Holden Update {Almost 2 and a half}

Recently when I was taking Brooks' 10 month photo, Holden jumped in the rocking chair and wanted to have his picture taken.  Him actually WANTING to have his picture taken is a very rare occurrance,

so of course I jumped on it.  Then I figured this would be a great time to do a little "Holden update."

Holden will be 2 1/2 next month - March 27th to be exact!  What in the world?  Didn't he JUST turn two?  I can't even process how fast these boys of mine are growing.

Oh, Holden... it is hard to sum you up into a blog post.  You are full of energy, life, spunk, and sweetness.  You are smart and so much fun.  

You love to sing.  You often play your drum while singing a song.  You will sing/play drum and then we clap and then you will come back to ask me what to sing/play next.  The songs you sing most right now are: Jesus Loves Me, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Twinkle Twinkle, Row Row Your Boat, Old MacDonald, and the ABC's of course.  You will also sing-count. 

Letters and numbers are your jam.  You still love letters - letter movies (Leapfrog/Scout movies are your fave), letter puzzles, letter books, saying and singing the alphabet.  You also know letter sounds and can identify/spell Mama/Dada/Baby/Gigi/Pappy/SoSo/cow/cat/dog/pig and probably a couple more that I'm forgetting.  You also love numbers.  You love to count - you can count from 1-20 and you can actually count things.  We have a new puzzle where one piece is a certain number of items which you count and then match up with the correct number on the other piece.  You do great with it and love it.  We are pretty impressed with your counting skills.  As someone who pretty much always loathed math, I hope your fascination with numbers is something that continues and that you never struggle with it.  Dada was always good at math - so I hope you get his math brains.

It has been a long winter - so cold, lots of snow.  This puts a damper on your favorite thing in life - which is to be outside.  We have hardly been outside for months!  It's so sad.  Not good for toddler!  If it warms up just a little, I try to get you outside.  You don't usually mind the cold and would probably stay out until you were frozen solid.  I can't wait until it is warmer again so we can have park playdates and spend lots of time in our little backyard.

Breakfast is still your favorite meal.  You always eat the most at breakfast.  Pancakes and waffles are still your faves.  Other non-breakfast favorites are fruit, macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets, cheeseburgers (which you love but actually only eat the bun/cheese), french fries, gummies (fruit snacks), puffs and yogurt melts (thanks to Baby), pizza, quesadillas "tacos," bread, cheerios, crackers, goldfish, CAKE!  Basically all normal toddler favorites.  You still don't like veggies.  You won't eat anything green.  You drink 1% milk now.  You love milk and water.  You only have juice as a treat at someone else's house or if we are out.  Since you love milk and water and are perfectly happy with those choices, we would rather you not get addicted to sugary juice.

Your favorite shows include Dora, Paw Patrol, Umi Zoomi, Bubble Guppies, Mickey, and Little Einsteins.

You are really into books right now.  You've always been into them but you went through a little phase recently where it seemed like you weren't that into them.  Right now, you will bring us book after book and you actually sit and listen to the whole thing.  Before, you would usually be too interested in quickly turning the pages.  You love Dr. Seuss books.  You can practically recite Green Eggs and Ham.  

You like to cuddle in the mornings, which we love.

You love your grandparents and all of your family!  You are crazy about them.  You love to play with your cousins (amongst them, pretending to be so big) and I'm pretty sure your favorite thing in life is being at Mamaw & Papaw's house or Pappy & Gigi's & SoSo's /them being at your house.

You have started going with me to bible study once a week - which means you go to child care.  You also go to child care during church on the weekends.  Sometimes you cry/get sad when I/we drop you off, but you always end up playing and having a great time.  One time recently, you cried when I left you and then cried when I picked you up.  You didn't want to stay and then you didn't want to leave!

You love to color and paint.  You got an easel for Christmas and you love to color on it as well as in coloring books.

Speaking of colors, you know your colors and shapes!

You really like trucks/cars/trains - you are often driving them along furniture and letting them fall off the end, etc.  Or letting them fall off your brother's head.  Oy. ;)

You are, for the majority of the time, really good with Baby Brooks.  You two often play beside each other and you are usually willing to share and play in peace.  Every once in a while you get in a mood and will pick at him.  I would say that's normal.  Mostly, I'm really proud of how you are with him!

