Two Years Old!!!

How on earth did it happen???

Honestly, though, his little lump of a newborn days do seem a long time ago now.

By the way, he blew out his candles on the first try--there are a lot of late summer birthdays at daycare so he clearly knew what was going on.

I haven't done a month by month update in a while, so here goes....

1. Talking. At his 18 month check-up little dude had zero words. I stopped counting about a month ago at 75. I'd guess that his word count has easily doubled since then. Hard to tell as there are too many to keep track of. In addition to quantity, he enunciates extremely well. Another parent at the park commented on how easy he was to understand; I was so proud! He's also using two and three word sentences, "I run again", "I wantone banana", "more book".

2. He's totally getting into pretend play. He feeds me, he feeds the cat (fake food with a spoon), he feeds his dolly out of his sippy cup. Its fun. We bought him a play kitchen for his birthday and I spent the morning eating pretend pancakes.

3. Social skills are great! He definitely enjoys his friends and talks about them when they are not here.

4. Size and weight. His check-up is in two weeks, I'll update then. He's pretty thin. His 18 month jeans from Children's Place are the right length but sag at the waist and are held up by his diaper. He's as tall as his friends who are 75% for height so we assume that's about where he is. He's a lot lighter than them, though.

5. Eating. All of a sudden he's become a pretty darn good eater. I mean variety, I don't worry about quantity as he eats the amount that he should eat. Tonight for dinner he ate spaghetti and meatballs and broccoli. He likes broccoli--I just lightly steam it and serve it plain, he just wolfs it down. He ate tamales for dinner last week and chowed down chow-fun noodles with black bean sauce the week before. Now, he does have plenty of days where he rejects the given dinner in favor of fruit, but that's okay. My greatest fear (I exaggerate slightly) is to raise the kid who only eats mac-cheese and nuggets.

Edited to add:
6. Ring Around the Rosie. (Pronounced "rodin???") Anthony's new favorite game, especially the falling down part. Its a bit dangerous--he came home from daycare a week ago with a big old scrape on his elbow. He was proud of the bandaid and eager to continue playing!

New Shoes!

This morning, Bob and I took Anthony to the mall for his very first pair of tennis shoes. (When we were camping this summer, my sister was absolutely horrified that Anthony only owned sandals. His Keens had a full-closed toe, I thought they were just fine.) Anthony seems to like his new shoes well enough; though he was happy to pull them off in the car. His feet are relatively small--new shoes are only size 7 1/2.

He also has a new haircut. I wasn't as pleased with the stylist we had today as I had been in the past. She kept trying to get him to sit still. Hello! He was sitting in the chair and not screaming. For a not-quite-two-year old, that's about as good as it gets!

Blocks

Anthony got his blocks out this morning for a little construction time before school. Visitors have played with them, but this is the first time that he's shown real interest in the wood blocks. I was very pleased with his efforts!

Neighborhood Picnic

Today was our neighborhood's annual picnic. We've gone nearly every year since we moved here six years ago. There is free food, activities for the children, the emergency response team has their trailer set up.... Its a nice time.

Food is provided but dessert is potluck. When we went to check out the offerings Anthony zoned in on "cake". He CAN say cookie but apparently prefers cake.

He only ate about half of his cupcake before he started asking for "lide" and "wing". Food isn't allowed in the playground due to the squirrel problems. I told Anthony that we could slide when he was done with his cupcake. He then happily threw away the other half!

(He is clutching the foam visor he decorated with "marks". You can't see his snake tattoo. Told you it was a good time!)

Loving up Victoria

Anthony had a raspberry fest with Victoria as we were getting ready to leave. He was so sweet, first he gave her a nice big hug, then a kiss. Then the raspberries started with giggling in between. That's my boy!

Birthday Cake

Happy Birthday Tatyanna, Yesenia and Jeremy!

Our attempts at a group shot actually worked out better than they had in some previous visits. However, nothing was dragging Anthony away from his cake!

Chuck E Cheese

Today was Anthony's sibling's birthday party. (Their birthdays all fall in a two week span.) We went down to Gilroy for their party at Chuck-E-Cheese. Mama thinks that place is kind of loud, but Anthony had a blast. He enjoyed riding the animatronic rides, especially the white horse. The baby area had a slide that was also a lot of fun. When Chuck E. himself came out for his show Anthony ran right up to check him out.

Its amazing how much everyone has changed. Jeremy was TWO when we met him and now he's all grown up at five. Yesenia of course, still looks just like Anthony. They both look like Victoria, its amazing.

Of course, birthday cake was pretty much the highlight of Anthony's evening. He pretty much ate an entire piece. He did a great job handling his fork, I didn't have to help very much.

A Bubble Bath

We've made a few attempts to give Anthony bubble baths. Our first try was met with absolute terror! In fact, it was a few days before he was even willing to go anywhere near the bathtub.

Lately we've been experimenting with "paint" in the tub. While we were getting the tub ready I asked Anthony if he'd like bubbles, too. The answer was a definite yes. We still went pretty light on the bubbles but he seemed to have a good time.

Holding Hands

Too bad the picture turned out a little grainy, otherwise it would be too cute!

We ran into Robert and his family at the Art and Wine festival and walked home together. It was a slow process as the three kids couldn't quite make up their mind about whether they wanted to be in or out of the wagon at any given second.

They were good about holding hands, though. Well, at least long enough to take the picture!

Happy Second Birthday Everyone!

Anthony was about a month old when I joined the "New Moms 1" group at El Camino hospital. We'd get together once a week and learn about nutrition, sleep, development, etc. It was a great opportunity to meet other new mothers and we continue to get together pretty regularly, usually without the kids.

