Monday, December 21, 2009

18 Months


We had Christopher's 18 month pediatrician appointment last week. Dr. Julie said he's doing great. He's 33 1/2" (80th perecentile), 24# 3 oz (up to the 25th percentile!!) and his head is in the 70th percentile. He didn't cry at all during the exam and just whimpered a little for the shots, but was smiling by the time we were done. I think he tries to show off for Dr. Julie.

We made a list of the words he knows to take to the appointment. I know I'm going to lose the list, so I thought I'd write them down here so I don't forget... Mama, Dada, ball, up, down, apple, more, no, yeah, light, yuck, book, bat, nose, open, dog, water, bag, balloon, banana, eye, phone. He can make the animal sound for dog, cow, sheep, cat, monkey, elephant, and bear (once he starts on bear he has a hard time stopping). He growled at a little girl who tried to take his toy the other day (eeek!). This weekend he started repeating more words that we were saying also. I love this age! Happy 18 months LG!!

Monday, December 7, 2009

Favorites



I wanted to post a few of what Christopher's favorite things have been recently. In the moment it's easy to think, "I'll always remember this". After looking at pictures from when he was first born, I know there's a lot of things I've already forgotten about. So, here goes...

The LG still loves broccoli and almost all vegetables (and putting them on his head). I almost don't want to write it, because I'm afraid to jinx it. There are definitely times I have to give him the rest of his meal before his vegetables because that's all he'll eat. He loves sushi (asparagus and sweet potato rolls). We love to go to a sushi restaurant down the street with him because it's the most he ever eats. (I'm not going to lie though, I think a cheeseburger Happy Meal comes in a close second).

His favorite thing to do is play chase. He doesn't really chase people, he just likes to have people run after him. The first thing he does when Dad gets home is run into the living room (while laughing hysterically) and climb on the couch , because he knows Dad will chase after him. It's so funny. He still loves to dance. He goes and stands by the my CD player (I know, so old school) and dances until I turn it on. He still likes Elvis best, but he also likes the "Christopher" CD my mom just brought him a lot. He's tolerating my Christmas music also.

He also started jumping a little while ago. All of the sudden he was on his mat and started bending his knees and lifting them up and making this cute "u-huh" sound. Most of the time he doesn't even get his feet off the ground, but occasionally he does and boy does he get excited.

He is getting lots of words. Most of them aren't the full word yet, but we know what he's talking about. He says Ma for music and mooo, mooo for more. He can also say what just about any animal says. My favorites are his cat and monkey. He still growls like a bear all the time. He can also tell you where his body parts are. We've just gotten to the tricky ones, like elbows and knees. The one word he can say that there is no question what it is? NO! He actually learned it from the big kids at the playground one day. They were yelling it at one of his little girlfriends and all of the sudden he went up to them and started yelling "NO" back. We've been lucky enough to hear it ever since. He mainly says it when he's doing something he knows is wrong. Oh how I fear the terrible twos with this one : ). The other word of choice for him is up, only his is more of a "uppa". He says it when he actually wants up, or when he doesn't know how to say the word he wants. When he whines and we tell him to use his words, we normally get an "uppa" (which is actually way better than the whining).

We're learning that he loves order. He gets really upset when things aren't in place (this is obviously not from me). When my mom was here he threw a fit in the middle of playgroup because he saw her purse was on the opposite side of the room from her. He didn't calm down until she was holding it. Last night we were playing in the hall and I had Conan's slippers on. He freaked out and made me take them off and hand them to Conan. He also brings things that are Conan's to him in the shower. He's taken shirts and even shoes to him while the water is running. I just wish it worked that way with his toys. Those are the one thing he likes scattered everywhere.

His teething has gotten out of control. He's handling it very well, but he's almost got a full mouth of them. He's got 4 molars and 2 eye teeth already. He looks like such a big kid with all of those teeth! He's actually grown quite a bit of hair recently too. We're still not sure exactly the color. It's pretty blond, with a touch of red.

