Super Long Holiday Post!

We had a great Christmas, visiting a total of four houses in two days. Uff da! It was the first year we traveled for Christmas since I was pregnant with Felix. Felix couldn't stop talking about going to see his grandparents, and was very excited when we were actually there. The downside of of the travel was that he was completely thrown off his schedule and that's made for a cranky little man returning to "normal". Felix got a lot of lovely presents that he's been busy breaking in (thankfully, nothing has actually broken yet).

I keep meaning to blog about a few other topics, so here goes. Felix has been playing pretend a lot lately, and it's adorable. When he plays with his cars, the laminate is the street and the carpet is the grass. And you must be careful and stay out of the way! He received a little stuffed animal in the day care gift exchange, and that has become his baby, which he named Dancer. Dancer is burritoed up in a blanket, and Felix is a good Papa, making sure she's fed and sleeps. It's too cute! And yesterday, I caught him playing in the toy kitchen at day care. He popped some food for a friend in the microwave and made beeping sounds when he pretended to push the buttons. It's amazing how much these kids pick up on and how they think the world works.

I had a little epiphany last night. I've been getting frustrated that Felix says "I want..." instead of our preferred "May I please have..." or "I would like...". Then I realized how damn lucky we are to have a child that is so gifted verbally at this age, because very few of his classmates are as advanced as he is. We can talk, he can tell us his likes/dislikes, and spout all sorts of hilarity.

Speaking of, he has a few memorable idosyncrasies. When Nick's driving and I'm buckling Felix in the car, he gets very worried and tells Nick, "Don't leave without Mama!" Last week, he suddenly started saying "I don't know!" and "Okay, Mama! I do it!" (I really like that one). Shameless plug: I tweet all (well, most) of his adorable statements via @MyKidd0s.

Felix: 2 yrs

'Tis the Season!

I look out of my office window and see... dark sky through a smattering of rain. Not exactly what you'd picture this time of year. But remembering last year's 10"+ snowfall we had by now, I'm not complaining. I don't much care for driving in the snow. The Christmas lights I put around the windows are hopefully brightening the day of the drivers who can see them. It sure looks dreary out.

We're in Christmas mode at home. We've had our house decorated since before Thanksgiving. This year, our tree has two pickles and a new find-the-_____ ornament: a pineapple in honor of our favorite show, Psych. :o) It took Nick a while to find it after I brought it home.

Felix is VERY excited about our plans to visit grandparents this year (instead of having family Christmases at our house), a fact he mentions several times a day. The upside is I'm teaching him about days and calendars.

I took Felix to visit Santa (Felix kept correcting me that it was, in fact, "Santa Claus") last weekend. He was very nervous to see a large man dressed in red, but as the picture proves, I managed to get a smile out of him. It is kind of funny that the whole picture-with-Santa thing is primarily for the parents benefit, not the kids. The younger ones I saw were too afraid of Santa to get a good picture, either crying or running away. The older ones seemed a little creeped out, too. I don't know if we'll be getting another picture with Santa in the future.

In case I don't get another post in before Christmas, Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Felix: 2 yrs

So Thankful!

I'm glad to say that I think about how thankful I am more than once a year. But in the spirit of the recent holiday, I'm thankful for:

• Nick - his love, support, hard work to build his businesses, smile and hugs
• Felix - his smile, infectious laugh, mischievous spirit, curiosity, cleverness and cuddles
• My family - their support and love (and occasional meals)
• My friends - our shared interests, and potential for new adventures!
• My health and the health of those listed above - so far, so good!
• My new job - giving me the flexibility I've long craved
• My house and everything within functioning properly
• My challenges - because they're making me a better, stronger person
• My teachers - I'd know next to nothing without you!
• Felix's day care - for their excellent care and teaching
• My city - Madison, you're not perfect, but you're perfect for me!
• Things that make me laugh - Felix, Psych, MST3K, the internets, etc.
• My teams - It's great to be a fan in Wisconsin!
• The opportunities I've had to travel and experience different countries
• Living in a country where people can speak their minds, worship what/how they want, and women can do anything.

