things I don't want to forget #2

Elliot, 33 months:

• Elliot's favorite new sayings include "I'm too shy", "one last time!", "just right", "I did it!" and "watch this!" His vocabulary has absolutely exploded in the last few months, and although he still has a bad habit of mispronouncing a lot of sounds/words, he likely won't qualify for speech therapy anymore after his evaluation next month.
• he will repeat something over and over until you either acknowledge him or repeat what he said back to him. He got into this habit back when people had a hard time understanding him- he would wait to hear you repeat what he said so he knew that you knew what he was saying. 
• he is REALLY artistic and absolutely loves to color, draw, paint, and play with play dough. 
• he is obsessed with dinosaurs and (still) trains
• he is fond of collecting things- currently, he has rather large collections of rubber duckies, bouncy balls, and dinosaurs.
• I'm proud to say that he seems to have grown out of his camera-hating stage. In fact, he will even say "cheese" for pictures without me asking, sometimes
• he loves to do flashcards- particularly the ABC and animal ones.
• he hasn't been eating very much at mealtimes lately, instead preferring to have small snacks throughout the day. He really loves broccoli (still), pizza, popcorn, Chinese food, cheese, and chocolate milk.
• he always has to have a bedtime snack- I think that's because he inherited my super fast metabolism. (I always have a bedtime snack, too).
• his favorite animals are parrots, and he loves visiting them at pet stores and the zoo. 
• his favorite shows include Super Why, Dragon Tales, Godzilla (the 1970's version), and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. 
• he fights his naps tooth & nail ("I'm not tired! I don't want it!") but the minute he gets comfy in his carseat he's fast asleep. His bedtime is 9pm but if he skips his nap he will fall asleep before that on the couch. He usually wakes up between 8:30-9:00 in the morning which is perfect because it gives me a chance to shower before his brother wakes up.
• he wears mostly 24 month & 2t shirts and can wear anything from 12m-24m shorts because of his tiny waist.
• he weighs 27 lbs and is 37.5", and was at the 5th percentile for his age until he recently lost weight and fell off the growth scale altogether. 

Emmett, 16 months:

• Emmett is what we call an "aggressive snuggler." He LOVES to cuddle and he will make that known by randomly and enthusiastically diving onto unsuspecting people (which sometimes results in painful headbutting/etc)
• He LOVES chocolate milk and will usually gulp his cup down and then proceed to try to steal Elliot's 
• he has recently grown attached to his green polka dotted blanket and often brings it along when I lift him out of his crib 
• he says a wide variety of words, but the ones we hear most frequently are "mama, dada, please, more, up, all done, uh oh, water, love you, bye bye, choo choo, and thank you". He often surprises me by saying a new word out of the blue, like "brother." 
• he LOVES his big brother and follows him around pretty much everywhere. He also loves destroying block towers that Elliot is working on.
• Emmett loves to give kisses :)
• he also loves to make toy dinosaurs and lions go "RAWWWRRRR!"
• he will stop whatever he's doing and say "choo choo! all aboard!" whenever the train goes by.
• he is always hungry, always eating, and will nearly never turn down food that is offered to him. Also, if you made yourself something to eat, you'd better be prepared to share! 
• he could care less what is on TV but gets mad whenever a show on Netflix ends. He'll point at the TV and say "uh oh!" with increasing urgency until I put something else on. I think he mostly just likes the background noise. 
• he usually takes one long nap in the afternoon, and occasionally a second. His bedtime is 8pm and he sleeps in until 9:30-10:30 almost every morning. 
• he nurses only once a day now (before bed). He dropped his nighttime nursing a month or two ago.
• he wears 12-18 month shirts and 9 & 12 month shorts. We are about to move up to 24 month pj's for the length, though. 
• He weighs 24 lbs and is 31" and is at the 68th percentile. He's definitely thicker than his brother and has a little belly. We always joke around that he got my husband's genes and Elliot got mine. 

It's hard to believe how quickly my little boys are growing up :( but at the same time, it's fascinating to watch them grow and develop into individuals- and to watch their relationship grow, too. 

our plans have changed again... but at least my kids are still cute

I have decided I am a unpredictable blogger. I blame part of this on the fact that our plans are always changing. I tend to get an idea, get super excited, and run with it. Then the army (or in this case, the VA) throws us a curveball or two and our plans have to change, and I get discouraged and simply stop blogging for awhile.

It's happened again. Our plans changed. Instead of moving to Costa Rica this winter/spring... we will instead be moving to... wait for it... northern Michigan. Womp womp womp. Why? Well, the VA is now teaming up with the good ol' Army and making things really difficult for us. Trying to plan anything, let alone a move overseas, is nearly impossible right now. Deadlines keep getting pushed back, news keeps changing, and nothing about our financial future is set in stone. All of this was making me really uneasy. As a result, the sensible side of me pushed the dreamer to the side and developed a whole new grand plan.

You see, my little boys are lucky enough to have three sets of grandparents all in one town. The same small, safe town where Aaron and I met and fell in love. Said town also happens to have a community college with a welding degree that my husband is quite interested in. And Aaron has access to a pretty amazing GI Bill, which is probably the only real thing he will have to show for the past six years he spent in the army, other than a few tattoos and a metal plate in his head. Are you seeing where I'm going with this, yet?

We're going to move back to Aaron's hometown, where Aaron will go to college. As for me? Well, I'll mostly be doing the same thing that I've been doing all along- working on my photography and raising my two rambunctious little boys, except that we will also be starting to homeschool (pre-k), we will be able to spend a lot more time with family, and I might enroll in a college class or two myself- because I really miss it! Oh, and let's not forget the fact that half the year we'll be buried under snow. I'm not looking forward to that part. Hopefully during the winter I'll be able to keep myself busy indoors (because in case you didn't know, I am not a winter-loving girl) and of course I'll be continuing to plan our future move out of the country. Because you can bet your bottom dollar that although we will be spending 1-3 years back in Michigan, my husband and I are both bent on moving out of the country soon after Aaron gets his degree. 

So that's the plan! I can't promise a timeframe or anything like that, because let's face it- we're still waiting. Sitting ducks. In case you're wondering what we've been up to, well- it's been hot. Here we are in the second week of September and it is still in the 100's every day. But the heat doesn't bother my boys one bit, so we've been spending lots of time outside. And inside doing crafts, too. More blog posts about later ;)

I'll leave you to ponder about our ever-changing life with a few recent pictures of the boys. See? I told you they were still cute ;) At least that will never change. I hope.