Phonetic ABC Box

Ace is getting really good at recognizing his alphabet thanks to the moveable alphabet box.    However, that is only one part on the road to reading; he needs to learn what sounds those letters make.   I came across another great idea via Pinterest on Pink and Green Mama to create an ABC Box.  I knew that Ace would love it. 

What is essential to make an ABC Box is choking hazards  small items easily identified and we had quite a few around the house.  To kick start the box (which I got from Amazon for $15) and I ordered a bag of doodads from HighPie on Etsy.  She also has a listing for 26 doodads that are every letter of the alphabet, but I chose a 50 piece set for more - that and I'm a sucker for grab bags.  :)   Between the grab bag and  previously owned item  I was still coming up short on some letters the standard Q, X, and Y and to my surprise A, I and J.  This is when I got to searching on Bing for images of things, printed out a sheet of various items.   I then laminated and cut them and they were ready to go in each of the boxes.  
 

A, a: alligator, avocado, ant, anchor, axe, acorn, arrow, apple



P, p: penguin, puzzle piece, polar bear, pom pom, purple peanut, paperclip, pencil

S, s: stamp, scissors, sun, snowflake, star, shell, stingray, soda, shark, stroller, sandal, snake

Things that I used for other hard letters included a lot of Bing images but I did have some items:  I,i: igloo, ice skates, ice, and ice cream; J, j: jar, jacks, and jam, Q,q: queen, quail, quarter and qtip; V, v: velcro, vase, vacuum, violin, and volcano;  X,x:   xylophone, and xray; Y, y: yak, yarn, and yo yo; and Z,z: zebra, zigzag, and zipper.

I bought a sheet of scrapbook alphabet stickers and put them on each of the drawers and with my son we began to sort in various sittings through the different items.  Helping him from the get go to see what items sounded like.   A few items I let him decide what they were: the cup with the straw could have been a coke, a soda, a drink in his eyes and so I wanted him to tell me so that I wasn't fighting the title of the object in the middle of a phonetic lesson.   With everything sorted I then grabbed one lower and upper case of each letter from his moveable alphabet box and put them each of the drawers.   Finally his alphabet box was ready to begin working with.

He LOVED it from the start - in fact he was loving it so much that he would sneak down in the morning before we were awake and 'do school' with it.   Which would be ok except for the choking hazard items and while I had a good idea on what was in each box I wasn't totally positive of each item.   So that created the need to create a cover for it - which has proven to be just what I hoped it would be 'out of sight, out of mind'  and so he only does it when I am around and working with him. 

One of the ways Ace enjoys working with his ABC Box is that we take out two drawers and he sorts through them on his felt and he place them under the correct letter.   He enjoys this - and even does well when certain letters switch sounds like  C for cat and C for chalk.  

Overall it's been a good tool that he's enjoying using and as I find new items (those miniature erasers are GREAT for these boxes) we'll continue to add, replace, and change up the various items in his box.   Start up costs for our box: $15 for the box, $3 for the letter stickers, $5 for the doodads, and another $2 for a set of erasers that I picked up. A grand total of $25.   Well worth it - we've certainly gotten our money's worth already.

Linked up at:  Living Montessori Now, Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas, Imagination Tree, and Classified: Mom

Song Titles

Since Ace began sleeping in his own bed, we have been singing songs to him as part of his bedtime routine... sometimes traditional children's songs. Other times not. With each of them though Ace comes up with his own title and we the parents are forced to decipher the code and wrack our brains to figure out which song he's speaking of. As he's gotten older they're a tad easier to figure out. :) Ace's playlist in no particular order is as follows:


The Children Song AKA Jesus Loves the Little Children
The Deer Song AKA As The Deer
The Rainbow Song AKA Somewhere Over the Rainbow (he has since evolved on most nights to requesting this by it's proper title... it makes me a little sad.)
The Dawnser Song AKA The National Anthem (guess who sung that one first? And I love that it's "Dawnser" for the 'dawn's early light')
The Infantry Song AKA The Lord's Army
The Wee Little Man Song AKA Zaccheus Was a Wee Little Man

The B-I-E Song AKA The B-I-B-L-E

Twinkle Twinkle AKA Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

I'm sure there are others and if I think of them I'll add them to the list to preserve this fleeting time in our little guy's life. As there will come a time he doesn't want me to sing at all.

Thirty Months Old

Happy Half Birthday, Ace!
Ace is officially 2.5! It just seems like a few months ago we were celebrating eighteen months, time certainly flies when you're having fun!

Newities of the last six months: singing, sleeping all night in his own bed exclusively, trips to California Adventure, pumpkin carving, trick or treating, backfloating, TWO nights away from mom and dad, a new sister, nightmares, and "the questions".

Yes lots of new milestones and things have been accomplished and learned in this last six months. Ace's vocabulary and curiosity continue to astound us daily. He knows how to transition words a current favorite quote from CARS "It's creeping me out!" When I asked him what he was talking about (as he was saying this when the movie was not playing) he responded "Lightening McQueen was creeped out when Mater was driving backwards." It just amazes me that he knows this stuff - it's not like we sat him down and taught him past and present tense, but he certainly has it down. It's just down right impressive how he knows so much. Partially because he listens and asks when he's wanting to know more. "What are you telling me?" is a common phrase and yes THE QUESTIONS have recently made their appearance. "The questions"? If you have a toddler, work with toddlers, or have seen them on tv... you know what I mean: "WHY?" "Because _______" "WHY?" We try really hard to not say "Because I said so." But man is that a challenge after the fifth why.

