22 Months old

I forgot to do this post, I know I haven't been consistent but it's fun :)

Christopher turned 22 Months Old on the August 14th.

This photo is from that day and says it all!

And for comparison...

August 14th, 2009 10 Months old

Christopher is doing so much.

-He can (obviously) climb onto and off almost anything.

-He's starting to reach places that were "out of reach" before.

-Based on our home scale he is 26.5 pounds.

-He can walk up and down steps while holding onto a wall. Our daycare's steps are short, about 4 or 5 inches. This morning he walked up them without holding my hand, all by himself :)

-He's still getting changed on the changing pad but is not only getting too long, but wanting to get changed standing up more. So we bought pull ups for those occasions (it's hard to diaper a standing toddler).

-He can count to three without assistance, higher if doing it with me...

-He can identify probably more than half the alphabet. He loves it, shouts out letters in signs as we are driving around. His absolute favorites letters are O and then R which he says like a pirate. Arrrghhhh!

-He is signing more

-He is talking more and more, and more and more sentences. "Where did dad go?"

-You know we are potty training because Mommy and Daddy make announcements "I'm going potty!" Then he leads the way to our bathroom and points to the potty "Potty momma" then waves and says "bye bye" as the water flushes down the toilet.

-He is mainly eating anything. It depends on his mood, sometimes he's picky, sometimes he's a little piggy :)

-He is great with the dogs and they are great with him.

-He can also feed himself with a fork and spoon (unless he gets distracted)

-He dances :)

-He has discovered the word "no"

I know there is more, but that's all I can think of right now.

Weekend Visitors (Sunday) Yeah for family!!!!

So the good time continued on Sunday. I think this visit was so much better also because it was just us, just the family, just the nine of us (wow, that number got big fast).

Our little boy... he's growing up so fast and is learning so much!

"Is this a dog toy or a kid toy?" Ahhh, the dilemmas...

Emmy sharing... (no sharing sippy cups though)

Playing piano together. (I think Christopher's tongue is out in concentration!)

Playing Emmy some tunes. She seems very entertained :)

Showing Cole the fire truck

They actually had a "baby version" of a conversation about it, so cute.

I want a little girl so I can buy bows (we'll see if David reads this far down :)

Cole playing a tune for Christopher (See, they played GREAT together!)

My handsome nephew! He looks so much like his daddy here!

Who? What? Where?

The pied piper of toddlers...

If Timmy just sat for a moment, they'd be crawling all over him :)

Pretty girl, my beautiful niece and Goddaughter

To the Park!

Where my son decided to be an absolute ball hog!

See?

Playing...

Yeah, not working again!

Minor success

Christopher on the wheel swing

He loved the slides

All in all, it was great, we had fun, the kids had fun. They went to bed really well Saturday and the adults got to hang out. Good times!

Weekend Visitors (Saturday)

We had visitors this past weekend!!! Woo hoo!!! The northern Angelo family. My brother, his wife and their adorable twins. They are only 8 months younger than Christopher so it was so fun to watch them play. We had a great time.

Moving the "extended" play area so we could eat dinner...

Christopher was helping pull, Cole was trying to get back on it :)

Christopher has a mild obsession with shoes. He's either going to make his wife very happy, or very jealous!!! He is a bit of a shoe thief!

Trying to get a photo of all three sitting... yeah, it never happened.

I have no idea what he's pointing at. He's trying to tell me something...

Mr Muscles...

I think he's holding about 61 pounds here (give or take)

First corn-on-the-cob was a mild success

Till he realized he could ALSO use it as a hammer! Great!

Video of us trying to get the photo of all three. Yeah, don't try this at home.

We have a climber!

The kids played well together and it was so much fun to watch them interact and get to know each other better. Christopher got their names down so it was cute to watch him call them by their names instead of "baby!".

Heading out for a pre-bed walk

And the end to Saturday night?

Christopher, "ni ni momma"

Don't Feed the Animals

Christopher has definitely entered the phase of "pretend". He is so silly and loves to walk around with the cups and spoon and serve Cody, and Daddy, and Mommy... and anyone else who is hungry...

Meet Christopher's entourage...

Moo, Cookie and Giraffe

And video.... of him feeding himself and the animals... then him getting completely distracted.

Love this kid!

