2.5 and 15 months (a month late)

I've blinked and time has passed so quickly. Oscar is now as old as Elsie was when he was born.

Wait. What?!?

I remember that feeling of bringing O home from the hospital only to realize that E was not a baby anymore, and that she probably hadn't been for a while--I just hadn't known! It's easier for me to see with O because friends are having babies, and he is such a BOY.

We went to the doctor late, so at 15 months and 3 weeks and Oscar was 29 inches long and 21 pounds 2 ounces. Can't seem to find Elsie's stats anywhere to compare, but I know I have them. I'll keep looking.

At 15-months, Elsie was meowing like Coco, saying no (at least, she least she learned it just as my family left after O's birth), and she said "Hi" to everyone--familiars and strangers alike. She was (is) a very outgoing child, and she loved (loves) people.

Oscar is not Elsie. He's not what you would call outgoing. He mostly doesn't mind if other people are holding him, particularly if they have some sort of food in their possession, but he prefers the familiarity of his mama and his daddy (but mostly his mama). He is only saying a few words still ("Ball!" for the first-word WIN for over a month now, "Co Co" in two separated syllables for the cat, "Mo!" with the occasional "Mo! Peeeeeeee!" when he really really really wants something. He hasn't said "chicken" again, but he did it twice in one day. One time he kept repeating "Lie!" and pointing up at the lights, but he hasn't done that since. And the caretaker swears he says something akin to "juice" but I haven't heard it. And within the last two weeks he's starting crying "Mamaaaaaaaaaa"...but only when he cries. He may have picked that up from Elsie's wailing in the mornings. He understands a TON, though. Tell him we're going upstairs, and he heads for the stairs. We're going to take a bath, and he tries to climb into the tub. That's trash, and he puts it in the trash can. The boy loves to eat. Oh yes. And he still loves to shred tissues to pieces. What a weird habit. Still has head issues, but it's been a full two weeks (wow!) since he had some unsightly lump on his forehead.

And Elsie?

Elsie's started screaming the phrase, "I want my mommy" when I'm dropping her off at daycare, or when Eli tells her no. Yeah. So. It begins.

I'm pleased to reflect that 2.5 is much better than 2.0 as far as age is concerned. There are still tantrums, but they are fewer, and more easily tamed since Elsie has access to so much more language. Oh, the language. Something amazing is happening and I can't even quite put my finger on it. Adjectives? Adverbs? Prepositions? Objects of the preposition? Pronouns? Language acquisition is amazing.

And Elsie's memory is just downright amazing. She remembers things she's only heard or seen once or twice and pulls them out WEEKS later. She associates family members to each other even when they are not anywhere near each other (to Ms. E: "Where's Jacob?" [her son who was not even present]). She associates houses with people when she's only been there once or twice.

She's fascinated with whether someone is a boy or a girl, and she'll just start listing people/animals off and categorizing them. "Mama is a girl. Daddy is a boy. Oscar is a boy. Elsie is a girl. Coco is a...girl? No. Coco is a boy. Mimi is a girl." And so on.

She loves birthdays. Candles automatically signal birthday and require extinguishing.

She senses when things are out of the ordinary. At sunset a few days ago, she was astonished that there were pink clouds. She kept repeating it over and over, "Mama, there pink clouds!" Finally, she got funny. "Where blue clouds? Where purple clouds?"

She loves pointing out the moon when it's visible during the day. And if she doesn't see it, I'll hear from the back seat, "Where moon, Mama? Where moon?" And if we turn a corner and she can suddenly see it: "There it is! I found it!"

I've started talking about the drive home like it's a Dora adventure since we make the same drive every day. "Under the bridge, over the train tracks, turn on our street." And she remembers! One day we approached from a different way and she was upset that we didn't go under the bridge, but was appeased when we went over the train tracks and turned on our street anyway.

And a final cuteness story (maybe? ::cuts eyes at husband::) I left for three days to go to Phoenix to visit D, so the car seats got moved into the Subaru, the loud, turbo charged Subaru, so that Eli could haul the kids around out to the hunting camp, to church, etc. The Monday after, instead of moving the seats back, I just drove the Subaru to daycare and then to work. When I picked the kids up, Elsie was adamant:

"Go fast!!! Turn music up!!"

Ah. When the cat's away, the mice will play?

Cheers.

Updates for the Fall

Yeah, so, I haven't been updating because our Internet has been so slow. I took advantage of the faster Internet at my parents' house in Texas to do a little uploading.

http://beaverfamilyblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/o-turns-one.html

http://beaverfamilyblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/many-faces-of-dr-no-also-known-as-elsie.html

http://beaverfamilyblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/curls-are-for-girls-os-first-haircut.html

http://beaverfamilyblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/day-at-park-and-playground.html

http://beaverfamilyblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/halloween-2011.html

http://beaverfamilyblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/jack-o-lantern-lane.html

http://beaverfamilyblog.blogspot.com/2011/11/bama-babies.html

More to come...

Cheers.

Bama Babies

The first (of presumably many) Alabama football games for the kiddos. Great weather, good game. Nice to be with the Beavers..

Hello, November..

Yup. It's November 2. And I've decided not to participate in NaBloPoMo no mo. At least not this year. I have a ton of other things going on that take precedence. You know, like survival. This is a busy month where we are going to travel at least 3 of the five weekends. One of them I'm headed to Phoenix to see DJ, another we're headed to Tuscaloosa to take Elsie to her first Bama game day experience (and maybe game?) and then we're heading to the ol' motherland for Thanksgiving, planning to see my sister in a musical (I'm jealous) and possibly go to the Baylor game at Jerry World. Ah, we'll see.

I do have a special project I will be working on this month. More on that to come, but first I wanted to update you on how our debt thermometer is looking:

First 10K Chunk, started 10/1/11, paid off as of 11/1/11

Fundraising Thermometer




After this month is over, we should aaaaaaalmost be halfway there. And then things will slow down considerably. We did have a yard sale, so that's fun. Didn't make too much, a little over $100. Our yard sale philosophies were a little different (Eli: get rid of stuff, Me: make money to pay off debt), so the next time we do it, we probably need to meet in the middle. Oh, well.

My projects for this month, about which I will write more in depth later, are:

1. Complete our Legacy Drawer (a la Dave Ramsey)
2. Complete the Holiday Control Journal (a la FlyLady)
3. Complete the Regular Control Journal (also FlyLady).

One and two are my priorities...

Cheers.

Halloween 2011

Honestly, I had already decided not to do Halloween costumes this year. There's been so much going on that I just didn't want to stress myself out about it. But, the daycare provider wanted the kids to come in costume for a little party, so I looked around. In a box of boy clothes that Aunt Bev had sent, I found a Spider-Man costume. Score! Free costume. Then a friend at church mentioned that her son was going as a cowboy since he still had his hat from Elsie's party, and I thought, hey, that's not a bad idea. So this year, no family theme, just Spider-Man and the cowgirl, and Daddy Sheriff. We went trick-or-treating to a couple of the neighboring houses. Elsie loved it. People gave out SO MUCH candy to a 2-year-old. I wanted to scream, "Are you CRAZY??" But then, I knew that the adults would eat most of it, so it was okay. Haha.