Sleep in the last six months has been some super highs and some recent discouraging lows. Around this age is when nightmares develop in toddlers. Nightmares also develop when their is major change to a toddler's world... so the combined factor of age and a new sister - Ace has embraced unwillingly as the rest of us: nightmares... nearly every night. Which also results in the stubborn and fear of not wanting to sleep at all because of fear and resistance of more nightmares to come. It really isn't the best time for this onset, and we are all dealing with them one sleepless night at a time. I am hopeful he'll outgrow them sooner than some kids, but we'll see. I'm still thrilled that he sleeps in his own bed every night! That still is a major accomplishment - even if he's reverted back to waking 2-5 times a night - he stays in his own bed and doesn't sleep in ours anymore.

Healthwise we've had a decent six months. In late September he had a cluster of stomach bugs that affected him while we were visiting in California, another one got to him in November that made for one sleepless night for all of us, and a random fluke of vomit on New Year's Day. He was completely healthy the entire month of December and so far this winter has really only had one cold and that was pretty mild. I'm hopeful for this trend to continue so that we can all remain pretty healthy while his baby sister is still young.

Ace's love for reading continues to abound. He often would prefer to read stories to playing or watching tv. It's great. We recently have started to read a "longer" book at the dinner table so that he has to recall from memory the previous chapters. I started this off with Stuart Little - since each chapter is a small story by itself more or less. He claims that he doesn't recall what previously happened to Stuart when we ask him at the table before starting the next chapter, but then he'll tell me all about it when not prompted at a different time. Ace's favorite book right now is "Cuddle" and we read it nearly every night. He also has a devotions book that I acquired for him this fall that are devotions for Toddlers. Which allows for us to discuss God and Jesus surrounding a variety of topics and it provides him with a small prayer to say every night on such topic. It's great to see him inquire more about Jesus; asking what he is made of, where does he live, etc.. When he is scared he wants to pray to Jesus to help him feel safe, and he loves to pray for his family. It's wonderful to see him learning and growing in the Lord.

Ace has developed a love of puzzles and enjoys building his big floor puzzles whenever we'll let him. I'd say he helps and can do about 25% of them at this stage. His board puzzles he can do entirely by himself. He also is very much in love with Lego building - and the destruction of the items built. For about 2 months now he's been asking for more legos for his birthday. It's pretty adorable to see him thinking ahead and I am on the look out for cheap duplos. :) Another favorite in these last few months has been playdoh! He loves to get it out and make all sorts of different things. And most of all he loves to run around! He still loves to go on walks with his dad and obtain 'walk rocks' with him. They walk pretty far in our neighborhood and beyond. They have a good time together.

Teeth wise we're almost done reporting on his teeth count (until they start to fall out!) his bottom two molars are almost all the way in - and so all he has left to come in are his top two year old molars. Excellent! He has a dentist appointment on the 3rd of March, so hopefully he gets a good report. He does well to brush and floss his teeth every night.

Often Ace can be found singing around the house while playing by himself. He currently enjoys singing "Twinkle Little Star" as well as "ABCs" Which he says "QRS... LMNOP... QRS... LMNOP" Over and over again. It's cute. He also sings to help calm sister down or requests that I sing to do the same. He asks for me to sing to him as well including the "Wee little man" song - as in Zacchaeus was a wee little man... He also currently enjoys "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and of course "Jesus Loves Me" we sing songs to him (and with him) before bed. It's very sweet.

Ace has had a wonderful six months and continues to grow and thrive and 99% of the time be a very sweet boy. He's stretching and growing in his world and finding his way, but he's doing so respectfully and lovingly as he, a two year old can. I look forward to these next six months leading up to our new adventure of THREE! Happy Half Birthday, Bear!

Want a review of all of Ace's milestone 'birthdays'? When he was two? Eighteen months? One month?

What are you telling me?

What are you telling me? What are you saying to me?

These are phrases that Ace has been using almost every time after we've asked him to do something, or have told him something. He's trying to understand more in depth what we mean when we ask something and I find it endearing... mostly. Sometimes he uses it as a stall tactic in not doing what we've asked him to do. Although a good portion of the time he has a genuine curiosity about the why of what we're asking of him.

He is such a quick learner and truly enjoys to learn and understand how things work, why they are done in a certain way. I love to watch his brain work. I hope he continues to have an appetite for knowledge.

Ace's 2010

2010 has been quite the year for our family and especially Ace. We went from a co-sleeping family to adults only again in our bed. We went from a 20 word talker to a 10-12 sentence opinionated talker. We went from have a walker to a runner, climber, jumper, daredevil.

It was a year of growing up for Ace. He has accomplished so many things in this past year and it has been a joy to experience all of them. As I mention many many times - he is a kind and sweet spirited boy - who loves others and isn't a selfish kid. I truly hope that his kind heart continues as he gets older, sister arrives, and he continues to grow and flourish into his third year of life. 2011 certainly won't be boring for him or us!

So how has Ace's year been? Well let's hit the major areas:

I think out of everything sleep has been our greatest challenge - one area that is still not mastered but is leaps and bounds beyond where we started 2010. On January 2nd we converted his crib to the toddler bed. From this point forward he went to sleep in his own bed at night. Usually with mom nursing him to sleep. Ace never slept for longer than 4(ish) hours at a time and always came into our bed after that first waking. We had some early success after transitioning him to the toddler bed... and some set backs as well. The night he slept for an epic 11 hours with only one waking was a party moment for us! Ace weened from nighttime breastfeeding around March and by mid March experienced a (late! at 19 months) first: he slept through the night! Yipee!