Felix: 2 yrs

Fall Fun!

Felix LOVED Halloween. I got to go trick-or-treating with his day care class, and that was a lot of fun. Felix caught on pretty quick that they were getting candy at each stop, and really wanted to eat it right away, but somehow got him to wait. He's still got a little stash that we're working away on.

On the 31st, he and I went around the neighborhood together. He was a moose this time, in his little brown outfit and moose hat. He kept wanting to go to "one more house", but by the end, I was carrying him and couldn't do any more. But he still went to about 10 houses.

We've also done some fun family stuff recently. We went to the zoo with my parents two weekends ago, and that was a lot of fun. This time, we went on the carousel and the train (I think he liked those a lot), and played a lot in the playground. Last Sunday, we went to the Madison Children's Museum for the first time. That place is going to provide us with a lot of enjoyment in the years to come! I think Felix was a touch overwhelmed by everything going on, but I still think he liked it.













On the down side, we've learned that colds make Felix have some rough, aggressive days. Can somebody please get on curing the common cold and soon? It's going to be a long winter if every month and every cold we have troubles. We tried taking away his toys (limited success), and now we've gone to positive reinforcement (sticker chart and rewards). Hope that helps!

And lastly, as part of Felix's bedtime routine, I read him a book called Boy of Mine. Well, I start the sentences and he ends them. In the middle of the book, we sing Twinkle Twinkle together. I love it!

Felix: 2 yrs

Halloweenie

We've started doing a little prepping for Halloween around the house. Felix was very excited about carving the pumpkins we got from Appleberry Farm last week. We asked what kinds of faces he wanted on the pumpkins. Sad, scared, and happy, he replied. Done!

Felix's class is going trick-or-treating around the nearby businesses tomorrow. Since I'm now working only three blocks away and they actually encourage stuff like this, I'm going to join them for a bit! Hopefully I'll get a few cute pictures to share soon.

Felix: 2 yrs

Watch your mouth!

I'm finding kids have a way of calling you out on your bad habits. Take this little anecdote.

Nick and I took Felix to a nearby park one Friday afternoon recently. This particular park has a large wooden race car, complete with steering wheel. Felix pretended to drive for a while, then yelled "Damn it!" a few times. Uh-oh. He has apparently picked up on some of our bad driving habits, including swearing. It's both comforting and eye-opening that he's paying attention to everything we're doing, even when we think he's not. Yeah, and there were a few other parents nearby at the playground. Bet we looked real competent to them. :p

And just because he's so gosh darn cute, another Felix picture!

Felix: 2 yrs

My Life Rocks!

Sometimes I get down and discouraged. This is not one of those times. In fact, my life rocks right now.

I can't wait to get home to see my husband who's working his behind off to get his businesses self-sustaining, and who's handsome as all get out. I can't wait to pick up my son from day care and learn about what he did today, and watch him play and process all the new information he's learning every day. I found a toy car for him to play with, and he's been so absorbed in little pretend games, pointing out where each of us "live" in the car (including grandparents) and where we are going (usually to the grocery store for food, or to the Terrace (for beers and ice cream, presumably)). Round and round the coffee table he goes. :o) We just found out he cut two of his 2-year molars with hardly any fuss. And we had fun playing in the neighborhood leaf pile last night.

I finally made a change for the better with my work life. I enjoy going in to work again. It helps that I have an office (woo!), and am being challenged mentally as I prepare for a professional registration exam that I'm planning to take in April. I also very much enjoy the flexibility this company offers. I go in at 7, study for a half hour, and work more hours at the beginning of the week so I can leave when Felix wakes from his nap on Friday (usually around 2:30). This has allowed us to spend more quality time together, and have more adventures. Like going to the zoo or taking him to an awesome local park.

