TWO YEARS OLD!

Somehow a year flew by! Make that TWO years flew by! You are a two year old now and I just can't believe it! We had the BEST birthday party in the world last weekend. We had it on Saturday, which was the day of the week you were born. (Somehow your birthday on Monday just didn't feel like your birthday, since I so vividly remember it being a Saturday!) We had a bouncy house which was a hit for all ages; a Steel Drum jam along with me, a bean bag toss (I had to make my own since the one I ordered didn't arrive on time!); a water table with tons of bath toys; a slide, swing, bubble mower, excavator yard activities; a blow up pool that squirted water; Dr. Seuss themed snacks, Dr. Seuss themed goodie bags, pizza, and carrot cake cupcakes! The weather was PERFECT (and Waimea can be so unpredictable!) The backyard of Michael and Tutu's house was the perfect setting. Everyone had the best time!
New sayings and doings at age 2:
You constantly ask everyone "How you doing?" in the cutest voice. Sometimes you'll say "You you doing? Pretty good!"
You say "thank you so much" to Erica and other people when we run errands in town.
When I'm done teaching I open the door and you squeal while running towards me "Mommy done!"
You still love the game "Sit down pens" in daddy's office.
You are obsessed with minions. You said "Daddy purple minion" the other day.
You say "Oh no! Happened!" if you notice something askew
You sing the song "Happy Birthday to you". At your party you sang along with everyone and made everyone laugh. Your clap at the end of the song was the BEST.CLAP.EVER!! I have it on video! I almost cried seeing you so incredibly happy.
You sing a few words of Eensy Weensy Spider. And still love it when I do the motions to the song.
At naptime you like to chant in a monotone voice. Last week you said "Arrrrrrrr. Noise dada makes" (I think you were talking about a saw). You also said "Chainsaw. Dada building new house!"
I have to hide veggies in your mac and cheese and poke. I take frozen organic veggies and put them in the food processor and pulverize them into a fine dust and then sprinkle it on your dinner to get veggies in your diet! You LOVE poke. I make smoked salmon poke for you with sesame oil and soy sauce because I do worry about tuna and mercury!
You still like to say "Umm, think so. Probably" (imitating us on the phone).
You love Movie night! Ice Age! Minions. I now have to negotiate and do bath time first (you are very anti bath at the moment!) before movie night. Otherwise I'll never bathe you. Somedays you sleep 7-7 (but whenever I brag about this we seem to have rough nights, so knock on wood!)
I cherish our mornings with you. One of us goes in your room and you say "Mama upstairs! Tigger bup upstairs!" (or dada upstairs if it's me getting you in the morning). Then you drink your tigger bup in bed with us and play for about a half hour. You love to pretend you are a kitty. Or hop on pop. We enjoy you so much Alistair. To our brightest star on his second birthday. We love being your mama and dada more than we could have ever imagined! It is such an awesome gift to be able to raise such a kind, loving, polite, gentle, hilarious, sensitive, busy, friendly and happy soul. You inspire us, challenge us, and fill our hearts so full of love it leaves us breathless. 
(Your birth date is technically Monday the 23rd, but you were born the 3rd Saturday of March and we had a wonderful party for you with all your friends today!)

Soon to be The Big TWO!!!