You are saying more and more all of the time.  You aren't really to the point of truly conversing...as in having back and forth conversation, but you know how to get your point across.  You say lots and lots of words.  You've never really been a parrot/repeater, but you are starting to do that more.  Better communication has led to fewer meltdowns/tantrums... although that still happens every once in a while. ;)

You still take one nap a day...but sometimes we forego nap so we can do an early bedtime - aka 7:30 pm.  You are generally pretty adaptable to either way.  You are still a great night sleeper and still in your crib, knock on wood.  You still sleep with your two blue blankies and your paci.  Not sure when we will attempt to get rid of the paci.

I think you are around 30 lbs.  You're pretty tall and skinny.  I'm not sure how tall you are but you are tall for your age it seems.  People often think you are older than you are and/or comment on how tall you are.  You wear a size 2T for the most part but are starting to get into 3T, especially for length.  You wear size 7 shoes but are almost in an 8.  You are still in size 4 diapers and a size 5 diaper overnight.  You sit on the potty occasionally, but you never actually go.  You went #2 once - when we could tell you were about to go and happened to get you on it in time. You are still pretty oblivious as far as telling us when you need to go/are going.  We just feel like you aren't ready and we are fine with that.  We don't want to torture ourselves and you by trying to make you do it when you aren't ready.  So right now we are just waiting and we're fine with it!

Holden at 2 Years!

Holden turned TWO years old on September 27th!
(This post has been sitting in my drafts waiting on pictures for a while!)

It seems almost impossible to "sum you up" at this point but I'm going to try to hit some highlights. :)

Physical stats wise - You are 27-28 pounds and 36 inches long. Jeans are a challenge with your tiny waist and long legs!  You can totally wear an 18 month in the waist but need every bit of 2T for the length.  I am mostly buying 2T clothing for you these days.  You still wear a size 4 diaper and size 5 at night.  You are in a size 7 shoe.

Personality wise - You are smart, sweet, cuddly, headstrong, one-track-minded, your way or the highway mentality.  Typical toddler stuff I think....but whew, it wears us out sometimes!  There is really no reasoning with you yet.  When you are in a "tantrum" you are completely irrational and relentless.  I am looking forward to the day when communication/understanding/reasoning/and bribery (haha!) are better/will work.  You have a lot of energy and love to laugh and act silly/make us laugh.

You are becoming more and more fond of your brother all of the time.  Your favorite thing is to make him laugh.  You try to entertain him.  I can see you becoming more comfortable with him as he gets bigger and as you mature and I know you are going to be best buds.

You love to be outdoors - you love to swing, run, throw balls, climb, jump on trampolines, go down slides...basically anything outside.

You can say your ABC's, sing the alphabet, count to 20, and can identify your name and a few other short words such as mama, dada, baby, cat, pig, dog, etc.  You mainly get this from us writing on your magnadoodle with you which is one of your favorite things to do.  You also love to sing Old MacDonald and "Skittamarink." (No idea how that is actually spelled.)  You even do the hand motions to that one. :)

You say a lot of words and currently - a little over a month after turning 2 - you seem to be in the midst of a language explosion.  You hadn't been a mocking bird before but you are starting to repeat stuff that we say much more frequently and are just saying new things every day.  Some of my favorite things you say are:

"Thank You. You're welcome."  (You say them back to back together like that.)

"Yeah, Mama!  Okay, Mama!" (You end a lot of things with "Mama" and it just sounds so sweet.)

"Come on!"

"I love you."

"Snack..."swack."

You say so much more but those are just a few that melt my heart!

You like books and are currently really good at "reading" "Green Eggs and Ham."  So cute!

You are into trucks/trains/airplanes which is the theme we went with for your 2nd birthday party.

Your most played with toys are probably your mega blocks, wooden blocks, puzzles, and anything with wheels.  You got a Thomas push/ride on toy for your birthday and you push that around the house a lot!

You like most of the Disney Jr. shows and are currently obsessed with Dora and Paw Patrol on Nick Jr.

You are still a rockstar sleeper.  (Knock on wood.)  You sleep around 12 hours at night and take a nap that ranges from 1.5-3 hours long.  You are still sleeping in your crib.  (Again, knock on wood.)

You are a pretty good eater but of course you have your favorites.  Vegetables are not a favorite.  You usually have waffles/pancakes + fruit for breakfast - which is still your favorite meal of the day.  For lunch, you have a hodgepodge - some common components are fruit, yogurt, cereal bar, lunch meat, hot dog, scrambled eggs, grilled cheese, crackers, cheese, applesauce, veggie straws.  For supper, you have some of what we are having or we revert to your favorite staples.  Suppers that you love are tacos/quesadillas, spaghetti, other types of pasta, mac 'n cheese, chicken nuggets, smoked sausage. You usually drink milk or water but you do also love lemonade and sprite - which are occasional treats.

