23 Months

Well my baby, this will be my last monthly post I do for you. I think after you turn 2 I'll post little updates here and there but they won't be your monthly downlow like they have been for the past 2 years. I can't believe we are already to the point where I'll start using years more often than months.
At 23 months you.....
*Talk up a storm, although mommy and daddy have to decode for ppl alot of what you say at this point. You leave off the ends of most of your words and have trouble saying some of the sounds like /S/ and /T/ and /K/. So Kiss is "Ni", Kayden is "Nayni", Fifi is still "Didi", Snack is "Na", But you do say the final /D/ on "Dude" to daddy's delight:-) You put lots of words together in 3-4 word sentences and you love telling little stories about your day to us. It amazes me how you can recount the things you have done and tell them to us. Today when we were going to get a pizza from Costco you wanted me to ride along and I said okay, for some reason this made you so happy, you ran to my bedroom door, held up your hands and said "Naynen, Mommy, Daddy, ALL go to Costco pizza, All go". I guess you are already a family man and prefer us all to do things together:-)
*Have the cutest "Happy Feet" dance ever, you do it when your super excited about things, like when you see your friends, when I tell you we are going for ice cream, when you met Elmo, when the man put a bird on your arm, when Grandma takes you to get a new Choo Choo train, etc.
*Are doing really well with potty training when we are at home and your nekkid, but mommy hasn't been brave enough to take you out and about without a pull up on yet. When you have a pull up or diaper on though you usually just go potty in that instead of telling me you have to go potty. The other day we were at Fletcher tire b/c mommy had a nail in her tire, I tried to wait to go until after you went poo on the potty but by 8:30 we had to go or we'd wait all day at the tire place. When we were waiting inside you told me you had to go....we went into the bathroom and the toilet was super gross, I guess tire guys aren't very clean and I told you it was too ucky and you'd have to use your diaper this time. SO mommy is the worst potty trainer ever! You are not supposed to do that when potty training but my germophobia took over and there was no way your innocent little booty was sitting on that potty! So I think mommy needs to get a tiny potty for the car so that we can move past the house for potty training:-)
*love to sing songs and try really hard to say the words. You really like your songs but even mommy's top 20 hits songs you'll sing the words too, it is super funny to hear you!
*Pizza remains your #1 food choice and you still love bananas, berries, oranges, and your mixed veggies, ice cream is your favorite dessert, just like your mommy!
*are totally in love with the idea of having a baby, you tell me the baby is yours all the time, and give baby kisses several times throughout the day.
*get giddy when daddy arrives home from work, around 5pm when he usually comes home you start asking for him and go to the door to check and see if you see his jeep
*would be outside all day if mommy would let you...not a good combo when you have a pregnant mommy and it's 100 degrees outside, I feel like it's 120!
*have decided you really like Elmo, I think breakfast with Elmo might have helped this but now you really like Elmo related things and that is your favorite part of Sesame Street
*CHOO CHOO is a full blown obsession with you! You love trains and thought it was so cool to get to see the train tracks from our hotel in San Diego. Anytime we drive over train tracks you yell "choo choo" but it sounds like "Coo Coo"
*love to go bye bye to anywhere, the store, the park, your friend's houses, bye bye is a request you make most days around mid morning.
*FINALLY let daddy put you to sleep at night!!! I'm so happy that I didn't push this or do it before you were ready. We made the transition of mommy being the only one to put you to sleep to daddy doing it on your time, when you felt okay with it. Now you give me a kiss and let daddy put you to bed, this has cut down on one more nursing session!! You now only nurse for naptime....and I'm hoping this will be gone within the next month. I'm really glad we have been able to wean you in a gentle way, without tears or hurt feelings. Nursing has been such a positive thing for us, I didn't want it to end on a negative note, so I'm hoping we can smoothly say goodbye to our last session of the day sometime soon. I'm so proud of you for learning to comfort yourself in other ways and that mommy is still there for snuggles and love even when you don't have mama's milk. Now crossing the fingers that our goal is reached in the next month. If not, no biggie, I know we'll be there soon and I'm so glad I've given you such a strong foundation to start with from your "mama's milk".
*are really liking doing craft projects, glue is one of your favorite parts...you love using that sticky glue stick! You also love numbers, shapes, colors and letters and love learning them in all sorts of ways throughout the day.
Kayden I love you more each day, watching your face light up lights my heart and I am so very blessed to have you as my son. You are such a precious gift and I am so thankful for you everyday! Hugs and kisses little man, mommy and daddy love you to the moon and back!

Saying Goodbye

The boys last week, 22 months old!

The boys at their first playdate-6 weeks old

Kayden had to learn about saying goodbye to a friend for the first time right before we left for San Diego. His womb buddy, Jake was moving to California so we had him over to play and went out for a goodbye lunch. Before Jake came over I started telling him Jake was moving to California on the airplane and wouldn't be coming back. He kept saying "No Jake move". It's so hard for me not to grant him his every wish, it broke my heart to see him upset that Jake was going away. Jake was Kayden's first friend, Samantha and I worked together when we were pregnant and the boys had their first "playdate" at 6 weeks old, they were born a week apart (Samantha had the nerve to have Jake a week before I had Kayden when he was due a week after Kayden was due:-). It was fun having another mommy to experience all the firsts with from the pregnancy through the 1st 2 years. Bye Bye Samantha and Jake, Best wishes in Cali!

