Stephen at 18 months!

Stephen is such a fun easy going boy!  I don't have all of his stats... we are going for his well-child in January once we get home from AZ, so I will know them then!
Eating:
Stephen is a good eater.  He has a healthy appetite, and does love to indulge a bit! ;) His favorite drink is Naked juice.  We have cut milk down at our house... long story... he likes the Green Machine.  Favorite foods are apples, noodles, broccoli, breakfast sausage, clementines, grapes, yogurt etc.  He is doing a really good job working with his spoon/fork.  And, he will not eat with out one of them.  He stands at the silverware drawer saying, KNI (sounds like knife...just drop the fe) meaning fork or spoon.  Stephen can drink form an open cup.  He is good at using 2 hands but sometimes gets a bit excited and tips the cup too much and gets a little drink up his nose! oops!  But, he has yet to spill (!!!)  Most of the time with meals, he does drink from a sippy still though. 

Talking:
I just wrote about his vocab the other day... but it is totally taking off!!  Just today he has more new words: Bite, Bone, Book.
clearly he likes the B words.  :) He is very willing to try to say any word I ask... he just isn't usually willing to preform his new words.  I am always so excited when he says a word, I try to get him to say it for other people and he just looks at me like I'm nuts!

Sleeping:
Stephen is an easy sleeper.  he is pretty compliant when it comes nap/bed time.  More importantly, when he wakes up... he is always smiling! ALWAYS.  I love it!  Walking in to get him and he is jumping up and down saying, Momma! Dadda! or John!  He is a very happy kid when he wakes up. 
And, I know I said that he has been up in the night a lot this past week... I hope it has passed because he slept through the night again last night! Yahoo! 
He sleeping habits are: 8pm bedtime, between 5:30-7am wake up and nap from about 1-4pm every day.  He needs a 3-4 hour nap... and sometimes he will take 2 shorter naps. 

Driving in the car:
Stephen is very quite when driving (riding).  He is not a fan of getting put in his car seat and fights it quite a bit.  But once buckled he just watches out his window.  However, when him and John get into a little big yelling match ... OY!  They are super loud! We are in the phase of , Beef looked at me! He looked out my window! He is talking! He ....you get the point.  And that is when they both start yelling at each other.  Stephen thinks it is a fun game, so he is laughing and proud of how loud he can get while John is usually upset and does not think it is funny.  This surely turns into a big power struggle on the road... something we are working on!

Biscuit:
Stephen's favorite thing right now is his dog, Bup and his book, Biscuit.  He loves to carry around his dog and loves his book from Gramma Mitty.  He has 4 dogs, and would carry them all, all the time if he could. 

Playing:
Stephen is starting to do imaginative play.  He will take a car and drive it around, read to his dog, eat play food, etc.  He is also interested in "self-help" too.  He will brush his hair alone and say, nice, try to take off his clothes or try to put them on.  He really is good at entertaining himself.... not to say he plays alone all day but, he is happy to do it and can stay busy building blocks, looking at books etc.

A couple other little things:
When we tell him he is cute, he rolls his eyes up and smiles as he tilts his head.... a little dramatic? Yes, but So CUTE!  It gives me a laugh every time. :)
When we eat, he is starting to fold his hands and pray with us as a family.  A very touching thing as a parent to watch. 

Love you Stephen!!!  18 months... you are getting SO OLD!! :'(

Giving Biscuit a kiss good night! <3

Putting Stephen to sleep

One of my favorite jobs as his mom!  He is super snugly.  I (or Ryan if he is putting him to sleep) sing him a little song of "Night - night Beef, everybody goes to sleep"  and he cuddles right in to sleep, literally in like 2 minutes, tops.  If it takes longer then that I sing On top of spaghetti.... don't ask why... it just came to me one night and stuck. :)

On a side note: He has been getting up in the night a bunch this past week... I am hoping that he is just getting teeth and this too shall pass. 
This morning he got up at 5am- I was not ready to surrender to starting my day that early, so I gave him some books in his bed and told him to read to Bup.  Well, he did just that- I could hear him saying, "Bup! Bup! Book.  Bup! Bup! Book." Loved it- and I got to go back to sleep (as did he... must have been a bit of a boring book) until 7! :) Yahoo!