My Badgers, Packers and Brewers are doing amazingly well and as long as I keep wearing my lucky shirts, they should all keep on winning. Hooray!

This Indian Summer has been amazing. I wish I could have bottled up these past week to bust out during bitter cold, will-this-winter-never-end?! times in February and March.

Happiness!

Felix: 2 yrs

Welcome, Fall!

The leaves are turning, the sky is clear blue, and it's the perfect temperature outside. These are the days I like best, especially if there's a football game on. :o)

We've had a lovely start to fall. We took Felix to the Badger - South Dakota State game. We lasted the first half (someone cannot sit still yet), but had a good time while we were there.

Felix is also getting into the spirit of the season, making lots of lovely fall art projects at day care, including the caramel apple he's shown holding below. It was delicious!

Felix is such a funny man. Very mercurial at times (dissolving into wails if we take off his socks for him), but a wonderful boy overall. Just last weekend, he started using the article "a" in sentences. Two weeks before that, we had our first "the". Now it's just complete (often out of left-field) sentences. I wish he understood the question "why?", but I know that one will come back to haunt me, so I won't wish too hard.

I've become a hugging mama at day care. Usually when I come to pick him up, I'm suddenly swarmed by toddlers wanting hugs (which is awesome). Felix doesn't think too much of this, often pushing the kids aside with a "No! My mama!" But I sneak little hugs to Felix's friends anyway. They're all so adorable at this age.

I'm settling into my new job pretty well, and I'm feeling that if I study for the next six months, I should be able to pass the professional licensing exam that they want me to at work. Good things are happening for Nick, too. Good things all around.

Felix: 2 yrs

Felix's caramel apple. Yum!

Felix with a mustache!

Catching Up

It's been 17 days since my last post, but so much has happened that I'd get very behind if I didn't post now.

I actually have news of my own! I interviewed for and accepted a job with a rival firm. This past Wednesday, I turned in my resignation and fought tears all afternoon as I told close friends that I was leaving. Everyone was supportive and wished me well. It helps a lot that I'm going to a company that works closely with them and people had nothing but good things about which to say. It's really because of this new firm's attitude toward family that I'm leaving - they allow flexible schedules and comp time, and encourage you to do things with your family. All very important to me. Thursday I had to hand off my work and found out at 2:30 that it would be my last day. But I got to go out to lunch (ooh, Peruvian!) with two close coworkers. I stopped by the new firm on the way home after getting Felix to see my new office (!). I spent Friday happily unemployed, taking Felix to day care and having the day to myself. I can't remember the last time I could do what I wanted all day long. I did meet Nick for lunch at Plaka Taverna. We stuffed ourselves full of Greek and had to fight a food coma all afternoon. I start my new job on Monday.

Last weekend, we celebrated the wedding of my cousin, Jimmie. We drove up to Medina/New London for the fun. Felix looked so dapper in his little outfit, and had a great time running around with his first-cousin-once-removed, Erik. I loved seeing toddlers on the dance floor.













Felix has developed some good and bad habits lately. The bad would be screaming/shrieking for fun inside. Oh, our poor ears. This has lead to quite a few time outs, and hopefully he'll grow out of this phase soon. The good would be his language skills. He's started using "the" in his sentences, and now when he talks, they are mostly complete, coherent ones. It's amazing to hear what he comes up with. This morning, it was "That is not the house, that is the barn!" and "There are cows in the barn" when talking about the house behind us.

We've seen lots of family lately, too, and that's always nice. :o)

Felix: 2 yrs

Crooning

Felix has taken up singing at every occasion. He has a repertoire of most of the toddler standards (Old MacDonald, The Wheels on the Bus, ABC, Itsy-Bitsy Spider, etc.), for which his memory impresses me greatly. He does, however, miss a number of the words and the notes, which can make it a little tough to endure, but it's still so darn cute. He also will do a mash-up of songs while singing them. I'm trying to get him to sing On Wisconsin in its entirety (currently he just sings "On 'Sconsin, On 'Sconsin U-Rah-Rah!"). I enjoyed a moment this week when I started to sing a song and he interrupted me with "No, Mama. Felix sing it." And he did. :o)

Nick is teaching him left and right, and he's starting to figure it out. He's about 50-50 guessing which shoe you're holding out to him.

