Singing in the Rain

I didn't take as many photos this month.  I think it's mostly due to the mixed hand of illnesses poor Atticus was dealt.  In fact, I think I may have jinxed us with all that talk about being illness-free in the last post (Atticus got a pretty wicked bug only a day or two later!)

We're not really sure what it was.  A friend of ours had the flu, but Atticus tested negative.  Still, even the doctor we saw said it was flu-like and could very well have been a different flu that his test wouldn't have picked up.  In the end, we had him take an antibiotic (just in case pneumonia was hiding behind his cough) and had to ride it out.

This, of course, meant we had to sleep train.  Again.  But it wasn't nearly as hard this time around.  Sure, a week later he got another cough (it's still going strong, I'm afraid), but  we're pretty sure it's allergies this time around.  And he's still sleeping, thank heavens.

But yes.  February was not our healthiest month.

There was definitely silver lining on our clouds of illness, though.  For starters, Bobba came and saved the day!  Bless his heart, poor Bobba came to help us out while Atticus was sick... Unfortunately, the illness had no regard for age and nabbed him, too.  But oh, how Atticus enjoys his time with his grandpa.  

Another blessing for the month?  Beautiful, mild weather (for the most part).  It turns out that February can be gorgeous in certain climates.  Who knew?  It has never been my favorite month in the past but that just might change.  We spent plenty of time at parks and outside, even when a rainstorm made its way through.  Atticus quite enjoyed splashing in puddles for his first time.

Another reason we loved February was a singing class we started.  We're holding it weekly at our church and it is a blast!  Atticus gets to go with his best friend and is starting to participate more and more.  Here he is, serenading the group with a couple of his pals:

Here's one of the favorite songs for the kids (and especially for Atticus): the Freeze Dance.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B099geT421jCUDBzazM1d19saUU/view?usp=sharing

Sure, I'd say that 80% or more of his time (and the other younger toddlers) is spent running around, climbing on the piano, and hiding in the cupboards of the Primary room, but all the effort and energy is worth it.  Why?  Because he's starting to sing! 

His first song where he really was trying to sing the words all the way through was Popcorn Popping!  I love it when I can get him to do the actions along with it.  He is also singing the ABCs more and more, too!

Another song he's getting better at is I am a Child of God.  He'll sit at the piano and play, bobbing his head up and down and sing every few words.  My heart melts every time.

His prayers are getting a little more confident (perhaps too confident?...)

We're working on reverence, ha ha. 

A new love for Atticus is playdough.  I love it (for now!) because it keeps him entertained for a surprisingly long amount of time at the counter.  ;)  Here he is playing with some while his bestie was over:

Possibly my favorite change this month, however, is his increased independence and confidence.  For example, he no longer cries when I leave him at a friend's house or in nursery.  In fact, he jumps out of my arms and RUNS into nursery so he can see his beloved Sister Zobrist (it sounds something like "Sis-zo-ber").  Here the two of them are (Atticus is sporting a sweet new 'do she gave him):

When he gets to a friend's house, he starts saying, "Bye bye, Mommy" in the driveway and just runs on in (it's kinda hard to get him to come home now!)  And at night (this is seriously the best part!) he has stopped crying at bedtime.  He is still a little sad and asks me to "lay down" but, usually, if we say another prayer together (his idea), we can turn off the lights and say goodnight without any screaming.

If you had told me even a month ago this was possible for our little screamer, I think I might have laughed (politely) in your face.  We've had so many sleep setbacks that I don't want to have false hopes, but it sure has been glorious for the last few nights.

Goodbye, for now!

P.S. I forgot two lovely details.  One: Dr. Seuss!  This kid LOVES Green Eggs and Ham and The Cat in the Hat (so I should mention he is actually sitting for stories now!)  A couple days after reading Green Eggs and Ham the first time, we were at a restaurant.  I had ordered salmon and I asked Atticus, "Do you want to try salmon?"  He goes, "I'll try it, Sam!"  It only took a moment for us to realize he was referring to that old Sam I am in the book.  And to his credit, he tried it, Salm(on).  But he did not like it, Sam-I-am.

Also, he gives the absolutely best hugs pretty often now.  He buries his head in your shoulder.  There is no greater feeling.

Patty-Cake and Prayers

Well January was a surprisingly great month and passed like a flash!

A huge highlight was having Dane's parents come and stay with us toward the end of the month.  What a blessing it was to have them with us.

