it, LOL

big pool ("big poo") - this is our neighborhood pool

yellow ("ye-whoa")

broken ("bwo-keen")

Some other 2 and 3-word phrases/sentences he says - Daddy go work, Mimi (or whoever) go bye-bye, more (food/drink item) please, no no Rio (or Tag...usually not Roux), night night mama/daddy/Rio/etc, daddy painting, daddy working, ok mama/daddy, alright mama/daddy, I love you mama/daddy/etc


* He is taking great naps and goes to sleep within minutes of laying down.  As always, he cries just a little and then goes to sleep.  I try not to let him sleep more than two hours though.

* Going to sleep at night is a different story!  We are (yet again) going through a phase where he just doesn't want to go to sleep.  We try to put him down around 8:30pm and some nights he will stay awake until 10pm or even later.  He has stayed awake as late as 11:30pm!  On a good night, he will be asleep before 9:30pm but more often than not, he's awake past 10pm.  He doesn't get out of his bed often, though.  He entertains himself by kicking the walls, playing with his stuffed animals, pulling on the curtains, breaking the blinds, getting his legs stuck in the railing, talking to himself, and sometimes jumping up and down.  I really hope this phase passes soon!

* Ever since he saw Daddy and G-Dad building his bed, he has been obsessed with wood and tools!  I think it's cute that he wants to be like daddy!  Rhett gave him 10 or so little pieces of scrap wood and he plays with those things all the time!  He stacks them, cuts them with his saw, drills on them, hammers them, and sometimes he just lines them up or moves them back and forth from one place to another.  He calls them his "pieces of wood" ("pee woo").

* He LOVES to help ("hep!") us do anything and everything.  He really likes to swiffer and of course, any time daddy is doing something outside in the garage, he wants to help.

* Ever since we set up his big boy room, he's been playing by himself in his room a lot more.  He goes in there and looks at books or plays with his kitchen or other toys quietly.

* For some reason, he's been into playing with his activity table for the past few weeks (the one he got for his 1st birthday).  He plays and dances to the music and laughs hysterically.

* He went on a vegetable strike for a few weeks, but he's at least now back to eating carrots.

* He is getting better at eating alone with his fork and spoon.  The other day, he ate almost an entire little cup of applesauce all by himself (holding the cup with one hand and scooping with the other) and he didn't even get much on his clothes. 

* I don't know when the right vs. left-handed tendencies lock in and become final, but at this point we consider him to be left-handed.  I'm sure I've said this before, but he's pretty much always favored his left hand.  I am wondering how difficult it will be to teach him to write, throw a ball, etc because Rhett and I are both right-handed!

* He still thinks most everything is the color green, but he will also guess yellow, red and blue.  Yeah...we're stil working on colors - ha!

* Although he doesn't really know his colors, he at least has memorized what color all the dogs are.  If you ask him he will tell you:  Rio "gay" (grey, ha!), Roux "back" (black), and Tag "bowm" (brown).

* Rhett says he dances to the music played at HEB every week when they are grocery shopping.  The boy likes to dance!

* I bought him another "Ruff Ruff" to take with him to MDO for naps and he knows the difference between the two.  We now have "Ruff Ruff" and "New Ruff Ruff" and sometimes he asks for one specifically over the other.

* Speaking of new things, he likes to point out things that are new or ask for new something...like if he wants more water, he will sometimes ask for "new water" instead of more water.

* He was sick quite a few times this month.  He had a slight case of croup (luckily didn't last long), then he had the whole diarrhea issue, and the following week he had the night of vomiting.  Still hate when he's sick!

* He likes to go to the "big pool" (neighborhood pool) and pretty much only wants daddy to hold him.  If I grab him, he wants to go right back to daddy.  There is also a good sized kiddie pool there and he likes playing in that too.  However, he could care less about our kiddie pool we have in the back and doesn't show much interest in the sprinkler either.  (although when we very first brought it out at the beginning of summer, he liked it...now he'd rather just go to the community pool)

* He loves to sing The Wheels on the Bus and he knows the hand motions and sounds for the wheels (round and round), wipers (swish, swish, swish), babies (waa waa waa), and mamas (shh shh shh).  What are the other lyrics b/c that's all I know!

* He also likes to sing If You're Happy and You Know It and will do the three parts:  clap your hands, stomp your feet, and spin around.

* He's been doing much better when we drop him off at church.  I don't know what changed things but we'll take it!  As soon as we drive up to the church, he yells "play! play!"...one day he will know why we are really there, but for now it is all about playing to him!

* He's always saying things are "broken" - you'd think we have a lot of broken things around here, but we don't.  If something isn't just right to him, he says it's broken.  (although, he does actually know what broken means and if something is truly broken, he will let you know!)

* He is still throwing fits, but it kinda changes from week to week.  Some weeks he is an angel and then next week he cries and fits about everything.  His new thing is standing in place, clenching his fists in front of him and screaming so hard his face turns red and it looks like his eyes are going to pop out of his head.  Oh, and sometimes he will stand against a wall and do this while banging his head backwards on the wall.  Seriously. 

* He has already, at the young age of 23 months, started using some bedtime stalling tactics.  When he knows it's time for bed, he will do almost anything to avoid it.  He starts picking up all the dog toys and putting them in their basket one by one, he will move or rearrange stray toys or some of his larger toys (just moving them an inch over and "straightening" things), he'll try to give all the dogs night-night sugars, he wants to read one more book, and sometimes he just tries to hide behind something.  It's actually quite humorous and hard not to just bust out laughing at him!  How do kids figure these things out on their own?

* I always ask him to give me a "real hug" (instead of just barely wrapping his arms around) and I'll squeeze him tight and say "squeeeeze"...so now, when you say "give me a real hug" he will squeeze really hard and say "skeeeeeze" - it is so cute!

Just like last month, I did not do a good job of taking pictures.  :-(  Of course, the last 2 weeks I have been on bedrest so we haven't done much.


Caleb and Daddy on Father's Day (I found his shirt at Walmart for only $4!  It says "Handsome Like Daddy")

Here he is working in the garage with Daddy - measure some wood!

watching Daddy cut wood (sorry, it's really dark)

We had friends over for July 4th (well, on the 3rd).  Here's Caleb, Isaiah, and Camille on the splash pad (that has since been trashed because it is way too much work to blow up and the kids didn't really care too much about it)

Playing in the kiddie pool (at our neighborhood pool).  This was on July 4th.

Sometimes he falls head first into the water but he doesn't seem too bothered by it or scared.  (yes, Daddy helps him up)

I found a neat park that's not too far away and we also went there on July 4th.

He can always find a stick!

He's starting lining things up and the other day, we found that he'd lined up his cars along the cord of his fan - too funny!  (normally, I put the fan away in the closet when we're not using it but I guess daddy forgot to do it this time)

Then, not long after that he moved the cars from the floor to the side of his bed.  He thought that was a fun game!  (you may have to look closely - the cars kinda blend in with his bed and sheets)

And a few outtakes from his monthly bear picture...

This was some pipe Rhett bought to work on the sprinklers.  Of course, Caleb wanted to play with it (and pick his nose).

I'm outta here!