Oh Lordy the ways that Anthony has grown and changed lately. I swear he's sprouted up again, he's talking up a storm and learning more and more words daily, he's proving what a big brain he has and such a love of learning. He'll even sneak into our room in the early morning hours (I caught him with the books at 5 am one morning!) and just sit there and read the books. He loves the "Llama Llama" books. He gets them in the Imagination Library program. He'll carry the first one "Llama Llama Red Pajama" and sit and try to read it. He almost has the word llama down, so instead it always sounds like "Mama mama". Its so cute. He also knows the title of one of his other favorites that I had gotten from the Dollar Tree a while back. "Bubbles Bubbles" with the Sesame Street gang. Anthony loves that book, loves showing off that he knows where his eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, hair, ears, mouth, chin, fingers, toes, feet, tummy, and bellybutton are. His favorite is showing you his tongue when you ask where it is. He knows almost all the characters from Sesame Street along with almost all the shows that are on in the morning (Sesame Street, Sid the Science Kid, Clifford, SuperWhy, Calliou, and Barney) and even tries to sing some of the songs (Barney's "What should I do?" is VERY common!). He loves everything he gets to learn. Alphabet, numbers, words, people, ideas, colors, everything. He recognizes 0-10 for numbers, can count up to 20 (he gets stuck around 14 and 15, but almost always gets 19 and 20 right), recognize the whole alphabet, knows what some letters say, and is starting to form words from the letters he sees (like the s and t together say st), knows a ton of animals and what they say (some animals say some pretty whimpy whimpers, but we are getting there). He counts on fingers and likes to sort his cars by colors a lot. He'll even line up his HotWheels cars side by side. He's even very fast with the Tupperware ball that makes you have to put the correct shape in the correct whole. Not even trapezoids/squares, circles/ovals, hexagon/pentagon trip him up anymore. He's such a smarty pants!
He's fully into 24 month/2T stuff. He's grown out of all his 18 month, except anything that is shorts. He's still a skinny little rail, but he is developing a belly. He loves sticking it out too. Looks like a big ol' milk gut when he reall shoves it out. Pretty funny to see. He even loves getting himself dressed and undressed. We let him pick out what he wants to wear and most of the time, its Elmo. He also loves running around the house in his froggy rainboots. Most of the time, he'll put them on the right feet, but once in a while, he'll get them on the wrong one or one will be on backward. Silly lil man!
He's also found some small comforts that help him when he sleeps. We switched him from a crib to a toddler bed back not quite a month before his 2nd birthday after he chose to fall asleep on the toddler bed my mother in law had at her house. After that, we followed his lead and he's loved it ever since. He doesn't like being rocked to sleep anymore, he wants to climb into his big boy bed like a big boy and fall asleep like a big boy. Its precious, but I miss my cuddle times now! He loves sleeping with his Gloworm (he has one in his room always and a backup that stays in the toy box just in case the other one dies or goes missing), his blankie, and his HotWheels cars. We try to limit him to 2 cars, but he loves falling asleep with them in his hand. Hey, whatever gets him to sleep through the night, I'm all for it. Not that he has been sleeping through very often, but when he does, its a blessed thing.
We had thought he was ready for potty training, but he backed off on his own and decided he wanted to stay in diapers a little longer. We'd love to have him fully potty trained (at least during the day) by his next birthday. I think we just need more pairs of the lined undies, a few more pairs of regular undies, and a good stretch of time when I can put him on the pot every 30-45 mins and get him going like that. He's the only one in his KinderMusic class that isn't potty trained, so that is even more motivation for him and us. He gets worked up when someone else leaves class to go potty, so we try to tell him "If you start potty training too, you can do what they do and go potty during class." He has gone on a big boy potty too. At the St Cloud Mall in the Family Bathroom, they have a mini toilet. I got Anthony to do his business on it and he was SO PROUD! He hates sitting on the full sized toilet, so it was quite a feat that he was so ok with it. He was doing really well for awhile, but for some reason, he lost interest. I'm sure he'll want to pick up on it again. Then we can save the money spent on diapers (not that much, actually!) and regain some of the house back (those boxes are EVERYWHERE!) and he can start feeling like even more of a big boy.
His nap no longer consists of him climbing onto my lap and falling asleep on my chest. Instead, he likes to take (what use to be) my body pillow, put it on the couch, snuggle up with his Gloworm, blankie, sippy, and music, and fall asleep. He's such a bugger. One day he'll want to nap in his bed, but I'm thinking he'll do that when we move into a house and has access to his room all day long. He would now, but Adam's computer is in there and Anthony has a HUGE curious streak that runs deep and fast. He has to hyper-investigate everything. He's destroyed his room more than a few times, so we keep the door shut unless we can watch him. Also helps because one of the pieces of furniture my father in law anchored into the wall recently came off the wall and we don't want to take the chance it falls on him again. Yea, again. No, he hasn't gotten hurt (very minor bumps, no bruises) seriously, but no need to tempt the events. When we get things more arranged, that organizer is moving from his room to the living room.
We've decided its time to make some big changes in our home life. We've started the house search (UGH, what a headache!) and have found a few we like. Its quite the process and learning experience. You need some thick skin and brains about you, that's for sure! We hope to be moved out of this apartment in the next 6 months, but since we are month to month on the lease, we aren't being forced into a new lease and can leave almost anytime, provided we give our notice as usual. We have decided that since we are looking for a house we want to live in for a long time, we aren't settling at all. That's another reason we aren't in a huge rush. Yea, it would be nice to be moved into a new place by the start of summer, but that might mean we compromise what we really want, and who wants to live in a place they kinda sorta like, rather than a house that they LOVE? We'll see how the rest of that goes.
No, there aren't anymore babies on the way. I can imagine many people are thinking we are or something along those lines, but we have decided to keep all that info close to the heart and under wraps. But no, we aren't expecting right now. I'm too busy focusing on losing weight and getting healthy again. So far, I've lost nearly 14 lbs since we started working out at least 6 days a week back in mid-January. I'm pretty proud that its going so well and I'm still dedicated to going and getting healthy. Its not just for me, but I have to admit, seeing that muscle when I flex and watching my belly ever-so-slowly shrink, that's a high that makes me want to go more!
Nothing else really going on. Just living life, getting by, and enjoying little man. We get out to see Bailey's headstone about once a week. I'd love to be there more, but its just not possible. I feel I can be closer to her spirit when I open her memory box. I do need to get a start on collecting some new, beautiful flowers for her and refresh the decorations though. I send my thanks and love to those who have gone to visit her, leave her gifts, and still think about/pray for her. Knowing that so many people still think about that little lady really touches my heart. Some days, its really hard to believe she was more than a dream because she was here and gone so quickly. Just great that we get reminders that she was real. Her visits with Anthony are either uneventful or less frequent. Anthony doesn't talk about or to her nearly as much. I don't know why, but I still allow him that time. Who am I to tell him she isn't there? I often speak like she's next to me, why can't he?
But its getting late, I'm exhausted, and need to get to bed really soon. Have a good night and thanks for keeping up with us!