He also has been showing us that he may have a future as a valet, parking his vehicles with great precision:

Felix: 2 yrs

What a Weekend!

We had a wonderful weekend. On Saturday, we went out into the rain and got family pictures taken in the studio at the Babies R Us in town. Felix started out slowly, but eventually, we got a few smiles out of him. If I can scan our pictures, I'll post a few here.

In the afternoon, we went to my company picnic. Felix had a blast, going on a wagon ride, eating cotton candy (which he heard as "hot 'n' candy"), and seeing animals and tractors.

Today, we had a small gathering of friends over with their kids. It was nice to introduce one set of friends to another. We waited out the rain, then went outside, where Felix and his daycare buddy Alana went swimming fully clothed. Nearly 6-month-old Sophie didn't go swimming, but I'm sure she wanted to. :o)

Felix: 2 yrs

Weekend in Rapids

We took Felix up for a weekend in Rapids with Grandma and Geepa for the first time since Thanksgiving. (You know it's been awhile when Nick gets close to the house and says, "Is this the right one?") It was a nice, relaxing, albeit hot, weekend. On Saturday, Felix got to play with new toys and we grilled out. Sunday, we went out to the course, where Felix got his first rides on golf carts and greens mowers (cue the photo op). Then we drove up to Marshfield to look at crazy metal sculptures. Back home for Felix's nap before the long drive to Madison. All in all, pretty lovely.

Felix is showing his independence with a vengeance. He started saying, "No, no, no, Mama, " indicating that he wanted to do it (or just not me). Whatever, kid. :o)

This morning, I asked Felix what he wanted to be when he grew up. "Divvy tuck diver" (delivery truck driver) and "semi diver" were his responses. I'm very interested to see how this changes over the years (although I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up...).

Felix: 2 yrs

Pretend

Felix has started to play pretend, and it's quite cute! There's a step about a third of the way down to the basement where he can reach through the balusters and touch the basement ceiling. He's started pretending to take a handful of the ceiling and eat it. I asked him what it tasted like the first time he did this (on Monday, I think). "Banana bread," he said. He has since also said pizza, and asks to "eat banana bread ceiling" when we're carrying him up- and downstairs.

Also, I'm slightly less concerned about becoming a mother for the second time. On Saturday, I had the opportunity to watch a friend's 4.5 month old as well as Felix all by myself for a few hours. Considering that you get to know what your own baby's cues and not knowing this baby's, I think I did pretty well. I had one little stretch where both were crying, and I calmly handled that situation. Felix was also very good. He liked to be a helper (though he did attempt to hand her the rattle via the back of her head) and hug the baby. Give him another year and he'll be a great big brother when the time comes. :o)

Felix: 2 yrs

Self-Destruction

Felix is hell-bent on self-destruction lately. He fell off the seat of a picnic table onto his back on Saturday. Sunday, he fell off a chair in the kitchen while holding a veggie peeler and cut the back of his left hand. Yesterday, we noticed a quarter-sized bump on his forehead. Thankfully, nothing's ended up being serious, but he's in a bit of a black-and-blue phase. He's figuring out what his body can and shouldn't do, and hopefully he'll grow out of it before we end up at Urgent Care. I hope so, anyway. In the meantime, we're going to have lots of band-aids, ice packs, hugs and kisses on hand. :o)
 
Edited to add that he fell halfway down the stairs this evening. We'll see what bruises pop up in the morning. Good grief. 

We went to the spray park this evening. Unfortunately, it cooled off and left Felix a shivering little man in less than 5 minutes.

Felix: 2 yrs

Two years ago tomorrow...

...our little man was born! I can't believe it's been two years now. Felix continue to amaze us and try our patience, as any little toddler should.

