Such a big boy

Our baby boy is getting so big! I weighed him on the scale at my doctor's appointment and he weighed about 27 lbs. I haven't checked his height recently, but I know what he can reach! He can now turn his bedroom lamp on/off all by himself, he can put his cup in the holder on his high chair or counter, and he can put his empty yogurt cup in the sink.

 He's tall and skinny and seems to be between sizes when it comes to pants. All his 18 month pants are too short, but the 24 month pants are so big around the waist (whoever designed the pants with the adjustable elastic on the inside is genius!). He has lots of 24 month sweat pants and pretty much lives in those for now. He's not crazy about wearing jeans anyways...not sure if they feel rough to him or what, but he definitely protests for a bit. 

Abram loves to sit on the potty or toilet. He won't necessarily volunteer to go sit throughout the day, although he does at night when he's brushing his teeth, but once he's sitting there, he does NOT want to get up! I've put little books in our bathroom and the upstairs bathroom and he will look at books or want me to sit and read to him forever! I don't know how his little legs don't go to sleep! He will pee and poo in the potty...we've even had a few days without any poo diapers and that is HEAVEN! 

He's also starting saying "cheese" for pictures:-)

I try to steer him away from the laundry room/bathroom because I don't like sitting on the floor in there right next to the litter box! Yuck! But he does like the kitty picture book in there.

I was cooking supper the other day and could hear him playing in the living room. Sound is good, silence usually means Gypsy torture. This time he was playing so well, pulling out toys from his hamper and being so self-sufficient. This is new and still not all that common. He will often be very fussy/needy when I'm getting supper together, so I'm very thankful for moments like this!

Abram has had several VERY good weeks of eating. He's been trying things that (although he'd had it pureed) he's been refusing in it's whole form. He will now eat most things that we do, even dishes like lasagna with multiple ingredients in a bite. His favorites still include almost all breakfast foods, pasta, cheese, and breads. Fruits that will go down include bananas, apples (sliced or sauced), dates, raisins and the occasional grape (recent success). Vegetables that go down are green beans (favorite), peas, broccoli, spinach, salad (most of the time), potatoes and hominy. He does not like corn or carrots yet, gags with sweet potatoes (a fav when he was younger), and he's surprised me by eating most of the veggies in an oriental blend the other day and downed my eggplant parmesan (which was so very yummy!). He drinks his milk well, likes juice, but his drink of choice is TEA! He gets VERY excited when he gets to have tea and can/will drink as much as me when we go to Texas Roadhouse or Chick-Fil-A. Loves it!

 One of our recent additions has been giving him dry cereal with milk. We started out with Rice Krispies. He's also had Cheerios (with a bit more difficulty) and Lucky Charms (picked out all the marshmallows to eat first, haha) and does very well getting most of it to his mouth!

 He likes getting to drink the milk when the cereal pieces are all gone!

So proud of himself!

 Abram has a growing obsession with balls, mainly basketballs/goals and baseballs/gloves. We go to the park down the road to walk and Abram likes go to the basketball court and have daddy shoot baskets and chase the ball around the court.  I found him a little basketball goal at a local consignment store and set it up on the deck for him. He really loves it!

"Shoot it right there, Daddy!"

"Here you go!"

There is also a little slide at the park and Abram really enjoys being able to climb and slide over and over again. He does not like to swing. The only swing he will swing on is a porch swing. He's a slide man. There is an indoor play area at church called "Bibleland" and the slides there are his favorite. They are nice and slick and he's figured out how to slide down and come off the end running, without falling on his bottom. We also tried out the play area at Chick-Fil-A a week ago and he loved the tunnel slide! They have one of those at the Y too, but I don't get to go in the daycare area there to see if he's playing on that one. 

'Whee!"

This child has inherited his daddy's "bionic hair" and needs a haircut almost once a month...at least that's about how long I can go before the hairs creeping over his ears starts to bug me! haha He's getting very good at following instructions when I cut his hair, holding still and leaning forward so I can cut his bangs or get to the back of his head. He frequently gets compliments on his hair, so I guess I'm doing something right! 

Playing in the empty toy hamper. Curtis tied a string around the end and was pulling him around the dining room table. He loved it! 

He also likes to just run around the dining room table, especially when the neighbor boys are visiting! Then they ALL run around the table together! Abram likes for us to run around the table with him and will tell us when he wants a running partner!

Abram has chosen a favorite movie and he wants to watch it almost every day! Veggietales: The Penniless Princess. It's short and sweet, has catchy songs and cute characters that appear in lots and lots of other movies...so now I just need to acquire a few of those so we have some variety! For my sake! He's sitting for a little longer now and actually watching the movie, which does help when I'm fixing supper. I've been trying not to have the TV on too often anymore for his sake AND mine, but we'll occasionally watch some KET/PBS  at lunch time because I don't have to worry about inappropriate commercials. We'll also listen to Pandora on the Veggietales station, which is awesome because it also plays Disney and Kids Praise and Worship music. It's great!

Abram is still definitely excelling more at motor skills over verbal, but that's coming along too. He runs/jumps/climbs/ does somersaults, dances, spins, stacks blocks (up to 6 or so) and throws/shoots/rolls balls. He likes to scribble, has started to work some puzzles (gets frustrated when it won't fall in place), and is getting quicker at switching out the letters on his leapfrog alphabet toy on the fridge. He can blow bubbles in the bath water and will now lay down on his back and relax (which makes rinsing his hair LOTS easier) but he hasn't figured out how to blow through his nose into a tissue (fortunately he's not really opposed to the bulb syringe). 

He definitely TRIES to talk to us...in sentences...we just don't have a clue what he's saying most of the time unless we have context clues. We've been working on a few sounds like "f" and "m". He's been using "b" more and has recently been much more accurate, saying "buh-buh" for bubbles and "bye-bye". Words that I usually recognize because they bear a strong enough resemblance or the "timing is right" are, "hi, Gypsy, dada, dog, star, kitty, trash, tea, cracker, 'cuse me, thank you, bath, boo (said that tonight!), cookie, elbow (sounds like beh-boh)...there are probably a few more, but he's still pretty "Dutch". We'll just keep working on adding more consonant/vowel sounds, which is getting easier because he's finally watching me and trying to copy what I'm doing to make the sound. His attempts are very cute! He does a few animal sounds: dog, cat, chicken and horse are the ones that sound the most accurate, but his favorite is elephant ( buzzing his lips and raising one arm) which finally had to be banned from the dinner table!

He's changing so much, so fast, its' really amazing! I'm so thankful that (although it can be exhausting), I get to be home with this little boy that is such a joy to me! I love him SO much!