He's gone through another little growth spurt and now weighs in at 25 pounds!
In the last couple months he's gotten 6 new teeth - 4 cuspids/canines and 2 of his two-year molars. Can't believe that he only has two more baby teeth left to come in!
He's officially in a big boy bed!! After crawling out of his crib repeatedly mid-June, we took the front off his crib so it was a toddler bed, then put a full mattress down on the floor, and now the full mattress is up on the box springs with no rail. I'm not going to sugar-coat it - that first week was ROUGH. What normally took 10 mins for him to fall asleep for a nap took 1-2 hours. But we finally got through that tough transition and now he's doing great with it! Brad and I love laying in there with him and having little conversations before he goes to bed. It's awesome.
He's a pro at jumping with both feet off the ground and landing on his feet. He can also do front rolls/somersaults.
Pretty soon I imagine we're going to give potty training a real shot. We have been putting it off because of the big transition to a big boy bed and with our upcoming vacation (both of which would likely set him back if we had already started), besides the fact that I just know it's going to be a lot of work and I don't want to set ourselves up for failure if we try it too soon. But we're thinking he's ready because he always tells us when he goes #2, if he's diaper-less he'll say he has to go potty and hold it until we can get him there, and he's really hated wearing diapers lately.
SOME OF OUR FAVORITE THINGS
He still loves counting, but now his thing is to repeat "4, 5, 6" over and over. It drives Brad crazy!! Despite Brad's best efforts, West refuses to start with the number 1. Brad will ask West to say "one" and West will say "2, 3, 4, 5, 6" but absolutely will not start with 1.
He regularly says 4 word sentences now and it just blows us away that we can have back-and-forth conversations with him (toddler-style, of course - haha) and he'll recap parts of his day or tell us things he wants to do. For example, he'll tell us he wants to "ride four-wheeler with Grandpa" or "sit David's lap on airplane" (all of course in his language that most people wouldn't understand).
He uses adjectives a lot more to describe things. He calls things silly, fun, loud, and even gross. For example, he tried some lettuce today and spit it out and said "gross," and the other day he was talking about riding a train and said it was "fun" and went through a "dark tunnel."
He tells himself "gee jah" (good job) all the time, whether it's after picking up toys or helping us out in some way or successfully climbing up onto our bed. The funniest is when he tells himself good job after something we do not want him doing or he shouldn't do... he'll do it and tell himself good job and then walk off with a smile on his face (for instance, after jumping on Brad's head). :)
He's getting some basic manners down and it's adorable. He regularly says "please" and "thank you" without us prompting him (most of the time), when he bumps into us he says "sorry", when he says goodbye to people he says "Have a good day!" and he even says "excuse you" when trying to get around or passing someone. Yes, you read that right, he says "excuse you" instead of "excuse me" and it's so embarrassing! I'm always working on it with him because it sounds so rude when we're in a store passing someone and he says "excuse you" to them!! And yes, that has happened at least a dozen times I'd say! The best I can get him to do at this point is say "excuse-you me" which is at least a little better. Funny kid.
He's also getting more opinionated with what he does and doesn't want. For instance, if I'm singing a song he'll say "No Mommy, no mommy" until I stop. Or when we're getting him out of his car seat he'll tell us to "scoot back" so we can get out of the car by himself.
He has to tell anyone he sees exactly what he's doing or what he has, and he'll keep repeating it until they acknowledge what he's saying. Whether it's a friend at our house and he brings 15 different toys up to her and tells her what each of them is, or it's the check-out lady at Target and he's telling her that he has a dump truck.
He has freckles! He's actually had them for several months, but I don't think I've ever mentioned it on the blog. They're so freaking cute. Seriously.
His favorite things are pretty much the same - being outside, reading books, playing in water (whether it's the hose, sink, or bath), and anything related to dirt or trains. He also loves playing with his buddies Ti-Mace [that's Titus and Mace], Eye-is [Silas and Atticus], baby Yi [Elias], Parpeh [Parker], Jah [Jack], Jones, Yuke [Luke], Dayee ["uncle" David], Marma Dee, Papa Dohnie, Papaw Tenny, and our new retired neighbors Steve and Linda, just to name a few. :) He's pretty social though, and becomes fast friends with pretty much everyone he meets.
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I've been slacking big time on taking pictures of our family. :( Here are some pics from the last day the crib was in his room and we got the full size mattress.
This was how he slept for almost a week - the front of his crib taken off so it was a toddler bed, and couch cushions on the floor. The cushions weren't so much because we were worried about him getting hurt, but more because we didn't want him rolling off from such a large drop and waking up.
Not only was it his last day with the crib, but also with his chair. I was embarrassingly emotional about it because of all the sweet snuggles and memories we've had in that chair!
Showing off his monkey in front of his new big boy bed! For the first few days the mattress was on the floor, then we moved it up on the box springs.
I found the most perfect quilt at T.J. Maxx that matched the navy and green color scheme I was going for. I put it on for the pics but it hasn't been on since then. :) Since it's summer, a sheet is all he needs!
Obviously one of the first things you need to do when you get a big boy bed is to start rearranging the pillows with your teeth. Duh.
Can you see his freckles here?
Here's the same shot zoomed in. Can you see them now? He's got about a dozen or so on his face and some on his arms as well. :)