From March-September sleeping went in waves, he had pockets of regression and would wake and come to our bed at 1am, other times he'd sleep till nearly 4am and then come to our bed. Sleeping through the night was a RARE activity and only did a handful of times over the next six months. In September, Ace got a new bed that had magical powers helped him sleep better. Within the first few days of this new bed he was sleeping longer and even through the night a few times. It was then that I decided to create an incentive program to continue this excellent trend. So in late October, Operation Stickers was introduced. For every night that he slept through the night and/or stayed in his OWN bed (even if I had to go in and lay with him for a few minutes) he got a sticker on his calendar the next morning. From the moment we started the sticker program - with only 3 exceptions (one of which was him getting sick) he stayed all night in his bed. While sleeping thru the night is still a hit or miss wonder - if he does wake up it isn't a very long drawn out ordeal - it's a moment or two to go in and reassure him he's safe and to go back to sleep. I hope in 2011 that we will be fully sleeping through the night on a regular basis!

In the beginning of 2010 Ace had about 20 words that he was working with... and in fact it was in his 19th month that he uttered his first phrase that he enjoyed using regularly with enthusiasm! "I did it!" Whether he was feeding the cats or just turning the page in a book - he was excited to say it. Words began to pour out of his rapidly after that. Having read to Ace since he was still in the womb, he has always had a natural love for books and so always wants to read more and more stories throughout the day. He also loves to look at pictures on the laptop and his memory is chalked full of past things we've told him, he's heard, or observed - and they flow from him at any moment he can seem to connect them to something we're in the middle of doing.
Talking

A lot of times Loving Husband and I will look at one another and say 'we're in trouble!' :) Ace isn't quite ready to read books, or even terribly interested in learning his letters. However, he is extremely good at repeating after us when we read a book to him and has a good foundation for pattern matching in general, so I think reading will be on an early horizon for him in 2011. Ace also has been trying out his chops with singing. It's adorable to hear him sing a beat behind us (or even with us) 'Jesus Loves Me' or around Christmas time 'Jingle Bells' - we occasionally will hear him singing to himself - and he also enjoys making up songs. I love it.

Illness
Ace like all kids had his rounds with colds and flues in 2010. In March he experienced the flu for the first time - it was an all day affair and a relatively unhappy boy. However, he rebounded from that just fine. In the spring he had a runny nose or two, nothing to sneeze (ha!) over and then summer rolled around. Right as Ace turned 23 months old, he had another night with vomit. We thought another stomach virus - but as the days and symptoms at random persisted the common diagnosis of 'stomach virus' was looking less and less likely. Eventually, Ace was diagnosed with Clostridium Difficile Infection, he was placed on a 10 day antibiotic to be taken 4x a day and he slowly recovered. A month later he had a clustering of viruses that resulted in 3 separate days within a week of having more vomit. Mommy was frightened and convinced the C. Diff bacteria had not been eradicated. As it turns out it had and ultimately Ace recovered from that round of viruses. November, we saw another stomach bug and a few colds and it looks like we'll be able to close out December illness free! Let's continue to hope that the rest of winter when his sister is tiny, he remains healthy and happy!

Bonks
It's always curious to document your child's injuries in one centralized location. Makes ya' wonder if there is some CPS worker trolling the blogs looking for neglectful parents to cause havoc with. I'll take my chances for the sake of remembering and being able to explain later where he got 'that' scar from. Just kidding - to date no scars have been formed. His skin is still in that awesome - repair itself at all costs - phase and so he's doing a-ok! In early February Ace experienced his first true 'injury' - the first to require a trip into the doctor. Ace while playing in the playroom backed into the space heater that was on and caused a 3rd degree-1st degree burn. Meaning that it was still a 'superficial' burn but the worst of those kind. The doctor wasn't too worried, we kept it moisturized and it never blistered so there was no real chance for infection because of it. While he was sad in the moment - overall he was fine and he doesn't have to explain any fish-scale scars to his friends later in life. His leg healed and there isn't a trace of them left.


Other injuries in 2010 included a decent scrape on his back from playing in his car and two fingers that got mild blistering on them due to him touching the burner of a coffee machine. Ironically, he obtained both of those in his 23rd month. Overall for 2010 - 12 months with a toddler, that ain't half bad. Toss in a few bruises, rug burns, and the occasional scratch and Ace had a pretty unscathed year!


Ace started off 2010 still making mommy nervous with his eating habits. There were many days that I would count calories and be nervous for him at how low the numbers really were. Ace continued to breastfeed until just past 19 months, however the doctor said she was never worried about his growth. Between his 18 months appointment and his 24 month appointment he dropped off the scale entirely. However, by 24 months he was back on the scale... still in the bottom 10% for weight, but he was on it! Someone has to make up that bottom percentage! In February he weighed 20.6lbs (1.29%) and by August he weighed 23lbs. When he went back in October after that cluster of viruses - he had gained another pound! Impressive considering his otherwise slow rate of increase. As the remainder of the year has gone forward he continues to feel heavier - and on Christmas on Pop Pop's scale he weighed 26.1lbs (clothed.) Height wise at his 2 year appointment he was 34.5" and he is probably closer to a solid 36" now.