We are having so much fun with the LG. He's such a good kiddo!

Monday, November 30, 2009

Starting young

My friend just sent me this picture and I had to share.




This was not prompted by the moms at all. They just reached out to each other so they could hold hands. Such the ladies man, isn't he? : )

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Halloween (about a month late!)

Seeing as it's almost December, I figured I should probably post our Halloween pictures. November flew by, I can't believe it's Christmas time! I have lots of pictures to show you guys, so bear with me!

Halloween with a one year old is much different than with a newborn, we learned. Christopher picked out our pumpkins at the farmer's market this year. We got them the weekend before Halloween, so I think we got the last (ugliest) pumpkins in the city. Here's the LG playing with his baby pumpkins. I won't even show you the big one, it looked terrible.




We decided that instead of carving the pumpkins we'd let him paint one. He did a great job! After the pumpkin he went a little crazy on the shower wall and himself.

Right as we were talking about how impressed we were that he wasn't trying to eat the paint, this happened...
So that was the end of pumpkin painting.

Our friend Cori had a party for the little ones the day before Halloween. I hadn't really tried Christopher's costume on him because it looked pretty comfy. I didn't think there was any way he wouldn't wear it. I was oh so wrong. As soon as I tried to put in on he screamed. After quite a while of this, I gave up. Luckily, Chevon had just come into town and brought him a Santa costume for Christmas (which he loved). So, our little guy was Santa for the Halloween party. He looked great!

Here are all of the moms and kids dressed up. Adorable!!
Dad was surprised to see a little Santa Claus when he came home from work. Christopher was just ecstatic to see Dad!


Our apartment had a Halloween gathering for the kids on Saturday. Of course Christopher would put on his costume for Dad. Elvis!
Even Dad couldn't get Chris to wear the Elvis wig, though.

Sharing with the Scarecrow!
Here he is dancing. Love it!
Doesn't this picture look like it could have been one of Elvis' album covers?
That night we ate our (new) traditional pumpkin cake. Christopher couldn't stop eating the icing long enough to pose for a picture.

Then we went trick or treating! Christopher definitely didn't understand the concept. He tried to give our neighbors what he had collected. He even tried to take the stool some candy was sitting on at one point. We had so much fun, and I think this is the last year we'll get to eat Christopher's candy and he could care less.
Trick or Treat!





Thursday, October 29, 2009

These boots were made for...

wearing with pajamas, while waiting for Dad to get home from work, holding our new big balloon and playing with just looking at our neighbor's pumpkins.




Thanks Grandma Kim and Aunt Buggy! Christopher loves his new boots and won't take them off.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

More Catskills

We went to Hancock, NY with Rachel and Jason at the beginning of October. We knew it was in the Catskills, but we weren't paying a lot of attention to where it was until we started seeing sites on our drive that looked very familiar. It was about 30 minutes from Rye, where we went last spring. The leaves were gorgeous. It must have been one of the prettiest fall weekends of the year. It made our drive there and back lovely (that and the fact that the LG slept almost the whole time).

We had a great time. The boys got in lots of fishing and we did very "fall" activities. Here's Rachel and Jason with Christopher at the orchard where we tried to pick apples (no such luck, they closed early). We did get some delicious cider and took a peck of apples home...

To make apple pie! It was oh so good. Rachel made the best butter pie crust I've ever had. We had a slight incident with, you know the oven catching fire, but it was still so good. Jason is posing with the foil that he took out of the oven that was literally in flames. He saved us (and the pie)!


Here's the LG playing with Dad. Don't those trees look like they should be on a postcard?
Family shot.

