18 and 19 months!!

As I write this there is currently snow on the ground in Georgia AGAIN! We had about 1.5-2 inches at our house, but the roads were clear so no snow day for us this time. LAST month, however, was not the same. We got SIX inches of snow at our home and were out of work for about 3 1/2 days! And there was snow on the ground for about 10 days in some places around my office, which was SO weird! As you may know, Georgian's cannot function in the snow and have nothing in place to deal with the rare snowstorms. It took Justin over 2 hours to get my car out of the driveway so I could finally make it to work that week! The most unfortunate thing about the snow was that Colton did not get to play in it. At out house the snow accumulated overnight and by mid morning it sleeted and covered the lovely fluffy snow in a hard and very thick layer of ice, making it glass-like and impossible to walk on, let alone play in. :-) We did go for fun hike out of the neighborhood in it, which was fun and Colton enjoyed looking at all the things covered in "no" although sometimes the "s" came out and he did say "snow."

All decked out for the weather


Hiking down our street!


The driveway was so slick with ice, dragging Colton down was the safest way and he thought it was hilarious!


I swear he had fun too!


Friends

Over New Year's we visited our dear friend Leslie and her family and met her new little man!

All a boy needs: a big stick and a dog to look at!


We got to go to a nearby wildlife reserve and we had a lot of fun and Colton of course loved every second of it!

Getting ready to feed the animals


Here they come!


Colton enjoyed spying the animals through the sides of the trailer.


Mummy, I think this Bison is getting a little too close...


Colton enjoyed petting the deer...


...until the deer wanted to check him out a little too closely!


Cuteness!


"Wow! That is one cute boy!"


Video of feeding the animals.


So many new and fun things!!

Talking all the time!
Little man is talking more and more and says a ton of words pretty consistenly, though often with requests, such as: Hi, Heado (hello), Dog, ball, bubble, wow, dark, duck, More, Mummy, Poppi/Poppa (not always the same), Papa, Nana, Steek (stick), eat eat! (must be repeated), all done!, meatball, peanut butter (I cannot even begin to spell that the way he says it, but it is funny), no no no (must be repeated), book, to name a few. :-) He can also repeat a lot of words and enjoys telling you what certain animals "say": Dog, cow, horse, duck, donkey, train (well, not an animal but it says "choo choo!), mouse ("week week" he says, CRACKS me up!!), bear, tiger/lion and he KNOWS a ton of other animals and can point them out when asked. He also can show you that he is 1, with his finger, and how big he is. I have a cute video of that which I will try to post this week.

One of the funny things he says/does now is to tell you to Move. Like, get out of my way, I want to get over there or I want you to go over there. It is hard not to laugh! He doesn't respond "No" very often to requests yet (thought he might just not do what you say) but he can repeat it in context. One of the stories we read, The Little Red Hen, has a part at the end where the Hen says, "Oh no! We will eat the bread." When we read it together, Colton shakes his hand with his finger pointed out and says, "No, no, no." A couple weeks ago he was reading to himself (with his woobie-more on that later) and had this book and turned all the way to the back to that page and did this. It was too cute!! He LOVES to read and we read books all day and have to limit the ones at night or we would never go to bed! He choses to read them in a certain order and can say the names of some, "Dack Dill" (Jack and Jill, which is one of 3 weird $1 Mother Goose books I got at Target that have some poems in them that I'm going to stop reading because they are super odd/violent/funky!).

He likes to talk about things being "All gone?" while shrugging his shoulders and with his hands turned up. He enjoys hiding things under his legs, especially in the bath tub and saying, "All gone?" then producing it for you and giggling. He knows most of his body parts and can point to them from his hair to his belly button to his piggy toes (and can also show you his 'other one' if he is pointing to his feet or knees, etc.), including the correct word for his boy bits. :-) He can say eye, nose, ear, knee and enjoys pointing to those parts on you too, which is especially fun when he is poking you in the eye in the morning.

