I'm going to skip the self-chiding and get on with it.
Weston is getting cooler and cooler, smarter and smarter, cuter and cuter, and more loved and more loved as each day goes.
We just had Parents As Teachers today and he passed all his screening tests, by a lot, on some fronts. (Mostly verbal.)
ACTIVITIES
He loves to:
Undress his baby, put his baby to sleep, rock the baby in his arms, cover her up (with a bunched up blanket), put the baby in his "purse," (I think he got that from me, but I only did that once with him!...just kidding.). And by the word "baby" this could be his baby doll, a stuffed animal, a craft scarecrow that we decorate with, a Caribbean woman magnet that was given to us as a souvenir, and so forth.) His go-to buddies...as in, his current favorite stuffed pals are: GoBo (a Fraggle I got him a couple of months ago), a stuffed duck and a baby doggie (a beanie baby I named Roscoe, but Weston insists it's Baby Doggie.) But at night, I ask him "Which friend do you want to sleep with?" And he picks one from his line up. The rest have to go "up!" (which means, back to their perch on the top rail of his crib.)
Play with matchbox cars, or anything train-like, sometimes he'll even be eating a cracker or a cookie and if it shapes to be just so, he'll move it around on his plate and say, "Choo choo!"
Organize and peek into diapers. Yep, still. And the other day he pushed me back and said; "Mama, Back!" And then proceeded to shove a diaper under my own rump.
He loves to be "high." And no, not on drugs. If we lift him up, if he climbs, swinging, etc, he loves to exclaim "Me high!" And then he says, "More high." I'm like: It's HIGH-ER, you silly! jk, folks. jk
He still collects acorns and walnuts in his wheelbarrow. Or most recently, he's discovered the fun of rolling the lil' nuts down our driveway. He giggles if they crack open before they stop.
He calls the tricycle handed down to us by our neighbors a "suckle." He can't reach the pedals, but he likes if we push him around on it...which really gives me a work out.
He loves singing and dancing. I personally love watching him do WHEELS ON THE BUS. It’s so cute. And he tends to croon the last line of the verse and it makes me laugh, cuz he’ll even close his eyes until he ends the final note.
He's a bit obsessed with tunnels. Neil likes to take him to Ironwoods Park on boys-day-out adventures. And all three of us were there a few weekends ago, and by golly, as soon as we were walking on the path, Weston kept saying, "I want tunnel. Tunnel. Tunnel." And Neil kept grinning because he knew what he was talking about. Sure enough, at the end of the path, like a mile later, Weston went ahead of us and was all excited, squealing and pointing, 'Mama! Tunnel." Well. It was a sewage pipe, but whatever. He loves it regardless. And he understands it's yucky. the pic on the left is the sewage pipe, it's dark. you can hardly see it. Sorry.
He doesn't watch a ton of TV, but we do like to incorporate different sources of learning, so his faves are: Elmo, Fraggle Rock, Mickey Mouse (but only watches it at daycare when waiting for other kids to wake up from naps,) and Yo Gabba Gabba. That last show...was written by people on crack. Don't believe me? Watch it. And Weston apparently loves it.
Painting and coloring...he's a fan. He knows most colors if you say: hand me GREEN. (Usually) But he can point to and recognize/say "Blue, yellow and Wed." I mean, Red. I think next up will be Purple. I wonder when he'll be old enough for me to teach him the difference between blue and turquoise, since that is mommy's favorite color.
He loves wooden puzzles.
ANTICS
He likes to point to every semi truck or bus and call it a train. Every big truck, he says, "Jimmy!' JImmy is our neighbor who drives a big truck. Weston has only met Jimmy maybe twice.
If he sees a glove or a mitten lying around, he has to have it. He'll put it on and walk around with it. This also includes potholders/oven mitts. He sometimes get two, and then he's really in heaven. He also likes to put on our shoes. See below. he's watching TV. Nothing to see here, right? ;)
When he moved up to the next classroom at daycare, he was the 2nd youngest. And he was very quiet in class, they said. And then 2 weeks into it, he started acting out. He got in trouble for biting a few times, but eventually he grew more comfy with his new friends and that is in the past. I hope.