Camping

We went camping this past weekend. We pretty much squeezed this trip in to an already packed few months. David has either had a client or had MMA training Monday through Thursday so it's been me and the little man by ourselves most of the week. We left to go camping on Friday afternoon so I did a majority of the packing and gathering supplies so David could work. I also did a majority of the stressing out... I am MUCH better at it than David so he leaves that to me :)

So we loaded up the car Thursday night, and took off Friday. Unfortunately we hit a pretty bad accident on the way up on 85 which delayed us, but we arrived about 4pm and started setting up our tent. It was a little harder with a toddler running around and empty campsite and trying to get our massive tent up. Luckily our friend Jackie showed up with her two kids (Aiden - 30 months and Asha - 4 years old). They helped keep Christopher company while she helped us put the tent up, then David helped with her.

See... our massive two-bedroom tent.

We love it though. We put Christopher in his pack-n-play on one side and we are on the other. We can put him down for bed, close the divider (a thin divider) and we can enter through our side.

And Jackie's tent...

It was beautiful. We were in San Mateo county surrounded by these huge Redwood trees.

We got the kids playing so that we could get dinner started. Well... Christopher started playing...

And we had our camp set up

We enjoyed an easy dinner, put the kids down and the adult hung out around the fire for a while. Christopher had a rough night, I think in part to teething (he cut a canine that weekend) and waking up and not knowing where he was. But once he was up and with the other kids on Saturday he was fine.

And of course, the adults were great after a few cups of coffee...

Breakfast was made... and eaten...

kids played in the dirt...

This was probably the funnest part for the kids. I brought a bucket and some shovels, Jackie had a few other buckets and together... the kids made a mess... of everything. Fun.

There was another couple there as well with their two kids who are 26 months old and 4 years old. So we had three 2 year olds and two 4 year olds.

There was always food out. There was so much activity between the five kids that they pretty much munched through the day. The peaches from Costco were a big hit.

And then I did the unthinkable. I tried to get photos of the kids, together, looking at me, at the same time... yeah.

Wow, they are all looking at the camera. Helps that Asha has the death grip on Christopher...

Now four kids... I have 2 of 4 looking at the camera...

And another!

The two older one's showing how it's done, the younger one's learning...

Uh oh, we have a runner! Wait that's mine!

Wait... none of them are looking... Aiden's making a "scootch?" for it and Christopher is ready to bolt... and what is Asha doing? Urgh... I need some help!

Better, but....

Wow, look at that... I think I'm about 90% there!

And back down to 30%

What's missing here??? (I think he's standing next to me watching...)

Oooh, is that almost perfect?

Oh my goodness, child of mine! Sit down!!! :)

Help please!

Phew, I give up.

Much easier

And my newly minted dare-devil... "What mama?"

This kid probably ran a few miles just back and forth the campsite

And I think we may need to get him one of these...

Jackie :)

Aiden

Sr and Jr

Snack time around the fire. He was such a good kid and would sit and eat and wait for one of us to get him. He was really good around the fire. Jackie gave me the advice of walking him up to the fire and putting his hands out so he could feel the heat and explain it too him. He never got too close to it after that.

Cooking on the camping burner

Riding the horsey

aka "leg lifts"

All dressed for the evening festivities...

Hubby...

Keeping warm

And some videos...

Don't ask, my son is an odd cookie... These two really hit it off. They are only 8 months apart in age and if we weren't almost 2 hours apart, they would probably be a lot closer.

Overall, we had a great trip. Christopher slept great Saturday night, which gave mommy and daddy a nice rest. We ate well, we even took a trip to the swimming hole. I forgot to take the camera (boo) but Christopher had fun in the water. We headed back about 12pm on Sunday and stopped in Davenport for lunch. Christopher had skipped his morning nap so we could get packed up so lunch was going to be iffy, little did we know, how it was going to end.

David and I were eating our sandwiches, Christopher was munching on a cheese pizza. He had been great, drinking, reading with Daddy. then suddenly, his eyes started drooping... he was still eating... eyes open, head falling... still eating... eyes closed!... still eating... eyes half open. Puts the pizza down, puts out his arms, "mama?" I picked him up, put him on my shoulder and OUT. Everyone around us was amused.... it was the funniest thing we've ever seen and of course, no camera.

Oh well, lovely trip with great friends. What more could you ask for?