San Diego

On Friday morning we woke up very early to head to southern California for a long weekend. We thought if we left around 4am, Kayden would sleep a good part of the way. But suprisingly when we put him in the car at 4am he was too excited to sleep! I thought he was too young for this. He kept saying "Bye bye to San Diego" "Big waves", etc, telling us all the things we had been talking about earlier in the week with him. Shows how much LOs really take in and understand! Still can't believe he just knew that was why we were all packed in the car at such an early hour. He was really good on the drive there, took 2 naps, watched some videos, sang some songs, ate some snacks, and kept talking about San Diego. We arrived in LA around 10:30 and went straight to Disneyland for the day. Daddy and Kayden got in line to ride a race car and all of a sudden I see Kyle coming out of the line and wonder why.....Kayden had thrown up 3 times in line. We didn't know if he was sick and we should leave or what was going on. So we cleaned him up and asked him if his tummy hurt, "no", wanna leave? "NO". So we decided to buy him a tshirt and stay but if he got sick again then we'd leave. He and I went in the gift shop to find a shirt and he picked one out and there was no changing his mind. It was a pretty plain shirt with Mickey on it (totally his daddy's boy, Kyle is a plain jane kinda guy...I call him Vanilla:-) but was a little too big. Nothing I said would change his mind though so we got the shirt and he was a happy camper. So we went on several rides, the boats and train rides were his favorite, but the Dumbo ride was a pretty big hit too and the Mickey parade was lots of fun. We ended Friday with dinner at Downtown Disney with Auntie Anna, it was so nice to see her! Kayden took right to her and gave her "Nisses" goodbye:-)

Saturday morning we woke up at our hotel, the Hilton Bayside in downtown San Diego. Kayden LOVED that the bay and boats were to his left and the choo choo train track was on his left when he stood in the windowsill. We started the day with Starbucks (they had one on the first level of the hotel...now that is my kind of hotel!!) and a walk along the bay. We spent the morning at Seaside Village and then went to La Jolla to play on the beach. Kayden was so excited when he saw the "big waves" and went running down the beach with Kyle to play in the water. We had gotten him some new sand toys for the beach and he knew they were "San Diego toys" so he threw them in the water...like here you go, this is what your for:-) He could have played in the sand all day and loved having all the one on one time with mommy and daddy and nothing but the 3 of us hanging out together. It was only 66 degrees but somehow felt perfect with just a swimsuit on?? Must just be the Cali air. That night we went swimming in our hotel pool and Kayden had fun playing shark in the pool.

Sunday we woke up and went to Breakfast with Elmo at Seaworld. We weren't sure what Kayden would think b/c he was terrified of Santa and the Easter bunny but he loved Elmo instantly. He had a huge smile from ear to ear the whole time we were there and couldn't keep his eyes off the characters. It made mommy and daddy's day to see our little boy so happy to see the sesame street characters in person. We spent the day at Seaworld watching Shamu and the dolphins, looking at all the fish, turtles, penguins and touching the starfish and stingrays. Kayden loved Seaworld and Shamu was a hit! His eyes were huge during the whole show and he had to have his own little stuffed shamu to carry around the park that day.

Monday was our last day and we were pretty sad we didn't do one more day b/c we had so much fun this weekend. We ended the trip with a visit to the San Diego zoo. Kayden was in love with the zoo just like he is here in AZ but now it's too hot for us to go. He cried each time we left an exhibit, he could have just sat and watched the animals all day. He loved when the animals had babies. That made it even harder to tear him away! I think his favorite animal was the Koalas (mommy's too:-), and the koalas had a baby that was hanging onto the mommy which made it even better. He kept saying "want one mama, please". We also saw some pecary's that had babies and they were nursing, I love that he knows this is a natural thing for babies to do and he was saying "pig drink mama's milk, mama". This made my heart smile. I hope someday he supports his future wife in giving their babies mama's milk! We ended the day with a bayfront lunch and ice cream walk and headed back to AZ. The ride home wasn't as perfect as the ride to Cali. Kind of like how all of us like going more than coming, he wasn't too excited about going home and told us he wanted to stay at the hotel another night:-)

Oh yes...and Fifi was dearly missed by Kayden! Saturday morning he woke up asking for her and started crying when we told her he was with Auntie Jac Jac.. "no no, Jac Jac, my didi, not Jac Jac's". And each day he asked for her and told us that she wasn't Jac Jac's!

Breakfast with Elmo Video

Kayden loved seeing Elmo so much that he did his "Happy Feet" dance as we call it and Elmo joined in and the ppl in line behind him did too:) Awww you are the cutest thing ever Kayden!

Our litttle singer!

Kayden loves "The Muffin Man" song and each time he sang it on our car ride to and from Cali this weekend Kyle and I would laugh! He would request "Mu Mu Ma" during random times and we'd all have to sing it together. Other songs he sings and thinks are super cool are "Row Row Your Boat", "Wheels on the Bus", and "How much is that Doggie in the window".

"Nisses"

Kayden I love love love your "nisses". I love that we'll be playing outside and all of a sudden you'll come up and kiss me on the head. Or you'll see my belly and have to give baby a kiss. Another favorite is when mommy is too tired to do bedtime in your room and I just bring you to bed with me. I tell you good night, give you a kiss and roll to my side and you snuggle up against my back and then as your trying to go to sleep every few minutes you kiss my back. I think those kisses are my favorite, something about them just melts me and I am so happy that you have so much love in your little heart! Mommy loves you and your kisses are one my favorite things!

Kayden telling us where we are going this weekend!

I love the way he says "San Diego"!