His eating habits are better than they were at the beginning of the year. I no longer feel I have to count his calories. There are some days he eats very little and others he scarfs down a ton of food that even surpasses my ability. He ceased using the high chair this summer and is now fully enjoying the excitement of sitting like a big boy at the table. He uses a 'big boy' cup at meals, while still using a sippy cup throughout the day and in bed. He for the most part is capable of feeding himself and does well with spoons and forks. Although if we're looking for a more speedy meal -mom and dad are still the experts at shoveling it all in! Appetite wise he will eat a variety of flavors and foods. He loves to go get Thai food with dad, he'll eat chips and salsa like a pro, and he loves spicy nacho dorritos. He isn't yet too into sweets and while he will ask for a piece of candy - he doesn't want to eat a massive pile of it yet - I think our days are numbered in that department. :) Since having the C. Diff we have had him on probiotics every day since mid-September. They are a powder that we put into a cup of milk and refer to them as his 'vitamins' nearly every morning he enjoys himself a banana and his vitamins first off. We plan to keep him on them through the winter and then we'll only utilize them during times of illness after that. Ace loves oatmeal and cereal, turkey, nuggets, and as mentioned Thai food. He will happily eat vegetables and likes to dip his food. Thus far he's a pretty good eater and his manners are slowly coming. We're working on the 'don't walk with your mouth full' at the moment.

As I said - it's been a busy and exciting year for us. Ace learned he was going to be a big brother and has embraced that role with enthusiasm thus far. He loves to talk to sister, bring her toys, 'rock' her, and even sing to her. He is going to go from the only child to one of two - and while many survived this transition just fine - I hope and pray that he has an easy time with it. We all are looking forward to what 2011 has to offer Ace and his busy-self.


Eating
Growth
Sleep

Pronouncing Things...

Like with all children as they learn to talk children create their own words or variations of words. We NEVER talked baby-talk to Ace, nor did we tolerate it from well meaning friends, family, or strangers. Ace has always been provided the official word for almost everything. He does get some 'kid' terms like for his ice pack - which we refer to as his 'boo-be-gone' and I am sure there are a smattering of other things that have had unique terms adopted to them. However, for the most part as a rule, Ace is taught the proper word from the get go.

I believe this is partially why he has such a good vocabulary and sentence structure at the age of 2 (27 months.) He has in recent weeks started to read 'with' me - where we run through the exercise of me reading a story one word at a time and he repeats after me. We have been doing this with his Advent 'Calendar' which are mini-books with the telling of the Christmas story - and he is able to repeat 'frankincense' with no issue. Don't get me wrong he still has some words mushed together, and proper pronunciation doesn't come with every word - but he still seems leaps and bounds ahead when it comes to speaking.

We recently started reading every night before bed a devotional book for toddlers and each one comes with a prayer. I say the prayer first and the we go into 'repeat' mode and he fold his hands and says the prayer himself - with an enthusiastic AMEN! at the end. It is so sweet, and I love that he is excited to do it.

Monday in the doctor's office - our doctor was astonished that after consuming some dried apples and having some dust on his fingers he looked at his hand and up at her and said "Oh I just need a napkin." She couldn't believe it. These things don't strike me as astonishing since he's been doing it for months now - but I guess for a two year old it is pretty impressive and I should give him the credit and allow others to relish in his 'advancement'.

He still has a few gems that I hold tightly to, he still refers to music as 'merser' and bananas as 'banas' and he has recently switched from saying 'I am' to 'I are' or 'I'm are' - I appreciate them because while I love that he is such a little man with an extensive vocabulary and a great sense of language and words, I still like the glimpse of my little boy. He quickly outgrew the "ee" phase and I missed it when it was gone. He has been in conversation now for some time and while I love it, I miss my little boy.

Enjoy this video of us reading one of his Toy Story books.

And this one of my unprepared interview skills where we discuss a smattering of things, primarily the need for the Christmas lights to 'take a break' :)

Craziness & Conversation

Life around here feels crazy. I'm not sure if it truly is anymore crazy than normal, but it certainly feels that way. Not sure why - but in some regard I hope the feeling passes or a new normalcy sets in. Whew. Aside from the craziness feeling, life is great. Ace is doing wonderfully, talking up a storm. He holds lengthy conversations now and discusses all sorts of things. Impressing pretty much every new person he meets with his vocabulary and ability communicate so clearly. He's doing great. Here's a small video of Ace discussing what he had to eat, wants to eat, and where it is located. :)

Twenty-One Months Old

Goodness gracious! I almost have a two year old. Yikes! When on earth did this happen??? Ace is growing and thriving and we as parents are loving every second of it. Every stage seems to be more and more fun!

Ace hasn't had a teeth update in a while, but he has one more officially almost all the way in and 3 more 'sharp' teeth poking through - they still are creeping extremely slowly through the surface. His final set of molars I think are also making some signs of movements under the gums, but I think the real level of teething for those are a still a ways off for him.

Health wise Ace has been doing pretty good. A few weeks ago he had a round with a runny nose, but it didn't slow him down much. He just needed his nose wiped A LOT and for being a squirmy little guy, he did very well with that task. He seems to be growing and according to the scale at PopPop's he weighs 21.6lbs - pretty decent for his slow rate of gaining weight (he was 20lbs at 18 months) He continues to gain height though and I swears seems taller every day.

