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. 

things I don't want to forget

Elliot, 29 months:

• Elliot likes to refer to himself in the third person ("Elliot carry it, Elliot have banana? Elliot walk! Elliot yikes this!")
• he is also fond of adding "too" to the end of everything he says, even if it doesn't make sense. ("Elliot snacky, too? Elliot carry it, too. No bye bye, too")
• he is obsessed with cupcakes, sailboats, and trains. Whenever we're building or drawing, that's waht he wants- a cupcake, a sailboat, or a choo-train. I'm not sure where he picked these up (especially the cupcakes?) but it's pretty cute. A couple days ago, at the sandbox, he sculpted a whole bunch of little round "cupcakes" and was so proud of himself. :)
• he hates the camera. HATES it. Hence the lack of photos of him lately.
• Whenever he needs something, he says (in a very pathetic voice) "Help, Mama! Help!"
• if we're outside, he insists on holding my hand. If I forget, he will say, "Hand, Mama! Hand!" until I grab his adorable little hand in mine. It's absolutely endearing and I know it won't last, so I'll treasure it while I can.
• he says please like: "cheeeeeese!" and usually without us asking
• Elliot is very into organizing and sorting his toys. He likes to gather up all of his rubber duckies into a bucket and carry it around, or line up his blocks along the wall, etc. It's silly. I wonder if he's going to like organizing like I do when he gets older?
• Whenever little brother even so much as touches Elliot, he says "ow! ow! OW!" Yeah, the big brother is commonly "beat up" by the little brother. Except luckily for Elliot, Emmett is the nicest baby there is so, really, nothing ever happens. Unless Elliot gets in the way of Emmett's food... then there may be a problem.
• His favorite animals are cows 
• favorite foods: broccoli (bwok-wee), rice (ice), graham crackers (big cwacker), & apples
• He's wearing mostly 12-18m shorts and 18-24m shirts. Occasionally, depending on the brand, he wears 2t shirts, for the length. He wears size 3 disposables and Flips snapped to the smallest rise setting. We recently started selling off our cloth diaper stash in preparation for our move to Costa Rica (because they would take up way too much valuable suitcase space)... hence why they are sometimes in disposables now, too, whereas they were exclusively in cloth for over 8 months. Once we get to Costa Rica, and get settled into a place with a washer, we plan to cloth diaper again. 
• He weighs around 24 lbs and is 35.5".

Emmett, 12 months: 

• Emmett has 9 teeth (he just got his first molar!)
• he likes to randomly squeal and dive onto unsuspecting pillows and blankets
• he is all about the random snuggles. Oh my Emme, I don't think his life would go on if he couldn't get his snuggles in every day.
• when I go in to get him in the morning or after his nap, as soon as he hears the door open, he jumps up, throws his arms out, and either laughs or squeals. Then the first thing he does once picked up is give me a good long hug. ♥ 
• words he says: "more", "mama", "dada", "uh-oh", and I swear he says banana, but I might just be imagining that one? He says something that sounds just like it every time he sees a banana, though. 
• favorite food: bananas, but really he loves and will devour ANYTHING. And then he proceeds to eat about an adult-sized serving, far more than his big brother ever eats, until his little round tummy sticks out and is hard as a rock. What can I say? He's a piglet. 
• he takes two naps a day (3 hours in the morning + 1-2 hours in the afternoon), is in bed by 8pm, and usually wakes up between 8-9am. He is waking up for one night feeding still, most nights.
• whenever I'm doing laundry, he loves to help. His favorite thing to do is stand in front of the dryer and hand me each piece of freshly-dried clothing, one by one. Time consuming? Yes... but oh so adorable.
• every evening, before his bath, I start filling up the tub and take his diaper off while he stands and waits. EVERY time I take his diaper off, he looks down and checks out his "boy parts". I don't know if he's making sure they're still there, or just amazed that he's naked and free, or what, but it totally cracks me up.
• he is still nursing- but I'm not sure how much longer I'll get to treasure this last part of babyhood. He only nurses before bed and usually once during the night now. Although a few months ago I was somewhat eager to wean, I'm in no rush at all anymore- I love nursing him to sleep. It's our special bonding time.
• he's wearing 9 & 12 month shirts, sometimes 18 month onesies, for the length. Mostly 9 month shorts, and size 3 disposables and Flips snapped to the smallest rise setting. 
• he weighs around 21 lbs and is 30".

Lately I've just been thinking about how quickly time passes- it seems like just yesterday that Emmett was born, and we became a family of four. Suddenly, he's already one year old. They are each their own person,  developing their own distinct personality. They each have their own little quirks that I don't want to forget. Sometimes I wish I could just freeze time. I stopped doing monthly updates on the boys awhile ago, but I wanted a way to record and remember the little things forever. This is just my way of doing that. This "things I don't want to forget" post is probably the first in a series. I'll  post a new one every month or two. 

"Life is short, and it's up to you to make it sweet." 
-Sarah Louise Delany