Atticus was in heaven. 

 I'm happy to report that (other than a gnarly abscess on his leg) Atticus didn't get sick this month!  That alone is worth celebrating, but it gets even better.  He has been sleeping!  For the first time in his life the little guy is sleeping through the night.  Well, he's doing so most nights.  It only took two years!

Just for the record, he cried for 2.5 hours once we got home from our travels and we were sure he was 100% healthy.  2.5 hours of crying the first night, 2 hrs for a nap, 40 min. the next night, 30 min. the next night, and then we got to 15 minutes.  Hallelujah.  He now averages 5-10 minutes of crying at night before falling asleep.  Blessed, blessed sleep.

Dane and I have felt so rested, in fact, that we've been trying some DIY projects around the house.  I chalk painted some furniture and then Dane, of course, had to one-up me, so he BUILT furniture.  From scratch!  As you can imagine, I'm pretty proud of him.

Atticus LOVES it when he gets a chance to help Daddy "fix" things.

But enough about this grownup stuff!  Let's talk about our adorable little guy.

He is connecting 3 words together!  Yay!

He goes to nursery like a champ!  Thank you, awesome leaders!!!

He is still counting, but now he skips 5, so he goes straight from 4 to 7.  We're working on it, but he's a stubborn one.

Umm... he wrote the letter "A"?  Dane and I were there- he kept saying, "A, A, A.." and we looked down at what he was drawing with his chalk and it definitely looks like the letter "A"...  There have been no encore performances, though, so we're not 100% positive he knew what he was doing.

There were at least three of these scattered about.

Here he is with a couple of his favorite people.

He not only loves Elmo, he now LOVES Cookie Monster and loves to eat just about anything (including his hand and Mommy) Cookie-Monster-Style.  It's adorable, but we probably shouldn't encourage the poor table manners.  Oops.

He is now aware of things being "scary."  For example, when we finally saw a doctor for his 24-month appointment, he kept saying, "Scary!" and clinging to me.  He calls the dark and new doggies "Scary," too.

He also likes to try and be scary (and mostly funny) with a new limp walk that he has.  It's a bit hard to describe, but he does this limp for just about any strong emotion.  When he's angry he starts hitting the air and chasing you with a limp.  When he's trying to be funny or chase you like a monster, he walks around with objects in his mouth, or bites his shirt and limps toward you.  Funny little duck.

This is him saying, "Tuna, tuna, tuna!"  (A favorite snack of his is tuna with olive oil in it!)

Another "scary" development has been his fascination with falling.  He loves to pretend to fall and thinks it's really funny when he almost falls.  He'll laugh and say, "Fall.  Atticus fall!"  He rarely actually falls, so that might be why.  When he really takes a tumble, he might not find it so amusing.

A favorite word of mine that he started saying this month is "Yeah!"  I love the enthusiastic way he often says it.

A favorite new phrase is "See-saw, Marjorie Daw."  💕💕💕

A less favorite word of ours is "Mine!"  It's funny- we're pretty sure he still doesn't know what it means.  It's just an angry word that he throws out whenever he isn't getting what he wants,

He also went from saying, "Beep Bop!" to, "Deep Up!" for "Clean up!"  He still hates cleaning up when it's my idea, but when it's his idea he quite enjoys it.

He surprised me one morning by doing the Hokey Pokey!  He's getting better and better.

We love the way he runs.  He's been running for a long time now, but I just thought I should document just how adorable his hips are as they twist from side to side.

He loves to do Patty-Cake with fabric, laundry, paper and the clothes he's wearing.  Instead of rolling things, he folds them and pats them and marks them with a B.  :)

Without a doubt, my favorite development of all is praying.  This month he has begun saying, "Hev-ee Fader... Dat-doo day..." and he has to say thank you for Bobba, Nana, Mimi, and Danny (he gets very upset if you miss one of those four!)  Then we're working on asking for blessings (he sometimes says, "Bless...food," and he's getting great at saying, "Name" (we'll say, "Jesus") and he'll say "Christ, AMEN!"

Oh, how we love this crazy boy!

Bye Bye Santa!

Not all of our Christmas season was spent in Texas.  We started at home and ended the year with family in Utah.  Here are snippets from the beginning and the end of the month.