Sleeping still isn't perfected, but it certainly is a vast improvement from what it was in January. His bed was recalled so he's simply sleeping on his mattress on the floor, but it works basically the same and actually has a shorter distance to fall out of bed. :) He in the last couple of weeks has been extending the hours he slept. The other night he slept from 9pm-6am and then toddled into our room for another 2 hours of snoozing. He's getting better and getting the rest he needs all on his own. He's doing great lately falling asleep without us having to sit in the room and awaiting him to render himself unconscious - we have gotten the routine down and he knows he is safe and we are able to leave the room after we finish saying his prayers. 90% of the time he falls asleep on his own now without one of us in the room waiting for it. The other Ace and I enjoyed ourselves a 'camp out' in the play room. I set up his tent and the air mattress for me, and he slept for 8 hours before he snuck another 2 with me on the air mattress. It was fun and he fell asleep under the 'stars' of his turtle nightlight. :)

His vocabulary continues to improve and adding more and more multiple syllable words daily. He doesn't often bring them up on his own, but repetition is his friend these days. That also means we have to watch what we say very carefully :)

Ace enjoyed his first dip of the season in the kiddie-pool this month a few weeks back with his cousin, Parker. He has enjoyed many many visits to the park with mom, dad, his grandparents. He is certainly an outdoorsy boy. He is getting really good at climbing up and going down slides all on his own. He enjoys playing in the neighborhood, although he could take or leave the other kids. He at the moment is a very independent player.

Ace has enjoyed a full day of play with his grandparents last Friday which allowed mom to get some free time, of which she is forever grateful for! And Ace spent another 24hrs with just his dad. They did great together and mom enjoyed a bachelorette party. :) Ace also has spent the last two weeks almost the entire time in Toddler-1 at church. He's growing up and gathering a bit more Independence away from his parents. Although being left in T-1 at chuch still musters quite a racket when we first leave :-# But it will get better, I'm sure.

Summer is coming - although the weather is hard pressed to relinquish it to us - and we're looking forward to lots of outdoor fun and excitement! :)

Seriously Fabulous

Ace is talking up a storm! He is growing every day and his understanding of language continues to advance in a rapid rate that is astonishing to ... well everyone. Yesterday, he repeated 'seriously' almost perfectly and 'fabulous' with his own twist 'fabuess' It is adorable. I love to hear his new words. I love that after he sneezes (or someone else does) he says 'bess you' (even when no one else is in the room!) I love that he asks to say 'prayers' every night before sleeping. I love that he comes over during his play time and asks for a 'hug' and when he wants me to hug him tighter he says 'hold' I love to hear him communicate with us. He makes me smile every day!

Twenty Months Old

 Ace is twenty months old today. He is an extremely happy boy, who likes to jump on his bed, point out airpeens (airplanes), and who surprises us daily with new words that he's learned.

Ace's vocabulary continues to surprise us on an almost daily basis. Words that he used to say with his own 'spin' to them like 'Booma' are almost completely formed now into 'bana' (banana.) In fact I technically missed that transformation. Yes, for the first time since Ace was born - I left the state - without him. He stayed with his dad for the weekend, while I went to Cali to surprise a friend for her baby shower. He did great and while I was missed, it was not a tragedy that I was gone. Also this past month he got to have his first sleepover at Gran and PopPop's house! We were all a bit unsure how he'd handle it - but he did great! He's growing up!

He has definitely started to eat better this month, but actual packing on the pounds seems to still elude him. Not sure if it cause for concern just yet, but we're watching him. He still seems healthy, happy and overly full of energy so we're not worried. :) But he's eating full force now and averages about 1000 calories a day - which is SO much better than he was doing. Some days we even near 1300, but those days are more rare. He loves bananas! And he also loves oatmeal. He's gotten so excited about oatmeal, it is often his first word when he awakens. One morning he got out of our bed, scampered downstairs and the husband and I listened as he opened the pantry door, slid the chair over to the pantry, got down the box of oatmeal and brought a packet upstairs to us - all the while chanting 'oatmeal' - apparently he wanted to eat some. ;-) He also is a HUGE fan of yogurt - and we buy the fattest that we can find.

Ace also weened from breastfeeding shortly after he turned 19 months old. It was a struggle for about a week - but afterwards he caught on that there was no more mama milk and now it doesn't even cross his mind... and I still feel loved - so I feel that we are successfully weened.

Sleep continues to improve bit by bit. He now consistently is sleeping at least 5 hours a night before waking and coming into our room - and has one other time slept through the night (9.25 hours) so he's doing better and I think is getting more comfortable sleeping in his own bed.

His canine teeth are nearly ready to come in and so that has been bothering him the last few weeks. One of them has broken through the surface and the other three aren't far behind.

Terrible Twos and the pushing of independent boundaries are in full force around here. While he seems to have mostly moved on from bashing his forehead into the ground when he's tantruming - he's gone a new route in order to seek trouble and that is destruction. Yes, yesterday he was in rare (thank the Lord!) form when he made several messes, and destroyed a strand of pearls. Nothing that's irreparably damaged but still it made for one icky morning yesterday.

Ace is doing really well playing with others and still loves his friend 'Bria' (Sabria) - they play well together - and Ace also loves to hug his new friend 'Bebe' (Kyler, Sabria's brother.) It's really cute to watch them all interact together. Ace also really likes kitchen things. He loves to cook, and help us cook. I found a good Craigslist find of the Little Tikes BBQ - and he's been having a blast with that (no worries, pictures to come soon!)

He continues to enjoy swim lessons, those started back up this week. He's graduated into the next class level - and once again is the only boy. Although this session he's one of the youngest rather than being one of the older kids. He's still having a blast! He also enjoys his trips to the library, and now that he's a little older, we might even try Toddler Reading Time. Regardless though, he really loves the computer that is there for him to play with.

We are all looking forward to the sun being out more and allowing Ace some good outside run around time. He's going to be a very busy boy this summer.

fooks and eeees

Samee - sandwich

Dinee - dinosaur

Dadee - dad

Blankee - blanket
Neme - Nemo

Ringee - ring

Watee - water

Ace seems to have developed a bit of a language pattern. :) Yes many MANY things end in 'eeee' and not a one is supposed to :) Now with words such as 'water' and 'dad' he doesn't always have them ending in 'eeee' but often they do. I suppose it depends on his mood. :) And yes mommy is in his vocabulary too, as is mama. I love to watch him work out the words, you can see the little wheels turning in there and he's doing great.