Yesterday was our birthday party. Almost everyone was there and it was great seeing all the little kiddos. Anthony had a good time but he was not completely enthusiastic about the water. He was fine in the kiddie pool as long as Daddy was in with him, though. (Some of the other kids were little fish.)

I didn't bother to re-dress him after the pool. I think it was the right call. He may look a little bare-chested in the group photo but he was easy to clean up after his cupcake! Cupcake was a great success. He eats them differently than the other kids, though. Most kids lick off the frosting and discard the cupcake. He prefers the cupcake and throws away the frosting!

Mama has issues with overkill

Today was my New Mom's Group's second birthday party. I volunteered to bring cupcakes and after a great deal of soul searching I decided on Cookie Monster. (Anthony still thinks he's Elmo.)

The cupcakes were actually ridiculously easy to decorate. I piped blue buttercream stars to cover each cupcake. The eyes are marshamallows cut in half topped with a dab of black gel for the pupils. Clearly the mouths are Oreos cut in half.

They are obviously homemade, but I think they came out very well!

I may do Elmo for his actual birthday, haven't decided yet.

Onion rings???

Anthony has very strange taste in food, even for a toddler! We stopped at Clarke's for hamburgers on our way home from Art and Wine festival today. Anthony essentially rejected his hotdog in favor of sweet potato fries and a red onion. First he wore the onion like a bracelet, then he decided to eat it and he ate the whole thing.

Other unusual favorites include beans (pinto, black, garbanzo), spinach and cheese ravioli and pickles.

Come out Cat!

Tigger is still astonishingly tolerant of Anthony's "affections" but occasionally will try and hide. Anthony, of course, will seek.

Nothing like hearing him shriek "HUG!!" followed by squeaks from my poor cat.

Handy Manny at work

Anthony has become quite fond of his dump truck. He'll fill it up with toys and push it around the house. Its even better when he's wearing his hard hat.**

**There is a warning label inside cautioning that a hard hat is not a protective device.

Painting

One of Anthony's current favorite exhibits at the Discovery Museum is the painting wall. He only uses a brush, though. Never his fingers. That's okay. This trip he was pretty good and only painted one other kid!

Ooh, ooh, ooh

Whenever Anthony gets excited he makes his little monkey face and flaps his arms excitedly. Clearly he'd my kid!

This was at the Discovery Museum today. (There was a fair amount of arm-flapping action while playing at the water area at Gilroy Gardens Saturday.)

Papa came to vist

My dad came up from Southern California for the long weekend. He walked in the house, Anthony took one look at him and shrieked "Papa". It pretty much set the tone for the weekend, we had a great time. Saturday the three of us had a great trip to Gilroy Gardens. (Poor Bob had to work.) We enjoyed the gardens and the rides, especially the carousel. Anthony's favorite part by far was the water play area. He had an amazing time splashing around. He was pretty nervous about it to start but was drenched by the end. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera's memory card, so no photos. Bummer.

Sunday we took it pretty easy. We walked downtown to the Farmer's Market and sampled our way through the market. After lunch downtown we came back home for nap and then a late afternoon trip to the park.

Monday was a trip to the Discovery Museum and then we put Papa on the airplane. Anthony woke up from his nap asking for Papa!

Fun and Games

In the last week or two Anthony has discovered a few new games.

This evening before bed we played "knock-knock". Basically, Anthony closes the door and yells "knock-knock". I tell him to come in and he answers the door. Very exciting game. Well, not really but he seems to enjoy it.

His other favorite new game is "Hide and Seek." He'll hid under a blanket, behind my bathrobe, etc. I'll call for him and finally he'll pop out and giggle. We were playing that game in front of Claire last week. (She's four.) I kept trying to draw her in, too. "Anthony, where are you Anthony?? Claire, have you seen Anthony??" Finally she said to me in complete exasperation, "He's under the blanket, he's ALWAYS under the blanket."

One little monkey, jumping on the bed

Bob shot this video this morning. Obviously Anthony woke up in an excellent mood!

A Bug, A Bug, A Bug....

Anthony is fascinated with bugs. Daddy is working late tonight fixing bugs. This video is for you Daddy!

Kansas was pretty much full of bugs. Anthony did several rounds of his bug dance. Unfortunately he was sort of losing steam by the time we got the video camera out. At least he didn't try and eat a cicada like his cousin Zach did when he was younger!

Kansas, Part 4

Nick and Brenda's wedding. That is, of course, the whole reason we took the trip. It was a lovely wedding, or so I heard. I was in the cry room with Anthony. Wasn't terribly condusive to paying attention to the ceremony I'm afraid. Anthony enjoyed the reception for awhile and then we went back to the hotel to nap. I pretty much let him run around being social for a good part of the time.

In a classic case of the shoemaker's family going barefoot, we don't have any family pictures from the wedding. Bob was the official photographer and took hundreds of shots, just none of us. Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of Anthony and Joshua together in their matching shirts, either. Worse than that, we didn't get any pictures of the two boys together, period!

This is one of the few pictures of little dude. I think he had a decent change of catching the garter but the bride's younger brother REALLY wanted it.

Kansas, Part 3

Grandpa took us for a nice ride on his boat. Anthony liked it best when we went fast, I think he liked the wind in his hair!

Kansas, Part 2: Swimming in the lake

Anthony's version of the story: "No kidding, I was dying of thirst. I just kept shouting "water" and what does Mama do but throw me in the lake! Its even wierder than that, Daddy jumped in first!"

Our version of the story: Anthony was fascinated with the lake. He kept pointing at it and talking about the water. We went for a short boat ride (pictures to come) and even walking back up to the house he was still asking for water and gesturing towards the lake. So, we went swimming. Lasted about a minute.