Little things I don't want to forget about this age:

- When it's time for nap we say, "You ready take a nappy?" and clip your paci on and give you your blankies/let you find your blankies.  Your blankies are a small light blue square minky blankie and a little white horse head/square silky light blue blankie.  We turn on your sound machine and put you in your crib and you usually go right to sleep.

- At bedtime, we tell you it's time to go nigh-night...clip your paci on, give you your blankies, and then you come to me and cuddle while I sing you our special little "nigh-night song."  Then if Dada is home, he carries you to bed while I cheer for you and wave and blow kisses as you go down the hall.  ;) You give him a nigh-night kiss before he lays you down. A little after turning two, we started putting your doggie pillow pet in your crib with you and started covering you up with your crib quilt and tucking you in and you love it.

- We call you Holden a lot but we also call you a few long-standing nicknames such as "Bubs," "Tooski," "Tooski-Pants," and "T-pants..." the last three are most commonly said by Dada!  **

Two years later, and we still pinch ourselves that you're ours!  We still can't get over how cute you are and we absolutely love you to pieces.  You wear us out at times but you also fill our lives with so much love and joy.  We'll love you forever, Holden Ezra.

Holden at 23 months...

Holden, at 23 months...

- You have started saying A LOT more words.  Your vocabulary is fairly impressive now, but you are still hanging onto your infamous strings of gibberish and don't always use your words. ;)

- You have put two words together.  The first two words you put together were, "Shoe on."  Imagine that, since you love to put your shoes because it means we are going somewhere/going outside! 

- You say "I love you, Mama/Dada" which is definitely your longest "sentence."  It sounds more like "I you, Mama/Dada."

- You can identify some shapes - square, circle, triangle, star, and heart.

- As ridiculous as it sounds, you can read some words - Holden, dada, mama, baby, cow, cat, dog, and pig.  You love for us to write/draw on your magnadoodle and then you identify the letters/shapes we have drawn....this is how you learned the words.

- You love to spot airplanes in the sky when we are outside.  You also love to hear and see trains.  You have started playing with your cars and trucks more than anything else at home.  This is why we are going to have a "transportation" themed 2nd birthday party!

- You started really doing puzzles.  You used to just throw and bang the puzzle pieces around but then all of the sudden you started doing them correctly.  You love your wooden puzzles and also do puzzles on an app on daddy's phone.

- You still have 12 teeth- no canines or two year molars yet.

- You still wear size 4 diapers and size 5 at night.  You wear 24 month and 2T clothing. I think you are probably around 27 pounds.  You are in a size 7 shoe.

- You are a sweet and happy boy most of the time but you have your share of tantrums/fit throwing.  Sometimes you wear your mama out. ;) 

- Your favorite show right now is probably "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" which you watch on netflix on the ipad or on the Disney Junior app.

- Every night before you go to bed I sing you my "nigh-night song."  You usually lay your head on my shoulder and sing it with me.  It's one of my favorite things ever.

Holden,

You are so sweet, silly, funny, smart, and energetic.  You make us laugh, amaze us with the things you learn, and melt our hearts.  You're lucky you have plenty of sweet and funny moments to make up for the tantrums. ;) We love you like crazy!

Love, Mama

Holden at 22 Months...

22 Months on July 27th!

Favorites: lemonade "ade," pizza, the movie "Horton Hears a Who," playing outside/swinging/slides/pool/water table, popsicles, ice cream "i-keem," "cake" - which you like to call anything sweet, strawberries "bays," ketchup, singing, dancing, being tickled, trains, airplanes.

NOT favorites: waiting...for anything, being held upside down or sitting on daddy's shoulders - freaks you out (always has but not sure I've mentioned it before), being told "no," time-out.

You really added onto your vocabulary this month.  You say lots and lots of words!  You don't always "use your words" though and you still do your infamous strings of pure jibberish.  I think we'll be sad when you start speaking clearly all the time and quit doing that!  It's just so cute and funny.

You still like the alphabet and say it often.  You count to 12 and then start saying "de-dee" (kind of) over and over for the teens and after an unspecified amount of those you like to yell, "twenty!" although it isn't that clear. ;)  You have identified red, yellow, green, blue, and orange but you aren't completely consistent with them yet.  You know triangle, square, circle, and star.

You often sing along with songs.  As mentioned earlier, you love the movie, "Horton Hears a Who" and you act out parts of it along with the movie.  I swear you don't watch it 24/7, it's just that memory of yours!  And you loooove to perform.