Mom and Chris + gorgeous background.
Running in nature. Doesn't happen very often in Manhattan.
Rachel, Christopher, Rudy and I went to an Oktoberfest while the boys fished on Saturday. We ate some great food and enjoyed the nearby town.
Christopher got his face painted while we were there. I didn't think there was any way he would sit still for it, but he was almost asleep by the time it was done. Maybe I'll have to add face painting as part of his bedtime routine. It smeared before I could get a pic, but here's his pumpkin.
We also took him to his first garage sale. Dad was thrilled. Christopher is going to be so excited when he gets to hang out with the boys instead of us. Last year when Rachel was here we made him go get cupcakes with us while the guys fished. At least he was in camo.
Christopher was a little nervous about Rudy at the beginning of the trip, but by the end he really warmed up to him. He thought it was hilarious when Rudy licked him. Hey Chris, "How big is Rudy?".
So Big!

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Adventure!

A couple of weeks ago we had a free afternoon and Christopher and I decided to go out for an adventure. I packed him up in the Baby Bjorn and we took a bus downtown (along with every other middle schooler leaving school at 3:00).

We took a water taxi and Christopher loved it.

Finally, to our destination!

Christopher didn't even know what was coming. I thought I would let him play in their massive indoor play room, but it was only for ages three and up. We still had a great time. He got to ride in the cart and help me shop (mainly for things for his room). We ate Swedish meatballs (he loved them, minus the lincoln berries). Then, we checked out and ran to catch a water taxi back home (this time toting home a new table, toy, and a few kitchen accessories for Mom).

The day after I set up his table I left for a second and when I came back he had climbed into the chair himself and sat down for some breakfast. That was great until he learned to stand on the chairs. Careful, LG!

Chinatown

We took a self guided food tour of Chinatown a few weeks ago. We packed about a week's worth of calories in one morning, but it was oh so worth it. We took a bus all the way down, which is always an adventure in itself.

We started with dumplings (yes, it was 9 in the morning). They were so good that we ate them before I even thought to get the camera out. The LG loved them, which is saying a lot for our little vegetarian.

Next we moved on to the Donut Planet. The creme brulee donut was described to me as the best donut combined with the best creme brulee she's ever had. I would second that. They were amazing! Here's Dad and Christopher waiting in line.


I was trying to get a shot of the LG and donut and right as I tried to take it he leaned down for his first bite. Needless to say, he was a fan.

Ok, here's the shot I was going for, only with a bite already taken out.
We tried to get a bialys from a place that's supposed to have the best in NYC, but it was closed because it was Saturday. It was fun to see all of the sites of Chinatown. I'm excited to go back again and try some of the restaurants we missed (and maybe pick out a purse or two : ) )

Ohio

I wanted to post some pictures of our trip to Ohio at the end of August. We had a great time. The LG loved getting to hang with the fam on the farm. We can't wait to go back soon!








Tuesday, September 22, 2009

The Syrup State

We went to Vermont with out neighbors over the weekend. As we were driving there we were talking about what we knew about the state. We determined that was about nothing. Ben said he thought it was the syrup state- you know, because of the maple every thing. I'm not quite sure that's right, but I still don't know what the state theme is.

We had a wonderful vacation. Our neighbors have two little girls that are close to Christopher's age. It was so fun to see him interact with them. It was a long drive, especially for the LG who is rarely in the car. We left Friday after work, along with the entire city. We were stuck in traffic for a long time. I pulled out all of my tricks to try and entertain him. Here I was taking pictures and then showing them to him. I caught him in action rubbing his eyes because he was so tired. He did finally go to sleep, so the last half of the trip was pretty peaceful.

We were staying right on the lake, so we had lots of fishing time. We took Christopher out on his first boat right on Sunday. He did well considering he had to stay in one spot for most of the time we were out and had to wear a big life jacket. Poor kid, every time he tried to walk he would either fall forward or back because he couldn't keep his balance in the jacket.
Here he is with a fish Dad caught. Note the camo sweats, my uncle and aunt from Ohio got them for him. Starting him young!

We tried to go to an apple festival, but it was over before we got there, so we went apple picking instead. It was lots of fun.

Christopher picked them all for us, with a little height help from Dad.
I was so proud.

We had an amazing vacation. We're so lucky to have such great neighbors to let us tag along on their trip!