While baby updates are very focused on reaching milestones, toddler updates are straight up things that I want to remember about this stage of life.
Things to remember about Shae in the now:
~His made up language. He will just randomly start speaking in a foreign tongue while he is playing. But mostly, it's names of things. For example:
One day while cooking he said, "I the chef, you the boageya." Later I asked, "What do we need to put in next?" He said, "the laleelo" or "the tikita." He named our pumpkins something like, Cheen Cheen, Chinto, and Shika."
~How he will randomly stop, put his hands out, look at his fingers and shout, "Ahk! Raisin Fingers!"
~How he says "faster" when he really means "louder." Every. Single. Time. In the car: Mom. Make the music faster! No faster! Or: Mom, I need the TV show faster.
~He loves sending and getting mail. Everyday he asks for paper and an envelope to send something to someone. Sometimes I write this on the envelope because it's just expensive to send things as often as he wants:
But he does love writing his grandmas and aunts and uncles and asks to check the mailbox often to see if he got anything from them.
~How he has started using time words, but clearly doesn't know what they mean. Every time we leave the house, he gets to the bottom stairs and says, "Last night, I fall here." Or he'll say, "Yesterday I superhero! I go trick-or-treat!" I just love how he randomly throws a time word in.
~Along with that, I love how he has started to say maybe, actually, and sure. Sure has pretty much replaced yes. I asked, "Shae did you nap with daddy?" He answered, "Sure mom, I do nap with daddy." I asked, "Do you want to come eat your eggs?" He said, "Maybe, I don't eat eggs." I just love seeing the wheels turn in his head as he figures out this whole English language business. At the park the other day we were swinging. There was a little boy by us. I said, "I will be careful not to kick you while I swing." Shae also chimed in and said, "I don't kick you...either." I know it is such a small thing but I could just seem him searching for that word and then saying it. He would have normally said, "I don't kick you too." But he didn't! He said either! It was just a cool moment that I always want to remember.
~After
this post, I really did think that napping had come to an end. I just can't give it up... poor Shae, the things I put him through, but he just oh so needs a nap most days. (Or is it more that I need him to take a nap most days...it's definitely both). We started laying down with him in our bed for his nap time and it worked really well for a few weeks. He's gotten a bit more difficult about it and it takes longer these days (because of his constant weird requests of putting the blankets on him in a certain way, then on me in certain way, then jumping out of bed and back in a few times...) but it still usually works if we are persistent enough. I've had quite a few precious moments with him after he finally falls asleep and I just lay there watching him sleep. Kids are just oober precious when they are sleeping, am i right?
And don't you love this itty bitty space that I was granted to sleep in. He tends to push himself right up against me before he crashes.
~I know I say this in every Shae post, but how can I not. He is obsessed with building houses. He builds at least one a day, not always in the same places throughout the house. Most days on the living room floor or the couch, but other days he decides to "build" it in his sister's crib, or his bed, or my bed.
A "house" that was made on the couch.
A "house" made in Belen's bed.
One made in our bed.
A mobile home that followed Belen arond the living room.
~How leaving the house is the worst thing in the world. (Maybe I do want to forget this one...) How I put his shoes on him and he immediately takes them off and runs away. How he bends his knees and won't stand up for me to take his pants off to help him go potty before we leave. How all of a sudden his toys are the bees knees and he wants to play with every single one of them instead of go anywhere.
~EVERYTHING is either a ball or a bat. A balloon, an acorn, a rock...they pair nicely with a bowling pin, a stick, or a spoon. He is pretty obsessed with baseball, which we kind of love. He walks around "singing" the Tomahawk Chop chant that the fans sing at Braves games. If he's not singing that he's running around saying, "Let's go BYU!"
~I've been so nervous to introduce paint to him. It just seemed like a disaster waiting to happen, so I figured it could wait a long time. But then when I was painting my box, bathtub to be, I let him paint on some of the scraps of cardboard and he just thought it was the coolest thing ever. So, now he paints. I think he enjoys watching the water change colors more than the actual painting part, whatever floats your boat. His paint is all mixed and messy (another reason I was hesitant to let him paint, even though I knew that would happen, it still hurts to watch). We're going through paper and paint like crazy, but he just loves it.
~His drawings are slightly more than just scribbles all over a paper. He has started to draw faces and one day he drew this little stick figure. What!? It's these little things that make a mamas heart grow.
~He has discovered his nostrils and is constantly touching the tip of them.
~He uses him/her instead of he/she. "Her coming too?" Oh man, this is like nails on a chalkboard to me. I knew this would happen, but you just can't prepare yourself for something like this.
Things he has said recently:
~He came out of his room (fake) crying, "Mom, I hurt my eyebrows."
~While I was tucking him in one night, "I want the soft side, not the grouchy side." (scratchy side--one side of the blanket is softer than the other).
~While watching the I am a Child of God video on Youtube I say, "Shae, sing along." He says, "But mom, I AM singing. My body is singing." Then he starts to sway back and forth and pat his belly, "It IS singing."
One day during nap time when he wouldn't nap...I was working on the computer. When he would come over to me I would ask, "Shae are you ready to nap now?" One time he answered, "No, mom. I no nap. I a working man."
This boy.
We can't get enough.
