Theo at 22 months

Doesn't everyone walk with their hand in their pocket

This month has been a challenging month.  Mason was still away in Alabama for training and Theo and I returned home to Minot after a month with family.  Theo quickly discovered (finally realized) when we got home from our trip, that he could climb out of his bed.  I'm grateful that he's been in a big bed for so long and didn't want to climb out of it, but now that's sort of a pain.  He's definitely tested the waters of how many times he can climb out of bed at both nap time and bedtime.  Sometimes he stays put, but other times he just wants out.  I have tried to teach him to come right to our room, so he doesn't escape from the house, and we also try to monitor him carefully on our video monitor- which is a blessing (we see his actions) and a curse (I watch a little too much).

Chasing bubbles

After we adjusted to being home and on a different schedule, and after much persuading from Mason, I saw an opportunity to take away Theo's pacifiers and did so.  He was sleeping at night and naps with 3 wub-a-nub pacifiers, which are pacifiers with little animals on them.  The big reason I got these for him was so that when they are done with the pacifier part, you can cut that piece off and they still have the animal part to snuggle.  He had one that was like that, because he chewed through the pacifier part early on, but one morning he brought me all three pacifiers and they disappeared.  I was honestly too afraid that he'd just FREAK OUT with them gone so I was too afraid to cut them, because I honestly thought I'd be giving them right back.  I cried a lot that day.  Mostly because I felt like I was traumatizing Theo by telling him one more thing was "bye bye."  That day at nap and bed he asked for his "ah ah ah" (monkey) and I told him they went bye bye because he's a big boy.  He did have the one that was missing the pacifier and looked at me and kept saying mouth.  He did pretty well and only woke up once or twice looking for them in his bed.  I still haven't had the guts to cut off the pacifiers off and have the animals reappear. 

cooling off

The downside to the pacifiers disappearing, is that it seems to have coincided with Theo's sleep getting all out of whack.  There have been MANY, MANY moments in the past three weeks where I have just wanted to fold and give them back, hoping they will resolve the sleep problem.  Up until this point, we've been very lucky that Theo's been an amazing sleeper (12 hours at night and 304 hour naps).  This has all gone out the window in the past few weeks.  His sleeping is very sporadic.  He sometimes wakes up now at 5:30 in the morning and doesn't want to go back to sleep, he is very inconsistent, which has led to a very grouchy and impatient mommy, and a mommy who is getting bad sleep when I do sleep.  We're still trying different methods to get him to sleep later and stay in bed, but I haven't found a magic trick yet.  My fear is with Baby 2 due any day, that this pattern is going to get worse- but I've been praying and looking for solutions and trying to get to bed earlier myself and try to really be more patient.  Thank God Mason is home now, I really needed him!

play doh

So with all that aside, Theo is super cute most of the time.  We've spent more time than usual at home lately because I'm just tired so easily these days, and really, if it's more than 70 degrees I'm just uncomfortable.  So, he'd gotten extra tv time (and what else do you do at 6am), and we've played a lot in the backyard.  I did manage to take him to the zoo, we go play with the train table at Barnes and Noble, we went to the State Fair when Mason returned home, we've had a few playdates, we go to the park several times a week, and we went to the big Minot State Fair Parade.  I also took him for a little train ride through the park which he enjoyed, and I got to sit, so double bonus!

swimming

Theo's really a chatty boy these days!  He talks a lot!  And he's finally talking to other people, outside the house.  He's working hard to put sentences and thoughts together, which is pretty adorable.  I think Mason was a little overwhelmed by the chattiness when he got home, but we also get daily laughs out of it too. 

Some new words/phrases are: I see, other side, potty, hello, down, exercise, oh man, purple, flush, helicopter, missle, kiss, clothes, oh my.

signing "more" giraffes

Some funny Theoisms/Milestones:

*  July 2nd Theo peed on the potty for the first time!  Yay!  I was letting him sit on his car potty seat a lot, and we talked a lot about going potty, but he was starting to get really obsessive (waking up a lot) anytime he had the tiniest bit of moisture in his diaper, so I actually cut back on this, because while he was enjoying sitting on the potty, reading books, and getting animal "cookies", I don't think he's quite physically ready to be potty trained 100%, so I decided to ease off a bit.  He still sits on it occasionally, and is very interested in Mommy and Daddy's potty time.

*  Theo likes to do "cheers" with his drink cup.  He'll ask to clink glasses with us sometimes.

train ride

*He can (sometimes) count to 3, but mostly everything is "2".  If you ask him how many of something he sees, it's always "2".

*  For awhile he was calling everyone either a daddy, mommy, or baby (dady).  This included animals and people.  I tried explaining that not all boys are daddys and not all girls are mommys, so we started talking about ladies and men (man).  Now he goes around the store with me pointing and saying LOUDLY, man!  lady!  His favorite is to point out TWO LADIES!   

*Sleeps with a cover in the bed now, just a little fleece one

gluing our count down chains

*  July 10th we took the pacifiers away

*Theo is keeping a close eye on where Daddy is.  He still thinks he goes to Alabama when I say he's at work, and always wants to know when "Daddy back, I see daddy." 

attempting to fly a kite

*  He's a great cleaner-upper and he's helped me a lot around the house. 

vegging out

*Theo's very interested in the baby...we'll see how he feels next week when the baby arrives

*  When you ask Theo a question, he'll usually respond with "noooooo" or "okaaaaaaaay". 

party at the parade

*After storytime at night, I'll say, "We had a good day today Theo" and then he'll list off things we did or played with.  He's actually pretty good with remembering a lot that we saw and did. 

Daddy is coming home!