This video was taken earlier in the month, so he's already altered how he says some words including the eye widening 'fook' which for the untrained ear is 'fish'. What we're actually doing in the video is looking at the computer and Bing images. At the moment we were on fooks, and Neme more specifically. He also goes on to say Neme, red, orange, green, and a few others. He loves to look at pictures on the computer... I think computers are in his blood. ;-)

Nineteen Months Old

We are barreling full steam ahead toward two! Yep Ace is well on his way to being a toddler entirely and losing all signs of being a baby. In fact in recent weeks new babies have been born and he refers to those as 'bebes' so of course he is not a bebe.

Ace's vocabulary is ever expanding past the point of documentation. I was doing pretty well up until 75 words. But life is busy and he's a-talkin' so it's hard to get them all written down. He has started to say more sentences. As you'll recall his first phrase was 'I did it!' and then shortly followed with 'All done, mama' in just this last week he has started to add more and more. Often by repeating something that I have said, such as when I told Nick to get off the table we were eating at. Ace promptly repeated me 'Nicky getdon' and then two nights ago when he was finished with another round of upchucking he said 'All done, Mama sick yucky.' Yes it is, Bear.

Yes, Ace has had his first touch of the 24-hour flu. Around 2:30am on Tuesday morning Loving Husband woke to Ace coughing and took him into the bathroom - where he proceeded to upchuck his dinner from the night before. He then continued this pattern every hour until about 7:30 - I allowed him to try a little water and he wouldn't take no for an answer when seeking Mama Milk and so I gave that too him knowing the end result would in fact be very messy. Indeed it was. He spewed all the water and milk and was not feeling so hot. Over the next couple of hours he managed to snooze a bit and keep 3 or 4 sips of water and 7up down. Then we ventured to the doctor for a prescheduled appointment to check out a knot under a bruise in his leg (which turned out to be a hematoma and nothing to worry about) At this point he hadn't thrown up since around 8:45, had one shockingly impressive round of diarrhea but was in pretty good spirits. The doctor confirmed the flu and we headed home. He threw up twice on the way home. All over himself and the carseat. I pulled over and mopped up what I could without taking him out and then continued on driving home. He fell right asleep. I managed to get him and the carseat without even a flinch of him waking up. So he slept for an hour sitting in his carseat in the laundry room. Once he woke up he was hard to comfort and very sad. We laid in bed and watched some Nemo and eventually he drifted back to sleep - still not taking anything to drink and yet again wanting milk. :( He finally took some pedialite around 5pm and sipped on that until bedtime. He also managed to eat three crackers without issue and went to sleep with just a bit of water pretty easy by 9. So hopefully today he will get back to normal eating slowly and gaining back his tummy.

Besides that illness, Ace for the most part is doing wonderfully. He's growing like a weed! He's grown at least an inch since his 18 months doctor's appointment and is now wearing a size 7 toddler shoe. He's still as skinny as a rail but he's still gaining weight. I say that confidently considering that he went to the doctor after not eating in 15 hours and vomiting up everything he had eaten and he weighed exactly what he did at 18 months. Which indicates to me that he easily weighed at least one pound more than that prior to the sad bout with sickness.

Ace has started to become very interested in numbers. He knows what 1 is and he can actually point out the #9 - although he often refers to all numbers at 9s - he can say the word numbers as well, and we're working on the 'party trick' of 'Ace how old are you? 2!' :)

In his 19th month Ace slept through the night for the first time!!! Yipee. To say the parents were thrilled, elated, in awe would be an understatement. And while he has yet to repeat this wonderful event, he has been leaps and bounds better at his sleep - which is encouraging.

Ace's 19th month also nearly brings a close to mama milk. We are almost weaned entirely. Yes, WE ... momma has to wean too ... it's a sad thing to let go of that special time with him, but since I don't produce as much any more and it isn't really nutritionally beneficial anymore the time has come. We had been down to 3xs in 24hrs: 7am, nap time, and part of the bedtime routine. Oddly enough the easiest one to cut out was right before bed. He seems content to simply take a sippy cup of water and go to sleep. Nap time is the one that we've been working on this week and that is difficult. But we're surviving. The AM feeding is the last one to go - and perhaps the flu bug has the added 'advantage' of ending the mama milk entirely. Either way we'll be done by April 1st, the current goal.

Swim lessons continue to bring both mama and boy great joy. He has a wonderful time splashing, kicking, and dipping under the water. Back floating while still his nemesis seems to be less objectionable than it always has been before - so perhaps one day he WILL back float. :) He also graduates to PT3! The next session starts again in April and he will be with kids 18mos-3years and will learn to jump off the side of the pool, swim to me, and extended breath control even further. We're both excited for the adventure that is awaiting us.

Ace is a growing happy boy and we cannot wait to dye Easter eggs with him, hunt for them, and enjoy many more upcoming spring time activities.

His first phrase!

Over a month ago when I posted this blog I told you that 'coming soon' would be a post about Ace's first phrase. We had even captured this footage at the time of me writing it - I just never did anything with it. Well here it is 4 weeks later and I am finally getting around to doing something about it. You see Ace at 17.5 months old uttered his first phrase and it was finally captured while he was feeding the kitties breakfast one morning. Enjoy!

He did it! Yep Ace's first phrase was "I did it" Although he officially uttered the phrase in this video - he didn't do it with nearly as much excitement and pride that he often does it with (of course not he was on camera.) :) Normally he squeals the phrase with sheer excitement similar to this. Since his first phrase he's added a new one that he uses whether applicable or not.