 

Ice Skating

Today John went ice skating for his second time and Stephen went for a "spin" around the rink! 

They both were smiling ear to ear the whole time!!

West St. Paul Rink:







 

Christmas Eggs

This morning I had enough coffee!  HA We made Christmas eggs--  using the cookie cutters from St. Nick.

John did almost the whole thing himself! (I clearly did the stove parts...)  Stephen stood closely next to me and watched each step.  He will be ready to help next time- for sure with the bread cutting part.  :)
This is a very fun, kid friendly breakfast!

These make for a great snack while the eggs cook, at least if you ask the boys they will tell you that!

 


Here are a couple from after St. Nick came yesterday....

From the mouth of John...

John has been saying some very funny things lately-

Last night Stephen didn't have a shirt on.  We were all playing Legos as a family when John noticed Stephen's nipple.  Ryan and I knew this wasn't going to be good.  He pointed to it saying, "boob!"  Ryan and I chuckled to ourselves a bit (with out John seeing) and then told him that wasn't polite, and not to say that word.  Then, our problem only got worse... because John's gears were already turning!  EEEEK, he looked at me, lifted his shirt and said, "You Thirsty??? NUM-NUM-NUM!"
Oy, no John. I am not.

A couple days ago, John was standing at the Kitchen table.  As he was holding on to the table with 2 hands, he lifted up one foot and crossed it over his other knee.  Then he looked up at me and said, "MOM! Me no need 2 feet!!!  Me need one foot!"  I thought it was pretty cute... him saying that as he was white knuckling the table to stay standing as he stood on his 1 "necessary" foot.

haha... The potty training continues.... seamless?  No, but we are working on it as a team.

Stephen's TALKING!

Stephen has been making a great effort to try many many new words!! 
Here are some of the words he can say:

-Egg
-Eye
-Nose
-Ear
-NO!!!
-Mine
-John
-Mom
-Daddy
-Papa
-Nanny
-Pup  (Bup- his 4 stuffed dogs)
-Juice
-Tootles
-Bye
-Hi
-Elmo
-Up
-Down
-Night-night (he even sings his Bup to sleep at night: "ni-ni Bup" 
-Out
-Num-num
- Da-Bae (that's his form of thank you... he came up with it on his own and uses it correctly, so I am just rolling with it!)  :))
- Sorry
- Ball (Baa)
- Bath
- Hat (haa)
- Boot
- Ouch
- More
- Baseball
- WOW!
AND the million dollar word....
--  BUT WHY????

Some of his words seem to "fall off" before he gets the last sound(s) out on some harder words...
He is really willing to try to say any word I ask him to say- even if what comes out sounds nothing like the word I am asking. :)  Loads of positive re-enforcement!


He is also very interested in all that comes with having your big brother potty training!  He wants to be nude, sit on the potty and get treats for "pushing" -- SJ has not had a successful run on the toilet yet, but he likes being included in the process.  Favorite part? Flushing John's business.

12/7 Update:
Since I typed that all...  Stephen is now saying Noodle, Apple and Nice. :)  He is doing such an amazing job at talking!! I love that he is starting to be able to communicate with words. 

Tribute to Frosty and Albert; Brothers, Best Friends

This morning I woke up to a blog entry; Frost Mug.  Rachel explains the whole story best- please read it below...  I will attach a couple pictures of Albert.  Then you can see how they were really brothers, owned by best friends. :)  And, YES they fought JUST like brothers!!
Sorry for your loss Dietsch Family.

Rachel's Blog...
http://shedidsomethingaboutit.blogspot.com/

Albert Takes on a Black Lab





























Albert (died September 2008??  Family, help me with this...)

Kelli teaching Albert to shake.

Jolly Old St. Nick!

I sure feel JOLLY tonight! :) 

The boys should be thrilled when they wake-up tomorrow morning!!!
Their 3 favorite things:
1. Playing outside
2. Helping in the Kitchen
3. Play-Doh

.... this year it was eazy-peezy! ;) 
Rudolph Snow Hats!
Christmas Cookie Cutters!
A 4 Pack of Play-Doh!

Tomorrow will be a super day! 

Happy St. Nick's Day Everyone!!