I think you weigh about 27 lbs.  You're still wearing a size 4 diaper and size 5 at night.  The clothing size that fits you best is probably 24 months but you also wear some 18 month and 2T stuff.

You still just have 12 teeth.  No canines yet!

As always, we love you like crazy and can't believe you are another month older.

Holden at 21 Months...

21 Months on June 27th!

Likes: strawberries, blueberries, bananas, grapes, cheese, cereal bars, mac 'n' cheese, lasagna, yogurt, milk, lemonade, ice cream/cookies/cake, going to your snack drawer and picking out a pouch for a snack then bringing it to us to open, "swimming," playing in water, riding in your stroller, going on walks, saying the alphabet/pointing out letters, counting (to 13), "Little Einsteins," "Horton Hears a Who," trains, bubbles- the kind you blow and in the bath, singing along to theme songs/other songs, swinging, sliding, putting your toys or other random items in the kitchen sink, saying the names of animals and then their sounds (you used to only say sounds), pointing out body parts, stacking things, pushing "Baby" when he's in his swing or bouncing him if he's in his bouncer, giving mommy and daddy kisses, sleeping with two blankies, your paci (which we try to only give you at night).

Dislikes: restaurants, waiting on anything, getting in car seat (most of the time), vegetables, being told "no," getting your diaper changed, leaving anywhere fun.

You are starting to say more and more words all of the time.  You still jibber-jabber stuff we can't understand a lot, too.  New words recently: poo-poo, outside, play, eat, yes, mouth, head, leg (egg), arm (om), belly (bay), cake (which you call anything sweet - "Oh cake!") and several animal names.  I'm sure I'm forgetting some, too.

You're still alphabet obsessed.  Daddy taught you how to spell cow, pig, dog, and cat.  If we spell them out loud or write them down, you know what they are.  We are constantly amazed by your memory and what you retain seemingly very quickly.

You went to the beach for the first time this month!  Destin, FL with us and Pappy, Gigi, and So-So.  You loved the sand/ocean one minute and didn't care for it the next.  A little finicky...but we had a good time!

You can be the sweetest thing ever and you can be on the floor throwing a fit.  You're kind of unpredictable at this age... but the sweetness usually outweighs the more difficult moments.  You are funny and smart and we love you like crazy!

Holden at 20 Months...

Holden turned 20 months on May 27th!

Some things I don't want to forget about you from this month...

- You can identify every letter of the alphabet.  You love for us to write letters for you to name.  You can almost sing/say all of them in order on your own- sometimes you leave out a couple.  If we say "A" you will say the next letter and we alternate like that through the whole alphabet.  You just love letters and point them out everywhere.

- You can also count to 10.  It seems like if you aren't saying letters, you are counting!  You can identify the numbers 1-10 for the most part.  It is amazing watching you learn and we feel like you pick up on things so fast!  You are also really proud of yourself! ;)

- A few new frequently used words for you this month: bubbles, yeah, and okay. I think I mentioned last month that you started saying, "I okay" when you would fall.  Well, now you just say "okay" to everything!  It's more like, "Oooo-kay!!!" The way you say it and the fact that you say it to everything is really funny.  You are not a mockingbird when it comes to saying words so you are still building your vocabulary kind of "slowly" it seems.  You know a lot of words but you also still do a lot of jibber-jabber "sentences" that we cannot decipher.  If we ask you, "Can you say ____?" or "Say____" you pretty much never do it.  Haha.  But you will say letters and numbers like crazy. What is the difference between those and other words?!  Funny!

- You also pick up on songs quickly and try to sing along with pretty much any song you hear!

- One little thing I want to remember is how you tend to put the emphasis on the second syllable of words.  You say "ma-MA," "buh-BULLS," etc.

- You had your first haircut with the clippers this month!  It made you go from looking like a 1 1/2 year old to looking like a 5 year old.  Also, you were pretty scared of the sound of the clippers and you kept reassuring yourself out loud saying, "I okay...I okay".... broke our hearts a little bit!

- You swung (swang?) in a big boy swing for the first time!  You held on so well!

- You've taken more interest in your baby brother.  You will occasionally give him a kiss and often lay your head on him and say "awww" or "bay-bee."  You often look at him and smile or giggle.  You've started to look around for him/ask about him in the mornings.  It is evident that you love him... but he just isn't much fun yet. ;)

In the spirit of "keeping it real" I'm going to add some challenges from this month of toddlerhood:

- You've been pickier with eating.  We never really know what you will eat or won't eat.  You like sausage for three days straight and then you won't touch it.  You will rarely try something new.  You seem really affected by the textures of foods.  You still will not eat vegetables.

