Scootin' along

I put Corin on the scooter today. Ryanne has been riding hers for almost 3 years and rocks at it. He's a bit older than she was when we started her, but already gets the concept much better. My guess is that it's paid off for him to be able to watch her ride it. He scooted along. He would occasionally try to balance. His steering needs lots of work, but that's why we want him on it.

Now, if I can just convince him that falling over isn't the best part of the ride.

No Dragon!

The kids have this Lego dragon that came in a Duplo castle set. It's red and has some fire that it can breathe. It has teeth.

The other day, Corin peed on the potty (YAY!) and was wandering around the house without a diaper on. This has become less of an issue lately so he spends a bit of time doing it in the morning.

He found the dragon and was playing with it on the bathroom floor. I was brushing RC's hair. He was opening and closing the mouth of the dragon.

Suddenly I hear a scream, "NOOOO Dwagon. OW! Dwagon. No dwagon"

I look at him and he has his penis stuffed in the dragon's mouth. He has snapped the dragon's mouth shut on the tip of his pemis (penis). Did I mention the teeth?

He's getting very agitated and yelling at the dragon. I told him to open the dragon's mouth and take his penis out. He pulls on his penis. "OW! Pemis tuck!"

I lean down and open the dragon's mouth.

Corin looks at the dragon and says, "No bite pemis, dwagon. No bite me. Huhts."

Oy. I just about choked on the laughter.

Reflections on the 2nd year

I've been meaning to write this for days now. He's almost another month older than 2. TIme with him is going by so very quickly. He grows and learns more every single day.

His language has totally exploded. He speaks in sentences of 4-7 words. He learns dozens of new words every day. He is definitely in his sponge phase.

He eats. He will go days with only a bite or two and days where I glimpse the hollow legged teenager he will become.

He argues. He is strong willed. So much more than I expected from how laid back he was in his early days. Stubborn doesn't begin to describe it. Dedicated to the task at hand.

I've started seeing tantrums and boy can this kid throw a doozie. He's not hitting his head against the floor and practicing faces, but he's also much easier to set off.

He's cuddly. He is my snuggler. He's a mama's boy and I don't want that to ever change. He loves to sit in my lap. He loves to give kisses - on the lips, on the hand, on whatever part he can reach. He hugs...man, what hugs.

I feel so lucky to have him. He's an amazing boy, no longer a baby. I can't wait to see what the next year holds.

Poor, tired kid

Corin's nap/sleep schedule has been such a mess, ever since we went to Phoenix and even a bit before. He's waking up late, napping late, taking forever to fall asleep.

Yesterday, he went without a nap. It was awful. Today, we were playing with friends until 3 and he promptly fell asleep in the car.

We got home. He woke up. He came inside and asked to be put down. He sat on the floor with the cat. He laid down. I went to the bathroom.

I came back out and he's passed out. In the middle of the entrance to the living room. The cats have no idea what to make of him.

I need to snap a picture before he wakes up.

Oh, and...

Have I mentioned how stinking cute he is? This was in the car on the way to gymnastics. He's wearing his "Wawee" (Wall-E) sunglasses and has his "boo boddle" (blue bottle of water) in his lap. He was totally mugging for the camera.

Trains

Corin is slowly taking over Ryanne's die-cast train collection. As you can imagine, this is causing some hardship in our house. :) Ryanne hasn't noticed most of the individual trains disappearing as I really think she can't remember which ones are hers and which aren't. She notices the big things, though, like the nice carrying case she got one Christmas. We've doubled up on a few important ones - like Gordon and Thomas.

Corin, however, is amassing a rather impressive set of track and buildings/cases for them. He's got the Roundhouse, the Quarry, the train wash and the coal mine. They each came with a few pieces of the plastic track and will close up and hold a few trains with the track. I think they're part of the Take Alongs series. I managed to find quite a few of them at the resale store and bulk up the collection.

He lines up them on the floor, the edge of the table, the edge of the box spring on our bed. It reminds me of a story Grandma G tells about Chrys and his cars on the babysitter's 'seamless' carpet. :)

He loves to drive them around. He sits and hollers "chugga chugga chooo". He knows the names of Thomas, Percy and Gordon. He's not bad with Duncan and Oliver. I think those are all of the engines we have right now.

Grandma G and I may have an outlet for those Lionel cars in a few years. We'll see if the fascination lasts. I suppose he is somewhat genetically wired to love them, though.

And now...

He's talking. And talking. And talking. He uses multiple word sentences. He tells stories. He tries to sing songs - My favorite is "keen up da body" (clean up everybody).