I know we still have 2 weeks to go, but I had to write down some of your latest sayings and doings!
You have been telling "stories" lately. My favorite highlight was one night you were standing next to your slide last night and you were telling daddy and me a story about a piggy. It went something like this:
"Piggy. Dark. Night. Dada bite. Piggy Dada bite in night!" interspersed with lots of munchkin mumble. And I said "the daddy piggy bites?' and you looked at us with wide eyes and said "Yyyah!" We of course cracked up!! You answer with that funny dutch accent "Yyyah!" for lots of things which makes us laugh. The other day dada said "When will this rainy cold weather end!" and you mumbled something that sounded like "blah blah blah week" and I said "Another week??" and you looked at me point blank and said "Yyyah?"
When I'm all done teaching and I walk out of my room you smile and cheer "Mama all DONE!!!" It's so cute! You also say "Mama teaching! Dada working!"
The other day I was pretending to talk on the Elmo phone and I was talking about all the things we had done that day. And you were contributing and recalling things we did earlier that day! Your memory is AMAZING! You even remember things from January on our trip to Seattle. "Grama. Tunnel. Cars. White car. Lights. Dark tunnel! Eagle fly!"
We went to visit Great Granda Gigi Ruth on PopPop's 90th b-day. You got to play with her precious rock collection and scoop them up and put them in a candle and then dump them out and repeat the whole process (kept you amused for 20 minutes easy!) and to this day any time I mention Ruth you say "Gigi. Rocks. Candle!"
You discovered picking things up with your toes! You do a super cute excavator impression of "Beep beep, DUMP!" You like to push things around like your slide and say "Beep beep EKA VADDER!!"
You discovered movie night on our giant projector. And everything you request "Movie Night!!" and sometimes we DO do movie night! And one night you squealed "Movie Night!! Mama cut the pizza!!" (even though we weren't having pizza that night!) You love the minions from Despicable me. And most night we request "Movie Night! Minions!" But you are also VERY sensitive to anything scary or upsetting. I don't want to create nightmares, and I've noticed a HUGE difference between G and PG movies!
OK what's up with the super sonic, ear blasting, high pitched screaming for no reason?? I'm trying a new method of just straight up ignoring the behavior and not reacting to it at all since nothing else seems to work. And by the way, I seriously googled "is it ok to use a water spray bottle to squirt at toddlers to deter bad behavior". I guess it's really frowned upon :)
Knock on wood. You are sleeping 7pm-7am and when we come get you you will say "Tigger Bup, upstairs dada!" (or mama if it's daddy walking into your room). Meaning you want to drink your Tigger Cup of milk upstairs in bed with us.
You detest baths and showers at the moment and I have to force bathe you every 2-3 days. I swear boys need a bath twice a day, but that's just me....
Your FAVORITE food is poke, pinapple, ham, eggs, pears, banana, bread, and cheese. But getting you to eat has been a challenge lately. I swear you would just drink whole milk and be 100% content.
You LOVE breakdancing. You ask me and Grandpa Michael to breakdance. I think I'd break my back trying to even pretend.
You have been using your potty to go peepee often. One night during nudie movie night you flew off the couch and ran to use your potty! You get pee pee treats (goldfish).
You say the FUNNIEST things on the baby monitor when you have quiet time. "No cookie monster. No eat cookie. Fox, no drink pee pee. No pee pee on floor". Putting you to bed now, all we have to do is lovingly say "Mama's right here. Dada's right now" and you will chant those words and also include people like "Yay Yay, Tutu, Poppy, Grandma, Michael, and Panda riiiiight here".
What a huge difference two years make!! I love to compare today's pictures/videos with last years pictures/videos and I'm just so amazed at how much you've changed. In my mind, you have always been as you are today. I hardly remember it being any different. I'm so glad I took so many pictures and videos, and yet it still just doesn't seem like enough. I wish I was able to record every second of every day!

One year and 11 months, AKA 23 months!

Next stop, TWOSVILLE! You are just getting more and more fun, and cuter and cuter if that's even possible! New things at 23 months:
We took you to Seattle for a week for my friends wedding and you were the traveling champion!! What a little adventurer you are! You LOVE airplanes and were fascinated the whole time (too excited to sleep!) I brought a huge bag of goodies and your FAVORITE thing that kept you entertained the most was dropping little sparkly puff balls into an empty travel toothbrush container. Go figure! You also loved the party blowers I brought. In Seattle we took you to the science center, the aquarium (you learned the word pufferfish), playgrounds, the ferris wheel, stayed at a downtown hotel, watched the superbowl, and you bonded so much with Poppy and Grama this trip. You would cry "Grama heeeeere" with big alligator tears when we got back to the condo and you noticed Grama wasn't there.
You love to help unload the dishwasher. You hand me the forks, spoons, knives and plates. The moment you hear me open the dishwasher door you will drop whatever toy you were playing with in the next room and run into the kitchen and say "Help!"
You love to do a fake sneeze. You like it when we yawn and you will also do a fake yawn. You are swimming much better with the lifejacket and you will jump off the side of a pool and go totally under and pop back up. You are more interested in the balance bike. You love to smell things and will say "Smell good!!" (even when the thing you are smelling does NOT smell good! haha). You like to get cozy and will say "nap! nap!" And we play a game where you are baby hippo and you take a nap. You are interested in pretend play. You pretend you are a baby panda and I feed you imaginary bamboo. Your favorite foods at the moment are salami (Lami!), pineapple, and pears. The other day you started to cry when we were outside and you said "Rockadoo!" and I quickly figured out that meant Rock in your shoe! You have been sounding like a little Dutch boy and you end your sentences with the cutest "Yah?" You are obsessed with playdough and more specifically the playdough tools. You love organizing them in their box and handing them to me and me handing them back. Same game goes for the office pens in dada's office. We had our first movie night where you watched an entire movie "(Ice Age). You got upset at a few parts (the squirrel and his nut was very upsetting for you!). You got your first ear infection. I've never had to cancel a whole week of lessons and this past week we were all very sick. But now we are on the mend! You love dice and deck of cards. You love strutting around in mama's old baby boots. You are speaking longer sentences "Mama will fix it. Jenna rides a you-nycle (unicycle). That goes downstairs" are a few sentences from this week.
You are sleeping in later (7am), sleeping through the night (sometimes 6:30pm-7am!) and some days you skip your nap but have a 2 hour quiet time in your crib and other days you will take a 2-4 hour nap!
We love you so much. You are such a cutie tootie! And we are having so much fun with you. More fun than I could have ever imagined.

One year and 10 months (or 22 months old!)

It's getting harder to remember your exact age, so I've been telling people "He will be Two in March!" Here is what's new at 22 months!
You love to tumble! Tumbling class has made you fearless. You love doing things by yourself. We just got you a life jacket for the first time, and bobbing alone in the ocean or pool gives you SHEER delight! We play the "woah woah woah" game where I pretend to let you go, but your life jacket keeps you buoyant! You love playing games. You told dada "Dada. Go find. Peek a boo" (telling him to go around the kitchen island to hide and then find you). You loved pretending to be Moki in the ocean as we dog paddled around (although you've never seen Moki swim!) You say "Again! Moki!" You love jumping off the pool wall into the pool (while still sitting, but we will work our way up to standing) You do a cheeky little bit where you say "All done, more. All done, more" (saying more in a quiet voice).
When we sing EIEIO you are so used to me saying "then what" when it comes time to name an animal that now you since "And on that farm he had a....now what?"
You are putting 3-4 words together to make sentences. You still love to say "Round and around in a circle!" Whenever somebody (or yourself) sneezes you say "Bless you". You love the mole on my elbow and learned the word "Freckle" (but you call my mole Metzel, so that's his name. He seems to comfort you, which is a bit odd, but then again you are a funny little guy!)
You love to build. You'll actually say "Build. Build" when you just simply want to keep playing and not clean up yet. You also sing the clean up song all by yourself now.
You've discovered the ipad and are amazingly technological. Your favorite show is Wildcrats, Cailou, George, and OdddSquad. I have to limit how much TV time you get because I really think you'd sit there all day. I've also downloaded puzzle apps and other educational games which you love. I usually let you have ipad time around 5pm when I start making dinner. You say "Ah pad"for ipad. You have an angelic little "No" that you sing (pitched at the Ab above middle C slurring down to a G to be exact!) for when you don't want something. The other night went like this:
Me: Alistair do you want dinner?"
You: (sweet angelic voice) "No"
Me: "Would you like it if you sat in your high chair?"
You: "No"
Me: "Would you prefer to sit at the table like a big boy?"
You: "No"
Me: (looking at Alex texting at the kitchen sink) "Can you help me?"
Alex: (same exact voice without even looking up) "No"

You have been sleeping really well (knock on wood) and sleeping in till 7am some mornings! Today I accidentally woke you up because I thought for sure you'd be awake!) You also have been taking 2-3 hour naps everyday. Resting that busy little body and brain of yours! We had a great visit from Grandma and Poppy and you recognized them and said their names right away when you first saw them, thanks to facetime! We are enjoying you so much. Each month I think this is the best age. You are so huggy with me and are all about mama right now which I just love!!

Second Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. So much more fun now that you are older. We left cookies out for Santa and in the morning we asked you who came last night and you said "Santa!" (all day I said "Who comes tonight? and you'd at first always say Erica!!") You very cautiously opened your first present and it was a drill. At first you jumped back in fear and said "Sharp! Ouchie!" because we've taught you not to touch Daddy's tools. But we had to explain that THESE tools are for Alistair. I hope you can tell the difference because they look incredibly real! Maybe not a good gift idea, but it sure was a hit with you! You got a drill, saw, jig saw, and chain saw! After the first present, you got excited and said "More!" You opened two gifts, took a 2 hour nap, and then we waited until about 2pm when Cathy and GG Ruth showed up to finish the rest. The slowest moving X-mas I've ever had! Normally kids rip through gifts in about 2 minutes! But you had to appropriately play with each toy after you opened it which I think is a great idea.

I forgot a few other things going on at 21 months. You know your numbers 1-10. I discovered this because I was snapping your buttons and counting them as I went. After I said 7 I stopped counting outloud and then you said "8, 9!" You also know your colors of the rainbow. Sometimes purple and green end up being labeled as blue. And at first your automatic answer when we asked what color something was was "Yellow!" but then you'd look closely and say the right color.
You also are singing songs! You love Raffi "Apples and Bananas" and sing "Oot Ooot oot!" You are singing part of your ABC's and sometimes out of order like "a b c x and z" You sing EIEIO and on that barn..." and in the car you sing along to anything!
You are also putting 2-3 words together "Go Tutu's house" "P U Moki!" "Open door please"
You are also very good at saying please and thank you. If you demand something like "More More!" we say "More what?" and you say "More please!"
Last night we did a good job at eating dinner so I said "Give me 5!" and you slapped my hand and they YOU said "Up high!" and put your hand in the air. I guess dada taught that to you today, just one time! You have an amazing memory!!
You are really into smells. Fragrant flowers. You notice bad smells too! This week you've been taking 2-3.5 hour naps! You have been waking up really early. And we are having some tummy issues with going to the bathroom. But hopefully this too shall pass! You are a funny hambone and you are very friendly and outgoing. You imitate every word you hear. We just think you are a genius!

21 Months

I remember last Christmas thinking "This time next year you are going to be 21 months old! Almost 2!" and I couldn't even picture what that be like. And yet here we are! I can't believe how fast time is going by. You are a full on toddler now. My little baby is no longer a little baby (but you will ALWAYS be my baby even when you are all grown up!) Here are the latest stories from 21 months old:

At the bank, I let you roam around on your own (I normally strap you to my body in the ergo when I run errands). You never stray too far from mama. But you walked up to the front of the line and turned around and smiled at everyone standing in line. Then you turned your head and saw at eye level, a perfect miniature porcelaine Christmas village on display, just open for touching. You stood there and admired the scene, quietly examining the village from a safe distance. Then you turned back to me and in front of everybody you stuck your little finger in the air and wagged it back and forth and said "No no, breakable". It made EVERYBODY laugh!

You were in the high chair eating breakfast and you had 2 forks in your hand, one was slightly bigger than the other. Dada asked you "Which one is bigger?" and you held them both up and closely examined them and then held the right one out and proudly exclaimed "Bigger!" We were both very impressed.

You parrot back ANY word we say. It's pretty funny at times. Dada and I will be having a conversation and dada will say something like "I'm talking, full blown!" and you will chime in and excitedly say "Full Blown!" You also understand everything we say too. I said to dada "I think Moki is stuck in the stairwell since the door is closed" and you immediately stood up, ran into the living room, opened the door and said "Moki!"

You are still terrified of Santa. We saw him at the foodcourt, and at first you were giggling at him, but then when you realized I was bringing you into the santa room for a photo, your giggling turned into nervous laughter and you cling to me for dear life. One day you won't be scared of this man. You LOVE your snowman (no man). We are borrowing him from the neighbor girls since it's your favorite toy at the moment.

You are saying "tutu" instead of "dudu" and today you said "Tutu how! Tutu how!" (meaning let's go to Tutu's house!)

