Nineteen Months

So I’m not going to lie. I had photo shoots with a four month old and a newborn this past weekend and it gave me a little bit of baby fever. I’m not saying that you’ll have a little brother or sister someday, because frankly, I’m pretty tired with just you, but the little ones sure are miracles.

But THEN, I got to come home to this miracle:

WHO could resist your nineteen month old self? You are such a little personality. I can’t resist you, and your Dad is even worse and then the Ga-Ga’s and Uncle D would do anything you wanted (as it should be).

Even my friend, who is a mom of four and presumably has seen a lot of cute, commented on your charisma and general cuteness. You crack us up daily.

I especially enjoyed your reaction to a house that has four kids (under the age of six). We showed up and my friend was leading you back to the family room where chaos was happening. You looked up at her like “Are you kidding me? Everyone needs to settle down”. You have never been a fan of a loud and crazy room. However, you joined right in and had a blast!

So what have you learned this month?

You are a little foodie. On a whim, I gave you a taste of my Roquefort cheese the other week and you were HOOKED. You asked me for cheese on a cracker the other day and then specified “BLEU cheese”.

The move seems to not have fazed you in the least. You are sleeping well in general, and really seem to enjoy the extra space to roam around. You have been so pleased with your playroom, you haven’t even asked me to play on the ‘pu’ (computer).

A few days ago you decided to forgo your afternoon nap (much to my horror), so I decided to watch you through a crack in the door today as you went down for your nap.

You piled up all the Einsteins and then I heard you say “tower” (which is what we make with blocks) and THEN you applauded yourself and your mad building skills. Adorable. I was worried you wouldn’t fall asleep again today but then you picked up Annie, said “Night Night” to her and then laid down and fell asleep. I will never forget that.

You can speak in three word sentences! The other day you told me to “more read book”. Amazing. You understand about 99% of what we say, although sometimes your hearing is selective. We are also working on volume control. Sometimes you think if you say something louder, my answer will change. This month we instituted the phrase “inside voice, please”. You have mastered saying ‘yes’ in addition to ‘no’ and you say it with authority: “yessssssssss”. You also like to say “Oh YEAH!” when you are really excited.

You are also learning that words have power and you are wielding that power very aggressively. I have been told “Mama, sit here!” several times over the past few weeks. There is also pointing to the spot where I should sit.

Your love of stickers continues and I have been trolling the dollar stores to keep up with your habit. I suppose it could be worse.

Laundry is also a big winner. You help me load things into the washer (it’s a front loader) and then we get to push the buttons and make the clothes spin. You genuinely are helpful about putting things into the machine. It must be the 9000 times we’ve read Knuffle Bunny. (It takes place in a laundromat)

We get lots of dancing and you have started to sing a little. We are also treated to you hiding in various places in the kitchen. You won’t come out until say “Oh boo-hoo! I miss Savannah so much!” Then you pop out to reassure me you haven’t run away from home.

I know I say it every month, but you are the Best. Kid. Ever.

I’m forgetting something.

I have felt like I’m forgetting about something – an appointment or something I’m supposed to mail or a bill for about two weeks. It’s driving me nuts. Anybody aware of something I’m supposed to be doing?

Also, in Savannah related news, Conor figured out that she will willingly and happily do rolls (forward and backward!) on the bed. She kept asking for more. Now all I have to do is drag our mattress to Little Gym every Tuesday and she’ll be the star pupil.

The gym class was even BIGGER today! There were even more little crazy boys and this little girl whose mom was kind of hard core about her two year old having proper form on the balance beam (so what I’m saying is she was no fun). The class broke down into anarchy towards the end. No one would sit in a circle for singing at the end of class. Little boys were hanging off the bars. Savannah was crying because we put the balls away. It was the kind of scene that someone without kids would look at and think “No kids for me, thank you very much”.

19-month update coming soon.

Two Funny Things

1. During the press about the Live Earth concert, they were discussing how many people drove to the concert in their big SUV’s. It’s cool to be concerned about Global Warming (is that supposed to be capitalized?) but not really cool enough to stop driving your big ‘ol SUV. Or maybe they just really wanted to see The Police reunited. Everyone loves Sting. One of the attendees had the caption “Drove here in a Hummer”. OK, I’m sorry, but that’s hilarious.

2. We went out to dinner last night and sat outside under the patio at the restaurant as the rain drenched Austin for about the 48th day in a row. It would have been really pretty except for the aforementioned 47 prior days of rain. Savannah and I were hanging out at the fountain in the middle of the patio while Conor paid our bill.

We were then joined by a little girl and her brother (I’d say she was about 6 or 7). She looked at me and said….

“Look at all that money people threw in there – that’s just a waste.”

I said “Well, you do get a wish”

She said “Well I wished for the rain, rain to go away, and it didn’t happen.”

I really didn’t have an answer for that, but have been smiling to myself about it for a while now. Kids are funny.

Moving

Hooray for home ownership! Here are all the pictures.

Our walk through on closing day.

Savannah checking out Dad’s new office.

Walking down the stairs for the first time.

Walking outside to see….

The SWING!


With Dad and Grandpa in front of the house. I was using a super-wide angle for all of these photos. That’s why the edges of the pictures look all bendy. Just an FYI – our house is not bendy.


Playing in the upstairs living room.

The truck was a big exciting deal!


From the actual moving – it was a long day.





The next day was much more fun and involved swinging with all the Cunningham men.

And playing in the new playroom

And reading with Grandpa Jim.

And more swinging….

Savannah with a shopping bag over her head.

Why? Well, why not?


Exhausted family.

We are very happy to be in the house!
Thanks to everyone who helped us – Grandmas and Grandpas and Uncle Damian and Chris!
T w e e t !
F r i e n d s   o f   T h e   S J B
M o r e   i n f o