Felix has developed some serious selective hearing (or just wants to figure out how far he can push things when you say no), become very sensitive (bursting into pouting lips and tears when you don't allow something), and become a bit of a naughty boy. We're hoping turning 2 allows him to do a bit more at daycare and have a bit more going on in his day there. In any case, it's just a phase...

We had Felix's birthday party on July 9th with aunts, grandparents and great-grandparents present. Felix had a great time with all the attention. He didn't do so well with the presents, though. He was torn between seeing what was in the unwrapped presents and wanting badly to play with what he just opened. He got lots of sports gear, cars/Cars stuff, and clothing, among some other terrific toys. We got through it and ate cake. It was all good.











Because Nick's going to be gone tomorrow night, we did Felix's birthday picture tonight. Enjoy!

Felix: 2 yrs

Happy Father's Day!

It my be a day late, but Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there, even the little dads-to-be!

Felix: 23 mos

Counting up and down

We had an interesting week. After getting missed by pretty much every thunderstorm in the vicinity this spring, I had a gnawing feeling that we were in for a bad one. Sure enough, we gazed out on a green-tinged sky at a very dark, low cloud to the west as the tornado sirens went off on Wednesday night. Of course, we had just put Felix to bed 10 minutes earlier, so we grabbed him, our phones and shoes, and went down to the basement. We got off easy, with only a little bit of hail and no damage to our property. But it definitely sent me into panic mode, since the tornado went just a few miles south of us.

We were invited to a dinner party Friday by friends of ours, and it was nice to meet other people. Lindsay's going to be a stay-at-home-mom with their 3-month-old daughter. I asked her to tell me about the crappy parts about being a SAHM, and I said I'd do the same about working (shouldn't be too hard... :o\ ), so neither one of us gets too jealous.

Felix has been learning his numbers at day care, and surprised me on Saturday by stringing them together to count to 10! Well done, little man. We had a busy weekend, going to the Farmer's Market at the Capitol (we've decided we're always going to stop at the Amish pie stand for a breakfast turnover or two), shopping, and enjoying a visit with my parents. We went out to brunch on Sunday for Cassie's birthday (today), and a bike ride after Felix's nap because it was nice.

And lastly, counting down. It's now less than a month until Felix's 2nd birthday! Deep down, I'm not surprised that he's nearly 2, because of everything he does now (talking, running, throwing, his independence). I'm just surprised that it seems to have happened so fast! I'm probably going to be saying that every year from now on...

Felix: 23 mos

Catching Up

We've had a lot going on the past two weekends! On May 20th, Nick and I both took the day off. We bought a new car, had a nice lunch out, took Felix to the zoo, and wished my dad a happy birthday! Cassie bought my old car, so we didn't have to worry about that. Felix has been very interested in the new car, and likes to pretend he drives it.

 

For being a holiday weekend, we didn't have a lot going on. Saturday, we took a nice bike ride in the afternoon. Sunday was very rainy, but we got in a short hike at a prairie park near us. Felix enjoyed that, running along the trails and suddenly stopping to look at ant hills. Today, we went to Brat Fest, the first time for all of us. Felix at nearly a full brat himself, and as you can see below, really enjoyed the ice cream (for the curious, it's special Brat Fest Cookie Dough, with a mustard yellow and ketchup red swirl). We got home in time for his nap, and spent the rest of the afternoon in the nice, cool basement. 

Felix is getting very curious in the world around him, which is really making things fun. He has a lot of interest and seems to like learning and refining his knowledge already. We're so proud of him!

Felix: 22 mos

Naughty...

Yes, Felix has become a Naughty Boy. Or, as his daycare puts it, aggressive. He's taking out his frustrations by biting and hitting, pinching and pulling. I bought him two books this past weekend: Teeth Are Not For Biting and Hands Are Not For Hitting. We've read them several times (all but twice because he just wants to read them). The other two times were because he hit or bit. I'm hoping he finds a new, non-violent outlet for his anger, and soon.

