February 28, 2016

Fox, Katie & Nadine in 2016: Week 7

Day 43
Fox had a fun day at the train park!

Day 44
We went to dinner with Katie's family and visited the Botanical Garden afterwards, since they had a special exhibit going on and we got free tickets through work. Note to self: Taking a one year old to the Botanical Garden is not a good idea...with all of the cactus, it was a full time job trying to keep him safe, because he did not want to sit in his stroller and was more interested in climbing on everything. 

Day 45
We went to the zoo and ended the night with a beautiful sunset at a nearby playground. 

Day 46
We met some friends at the park and Fox was so sweet trying to hold Grayson's hand. 

Day 47
Fox loves these giant stuffed animals at Babies R Us. He stood right beside the elephant and told us to take a picture of him....haha. He is my kid after all. 

Day 48
Fox got his first Valentine in the mail! (From his friend Catalina)

Day 49
A quick trip to Butterfly Wonderland with my two faves! 
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February 24, 2016

Fox | 21 Month Update



Health:

Had a little cold this month, but nothing too bad. He asks to get his nose wiped now, it really bugs him when he has a runny nose. He also busted his lip this month, when he fell face first on the concrete outside. It looked pretty bad, but he was a trooper!

Nicknames:
Bubba, Turkey, Schatzi, Bubbles, Mr. Fox, Foxy, Pumpkin, Poodle, Bossy

Eating:
While he is still a picky eater, I feel like we made some minor improvements this month. He tried a few new foods (and shockingly loved the tri-tip Katie was eating) and has been eating a lot of vegetables, if we give him pouches with vegetables in them. Not ideal, but I’ll take it…we need to get those veggies in however we can!

Teething: 
No new teeth this month, he has 16 now. Scared about those 2 year molars.
Sleeping:
We are back to normal…I can’t even tell you how relieved I am. I bought some black out shades and he has been falling asleep within minutes ever since.
He developed a lot of requests for nap and bedtime now, i.e. he has to have Mickey and Minnie, his lovie, little blanket, big blanket, pillow and a song (or five). He even pats his back now and demands “Rub my back”. I cracked up the first time he said it. He knows if he keeps asking for stuff, we stay longer, so he keeps asking for more songs and more blankets in the hopes that we stay with him. We usually stay for a couple of minutes and then walk out, which sometimes is ok and sometimes results in crying. Overall, it’s still easy to put him down though and he went back to napping for about three hours.
A few times this month he woke up at the butt crack of dawn though (between 4-5am), so we went in there to make sure he hasn’t soaked his jammies, gave him a diaper change and then he would go to sleep until his regular wake up time. For the most part, this has improved and he usually sleeps until 6:30am.

Diapers:
Size 4

Clothing:
24 months Shirts and 18 months pants, Size 6 Shoe

Social:
He got very social this month. He loves his friends (Grayson is his best friend) and asks for them all the time. He tries to hold hands with other kids and asks them to play with him. It is so cute!
Sharing has become somewhat of a challenge. While he shares with us all day long, he gets very pouty when another child plays with his toy. He will share when we ask him to, but is kind of protective over his stuff now.
He certainly had a little sass and attitude this month and will communicate what he wants very clearly.
Fox also has his first girl crush! Our neighbor girl Lola is eight and those two love each other. He asks for her all day long, they hug each other, he gets shy around her and he even invited her inside to play in his bouncy house! Last week, he told us “Lola cute”…oh boy, we are in trouble! I love the relationship they have, it’s so cute!
This month, he also turned into a cuddle bug and I’m loving every minute of it. It’s mostly in the mornings and at night, but I’ll take what I can get!
He showed a lot of compassion this month, i.e. when another child gets hurt. I hurt my foot the other day and said ouch, and he said “sorry”, even though he wasn’t the one hurting me. He also saw that I didn’t have a pillow and my head was resting against the headboard, so he made sure I had one too!

Language:
I’m so amazed by his speech. Our doctor tells us at every visit, that Fox’s speech should be delayed because he learns multiple languages, but when I see him with same age kids, he is right on track, and in some cases, speaks more than other kids his age or older.
While he speaks more English than german, he has a lot of german words that he uses instead of the English one. Some that come to mind are decke (blanket), kissen (pillow), schwimmen (swim), rot (red) and essen (eat). He certainly understands both languages and having a german au pair has also helped me in speaking more german to him. Most of his favorite books are in german and we also listen to german music in the car.

A few things I wanted to remember this month:
  • Yelling “yeah” when he’s excited and wants to do something
  • Said Mommy for the first time and it sounds so cute when he says it “Mommeeeee”
  • Says “Almost” when he misses his basketball goal
  • He used to say Dog, but now switched to the german word for it and I love it
  • His favorite word is “play”, all day every day, even if he wakes up at 4am, he will pop out of bed and say “play”...haha
  • Aunt Ashlie taught him to say “peace out”, when he counts and we show him fingers, he will count “1, peace out (because the number 2 looks like a peace sign), 3”, it’s hilarious
  • He calls himself “Socks”
  • Says “Coco” for our dog Cosie
  • Peanut Ball for Peanut Butter
  • Kindergo for Kindergarten
  • Says “no way” instead of just No
  • Says Bouncy Beam instead of Balance Beam

I love this age!

