Christian James! You are 2 1/2 years old already! You will be 3 before we know it! You have changed so much in the last 6 months and are becoming so spunky and have so much personality!
Baby Braxton made mama quite sick for most of the summer, but we still were able to enjoy some fun memories!
You loved the fireworks on the 4th of July and would cheer for them.
Mommy being sick meant lots of popsicles all summer. You loved it! In fact, any time you would be on the deck or outside, you thought you needed to have a popsicle, or 5!
On the weekends, you and daddy would spend a lot of time swimming at the water park while mommy rested at home.
It didn't take you long to understand that mama had a baby in her tummy! You would read stories to baby brother starting very early on!
You took your first session of swim lessons over the summer and LOVED your time in the water!
Daddy started you in on the tradition of winning a goldfish at the county fair. He never fails to win a fish, but they have never lived long. Your little Nemo, however, lived for almost 2 months!
Winning a fish was exciting, but even more than that, you LOVED all of the rides at the fair! In fact, when you would ask why daddy had to go to work and we would tell you to make money you would say, "Oh, to buy tickets!"
We try to visit daddy at work every few months or so and you really enjoy getting to "work" at the office too!
Playing tools has become a favorite of yours. You have a tool bench with lots of tools in the play room and also your own tool box full of tools in the garage for working with daddy. Fixing your car with your tools is pretty fun :)
Luckily we were able to get the garden dug up and planted before mommy got too sick this summer. However, it didn't really matter because we didn't always get the veggies picked in time to eat them....or in some cases you picked them extra early!
As summer came to an end, we of course headed to the Minnesota State Fair where you got to meet one of your new favorite tv show characters - Chase from Paw Patrol!
In September Daddy went to Vegas for work and you and mommy visited Cornell while he was gone. You got lots of time visiting Grandpa Ron and riding on his lawn mower, checking out tractors on the farm and cows too!
During our visit, we went with Great Grandma Greta to Irvine Park where mommy used to go as a kid!
We also went for walks every day with Great Grandma.
As fall started, mommy was feeling a bit better and we were able to get out of the house more again. We even got to meet a police officer at the library and play with his hand cuffs!
and sit in his patrol car!
Fall also brought your second session of swimming lessons! You know the route we drive to swim lessons and will even point it out whenever we drive past. For it only being your 2nd session of swim lessons, you already passed to the next level! Since Baby Braxton should be here during the winter session, we are going to wait until the spring session and then you will get to go in the pool without mommy or daddy!
When we brought out the fall decorations, you fell in love with our light up pumpkin who quickly became your best friend! You wanted to take him everywhere! He even went on several walks with us!
One of our fall family traditions is to visit Sever's Corn Maze!
You of course loved getting to sit on the tractors there.
It was a little hard for you to walk in the corn pit, though.
The pony ride was a favorite too!
You were super fast in the corn maze and made mommy nervous that we were going to lose you!
Being the little imitator that you are, you quickly took to imitating mommy puking due to morning sickness. I'm surprised you did this more in the fall when I was feeling better than over the summer.
At 20 weeks pregnant we found out that mommy was having another baby boy and you were going to have a little brother! We bought a blue teddy bear to announce the gender but you quickly claimed it as yours...so we had to buy 2 blue bears!
October was fire safety month and you got to meet a firefighter and check out his fire truck at the library!
As the temperatures have gotten colder, we've been finding ourselves spending more and more time inside...but you love it as long as you get to play diggers in beans!
Sometime during October, you went from being a great sleeper (napping 2-3 hours a day and sleeping 11-12 hour nights) to fighting sleep, waking a ton in the night, and often end up sleeping with mommy and daddy. Unfortunately, this pattern has continued....
You also discovered the kid sized shopping carts at the local grocery store in October...on Halloween to be exact! You love being an independent shopper.
We all ended up with a tummy bug on Halloween, but luckily you dressed up the night before and went trick or treating at the local middle school. You were a Lightning McQueen Race Car Driver and loved getting all of the candy and other fun treats!
You also really got into carving your pumpkin this year, digging out all the guts and even wanting to use the knife to carve a face. We let daddy do the knife part, but you gave specific instructions on what kind of face you wanted your pumpkin to have!
You wanted circle eyes, a big nose and a small mouth!
With fighting sleep, you also often wake up and think its time to start the day VERY early in the morning. Sometimes as early as 4am.
On those days you end up "accidentally" napping on the couch by 8am!
You are really into helping lately, so raking leaves and bagging them up was tons of fun for you! You spent a solid 4 hours outside after not napping and were ready to crash by 6pm!
You often ask to drive the car when we get home from places. With mommy's growing belly, you have to save your "driving" for when daddy is in the driver's seat.
Toddler Tuesday at Mall of America has some fun things -- like a meet and greet with Chase from Paw Patrol! You got to meet him for a 2nd time!
Daddy found us a new spot to watch planes and boy is it a jack pot! Planes are constantly coming and going and you are "ooing" and "ahhing" the WHOLE time! You could watch planes ALL day!