On a brighter note, his vocabulary and understanding of things around him is continuing to astonish us. He says the names of all his classmates and most of the people in our neighborhood. He uses possessives correctly most of the time (Mama's car or Ari's mama). One of the most interesting phrases he's used so far was "water tower broken, new one". A few weeks earlier, I had pointed out the broken water tower near our house and told them we'd be getting a new one soon. It's amazing that he retained that and randomly decided to use the phrase. His memory is definitely getting better. And last night, he was cracking himself up by trying to repeat the EIEIO part of Old MacDonald. It came out EEEIO instead.

Felix likes to run around a lot and he's rather amusing to watch. Yesterday, he ran all the way down to the park, his little legs moving this way and that, like he'd be a perfect candidate to work at the Ministry of Silly Walks. We've got our own little Crazylegs. :o)

Felix: 22 mos

Felixese 201

Welcome to Advanced Felixese. I realized that as Felix gets older, he won't pronounce words in such cute, mindboggling ways. Therefore, I wanted to make a list of some of his pronunciations before they're gone.

• "Dongizoo" = triangle
• "Dockiloo" = crocodile
• "Epilat" = elephant
• "Lilad" = lizard
• "Apatis" = octopus
• "Buttaby" = butterfly
• "Diesisor" = dinosaur
• "Buckaball" = basketball
• "Myno" = tomato or guitar
• "Buckabus" = asparagus
• "Civiyoos" = cinnamon rolls
• "Ovove" = olive
• "Raisis" = raisins
• "Boobolly" = blueberry
• "I love lou" = I love you
• "Bucking" = building
• "Segung" = ceiling
• "Abisass" = ambulance
• "Acopyou" = helicopter
• "Vyos" = flowers

By the way, he's just two words shy of 500! He's got two word phrases down, and is starting to string three words together (though often unconnected). He's also quite good at naming all the big trucks while we're driving. He likes to see garbage trucks, tankers, cement trucks, semis, buses, delivery ("divvy") trucks, among many others.

Felix: 21 mos

Happy or Merry?

The time of chocolate and ham, eggs and bunnies is upon us. Of course, I mean Easter. Usually, I feel Eastertime is the beginning of spring, but after yesterday's daylong rain/sleet/snow/thunderfest, I'm having doubts spring will ever get here.

Felix is doing well, mostly. Everyone says he's growing taller, though his pants still seem long on him. He's starting to use two word phrases with more regularity, usually describing the scene around us (e.g., "bird fly" and "Rugby naughty"). His longest phrase so far is "delivery truck, beep beep beep". He's liking all the sports on TV, easily differentiating between basketball, hockey, baseball and football. On the downside, he throws a tantrum every time we bring him inside, regardless of the time, weather, or his hunger. It's just a phase...

In honor of Easter, a little comparison (April 4, 2010 and April 1, 2011):

Felix: 21 mos

400 Words!

I've been trying to keep track of all of the words Felix knows, says, and uses correctly. And this morning, I realized that he has hit 400 words! Not surprisingly, foods edge out verbs for top spot. I'm sure there are others that I've missed, but this is pretty amazing, considering the average number of words kids are supposed to know and use at his age (20-21 months) is 10 to 40. Wow!

Also on a slightly different note, we decided it was time to break Felix of his Nuk habit, starting on the 1st. We did it by "breaking" his Nuk (I snipped off a tiny little bit from the end). He immediately decided something was wrong and that it was broken. That first night was rough. He cried for an hour. Each night has gotten progressively easier (in fact, he's slept through the night the last two nights - knock on wood). The only downside has been that he's been waking by screaming a few times - I think due to growing pains, and he's been tougher to put down. He no longer lays down quietly while awake and I walk out of the room. Now when I leave the room, he cries for Mama for a few minutes before settling down. Hopefully this will end soon, but so far so good!

Felix: 20 mos

¡Viva Mexico!