If I cry or tell him I'm sad, even if faking, he'll stop whatever he's doing and lift his hands out or come to me and say: "Wanna hug?" Makes my heart melt. And now, he knows how to fake cry, too...but not in a fake cry for attention. It's more like, he covers his hands across his mouth and makes this demonic laugh sound because he thinks that is what we sound like when we do it and say "boo hoo!" It's so cute. Sorry if that didn't make sense. I'll remember it, so that's good enough.
It's hard to get him to eat veggies. But fruit, bread and cheese are his faves. And cereal. Good gosh, this boy loves cereal. His top one is "mommy's" Almond Crisp. It's not too much sugar, and it has almonds, which he loves to pick out and say, "All-min, mommy!" He's started drinking more milk, thankfully...we do almond milk, sometimes. He loves to eat things that we can pass off as "chips." This includes real chips, but also black bean chips or plantain chips. He gets really excited for string cheese. LIke he claps and sucks in air. And of course, cookies. Duh. If his item has a wrapper, he would prefer that I leave it on so he can inspect it and then demand that I take it to the "trash." If food is on his hands or face, he'll stop and say "whip." This means WIPE, and I have to give him a napkin so he can use it all over.
He also wants ice in his water (just like me!) And sometimes, he wants it in his milk, too.
He is very particular about which cup or plate or bowl he is eating/drinking out of. He will not eat unless he ‘s okay with it. Sometimes, I have to interpret what he means by “Blue water!” Or “Red milk.” If we have lil’ ramekins at dinner, he has to have one too. If you don’t know that word, you never worked in a restaurant and you should go look it up.
He loves to carry bags for us when we shop. He calls them all his "poose." (Purse.)
He loves to play in the "dock." (The dark) He likes to go into closets, or in our bathroom and step up on his stool and turn off the lights. sometimes, he'll growl at me because one time I did it to him (like I was going to tell a scary story, before I realized how young he was, haha but it stayed with him.)
He is still obsessed with "Chatick." That's chapstick. He will put it all over his cheeks and his mouth and his nose. And loves to take the cap off and then put it on again. I try not to let him get to it, but since I love it too, I can't hide it!!
TALKING
He can tell stories now. They are not very interesting stories. In fact, I usually was there when he experienced them, but it still is cool that he's retaining that info. I have to leave him at breakfast because otherwise he'll talk and talk. Stuff like, "Mom. Kia (kitty) down. Kia milk. Kia 'owwww!' which means Kramer came downstairs, wanted to drink his milk and then meowed. He can say KITTY. And he can say Kramer (Kay-muh), but he chooses to call him Kia. Whatev. I have found myself doing the same. ha
He has been asking "what's this" for months, but in the past month and a half, he'll repeat anything we say. My favorite the other day was "apple cinnamon." He actually can say it pretty well. Same with "ambulance." He'll say "am-u-lens."
He loves to recite the names of his friends in class. Lyla is always the first, because they're going to get married. And then Parker, Vandy, Max, Ethan, Abe and Bella. Finally, on Oct 30, he said his own name with Neil while they were playing in his room. And now he will say it. Sometimes, it sounds like there is an F in his name… (his Ws and Fs seem to pair up a bit…like… water is “wufwuf” for awhile….now it’s “wah-terrr.” But it sometimes sounds like ‘Fwetton.”
He's been saying this for so long now, but I think I left it out of the last post...but he'll say Love you, and says it: Ya yo. I love it.
FUNNY STORIES:
Long ago, back at the beginning of the month I'm blogging about, one day Weston came running up to me at home and said, "I wunna f*ck." I dropped my jaw. "you want to WHAT?" The answer was the same: "F*ck." I said, "You want to f*ck?" and he said, "No! F*ck." And then he went back into the living room and returned with the remote. "Washhhh F*ck." Interpretation: I want to watch Fraggle Rock. Yep, he was running the two words together (and still does today, but at least now he adds an R to the sound or just drops the F and says "Rock."
We were in his room at bedtime, and I usually let him play a bit, then he has to pick out 2-3 books for me to read to him before he goes to bed. Well one night, he was taking FOREVER to pick out a book. He was staring and touching and shifting and kept the process going. So I started humming the jeopardy tune, not thinking he of course would have no idea what I was doing or meaning by that. He stopped, stood up and started dancing while I hummed. It was just so unexpected and cute, that I kept doing it and he kept dancing. Sigh. Be still my heart. It is moments like that that can so easily wipe away the ones from an hour earlier when he threw his dinner at me because he wanted a cookie.