On December 10 we went to Springs Preserve to check out their Holiday Express.  We are so glad we did!  We had a blast and hope to do it again next year.  Atticus loved the train and, even though he did NOT like Santa at first (anyone can see that from the photo!), Santa was all he could talk about for the next couple of weeks afterward.

Right before Atticus and I set out on our Texas adventure (see the previous blog post), we went and got a family photo shoot with the fabulous Heidi Brown.  We loved her and we LOVED the photos she took:

  

 

  

We love them all, but this one took the cake (and is now on our wall): 

Thank you, Heidi!

Right after we got to Utah, Atticus got to see his Aunt Trace and cousin, Kennedy again.  It had been a year but I think he still remembered them.  It was so sweet to see them both!

Sadly, Trace left just a few hours after we were able to see them, but we still had a great time.  

We spent Christmas Eve at the Maes home (Atticus even helped set up the luminarias!)

and we spent Christmas Day at the Brough home.  Here he is, showing off his Christmas stocking spirit and a couple gifts from his great grandparents. 

We even went to Thanksgiving Point a couple times.  Once to their new event, Luminaria (awesome but very cold!) and once to the Curiosity Museum with Mimi:

But probably our favorite part of this trip was relaxing with Bobba and Nana:

After a very stressful couple of weeks sharing Mommy's attention, Atticus was the center of attention again.  He loved every minute of it.

 

Still, like all good things, our wanderings came to an end.  I, for one, was thrilled to come home and sleep in my own bed after so long.  While Atticus has enjoyed playing with his friends, 

 he is definitely missing his grandparents and extended family. 

Here are a few more milestones and memories:

The worst milestone of the month happened right after his birthday.  Atticus got the stomach virus and threw up for real the very first time.  There were many, many encore performances, I'm afraid.  It was a rough 36 hours or so.  But he was surprisingly sweet (when he wasn't starving and begging for food- which would then upset his tummy again and cause more vomiting...)  Oh I'm so glad that's over!

A more fun milestone is counting!  This boy goes beyond three now.  He can count from 1-10 (he always skips 6!  Even when he goes "ba-wurs" or backwards).  He even shocked us a few days ago by counting "leven, delve, dirteen"...!!!  Wow!

He loves sword fighting, especially with the swords Bobba and Nana got him for Christmas.  He is very exclusive, however.  For the first week he would only sword fight with Bobba and Nana.  Mommy and Daddy were not allowed.  

We're pretty sure this is due, in part, to his excellent memory and desire to keep things as they were the very first time.  For example, if someone was sitting on his right and another person sitting on his left for snacks, he wants them to be sitting in the exact same places every time he east.  There are countless other examples of this. 

He also loves Star Wars and often asks to watch it!  This was inevitable, given his lineage, but still, we are pleasantly surprised at how quickly he has come to love Chewie, Yoda, Luke ("Lute") and Darth Vader.

One of our favorite developments this month are his food dances.  You saw one during our stay at my sister's, but these occur multiple times a day, as he's eating something yummy.

The boy loves his apples and peanut butter (it's one of my favorites, so I love it.)  But there's more to this than meets the eye.  Whenever Atticus thinks (or knows) he's in trouble, he'll say, "Eat!  Apples, Peanut Butter!" in order to distract.  It's also a go to when he's in bed and wants to convince me that he's not tired and needs to come out.  It can be a little frustrating but it's also pretty funny.

A more embarrassing milestone/phase that we're trying to overcome is hitting.  Not long after his birthday, Atticus started getting angrier and angrier.  He's always had a bit of a temper but I guess the Terrible 2s are coming out right on schedule.  For a while there he was taking almost everything out on Mommy, but now he's an equal opportunity hitter.  We've tried a few different ways to help him (we love the Daniel Tiger method).  Our apologies to those he has hit and to the others he will probably hit in the near future!

He's also pretty bossy.  It can be hilarious to hear his monotone voice tell you, "Seet down!" or "Lay down!" (think Arnold Schwartzenegger for the accent he uses).  We do need to work on this, however.  While he knows to say, "Please" and "Thank you," he often doesn't.

Don't get me wrong, he's still a darling little boy and he'll steal your heart in seconds if you give him a chance.  He is so easy to take in public, smiling at cashiers and strangers with a pretty much perfect combination of shyness but sweetness.  He's just got an incredibly strong will, coupled with a fantastic memory (it certainly exceeds mine!) that is going to make the next few years difficult, to say the least.

So that was our December/Christmas.  Bye bye, Santa! Until next year!