Harper 8.5 months Owen 28 months - notes

So I thought I'd just do a quick stream of conscientiousness post about where the kids are with all their "stuff"
Harper is 8.5 months and is crawling, pulling up to stand and sleeping fairly well. She gets up usually only once in the middle of the night, nurses and goes right back to sleep. Occasionally she'll get up one other time and then sometimes get into a bad habit of waking 2-3 times. Recently that happened and she was waking at 11PM, 1AM and 4AM. One night we let her cry herself back to sleep during the 4A wake up (with Mommy at her side for part of the time) but it took her 1.5 hours and she didn't want to be held and I didn't nurse her (I wanted to wait until at least 6AM) and then the next night she was back to waking only once. I love holding sweet Harper when she has just fallen asleep and puts her thumb in her mouth and is on my chest right before I lay her in her crib. It's a very sweet bonding time for us and I know it doesn't last forever. She isn't really into reading stories yet but we've begun trying to read her some before bed from time to tome. She still just wants to put everything in her mouth and eat the books. She has two bottom teeth but that's all and she loves to eat in general. If you leave her alone for two seconds, she'll have a hairball and a bark chip (from the plants) in her mouth. She moves it around in her mouth and spits it out. She is such a sweet baby that I am NOT looking forward to her growing up like I did with Owen. She is at that quintessential baby age where they love rattles, laugh and explore everything. She goes to bed around 7PM and wakes up between 6-7AM and if she is up early, one of us gets up and walks down to the coffee shop while the other one sleeps in. Owen wakes up around 7AM.

Owen: is 28 months (2yrs) and talks and talks and talks. He frequently has 7-9 word sentences and is beginning to tell us how he feels. We are unsure if he really means it or if he's just repeating some memorized phrase but he'll say things like, "Daddy, I don't feel so good." and "I'm not hungry." He had been telling us when he has to poop with more regularity first beginning with "My stomach hurts" and then progressing to actually telling Matt he has to go potty or poop, which is great. Now if he could just recognize the signals for peeing!! He is pooping on the potty very well now but doesn't care about being soaking wet and will wet his "big boy" pants if we put them on him and he doesn't care about being wet. We try about every two months with the big boy underpants to see if he can keep them dry but he's too busy to stop and pee. I'm not pushing it and I'm just glad he doesn't poop in his pants anymore. GROSS! Owen sleeps from 1PM-4PM and often we have to wake him up around 4PM or he doesn't want to go to bed. He goes down around 8PM but could stay up later and often talks to himself in the crib for an hour in the pitch black darkness. He loves the movie Cars and has a lot of the die cast cars -- his favorites at the moment are "Gill" his green 18-wheeler. He has watched the whole movie cars many times at home and has begun to enjoy watching "shows" or TV. We only let him watch actual TV for 30 minutes a day if at all because Mommy hates the commercials. He likes Max and Ruby, Little Bear, Go Diego Go, Dora and some others but we really don't watch a lot of TV. I use it sometimes if I have to go upstairs to put Harper down and it buys me some "safe" time with him sitting mesmerized on the couch. He's a little scared of the scene in Cars where Mater and Lighting McQueen go "tractor tipping." He has had a great summer home with Matt and gotten lots of Daddy time. I dread Matt going back to work but the consistency and schedule are nice. Right now every day is different and that's hard to get used to. He's gotten more into "hiking" and we've taken him to the trail on various occasions and he loves to walk and walk and walk. He's definitely into walking more vs. riding in the stroller but he gets "tired" and then you end up carrying him home.

Owen's developmental psychology at 20 months

I thought I'd take some notes on Owen's behavior at this age, now 20 months today because I know I'll forget. This is really for myself so that later with the second child we'll find ourselves saying, "when did Owen do that?" Also I think the grandparents like to read stuff like this. All of his behaviors are perfectly normal and age appropriate according to what I've read online. We think he's pretty smart and lots of fun! I should organize these by category, but it's more fun this way.

• talks/ jabbers constantly, mostly understandable, occasionally hard to know what he's saying.
  
• makes 2-3 word sentences and combines two of them to make longer sentences: "night, night Mommy," "See you in the morning." -- "cement mixer." "pours concrete."
• Yesterday he said "BAA TEET" and we had no idea what he said. It took us until today he said, "want it." "BAA TEET," in the kitchen and then pointed towards the cabinet. I then translated, OH, "special treat" and he repeated, "want it." "BAA Teet." and then added with enthusiasm, "OKAY!!" and nodded his head as if to say, yes, I'll take that now.
  
• would sit for hours to listen to stories with anyone who would read to him anytime of the day.
  
• very good at self-play with trucks, books and matchbox cars for 30 minutes.
  
• knows the difference between a Porsche and a Mustang and can name 10-12 different matchbox cars correctly (Matt taught him).
  