After a week of fun in the sun in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, we are back to cold reality. It was a nice escape, as we basked in sunny warm weather, played in the sand, and explored our natural-habitat resort.

This was our first trip with Felix, and despite apprehension about flying and traveling with him, everything went well. He did well on the way down, alternately playing and sleeping. We stayed at the Iberostar Tucán with the rest of the folks Grandma Maxine brought down with her. It was the best resort we've been to so far, in my opinion. I liked the "jungle" around the inner part of the complex, complete with trails and faux ruins. Our room overlooked the jungle, and we could see ripening bananas, geckos, and even spotted a monkey from our balcony.

Since we had Felix around, we didn't plan any excursions for ourselves, even though we had ready and willing watchers for him. We just weren't interested this time. Instead, we spent the majority of our time on the beach or near the pool. Felix really enjoyed it. He liked to play in the sand, smashing sandcastles, jumping, and (unfortunately) throwing sand. Much of it ended up in his mouth. We took him into the pools and into the waves on the beach. He learned so many new words, like peacock (even identifying them by their sound alone), wave, ocean, beach, sand, papaya, pool, and lizard among many others.

Felix provided us with much entertainment during the trip. He really liked all the airplanes that flew overhead, and when one passed and was out of earshot, he started asking for "more airplane". Sorry, buddy! He also started off calling boats buses or airplanes, but we got him to say boat by the end of the trip. He also liked the monkeys and "lilads" (lizards). And having the resort be all-inclusive was great, because Felix ate his fill (especially of exotic fruits like papaya and pineapple).

In all, we had a fabulous, relaxing trip. Thanks, Grandma!!

Felix: 20 mos

"I love you!"

Things have been cruising along at our house as we wait for winter to end and emerge from hibernation. Nick recently moved his office, and I took a stained glass workshop, which was awesome. But enough about us...

Felix has managed to grow about an inch and cut his last four front teeth. He's also developed several new interests:

• Climbing (especially into his high chair)
• Shoveling (I'd go so far as to say this is a minor obsession, not an interest)
• Identifying every semi and bus he sees while we're driving.
• Showing off his knowledge of body parts (in which he will randomly poke you in the nose and eyes, saying the name of each - beware). He knows most of his parts, including tough ones like elbows, wrists, back, hips, and chest.

He also is answering questions appropriately (we've added "yes" to his vocabulary) and he has definite opinions about what he wants to do/wear/eat. I just tried to count them up, and he can say well over 250 words. He's also starting to say phrases, including the subject of this post (last night, aw!). This morning, he said "Go Bucky", though to nothing in particular. This past weekend, I taught him how you can make an M into a W. Last night he stumped me, though. We were playing with blocks and he kept saying "idareck". I'd repeat it back to him, and he'd correct me if I didn't say it right. I had no idea what he was talking about until I was putting him to bed and he pointed at his I'm a T. Rex book. Aha! He was saying "I'm a T. Rex"! Why yes, yes you are a Fe-Rex. :o)

Felix: 19 mos

First the Snow, then the Cold

The 1-2 punch of massive snow and bitter cold is not making me a happy camper. My every-season-but-winter-loving self is exceedingly glad to be headed to Mexico next month, if only to get away from all the snow surrounding us.

Front yard, pre-blizzard

Backyard, pre-blizzard

Front yard, after the clean-up

Backyard, post-blizzard

Felix and the Deck Snowdrift

Felix: 19 mos

Go Pack Go!

It feels surreal that our beloved Green Bay Packers are going to the Super Bowl. It's been a wild ride of the season, with the first and second halves of the season having the same win-loss pattern. I love extra Packers football, and this is just fun.

We've been coaching Felix to fine tune his football watching skills. During the last game, I taught him First Down (with the arm motion), and he can occasionally do it with a "fuhdown". He's taken aback when we jump up and down yelling Touchdown! when it happens in real time, but he'll do the arm motion and say "tot down" once we've settled down. We've been working on getting him to identify a Green Bay logo ("Gee!"). Now if only we can get him to boo when he sees black and gold (also handy when facing Iowa)...

