Mom Remembers

1. I love that he has a word for everything. 2. I love it when he snuggles with me--if only for a moment! 3. I love his striking blonde hair. 4. I love the way he bounces and smiles and jabbers when I wake him up in the morning. 5. I love how obedient he is. That never ceases to surprise me. 6. I love to carry him on my back and talk with him about the things we see. 7. I love that he takes everything at his own pace. 8. I love how excited he is about animals. He really likes dogs and cats. 9. I love to watch him play with puzzles, his favorite toys. He is getting quite good at them. 10. I love the way he says "thank you" for everything. 11. I love that he enjoys music. 12. I love that he gives kisses. 13. I love it when he crawls to me very quickly and "tackles" me. 14. I love the way he rolls around the floor, just because it is fun. 15. I love that he is growing attached to his blanket. 16. I love that he is watching and listening to Soren. It is f

I had intended to keep track of Carl's vocabulary up until he turned 2 years old, like I did for Soren.  But he has already learned so many words, I can't keep up with him.  So I have decided to post my list now and stop worrying about keeping up with his blossoming abilities.  Especially at the end of this list, I am certain some words are missing. Not as many as would be if I kept trying to keep in the next few months, though. By one year: boom! By thirteen months: bye done hi I see a Mama ouch ta da! By fourteen months: baby, ball, banana Daddy, down, dropped I want J milk no some that, this uh oh, up By fifteen months: apple bite, blanket, block, butt, button cookie, cracker dill, dog end fish, food go H, hat, hello, help, hot light, look meow, Mommy, monkey nut oatmeal, outside phone, please, play dough, potty shoe, sock, stick water By sixteen months: amen back door, bath, bathroom, book, boots, bye bye candy, car, Carl, cat, C

Today my first born son is three whole years old! Can you believe it? I can't. This is what we did to celebrate. 1. I woke Soren up by saying "Happy Birthday!" and told him that today was the day he was born. I told him that today he was three years old and we played a game to reinforce that. I would ask him, "How old are you?" and he would say "I'm three!" After a while, he started playing with different numbers or asking me how old I  was. We both got a kick out of those permutations. 2. We had french toast for breakfast and allowed Soren to have unlimited syrup ! It doesn't get much better than that. 2. We went to church. Today was Soren's last day in nursery and he had a great time, as usual. I think that's something he won't really like about being 3; he does love going to nursery. 3. When we got home, Soren put on his bran-new pretzels sweatshirt (from Nan) and Scott gave him the present he made for him: a hand-made wooden

1. I love that he says "thank you" for very specific and random things. (ex: "Thank you for going downstairs.") 2. I love that he can read lots of words. 3. I love how good he is at governing his emotions. 4. I love it when he says, "Mommy, dance with me!" 5. I love his neologisms. (ex: chapstick is "truck-a-day") 6. I love that he knows what Christmas is really about. 7. I love it when he wants to help me with my chores. 8. I love how handsome he is in his big boy clothes. 9. I love it when he fights dragons 10. and when he uses common household items to make his armaments. (ex: a kitchen knife and a frisbee) 11. I love to hold his hand when he walk together. 12. I love it that he runs to give Scott a hug when he comes home from work. 13. I love to see him share with Carl. 14. I love (love love love love) that he is willing and eager to fetch things for me. 15. I love it when he asks me to tell him I love him. 16. I love that he c

SOREN: C is for ka-ka-ka-crap!

Carl: I love you. Me: I love you, too. Carl: I love you. Me: I love you, too. Carl: I love you. Me: I love you, too.

So, Carl can totally walk.  I saw him do it last week.  He took five whole steps and then voluntarily sat down! He did it like it was no big deal but he hasn't improved since then. I have tried bribing him. I used marshmallows to tempt him across the room but it only worked a few times before he decided the work was not worth the puny reward. This was surprising because I remember the marshmallows being a very convincing incentive for Soren. Now he won't walk for anything. He won't even walk holding my fingers, which is something we used to do all the time. I'm sure he'll make the switch over eventually but it'll be interesting to see how, since he doesn't want to practice. For now, he gets better and faster at crawling every day. And I have always found that to be an invaluable skill.