Bi-lingual Tool Time...

Here is a video that Alexander & I shot today during our snow-day. Alexander has shown us that he's learning to be bi-lingual without us even knowing it...his tool box says "muy rapido" which is very fast in Spanish. We don't know when he started to speak in Spanish but we find it quite amusing & cute...

Words...

Another video of Alexander & his words...

Photo Recap...

Photo Recap (Monday, January 19th - Sunday, January 25th, 2009)

Photo Recap...

Photo Recap (Monday, January 19th - Sunday, January 25th, 2009)

Weekly Glance...

Weekly Glance (Monday, January 19th - Sunday, January 25th, 2009)

• A pretty normal week at school - made birdhouses & got so excited when they got to hang them up around the room
• Loved playing with the bubbles at school
• Loves to make the fish face and look at the fish tank before we leave school each night
• Wants to watch Elmo or Thomas all the time at home so we have to distract him so the tv isn't on all the time
• Learning to say "I love you" in sign language as he's doing well with 'thank you'
• Loves helping make food, no matter what it is - Peanut Butter/Jelly sandwich, Mac & Cheese, or eggs. He loves to sit on the counter and help you
• Went to Target with Mommy and loved going around 'looking' for where Elmo could be and then we got a snack and the woman behind the counter loved him
• At Target, as we were getting our coats back on, Alexander made a break for it. I had to go after him and make the decision to leave my bag, coat, etc right there and ran after him - he thought it was hysterical!
• Did not take pictures on Friday - I confused myself and thought I already took pictures in the morning but I was getting my mornings mixed up...(SILLY MOMMY)
• Slept pretty well all week except for Friday night where he woke up @ 11:30pm and after I put him back in his crib, I woke him by hitting the dresser on my way out. Ugghhh...and then he slept with me the rest of the night and woke up at 4:15/4:30am! He was ready to play...
• Daddy went to FL for a few days (for his grandmother's funeral) so it was Mommy & Alexander and things went very well
• New words: work, buddy, mickey, toor (store), Debbie, Matt, dark, coat
• A little congested/runny nose but no fever
• Played with Mommy on Saturday and then made a welcome home sign for Daddy
• Went to the airport to pick up Daddy & Uncle Matt - got SO excited when Daddy got into the car
• Did this odd thing Sunday morning where he would close his eyes, put out his arms and walk around "blind"... we have NO CLUE where he got this
• Napped extremely well over the weekend - Sunday, he napped for 2 1/2+ hours
• Uncle Matt & cousin Michael came over to play Sunday afternoon
• At first, Alexander didn't want to share and Michael didn't want to play but they both warmed up and chased each other around tickling & laughing
• Sunday night, Monkey helped us getting jammies & lotion on and then we read books to Monkey

Gotta Have Friends...

Lately, Alexander has been quite cooperative but we have to give credit to where credit is due. His friends.

He wants his friends to help us get him dressed, change diapers, put on shoes, etc...but it's working.

So I thought it would be nice to thank his friends and show everyone else who is friends are. Right now, Monkey is his favorite with Elmo & Abby a close 2nd.

More Words...

Some new words late this week:

• Matt - This is for Uncle Matt
• Dark - Somehow he learned when it's dark and the right word to go with it. When I brought him into our room this morning, he said "ooh dark"
• Coat - As he's putting on his coat he says "uuoat" and does the motion of a zipper going up & down

New Words...

Some new words the past few days:

• Mickey - As in Mickey Mouse
• Work - His Handy Manny tools say "Let's get to work" and now he repeats work
• Buddy - Daddy & I call Alexander Buddy from time to time and he's started to say that while we were driving in the car yesterday & today
• Debbie - I picked him up yesterday at school and as we were leaving he waved bye, blew kisses and said "Debbie" (his teacher's name is Debbie) - although Mrs. Debbie didn't seem nearly as excited about it as I did but that's a whole different topic

22 Months...

22 Months

New Words/Phrases:
-Mickey, Work, Buddy, Debbie, Boo, Psst, Bus, Toor, Ouch/Grouch, Nanas, Noodle, Minnie, Poof, Milk, Ernie, Bert, Bed, Giraffe, Burp, Michael, Cook, Egg, Money, Bob, Toot, Boat, Boom, Go Now

Developmental:
-Learning how to turn on/play the DVD (not intentional!)
-2 bottom molars coming in
-Does very well with utensils
-Knows #1 and #5
-Walking up/down stairs holding on with one hand

Loves:
-Anything to do with Elmo
-Reading Books (Dr. Suess, Truck, Elmo & Easter books are the favorite)
-Playing with flash cards
-Trucks
-Loves singing (itsy bitsy spider, wheels on the bus, ABCs)
-Coloring
-Cleaning (wiping the floor, sweeping, vacuums)

Vocab:
dada, mama, Ahh Daa (is his word for Please), up, apple, turtle, JoJo (His teacher's name is MaryJo), Aiden (aah-den), Hi, Moo, Quack Quack, woof woof, Yah, Bye, All, done, All gone, baaaa (sheep noise), No, uhoh, baabaa, 'ruck (I think this is truck), Hat, Hot, hot dog, elbow, cup, ball, baby, pat, home, apron, tractor, knock, heart, oval, book, mine, go, papa (this is Grandpa), moon, Oh dear, Oh Boy, Come On, Night Night

Animal Noises:
-He's added monkey to his repetoire. He knows what sounds the lion, cow, sheep, dog, duck, frog, elephant, rabbit & cat make