His second phrase is "All done Mama" Now sometimes he is "All done, Mama" other times he's "All done (with) Mama" Siiigh. Already?! And then many times he is "All done mama" when he's with Dad and Mama isn't anywhere to be found so he's figuring it out bit by bit.

While I'm talking about language and words I'll document the other words that Ace has added to his vocabulary the last couple of weeks:

blinds, hug (I love this one!), breek (break), broak (broke/broken)
mac (macNcheese), greeps (grapes), haar (hair),
cheken (chicken), wine, ouch, turn, booger

Eighteen Months Old

Happy Half Birthday, my boy!

Yep, Ace is eighteen months old and is thriving more than ever.

He is adding to his vocabulary every day. In addition to the ones he's said in this post he has added (that I can remember):

foook (fish), park, horse, frog, fooose (shoes), noodle, broco (broccoli), coocoo (cookie), cahker (cracker), puc (cup), pap (clap), hep (help), knife, fork, spoon, knock, bebe bear (baby bear), ring, rain, moon, gas (grass), coke (coat), buckle

He loves to read and his reading patience has expanded. His current favorite (this week) is Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? The other night he sat through the entire Butter Battle Book and if you're familiar with the Suessical delight you know it is one of his more lengthy reads. I was impressed. It's rare we make it through a 5-6pg book but that book is 35 pages of text and there are way more than five words per page.

He had his second visit to the dentist today (look for a full report tomorrow!) and for the most part he loved it. He now has 12 teeth including 4 molars! Time to start chewing that food for real now! Speaking of chewing Ace continues to eat like a bird 70% of the time. But he's still running around with plenty of energy and is quite happy to eat whenever he wants to. He has been exposed to M&Ms and he is a fan. Every now and again I will give him a couple - and we use them to count. He's gotten as high as three. :)

Sleep continues to escape us. We've recently switched to the bottle only in the night - and only allowing 'Mama Milk' after 7am (when it is light outside.) We're on night 4 of that - and the last 3 nights in the first stint of sleep he's had 6.5 hours of unbroken sleep, then 4.5 before the cat jumped on him and woke him up, and then last night he got 5.5 hours before he crawled into bed with us. Granted once he did climb into bed last night (at 2:30am) sleep from there on was broken and miserable... so it's a slow go to true success. However in this last month - he did have giant success in that department..

Ace continues to love the movies Toy Story, Cars, and Finding Nemo - although for the most part he cycles between Cars and Toy Story, we don't watch them every day but at least a couple of times a week. He also knows how to turn the tv on and change the channels until he finds a cartoon... or whatever it is that he wants to watch! And NO we did not show him how to do this, he obviously observed us doing it but we never walked him through the steps. He also can change the tuner (?) on the tv from the tv to the dvd 'channel' and then turn the PS2 on and hits the correct button on the controller to make his dvd go. It's frightening how good he is at it.

He loves playing with his toys and his current favorite are his trucks! He has figured out how to push them around on the floor and is having a great time. He loves his kitchen stuff and has even started to 'help' unload the dishwasher. Often we hand him the tupperware and he puts that away. Other times we allow him to put the silverware away - which always starts out helpful and often ends up a giant pile of silverware mounding up in the drawer - which we of course fix after he's all done helping. We don't want to discourage him, so we show him at the beginning how to do it and then after he gets started we try not to nit-pick or correct his methods. He also loves to help cook whenever he can and has a great time helping.

Ace had yet another haircut this month - that makes number 4! I suppose one day I'll stop counting, but not just yet - every one feels like another milestone and symbol of my baby rapidly escaping my grasp. He's started to say 'All done, mama' siiiigh - sometimes he is done with something and just telling me ... other times he's all done with momma. Siiigh.

He's our joy. He's doing so well and it's been a wonderful eighteen months! It doesn't seem like it's been that long - but it has. He's doing great and I love to hear him develop more vocabulary and actually talk with us. Happy Half Birthday, Baby Bear!

Ace's Advances

I've been spending a lot of time talking about Ace's sleep progress it's true, now before you skip over this post in your reader assuming it is yet another post about that very subject, don't. Fear not, it isn't. No today, I wanted to tell you all about Ace's ever expanding vocabulary, ability to count, know left from right, and colors! Yes, while he is far from perfecting the English language he is well on his way to developing a vast vocabulary. He is getting very good at parroting words - many words - and many of those he's including in his regularly used vocabulary. So what new words has Ace added since these? Well to the best of my documenting....

turtle, owl, copter (helicopter), trash, truck, rock, walk, street, hot dog, bush, crocdoe (crocodile), milk, ownj (orange), baa (bath), bobble (bottle), juu (juice), cook, go, anu (aunt), vower (flower), dog, teeth, feet, poop...

The list I am sure is not exhaustive and perhaps he's even been saying a couple of those since before he turned 17 months and he has uttered his first phrase (a separate post coming soon!) We are very proud of how well he seems to be hearing and understanding language. We read to him several times a day, in fact there are some days I feel all we do is read! Although often on those days it is only a page or two of one book before we're onto another one.
He recognizes what a 'number' is and will point to them in his books - although he hasn't quite associate one with the # 1, or two with the # 2, etc, but of course it is a process and he is well on his way. He can discern between one and two things and now seems to be adding three into the mix as well. However, he does not do it every time and he never does it when I turn the video camera on. Siigh. :)

In the last few days he's been doing very well knowing which is his left hand and which is his right hand. We have tested in a dozen times in various scenarios and so far he's about 85% correct so I feel confident that he's beginning to properly distinguish his left from his right - at least as far as it extends to his hands. In one other scenario dealing with his turtle nightlight I told him he had to turn it on first before he could change the colors. The buttons are grouped three and then fourth is offset from the others. I told him he had to push the button on the right. Now whether he understood 'on the right' to be a direction or merely the title of that button - I'm unable to decipher, but he does know that the 'button on the right' turns on the light and the other three change the colors.
Speaking of colors - he is doing very well at identifying - blue, red, and purple. Yellow and orange are not far behind - green is rare and black, brown, pink, white, etc. I haven't really introduced beyond the books we read on colors.