This isn't funny, but it show his personality. With puzzles, he likes to put the pieces in the wrong spot so we can tell him, "No, silly!" He just giggles and moves the piece to the next wrong spot. I love that he's smart enough to figure out the wrong stuff, too. If that makes sense. He does this with colors too. I'll ask him what color my shirt is, and he'll say BLUE. I say, "no, it's red." he says, "It's blue." We argue for a few more, and then I finally say, "Ok, you're right. It's blue." And he laughs and says, "No, it's wed."
He was coloring a few weeks ago, and he got to a white crayon, scribbled with it, then held it out to me and said, "It's broken, mommy."
I have tried on numerous occasions to get him to eat eggs. Hard-boiled, scrambled, fried. Somehow, he knows and he wont’ even try them. In Latrobe though, he say Baba Dino eating scrambled eggs. And I was eating them. So when I was finished and there were still some on my plate, he asked for it. I gave it to him and he said, “Yummy, yellow puckin!” SAY WHAT? Ha we have yet to try to get him to eat yellow pumpkin again.
Neil was going to work the other morning and I said, “Weston, tell daddy have a good day!” And Weston said, “Happy to you!” this is also what he told me on my birthday when Neil told him to say “Happy birthday.” Haha Works for me! J
Just today (11/18/13) I told him I had to go potty while he was eating breakfast. I came back and he said, "Mommy potty?" I said, "yes, I went potty." He said, "Job, mommy. Job." And then I realized he was saying, "Good job." hahaha
I went to his daycare in October to take pics of the kiddos when they hunted for pumpkins on the playground and then decorated them. Weston was the ringleader in getting all the boys to roll their pumpkins down the hill. Yeah, that's something to be proud of. ;) But on a bad note, he was so mean to other kids in front of me. I asked if he were always like that and the teachers said no, that he's just doing it because I was there. Bummed me out.
OTHER NOTES:
He did pretty well on an airplane (at 21 months even). We flew out to Pittsburgh for Halloween and my birthday. It was a bit rough when we were on the plane and it had yet to take off, but that is when I tried so had to get him a snack that would keep him still and in his buckled seat. I did get flustered before take off a bit, but after that, once we were up in the air, he was fine. We did whip out the ipad on two occasions for him to watch CARS. One of the times, he fell asleep. He loved seeing his MeeMaw and Baba Dino. And Bonnie. He still talks about them now that he’s back. He also had a fun time meeting DeeDee, Joe, Nelly and Tiko (Joe’s dog.) Oh, and Uncle Steve and his girlfriend, Emily. I loved the way Weston would say Emily’s name… “Emmenee.”
What he calls my own mom has changed over time. First it was BaBa, just like Grandpa. Then it was MaBa. Then for a couple of weeks it was BeeBa. Then today, just today, he said Geema (like geese, not like Oh, gee!). So I think that is so cute, and might just stick with it.
He got Croup in early October. And it was so rough. The steroids made him have roid rage. It was the worst I've ever seen him and hope that we don't have to do that ever again.
We are not pushing the potty training at all, but we have introduced Elmo's Potty video, as well a potty chair, so he can start to be comfy with it. He definitely shows interest, but he's not ready. He hasn't made the connection of WHY he would need to go on the potty versus his diapers. He'll go and pull down his pants to sit on it, and say, "I potty." But he won't let me pull off his diaper. He wants his diaper on. According to our Parents As Teacher advisor, she ays this is a good sign that he's interested, but to not push it until maybe next summer, unless it's clear he's ready before then. That's fine by me, because if we move sometime next year, I don't want to go backwards with the transition as those can be hard on kiddos.
Overall, I know I keep saying this, but it just gets better and better. I love him so much, duh, but I am just amazed every day at how much he is learning, how big of a personality he has, how different he is from Neil and me, yet how very similar to us. He's just such a cool, funny, sweet and bright little boy. And I am so proud of Neil and myself for having a hand in shaping him into the lovable human being he is. Totally by far my greatest accomplishment, so I just hop I can continue to lead him to be just as lovable of an adult.
Enjoy some pics from Sept, Oct and November. And let's hope I have time to go back to monthly posts! Cuz this took even longer to put together...and will have to post videos separately.