Likes:
Music and dancing, being outside, bigger kids, sleeping on his stomach, Cosie, baths in his mommies bath tub, being the center of attention, watching videos of himself, playing hide and seek, playing soccer, baseball and basketball, being independent, reading books, balls, riding those mechanical cars in the mall, climbing, playing Mini Golf and Hockey, playing Cars, Carousels, drinking out of a big cup with a straw, Tackling us, the Zoo, Gymboree, watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or Barney, Soccer Class, reading books in Mama’s bed, his bounce house, his Mickey and Minnie Mouse stuffed animals, his blanket, Bubbles, Stickers, painting, play-doh, his color stacker, helping mommy make coffee on his kitchen tower, being dragged around on a blanket through the house, giving Cosie treats, GRANDPA, playgrounds, his BFF Grayson, playing vacation (which is all three of us walking around the house with our carry on suitcases…he loves it!), his baby doll

Dislikes:
Putting lotion on after his bath, when we don’t allow him to do something, when we go inside after playing outside, trying new foods, when someone he loves gets hurt, diaper changes, long car rides, washing his hair

Fun things we did:
We took a family trip to San Diego and visited Sea World, we took his Valentine’s Pictures (times 3), went to the Botanical Garden and celebrated his buddy’s second birthday! We also started swim class this month and so far he loves it.
Milestones:
He peed in the potty twice this month!
He has an amazing memory, i.e. we saw a Sponge Bob commercial and he remembered that he watched like five minutes of it with Grandpa in San Diego. He also remembers which books he received from his friend Grayson and when he sees a picture of our dog Zuma (who passed away last April), he will say “Zuma”. He also finishes parts of his books or remembers the words. I told him the other day, he should “read” his book to Grandpa and I couldn’t believe when he did and recited the first two pages of it! Granted they were just multiple words, but I thought it was pretty impressive…and maybe I’m just a biased mom;)). He also knows the words of the song “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”.
He can count to three (in english and german) and knows some of his colors, but mostly calls everything blue, he knows yellow and red for sure (but uses the german words for them).

What we’re looking forward to:
Nothing special planned this month, just enjoying every minute we can get with this funny little guy!

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February 14, 2016

Sea World

A few weeks ago, we took a weekend trip to San Diego with the Family.
The drive with Fox was stressful as usual, but it helped that Grandma and Grandpa drove with us to keep him distracted.
We arrived in the late afternoon and drove to La Jolla to do some shopping and see the seals by the ocean. Katie's brother Brett, his girlfriend Emily and our au pair Hannah came as well!






It was a little chilly, but a beautiful day!

The next morning, we woke up bright and early and headed to Sea World!


Fox loved touching all of the fish and sharks in the little pools right in front of their entrance. 












We saw all of the Shows and Fox especially loved the Whale Show


Riding some rollercoasters while Mr. Fox napped

The best investment we made that day was to purchase the all inclusive food pass. It was $20 and you could eat and drink as much as you wanted, which we took full advantage of. The food was great too!



They had a little kids place in the park, where we could've spent much more time than we did. We were in the park from opening until closing and still didn't feel like we had enough time there.




It was a short trip, but we had a lot of fun. It's a lot of work for just two days though, I'm not a fan of driving with Fox, but I'm sure it'll get better as he gets older. Totally worth it though, we love making memories with the entire family (although we missed Ash and Brad) and are so grateful that they could join us! 
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February 13, 2016

Fox, Katie & Nadine in 2016: Week 6

Day 36
We decided to enroll Fox in swim lessons again. He took them as a baby and then we did a two week crash course last summer (which he hated), so I was interested to see how he would do. 
From the minute his feet touched the water, all the way to the end of the class, he just had the biggest smile. He splashed and belly laughed and I've never seen him happier. It was so cute and made me so happy! Can't wait to take him back!

Day 37
We had a playdate with some friends. Fox hated the three mile stroller walk we did, but loved playing on the golf course afterwards. 

Day 38
We celebrated Wyatt's second birthday with a lot of friends and Fox had a blast. It was so sweet when he fed his friend Harper! 

Day 39
We spent the afternoon at the park, playing and feeding the ducks. #MessyHairDon'tCare

Day 40
Some rare cuddles with my boy! See that fat lip? He took a big tumble on the concrete during Wyatt's Birthday party! It's looking much better already, but it was not pretty...poor baby!

Day 41
We met some friends at the park to do some Valentine's Day Crafts. We taped some hearts onto canvases and let the kids go to town, once it was dry, we took the hearts off (which they are still stuck on this picture, so you can't see the end result). They turned out really cute!

Day 42
Valentine's Day Bunco...and for the first time ever, I won! It was a fun night!



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