The week before Thanksgiving we headed to New York to visit Daddy's side of the family. That meant Baxter had to go stay with Grandma Jill and Great Grandma Greta in Wisconsin and you were VERY sad about him leaving. Good thing for skype!
Off to New York!
"Hiding" from Uncle Dan with Cousin Sarah. You wanted to hide in the bath tub.
Reading Grandma Karen a bedtime story.
When we go to New York, we always have to make visits to our favorite restaurants that aren't in Minnesota -- You loved the sundaes with you kid's meal at Friendly's!
Playing with Cousin Sarah was your favorite part of New York, I think!
Sleep has been hard in general lately, but sleep in a new place was even harder.
You barely napped while we were in New York and often just took short car naps.
We took a quick day trip to New York City and you had a blast seeing all of the sights!
We even got to see your baby brother in 3D at an ultrasound and he looks a lot like you did at your 3D ultrasound!
We had a lot of fun in New York, but it was definitely nice to get back home...and you were excited to try out the moving walkways again!
Since Daddy had to work on Thanksgiving, we celebrated as just the 3 of us. As we talked about what you were thankful for, you listed off several things all on your own:
Baxter, Mommy, Daddy, Cupcakes, your friend Cooper, and on Thanksgiving Day you even added that you were thankful for mommy's coffee!!!! ha ha!
You've grown a bit in the last 6 months:
34 pounds
36 inches
You are speaking in 7-8 word sentences and that, coupled with your size, has people usually guessing you to be about 4 years old!
Wearing a variety of sizes still -- Mainly 3T but some 2T still (almost too small) as well as some 4T
You are still a fairly picky eater, however, you have started to be a little more willing to try things!
Your Favorite Foods:
Cheese sticks (you could eat them all day)
Grapes
Mandarin Oranges
Bananas
Peanut Butter Sandwiches
Grilled Cheese
Tomato Soup
Apple Sauce
Yogurt
Granola bites
Waffles
Eggs
Craisins
Fishy Crackers
Animal Crackers
All kinds of fruit!
Favorite Shows:
Stinky and Dirty
Blaze
Paw Patrol
Thomas
Planes
Cars
Favorite Books:
Where Do Diggers Sleep
That's Not My Train
Boy of Mine
Anything with planes, trains, cars, monster trucks, or diggers!
Favorite Toys:
Tractors
Diggers
Monster Trucks
Trains
Shopping Cart
Mini Golf
Play Doh
Painting
Legos
Potty training still hasn't really started. For a long time you were going several times a day and staying dry for long periods. You would often ask to go. But the last few weeks your interest has again declined. Everyone keeps telling me that boys will train closer to 3 so I'm not pushing it and would prefer to have 2 in diapers! I'm determined that you will end up training yourself ha ha
Your schedule has been a little all over the place....It was still the same as when you were 2 years old and then I started to stretch your nap til 1pm and bedtime til 8pm and things started to get out of whack!
4am-6:30am You wake up sometime between these times
Watch cartoons and play
7/8am Breakfast
Free play while mommy cleans up from breakfast, get dressed and ready for the day
9am Head out for morning activity or play at home
10:30/11:30am Lunch
11am/12pm Nap (usually for about 2-3 hours) We attempted to cutting out your nap and switching to quiet time, but your nights continued to be just as bad and you were quite cranky during the day!
2/3pm Snack, Play time/learning activity with mommy
Outside time or go for a walk if the weather is nice
4pm Mommy gets dinner ready while you have free play or maybe watch a show depending on your tv time that day
5pm Dinner
6pm Bath or play time with Daddy while mommy cleans up dinner
7/8pm Bedtime
Hopefully we can get back on a better schedule and routine before baby brother gets here in February and switches things up again!
Things You Have Said A Lot:
You love to tell jokes -- "Why did the chicken cross the road?" "To get to the other side!"
If someone tells you the answer you say, "I tell the joke!"
"I do it!"
"I want to help!"
"I want to drive the car"
"Roar!"
"I didnint" (I didn't)
"Go to Frodo" -- We haven't a clue what this means...but you say it all the time!
"I live in Minnesota!"
"I went there last year!" or "I did that last year" -- Anything you have seen, heard or done before
You have also developed an intense fear of hair cuts in the past 6 months. Right around 2 years old you became deathly afraid of getting your hair cut. We tried 2 hair cuts at home which did NOT go well. Finally we took you to Kids Hair and you did okay for the first half and then screamed for the second half.
Things You Know:
The letter "T" -- T is for turkey!
You can sing your ABCs
You used to count to 4....but now you've been counting "1, 5, 6, 9"
Most of your colors -- More often than not you get orange, blue, green, purple, and brown right. Red and yellow are a little hit and miss. You always think black is brown.
All of your body parts! Including your eyebrows!
You also sing a bunch of songs from church -- My God is So Big! Big House, This Little Light of Mine
I can't believe how grown up you are becoming and that you are nearly closer to 3 than you are to 2! Time sure flies when you're having fun!
Daddy and I love you so much, little man.
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