He has always been very intuitive at identify objects that he has previously been shown. So if he sees a dog he will say dog. If we ask him to point out of a series of flash cards he's reviewed before he can remember which one is a 'heart' by sight and many others. He can translate what he sees in one place and identify it in another. For example he has a wall quilt that has many animals on it, when we use his flash cards he identifies all of those animals from the quilt by sight. So the first time we laid out the animal flash cards and asked him to point to the zebra he did, monkey, elephant, and the list goes on! We are very proud of him!
We have started to teach him the alphabet. He received the Leap Frog Fridge Phonics Magnets as a gift for Christmas and loves to play with it while we're working in the kitchen. So he's *sort of* learning his sounds from that although we try to repeat them as he's playing with it - so he can hear it from a human tongue. I have noticed that the "T" has become much more pronounced since listening to it on the Leap Frog toy. So when he says 'turtle' it is very clearly 'turtle'
The other night we spent an hour reading through one of his favorite books Sesame Street ABCs - it's one of my least favorite books because he doesn't typically want to engage with the point of the book more just flip through it over and over. But the other night he was content to sit with me and learn 'A' 'B' and 'C' and the front of the book has an 'A' 'B' and 'C' on the cover so after spending a fair amount of time inside the book on those letters and word associated with them I closed the book and we went through what does 'cat' start with and he would point to the letter 'C' on the cover. However the next day he wasn't able to recall it when asking him in front of his father. This could be again a refusal to perform or simply that he hadn't retained the knowledge. Either way we continue to review 'A' 'B' and 'C' and add a few more as he seems interested in sitting and learning.
He's still young, not yet 18 months so honestly we don't try to force him to learn anything at this point. He doesn't sit in any chair and have 2 hours of 'school' when we do flash cards it usually is accompanied with running around the house between answering questions and sometimes the flash card sessions last 10 minutes others last 30 seconds. We do read to him every day and we usually go over at least one color every day - focusing on 'red' things in the house or 'blue' things on another day. He's a busy boy and doesn't always like to play along and that's ok. He's developing and learning wonderfully.

Seventeen Months Old

Ace has had another wonderful month filled with lots of excitement and the start of a new decade! Lots of fun was had.

New events in Ace's 17th month included: staying the whole church service in the nursery, molars, jumping down, scaling heights, outgrowing another pair of shoes, a toddler bed!

Yes, Ace has had a lot of fun this month from a train ride home from Oregon, to visiting with all of his grandparents, Ace had a great time. He had a nice second Christmas and slept through New Years Eve (even through New York's.)

New words for Ace are becoming increasingly harder to document because he's coming up with more and more on what seems like a daily basis - but the ones that I recall include: button, water (clearly stated now), cat (he had lost it for a while), bird, bu-bye, duck, book, sit, purple, orange, booo (blue), red...

Teeth - he has one molar all the way in and the other three in the set have all broken through at one point or another in the gums, so I suspect by his next dentist appointment (which happens to be on the day he turns 1.5!) those should all be well established in his mouth.

Swimming lessons resumed during this month and he is having a blast with those. He can hold his breath under water for 3+ seconds and remembers the cue for holding his breath as well. He gets really excited to whenever we get to the pool and can't wait to get in. Mom loves it too and loves nap time afterward equally as much (almost!) Ace took a 2 hour nap after one last week - that's the longest he's napped ... ever since exiting the sleepy-newborn phase of life.

On the sleeping front, Ace is now sleeping in a 'big boy' bed. We converted his crib to the toddler bed right after the new year and started the routine of putting him to sleep in his bed each night (rather than our own) we also started the routine of leaving him to his own devices during nap and at night to put himself to sleep and that has been progressing effectively as well. He still however does not sleep for very long. His naps are on average an hour (which is an improvement from months past) on occasion we get 90 minutes and then the rarest gem of all two hours! Sleeping at night still continues to be a battle of endurance for the parents - yes the average stint is 3hours or at the usual best 3.5 - however a few weeks ago he did sleep for nearly six hours and I couldn't have been more excited. It has yet to be repeated though. He continues to grow so he's obviously sleeping enough.

He's a busy boy and has started to explore his ability to move and jump. He has started to jump off of things - like his bed or from a box. Nothing of extreme heights yet, but since he's well on his way to ascending great heights its only a matter of time before he puts these two activities together.

Ace loves to smile and is a very happy boy. He's started to be a bit more independent and will spend extended time playing by himself with his toys or 'reading' a book to himself. He still plays well with others and observes them with great interest - and so far he is a good sharer of his toys. Although somewhat perplexed when kids try to hoard toys. He has a developed fascination with technology (go figure!) and wants everything 'on': lights, tv, radio... it doesn't matter. In fact in recent weeks I've used this to my advantage to get him to eat. Every time he takes a bite he gets to turn on a light. Gets him to eat and most of our light bulbs are energy efficient :)

In a month I have an 18 month old! Crazy!