He likes for you to chase him around the house at any time, especially with his push mower like you are going to mow him down. Nice, huh? He enjoys pushing you over if you are sitting down so he can 'get' you and crawl all over you. He gives great hugs and sometimes kisses, but usually turns his cheek to you if you ask him for a kiss (so HE can get a kiss). We have been doing a lot of boundary testing, including throwing things into the fire...

A couple of weeks ago he wanted me to put one of my socks that I was folding on his hand and then proceeded to hold it up to me and say, "Heado!" (aka Hello). Sock puppet!!

Colton loves to dance and it cracks us all up! We listen to the radio a lot at home and he has some fridge magnets that play music he plays with in the kitchen. He always wants me to turn the radio on in the car and dances in his car seat. We have a video we need to send into AFV from our trip to FL where he is dancing with my aunt's stuffed frog. Where do they learn some of these moves?!

Colton's 'woobie'
Over the past few weeks, Colton has finally developed a special relationship with a blanket. He has never really had a 'lovie' special stuffed animal or toy that he really loves or drags around everywhere. He has, however, just recently decided he loves a certain blanket. Of course, this blanket happens to be the full sized, thick, fleece blanket we have on the couch for covering up on the rare occasion WE take a nap or something! It is HUGE compared to Colton and he can hardly move it, though that does not stop him from trying to drag it around the living room to lay on it or cover himself up with it. We have to cover up with it when we read stories before bedtime, then snuggle a little right before bed. We have also had a few semi-tearful tug of wars with it as he tries to drag it back to his bedroom when he goes to bed, though thankfully he has another, toddler sized cozy blanket (thanks to Auntie Celestia and Uncle Ryan) in his crib that can serve as a subsitute.


Nursing
We ending our nursing sessions the first week of 2011. We had been down to just the night session, then ended it all together. Colton seemed to do fine, though recently I took a bath with him and he seemed to be want a sample. :-) It was harder on me, just that special bonding time we had for SO long (18 MONTHS) ending, but I am happy now that it is not something I have to think about anymore.

Eating
On the list of things that drive Brigette batty, spitting out food or throwing it on the floor are up there pretty high (since I will then have to clean it up). I try not to show my annoyance too much so Colton doesn't think that it is a game but sometimes we have to tag team meal times so I don't lose my mind over nonsense. "Do you want more X?" (Head nodding)..then pppttt..out it comes or gets shot across the floor on a spoon. He wants to have everything on his tray but some things are just too messy (normally we have already had a bath and are in PJs at dinner time) for him to be in control. Some days he is a BIG eater: 2 scrambled eggs, toast, fruit, then somedays he seems to eat hardly anything. The exception being: "If Poppa is eating it, I MUST have it. Right now." Regardless of whether he just ate a huge meal (I mean, their stomachs are supposed to be the size of their fists!) or if we offered him his own version of whatever Poppa is eating, if Poppa is eating it now, Colton needs to 'help' him eat it. If Justin is having a snack in the living room, Colton seeks a bite, then runs away gleefully around the room, then returns for the next bite, then off he runs again. It is really pretty funny, like he can't beleive he actually got a bite and is celebrating his luck.

Two fisting the graham crackers


A great fun mess!


He refused to take the hat off for dinner


Crazy child! Ran around with this bag on his head just cracking up!


How does one get into such a sleeping position?


Colton has been sleeping pretty well generally. We had several months of fighting sleep at night (though he does great napping at school but not at home still, sleep peer pressure I guess) but now he usually goes down for the night by 7:45-8:30 pm and stays asleep til between 7-8. Some days, when we have to actually get out the door early, he sleeps after 8 though usually he won't do that on weekends when WE can sleep in! Little weasel! He has been teething lately (though nothing has broken the surface yet) and we have had a few rough nights of getting up numerous times and crying hysterically.

Speaking of teeth...would love for him to fill in the area between the bottom two front teeth and the bottom molars! The bottom two teeth are still really the only ones you see when he smiles, still, so cute!

And yes, we know he could use a hair cut!