• knows colors: blue, purple, red, green, yellow, brown, black, pink, orange
  
• can tell you 15 opposites from a book we have and learned them in one day! We were surprised. You can say one of the word (even without the book ) and he'll tell you the opposite word: ex: "neat, MESSY" and "clean, DIRTY" -- not sure if the concepts are there, but I'll test that this week.
  
• fake cries when he wants a Popsicle "pop" and can't have one.
  
• stops fake crying when you tell him "big boys don't cry" or "remember big brother's don't cry, they tell Mommy what they want" He says, "YEAH" and stops crying.
  
• puts toys away in the bath singing, "Bye Bye ____ " fill in the blank with a toy. Sings it to a tune we learned in Music Together class.
• loves his music together class. Loves *real* music and *kid* music.
  
• prefers to do things himself, never has been big on holding my hand to do anything, unless he is really nervous.
  
• in a new place, you can put him down and he'll either observe or run around and be social.
  
• can tell you the difference between a front-end loader and a bulldozer. LOVES road building vehicles and book about them.
  
• adores all trucks and most things with wheels will say "I love Trucks" because we have a book of that same title.
  
• doesn't cry when I leave him, instead says, "see ya later, Mommy."
  
• is addicted to yogurt raisins. I think he would eat the whole bag.
  
• knows his African and other animals: giraffes, elephants, lions, tigers, zebra, gazelles, deer, bears, snakes, birds... many more. Loves to name them during story time.
  
• He is extremely attached to a $5.00 orange matchbox garbage truck
• loves to help Daddy fix anything with tools and toolbox. Gets out the tools and attempts to use them on the object.
  
• enjoys the park and thinks he's 4 years old and can climb anything like the big boys.
  
• dances and loves music. Can sing songs in tune, woke up one morning and while Matt opened the blind sang, "Good Day Sunshine."
  
• Can tell you where we are going when in the car: if we pass where his music class is located he'll say, "music class, music class."
  
• goes to bed very easily for nap and bedtime in his crib for anyone who does his routine.
  
• Talks to himself more these days as he's falling asleep, maybe thirty minutes at night and 10 minutes at nap time.
• talks to Kaibee, our dog, when he's alone with her.
  
• really loves Kate, my sister, and her husband, Norm. Anytime you ask him who is coming over he replies, "Tía" with great enthusiasm.
  
• can take his jacket off himself and put or remove his arms in the arm holes when you are dressing or undressing him.
  
• sat without squirming for a haircut for 10 minutes (this surprised Mommy)!
• fed a giraffe a "cookie" at the African Safari zoo in Cottonwood
• not scared of Halloween objects or much in general
• not a big fan of Kaibee barking when he doesn't expect it
• loves other kids and plays well with them, sharing not really a concept he likes but he seems to tolerate it.
  
• doesn't throw tantrums too bad, mostly we can change the topic and he'll stop crying
  
• He is obsessed with that orange garbage truck and will FIXATE on it, if we can't find it or if a part pops off it. He sleeps with it most nights these days (dang thing can be pulled apart in two ways, we fix it 100 times a day).
  
• starting to run a little faster, doesn't really walk backwards yet
  
• can't jump yet
• wakes up happy and talking, usually about his garbage truck
• points to things outside the car and identifies them (knows what to expect from certain trips in the car ie: will tell you what's coming up)
  
• when at computer asks to see "photos" or play songs from iTunes that he likes, "raindrops" or "yee haw"
  
• interesting in potty topics, but not sure if he wants to try it himself.
• has a limited diet, doesn't love to try new things, but occasionally he will in a setting that is not his usual high chair
• if you asked him if he pooped, he might say "yes" or "no" and either could be correct, but if you ask him while he's pooping, if he's pooping, he gives you the right answer.
• seems to understand that there is a baby in my belly. Loves to pull up my shirt and say "baby" or "belly button." Pretty sure he has no idea a real live baby is going to pop out any day now.
  
• Will sit and listen to a 10 minute *paper* story, like Babar with lots of words. Used to get anxious while reading these but now prefers longer stories with a plot.
  
• Also enjoys simple board books. Can fill in the blanks with most of these books.
• loves the "Awe shucks" part of the Runaway Bunny book. Repeats that a lot.
• Yesterday I said, "Daddy is a cowboy" and he replied, "Yee HAW" (I have no idea how he knew that went together- must be in a book?)
• learning about please and thank you. Says "Thank you, Daddy" sometimes if you give him something.
  
• Still uses some Baby Signs for emphasis ex: "MORE MORE" and makes the sign for more or "All done" -- Other signs he still likes, moon, helicopter, airplane, thank you, please.
• speaking of moon: loves to point out the moon when it's dark outside and talks a lot about the moon when he sees it in stories.
• loves anything my Mom "performs" for him and always asks for "more more" when she is singing and dancing for him.
  
• can pick out family members in photographs.
• doesn't watch TV or have interest in it much, although with help, I'm sure we could train him to like it. He has a Thomas the Train video that he likes but doesn't really watch it for long. Prefers books, just like Mommy and Daddy.