Sunday, February 26, 2012

Birthdays and Birth Days!

When I had a four day weekend recently, Theo and I traveled to Indiana to celebrate his and Maci's birthdays (amongst other things).  While there, we were lucky to have Annalyn arrive (a couple weeks early)!
Maci's first birthday!
 Theodore super excited about blowing out the candles on his second birthday cake!
 Both of our nieces now share a birthday in February a few days before Theo's.
 Theodore got two cakes for his second birthday!  (We had to include dada on the second one.)

And here's my case that Theodore looks quite a bit like me at this age, and not so much his dada:


Two!

My little one is already two!  I'm going to go ahead and just give an update here, so I can record some of the details of this time in his life.

As I type I'm watching Theodore, pondering why we even buy him toys.  He is currently playing with the mini-ironing board and both irons (craft one and clothes one) and his wooden chair.  I had to scold him when he tried to plug them in, but otherwise he is enjoying himself racing the irons around the board and carpet.  He's really awesome at his job:  playing non-stop.  He does really enjoy a lot of his new Christmas toys too though:  his trains, drum, puzzles, and farm set.  He's still lining up all his little cars, trucks, and tractors.  And I'm about to record some of his books on tape because I cannot bare to read some of them for the millionth time.  I just hope he keeps up his love of books forever! 

Elmo is still extremely important in his life, and makes him inexplicably happy.  Brian tells me he also likes a "word" show that comes on after Sesame Street.

Our little guy is still not much of a talker, but he's getting more and more words in his vocabulary.  His favorite thing to do lately is poke all of our body parts as he says them-ears, eyes, mouth, hair-just like we did to him when we taught him.  It really seems like he is only really good at certain sounds... "M"-mama, milk, more, moon, mouth; "B"-book, ball, bye-bye; and "E"- Elmo, ear, eye.  He still signs for things like "please" and "cookie", though the "P" sound is almost coming out when he says "pat-pat-pat" (how we hug) or "pop-pop-pop (popcorn). 

He is getting quite adventurous at the playground.  We were blessed with an almost 70 degree day in January recently, and I got to take him after work.  I had so much fun with him on the tire swing, and he was learning how to start swinging his legs to drive himself on the swing. 

Theodore LOVES Kiki and Cori.  The former still hides from him and we have to hold her down to let him pet her, but Cori is not used to baring all of Theodore's hugs and kisses.  He lavishes then on her lately.  Theodore also now loves his stuffed pets as well.  He lines them up and plays with them while he's in his bed.  He is pretty good at making lots of animal sounds (lion, dog, cow, pig) and animal actions (hopping like a from, wrinkling his nose like a bunny, moving his "trunk" like an elephant).  I'm thinking we may need to move up to a larger zoo than Brandywine so that he can see some of these larger animals.

Theodore has also loved hot cocoa this season, and learned how to blow on hot food.  He doesn't want to eat in his booster seat anymore, and would rather eat at the table like a big boy.  He loves string cheese.  He doesn't mind a peanut butter and nutella sandwich either.

Finally, Theodore has finally entered the "no" stage, where his answer to almost everything is no... hopefully this will change by the next update.

Grandparents 50th (Sept. 2011)

I've had some specific blog posts on my to-do-list for so long now.  This is one of them:

 50 years later!
 With all of their grandchildren, grandchildren-in-law, and great grandchildren.

Pea Patch Island (Fort Delaware State Park)

One thing I've been meaning to blog about for a view long time now was a local excursion we went on a few month ago.  Brian's brothers came out to visit, and one mentioned visiting Fort Delaware.  Though it is within about ten minutes of my school, I've never heard of Fort Delaware. 
Apparently, Fort Delaware is one of a few forts in the area, and is located on Pea Patch Island.  So on probably the hottest day of the year, I boarded a boat with four Eddie boys to visit this historical venue. 
 
It was a pretty neat "living history" attraction with re-enactors and tour guides.

Here are some photos: