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.