- You are not a fan of having your diaper changed lately.  You've gone through spells of this before but you had been good about it for a long time.  I usually have to sing or give you a book or my phone or something along with wrestling to accomplish it.

- You've always been a climber but now you've suddenly started climbing up on the chairs and onto the kitchen table.  Our table and chairs are high... doesn't stop you.  You also climb onto the computer desk chair and onto the desk.  OY.  And as always, you are obsessed with climbing stairs which makes any place with stairs a fairly miserable place to be.

- You often pull things off of surfaces just for the heck of it...which is why we don't have anything on our end tables, etc.  Oh, this includes pulling the blanket off of your brother when he's in the swing.

- You've started putting random items into the kitchen sink.

- You're obsessed with Doug's water bowl which isn't new, but noteworthy.

- You went through about a 2 week phase of waking up about 30-45 minutes into your nap and crying hysterically and would.not.go.back.to.sleep.

I think most of these things are typical toddler behaviors.  One day we'll look back at this and laugh! ;)

You are so smart and sweet and you make us laugh on a daily basis!  You keep us busy and on our toes but we wouldn't trade it for the world!  We love you soooooooooooo much, Tooski!

Holden at 19 Months...

Here I go again with a monthly post.  Every month I think I won't do one...but then I do!

Holden turned 19 months old on April 27th.  Apparently time ain't slowin' down any time soon...

Some new things this month...

- You had your 18 month appointment a little late.  You weigh 26 lbs. 3 oz. and are 33.5 in. long!

- You got a little brother between last month and this month!  On April 2nd your brother, Brooks Andrew, was born!  You don't pay a whole lot of attention to him yet - you mostly go about your own business.  But you do love on him from time to time.  You like to rest your arms in his rock 'n play sleeper while he is in it and look at him.  Occasionally you will lay your head on him and say, "awww."  You are your same happy, active self with baby brother around.  I think you two will have a lot of fun together eventually. ;)

- One evening while eating supper, you started placing your garlic bread pieces one by one onto the table and then putting them back on your tray over and over.  So, I just randomly started counting as you did it.  Much to our surprise you immediately started saying the numbers with me.  You knew 1 through 5!  I wish we could take the credit for this but we had never done counting with you.  My best guess is that you learned it from Sesame Street or your Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Numbers Round Up DVD.  We were in awe!  Since that day, you count often.  You can do 1-6 but you occasionally it seems like you do more than that.  Daddy commented recently that you know that 9 comes after 8.  So I don't really know how much you know!  I think you kind of know 1-10 but get a little mixed up in there.  You often point to and count objects such as dandelions outside, french fries, veggie straws... basically any small object!

- You also often say letters.  You can say A-E, which we learned from your Chicka-Chicka-Boom-Boom book.  You also have a Scout DVD about letters which you love and you love your foam bath letters.  You can identify several letters besides A-E, such as O, R, S, T and probably more.  Your favorite letter seems to be "B" and today you identified B and then said, "buh" because that's the sound it makes!  (There is a cute song about letters and the sounds they make on the Scout DVD.)

- Two new phrases you have started saying are, "I fall" when you fall and then, "I okay!" You rarely get upset when you fall.  You usually just get up and keep on going.  You also don't fall very often and never have.

- You still LOVE being outside.  We take lots of trips to the park for you to run some energy off.  You love to go down the slides and swing.  Swinging has a magical, calming, trance-like effect on you.  Eventually, you turn really serious and pensive and will just swing like that forever... even if you are going slow or barely moving.  It's quite funny to observe!

- Daddy got you a little slide/basketball goal set for our fenced-in backyard.  You love it!  We hope to get more fun stuff to put out there for lots of summer playing.

- You've gotten pretty good about holding still and letting us brush your teeth really well recently.  Usually, you insist on taking the toothbrush and sucking the toothpaste off and that's about all you want to do with it.

- I gave you ketchup to dip your food in for the first time this month and you LOVE it.

- You throw major fits about getting into your car seat.  Pretty much every.single.time.  Once you are in, you are perfectly fine and content though.  ?!  You also aren't a fan of restaurant high chairs right now and throw a fit about having to get in one.  We resort to letting you watch something on our phones quite often for that one.  Our fellow diners thank us.

- People often remark about how active you are.  I've gotten this comment a lot lately.  "He never stops/has so much energy/is so active!"  It's true!  You are.  This is why we try to get you out of the house if at all possible most days to get some of that energy out!