And along those lines, Felix's new favorite word is Wisconsin. He doesn't have all the syllables yet, pronouncing it "Condin!", but he surprised me this morning by identifying it on the license plate of a car in front of us. Add that to Bucky, W, Badger, and we've definitely got ourselves a Badger from Birth and the brainwashing is nearly complete. :o)

And bonus fun - see how big Felix has gotten:

January 16, 2011 (18 months)

August 2, 2009 (3 weeks)

Felix: 18 mos

18 Months!

Felix turned 18 months old yesterday.  I look back at a year ago and remember a little baby who smiled a lot but couldn't sit up, was babbling, and about to start solid foods.  Two years ago, we were just getting ready to tell people we were expecting.  Wow.  Time sure files.

This morning, Felix signed "love" to me.  Nick said, "Tell Mama you love her" while I was holding Felix.  He then put his fists up to his neck, the closest he can come to making the sign for love.  It was the first time he's done that!  Aw!  And last night, Nick's birthday present came in the mail.  Because he can't say two-word phrases yet, I got Felix to say happy and birthday ("buhdee") separately.  It cracked us all up. 

Felix is also showing us a different way to look at the things around us.  He's latched on to moon shapes, and sees them everywhere.  Sometimes this confuses us.  The other night, he pointed at a coaster with a stylized drawing of a pilsner glass on it and said "mun!"  It took a minute for me to find that there was in fact a little moon shape within the drawing.  And this morning, he said "mun!" several times to the large poster we have in our dining room.  There are no moons in the picture that I could see.  I picked him up and asked him to point to the moon.  He pointed to the letter R.  It took me a second to realize that he meant the empty space in the upper part of the letter that did look like a moon.  I'm sure this is just the beginning of our sharp-eyed, smart little boy showing us a new way to look at the world.

Felix: 18 mos

Post-Holiday Update

We hope you and yours did have a splendid holiday season!  We certainly did, getting together with both families on Christmas weekend.  Felix got a lot of great presents (as did we), and we're having fun playing with them.

Nick and I left Felix for the first time just before New Year's.  We were going to the Rose Bowl, but knew that bringing him along would make the trip far from the relaxing one for which we were hoping.  We sure didn't like leaving him behind, though.  Despite weather delays and uncertainty, we made it to Southern California at 9:30 pm local time on New Year's Eve.  My parents were out there already and picked us up from the airport and got us to the hotel, where we promptly fell asleep. New Year's Day started out fun, going to the Rose Parade until the TCU band had passed and seeing friends from far away, but we all know what happened in the game.  Argh.  We had a quiet night when we finally got back to Anaheim.

The 2nd was rainy and cold. We drove to Santa Monica and found a bar near the UCLA campus in which to watch the Packers-Bears game. Thankfully, the Packers won, because we were worried that no one would be left alive in Wisconsin if they hadn't. The folks dropped us off at our next hotel near LAX, then took themselves off for Vegas. 

The 3rd was also rainy and cold, which put an end to any hopes Nick and I had for going to a theme park. We took public transportation to downtown LA instead. We ate marvelous sushi in Little Tokyo, walked though incredibly sketchy areas, got over the scare with sake, then took the bus/train back home. An adventurous day, to say the least.

We got back to our little man on the 4th. He hasn't quite figured out how the telephone works, so calls to him each day were a bit one-sided. I know it was a sign I missed him so much when I seemed to notice toddlers everywhere.

Now that we're back, things have returned to normal. Felix's vocabulary is increasing by leaps and bounds. It's especially entertaining trying to teach him a word he can't quite say (Packers is "kohpa"). There's the flip side of him latching on to a word he knows and can say, and he says it over and over. His latest is "body." He will grab his chest and belly when you ask him where his body is, too. :o)

Felix: 17 mos