You know how to use the ipad and our iphones. You know exactly which apps are the ones you want to play with. You love the pbs kids apps and can pick out your shows like Curious George "George! George!" Thomas the train "Thomas! Spencer!" Elmo, Wyatt, Daniel Meow Meow Tiger. You don't watch too much tv, but when I'm cooking dinner sometimes you like to relax and watch your shows.

You LOVE local aunties. You gladly say "Aunty!" and want to be scooped up by any Auntie who wants to hold you. You are a super friendly outgoing boy who gladly holds new friends by the hand.

When I mention play dates with other friends you are quick to pat yourself on the chest and say "Alistair!" We play the laundry game and as I fold the clothes I ask you whose they belong too. You say "Dada. Mama, Alistair" all at the right times! I mentioned we were going to see your friend Phoenix and you quickly pointed to the toy of his we are borrowing and said "Phoenix!" You know what items belong to whom!

You just got over a horrible stomach virus (you threw up 3 times!) but luckily you are never sick for very long.

You love to say "Woah! Biggun!" (big one)

20 Months old

You are talking up a strom now. Putting 2-3 words together, imitating every word we say. New favorite foods are olives, cucumbers, humus, pizza (every cardboard box you see you say "pizza!!"), shrimp, Thai food. Some days you have an amazing palet, other days it's hard to get you to eat anything. You like to play games. Sometimes you purposely put the puzzle piece in the wrong spot and look at me grinning waiting to hear me go "Unnnn. Wrong!" We feed the hippo in the storm drain rocks. When the wind blows you climb up me and squeeze my neck and say "Wind. Cold. Brrr" and we snuggle close. You get anxious when it gets dark (which is starting to happen earlier and earlier each week) and you say "Dark. Dark!" and you want to go to bed right away. Sometimes you'll look for the nearest crib if we are out at a friends house when it gets dark! You like to say "watch!" for things you want to observe (me playing music while I teach; the robot vacuuming the floor; Elmo on the ipad). You discovered the ipad this month and love pbs kids shows. You say "Ipad! Watch! Elmo!" You know my computer and the projector sheet are vital to your Elmo watching. New words this month "Toothpaste (doot paste); toothbrush (doot brush), Helicopter (heti copter); Submarine (tum ba reen). You love getting the mail. One day I left the door to my printer open and you grabbed the whole stack of music and went shrieking by me like a bolt of lighting squealing "Mail!!" as you threw the papers around. We had a play date with Jace and Phoenix one night and I told you since Phoenix really loved the lion toy we should give it to him. But then I said "Oh, but Jace is coming too. We need to give him a toy. What toy should we give Jace?" and you looked at me, bolted over to your toy bin, rummaged through, and pulled out the perfect toy duck that has a pull along string and you said "Jace! Duck!"
But then a few days later we went over to Phoenix's house and there were toys EVERYWHERE. But somehow you zeroed in on the lion toy (you never played with!) and picked it up and walked it over to me and shoved it to me and said "mama". I said "remember when you gave that lion to Phoenix?" and you said "No". Pretty funny. We are on a wait list for a mommy toddler pre school that meets twice a week. We went as a visitor and you had a great time. I think it would be fun for us to do together. I gave you your first big boy hair cut and did a really good job. But you look so much older. You are so friendly and funny. We are going through a little bit of a separation anxiety again at this age. You cry when I have to go to work, but only for a few seconds. You aren't sleeping as well anymore and have been getting up several times a night and end up sleeping with me. We've had a few night terrors this month which are more terrifying for the parents! I think it's just all growing pains. Your little brain in on over drive and you are learning so much stuff at such an incredible rate. We tell you something once and you remember. Before bed, dada pointed to an airplane and told you it was probably going to Maui. Then the next morning when we saw an airplane you said "Airplane! Maui!" and dad and I just looked at each other amazed! You love to color "Paper! Color! Crayon". and sometimes you help me clean up. You sing songs. The other day at the beach you were staring at the ocean and started singing "Hush a baby. Hush a baby" (for hush little baby). And you love Raffi's I like to Ooot Ooot ooot ooples and banoonoos!