Sleeping (hasn't changed):
-Wakes up around 5:30-6am every day, even on weekends
-Takes one nap in the afternoon, usually 2 hrs
-At home on the weekends, most times he takes his 2 hr nap in the late morning
-Asleep by 7:30pm each night (on average)

Clothes (hasn't changed):
-18 Months for shirts, sweaters, PJs
-24Months/2T stuff is definitely big on him
-18 Months pants are still a bit long but fitting better
-Shoes: Size 5
-Diapers: Pampers Size 4 Cruisers

Feeding: (hasn't changed either)
-Loves pancakes/waffles, eggs, muffins, mini rice cakes, teddy grahams, apples (but doesn't always finish them but wants them), cheerios, goldfish, raw carrots, PB & J, hot dogs, Mac & Cheese, grilled cheese, chicken nuggets, pizza
-Starting to do really well with fruit - bananas, apples, clementines, strawberries
-He eats fairly well but not in large quantity all the time
-We got to get him on the vegetable train soon as he doesn't eat them as often as he should

Photo Recap...

Photo Recap (Monday, January 12th - Sunday, January 18th, 2009)

Photo Recap...

Photo Recap (Monday, January 12th - Sunday, January 18th, 2009)

Weekly Glance...

Weekly Glance (Monday, January 12th - Sunday, January 18th, 2009)

• Good full week at school in his Toddler class
• Typical wake up times with a few mornings of 6am (we like these!)
• Lots of use of words as well as sign language
• Got his progress report from Ms. Mary-Jo (did very well)
• Shows Ms. Danielle how the fishes swim and loves to go see the fishes (there is a fish tank at school)
• Started saying "Thank You" via sign language
• Elmo's World still rules our house...if the TV is on, he wants to watch Elmo so we're trying to limit the amount of TV on
• LOVES to help making food - needs to get out the jelly & bread and then spread everything on the bread and help cut - thankfully we use plastic knives
• LOVES to do the hokey pokey, especially when Daddy does it
• Wants to eat on his couch with his tray rather than in the kitchen which is another reason we try to limit tv
• Went to Grammie & Grampie's on Saturday
• Played at Grammie & Grampie's with the horsey, trucks, blocks and produced new artwork for Grammie by painting (thankfully the paint comes off floors & clothes)
• Auntie Sue & Moira came over to visit - Alexander got to open more Christmas presents and loved opening them and immediately had to open the bath markers. He even said Thank you once he was all done
• Had a lowkey day at home on Sunday because of the snow (We live in our own winter wonderland) but he didn't go play due to snowpants snafu
• Watched the snow plows and Daddy and loved having Daddy throw snow at the windows
• Walked around the house with Mommy's bag saying "bye-bye" and headed for the door
• After months of refusing, Alexander let us measure his height on his 'Growth Stick' - he's 32 1/2" (we measured three times)
• Does well with eating fruit (loves bananas & strawberries)

New Words...

New words this week:

• Boo - He got this one from his Elmo book when they talk about a little white ghost who creeps up and says ... "boo". He says the boo part when we read.
• Psst - Another one from his Elmo books...he says the 'psst' part and knows exactly when it's coming and will get all excited that it's his turn
• Bus - This is mainly said in the car when he wants us to sing "Wheels on the bus"...and when he says it, he touches his hands together almost like he's saying "more" in sign language
• Toor - This is his version of the word 'store'. Every time we drive by Stop & Shop, CVS, or the Mall he will keep repeating 'toor'
• Ouch/Grouch - From his Elmo book (wow, these couple of books produced a lot of words for him), Oscar the Grouch is talking and they are lines in the book that Alexander likes to say
• Nanas - Word for Banana

He did get his progress report from Ms. Mary-Jo and while he did get As (Age-Appropriate) in almost all of his categories, he did get a D in "Words". Okay, okay it wasn't a D it was a SD for Still-Developing. He doesn't necessarily have the full vocab for his age or for the kids in his class, but because he understands what is told or asked of him and he is adding a lot of new words lately, I am far from concerned. He's always been a bit behind the curve with timelines but he's still the most perfect child in the world.

Thank You...

Alexander knows a bit of sign language and uses it pretty frequently. It's always been something I've wanted to teach him to help him express himself.

Words that he says in sign language are:

• More - this is the main word he says using sign language
• Eat - he uses this alot where as the rest are infrequent but used
• Cup
• Cold
• Car
• All gone
• Sleep

The newest word he's added to his repetoire is thank you. This one makes me quite proud that he's learned it as I've been trying this with him for a while. And the best part is that he's starting to use it often & appropriately.

We're working on 'I Love You' now and he's slowly getting it...stay tuned.

Coincidence...

Last Friday, Dan & I were reading Alexander's school journal as his teachers write in it throughout the week and it's always nice to review how his week was. Dan happened to go back and read older entries when he noticed something interesting.

Last year, it appears that Alexander got sick (fever, cold, congestion, snot, whole nine yards) during early January - even stayed out of school for two days!

Well, fast forward to this January, and Alexander got sick (fever) again! Almost a year to the day too... thankfully he wasn't as sick this year as he was last year, but it is strangely odd that he got sick the same time. He also stayed out of school for two days this year... funny how things work.

Guess we'll have to wait a whole year to see if he gets sick in early January 2010...

Apologies...

I'm going to apologize in advance for this week's pictures. There weren't very many and a lot of them are in the same pose/moment just a different day. We still managed to take pictures every day (even though two nights I realized JUST as bedtime was starting)...but there aren't a lot of variety.

Photo Recap...

Photo Recap (Monday, January 5th - Sunday, January 11th, 2009)