He is *obsessed* with trains. It goes beyond anything sane or normal. He really loves the die-cast Thomas trains (take-alongs, I think). He's borrowed Ryanne's case for them on a semi-permanent basis because his collection now outnumbers hers. He takes that train everywhere. Literally. He will sit and play with them for a seemingly irrational amount of time. He seeks out the aisle of Thomas at Target. He wanders from box to box just oohing and ahhing over them. If we walk by a display of them, he has to stop and look. He's learning the names of them - thomas, puhssy (Percy), duntin (Duncan), dohdon (Gordon) - and doesn't get them mixed up.

He's doing gymnastics once a week. His favorite things are the trampoline and the rope that he can swing on. He loves running down the trampoline and has amazing balance. The rope swing is a thrill. He knows the difference between "Ry-yah nastics and Towin nastics."

He still loves helicopters and planes. He'll point out just about every airplane that flies by the house or the car. He even recognizes the "wowd" of them flying overhead when he can't see them.

Speaking of things loud, we've entered the non-loud phase. Hand dryers, vacuum cleaners, inflatable jumpers, yelling - he doesn't like it. He'll cover his ears and whine.

He's still nursing quite a bit, but it has cut back since his 18 month appointment. He's down to 3-4 times a day, I'd guess. It's much more tolerable for me. He's a very squirmy nurser, though.

He's still in 2T clothes. Some of them need a belt to keep them up because the little guy has no hips and still has his baby belly. At this point, we're outgrowing things by height and not weight. Hopefully he's still gaining enough for the ped to leave me alone, though.

He loves to eat - especially lightly cooked vegetables. He'll seek out the peas and carrots in fried rice. It's less of a struggle to get protein into him (especially beans), but he's not much for fruit.

Now, if he just slept through the night, life would be so much easier...

Little boy

He's not a baby anymore. He is firmly in the realm of toddler. He's got all of his canines and molars. We're waiting on the 2 year molars, but hopefully we get a little break before those hit. He's insanely active - running, jumping (with both feet) and he's mastered swinging on the rope in the last week. He relishes anything that garners a "whee" - swings, slides, hills in the car. He is putting together 2 and 3 word sentences, with remarkable clarity. He adores to "Hahg" (hug) and "tiss" (kiss) more than just about anything.

He's amazing. And, thankfully, still cuddly enough to keep me from missing him being a wee babe.

Teef

We have the tips of the lower canines. They both popped through over the weekend - which explains the crazy degree of crankiness, obscene diapers, drool and snot that we've been experiencing.

I'm going to miss the little gapped smile. He's losing the last vestiges of babyhood all too quickly.

PoP!

That would be the sound of my ER cherry. Don't worry. Everyone's fine.

I've never been to the ER. I've been to the minor emergency clinic a half dozen times. I've been to the doctor on a semi-emergency basis a couple of times. Never the ER, though.

Then...I had a boy of my own.

Today, we went to Auntie J's house for a play date. He and Mol were doing their standard stand on the table and yell "HI" at the poor, poor goldfish. Then there was a crash. And screaming. And blood. Inside and outside his mouth. I immediately thought the worst - bit through the lip.

We left Ryanne there. We drove to the ER. Chrys met us there. We waited for.freaking.ever.

He had a slight temp - discovered rectally...his first time. Oy, was he pissed. He was 26lbs14oz with his clothes on, but no shoes.

He was impatient, especially when I wouldn't nurse him without the ok from someone there. Once I was cleared to just try it and see, he was much calmer. He ran around like a crazy man, but stood perfectly still when the doctor came to examine his mouth. No tears when being looked at. No complaints. Very laid back. Lots of compliments on how patient he was.

Superficial facial laceration on the outside. Big, freaking hole on the inside that "will heal surprisingly quickly so we don't suture it." We were given a prescription for antibiotics to give him "just in case," but we plan to forego that in favor of the antibacterial properties of the breastmilk he drinks a dozen times a day.

Hopefully this won't become a regular event. Turns out, I don't like the ER any more than I thought I would.

Well, it was a good run

Corin has played with hiking his foot up on the edge of his crib now and then for some time now. He's never done more than hike a leg up and fall back down, though.

Well, now he's figured out how to reliably climb out of his crib. He did it twice on the way to sleep tonight.

It's been nice having him stay put. We'll have to come up with a new strategy to get him to stay put.

*sigh*

Look-alike Meter

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity - Collage - Morph

Two more

Corin popped teeth 10 and 11. The tenth was the upper right molar and came out about 10 days ago. Number 11 was the upper left molar and popped through at the end of last week. He's going to be an eating machine very soon.