Tom & Lena had fun time having a kids day at the Mariners Game. They went around and did all the kids things and had a great time dancing around and doing all the kids stuff. The walk back to the car was a little bit wet and windy. But some hot chocolate and coffee and the ride home helped.
Tom had his 18 Month appointment. He didn't like the shots much. But he sure had fun in the waiting room. He made friends with a 3 or 4 year old girl and kept trying to give her kisses. When her name got called he tried to follow her into the back.
The doctor said that Tom is doing really good. She asked how many words he could say. I told her I wasn't sure, but I knew it was a lot. She said he was doing really good that most kids his age know 2-50 words. So we were curious how many words Tom knew. And here are Tom's first 100 words. We stopped counting at that. I think that is pretty close anyway. He doesn't say them all correctly, but when he says them I know what he is talking about.
He has changed so much over the last few months. He is trying to say so many new words now. Cho cho, plane, wow, cool, done, help, food, bear, bird and many more. He is even trying to say multi-syllable words now like butterfly, watermelon, elephant and pumpkin. They don't come out quite right, but you can understand what he is trying to say. He is also starting to understand bigger concepts than just objects now too. He is constantly asking for "more". And he understands that it applies to more than just food. He asks for more swinging or more reading or more of whatever we are doing. He also knows the difference between the wall, ceiling, floor, door and window. And my parents are really excited that he just started to say "Pa Pa" and "Na Na". He can even say "Tom Tom"
He also is starting to sort of read along with his books. Well, not exactly read. He memorizes the books and repeats some of the words or makes noises for the animals. On some of his favorite books he tells me the next line before I turn the page. He loves his books so much he asks for them all the time. He also has been asking for his other big boy books that are on the high shelf in his room. He has been pointing to the shelf and saying "Go Dog Go", which is one of his favorite books. So we have been checking out a few of the big boy books. Although sometimes he looses interest before the end.
He is really a dancing machine. He dances all the time when he hears music. He keeps coming up with new moves like running in circles, waving his arms around and other crazy stuff.
He also really likes pushing things right now. He has both inside and outside toys that he pushes around all the time. He also loves to push the shopping cart for me. It is really cute until we get to the checkout line. I have to hold onto the cart really tight and he looks like a lineman, bent over trying to push that cart.
He has also figured out how to scoot on his cho cho.
Tom has started to climb things now. He can get on the couch by himself. But unfortunately he has also been trying to climb the stove while I am cooking and grab the pots. He is so impatient while I am cooking dinner that the minute he sees or smells food he starts screaming and me. I have been trying to explain that it has to cook and I show him the pan, even though cooking one-handed is not easy. He now says the word cook to me like I need to cook faster. What a demanding little boy :)
Tom is pretty fast on the stairs to, which scares me a little since we have pretty steep stairs. I keep trying to tell him he can't do the big stairs by himself but he only listens part of the time. He does our three little stairs all the time now. But he is trying to get adventurous and do it the way mom and dad do it. So he has taken a few tumbles. I guess he has to figure it out eventually. It just makes me really nervous.
He has been playing outside a lot and doing what most boys do. Getting dirt, playing with rocks and sticks and his toys. He has also really likes playing with Bella and tries to throw her the ball. He even says "Bella" now.
He knows exactly where all the treats are in the yard and takes me to them so he can have a snack. Unfortunately now that the rains have come a lot of the stuff is rotten. And Tom doesn't wait for me to pick things for him. So it has been a little bit of a battle to keep him from eating rotten stuff. But the apples are going really good right now so his favorite thing to do right now is take me to the apples. Our asian pears are his favorite.
We have been doing a little bit of potty training. He doesn't tell me when he has to go to the bathroom, but does sometimes after he goes. I have sat him on the potty quite a few times and a couple of time he has gone. He likes the potty a lot and thinks it is fun to go in there, but he is not really getting it yet. They also are sending him to the potty at daycare. But he hasn't gone in the potty there yet either.
This summer has been so busy. Tom has gotten to see so many people and do so many things. But he has really worn me out. He doesn't really listen to no very well yet, still puts stuff in his mouth, and he does a lot of experimenting. So I have to keep him where I can see him. He is so fast now that I have literally gotten blisters on my feet from trying to chase him down for hours. I guess that is what I get for trying to wear nice shoes. We are looking forward to the fall and having quiet time alone with our family.
Eric has to work in Wenatchee on Friday night and again on Monday. So instead of him coming home, he stayed out our property in Entiat and we went to go visit him. We didn't know until we got there that it was Hugh's birthday. Thanks to the Wheeler's for letting us crash the party. It was a ton of fun. It was a a gymnastics gym that the kids go to. Tom had so much fun that i am going to have to see if they have any place like this in our area. He loved the slide and all the balls and the things to walk and climb on. Most of all he loved the really long trampoline. It was so cute to see his face light up while running on it.
This summer we were very luck to have our neighbor Kim be Tom's nanny. She is taking classes at Green River this fall so we needed to find new child care for Tom. So we took a tour a La Petite Academy in Covington and it seemed really great. They have different rooms for the different age groups. And when he gets a little older it will turn into preschool. We were sad to see Kim go, but Tom loves his new day care and getting to play with all the kids.
We had not gotten around yet to giving Tom peanut butter. We figured we better do it before he started Day Care so we would be sure that he didn't have an allergy in case they gave it to him there. Well, Tom does not have a peanut allergy and he loves peanut butter.
Tom is so lucky to have people give him their hand-me-downs. He gets so many great things. Thank you to Cousin Lena for the cool barn. He likes playing peak-a-boo with the windows.
And thanks to the Wheeler's for the cool trampoline and other fun stuff. Tom loves playing outside so much. He always asks for shoes. He is going to be sad when the weather starts to go bad again.
Eric and I played in Zehnder Shoes again this year. Eric took fourth in the doubles tournament, but that is the best the either of us did for the day. Tom had a great time running around playing with the kids. Here is Tom wearing his little Zehnder Shoes shirt that we got last year.
So Tom has been having a super tough time. His gums are all messed up. He hasn't been sleeping great and then he falls out of his crib. I was downstairs and I heard a loud thud. I run upstairs and I see Tom on the floor. It scared the crap out of me. I think it really freaked him out too. After a couple hours he seemed fine. But we were worried about putting him back in the crib. We put him in his play pen that night and he kept trying to climb out of that as well. So it was time to get him a toddler bed. Luckily we had just gotten a call from the Guglamo's saying they had a really cool race car bed that they were trying to get rid of. Couldn't be better timing. We were a little worried that Tom would go crazy and not want to sleep. Eric even slept next to him on the floor his first night. Don't ask me how that helped. But Tom has done just fine and he loves it. I ask him if he wants to go and get into his big car and go to bed and he says "Yeah!".
Tom had a rough couple of weeks. He spent a week teething, trying to get his Eye Teeth to come through. After throwing up and having a fever for a few days I noticed something weird. His gums looked really swollen to the point that his front teeth were getting covered up. His breath was also really bad. Then I tipped him upside down and I noticed that the gums behind his teeth looked white like cottage cheese. He didn't want to eat anything like it hurt really bad. Unfortunately by the time we figured out he was really having a problem it was Sunday night and the next day was Memorial Day. All he could eat was bread and pureed baby food. We made him an appointment for Tuesday morning and as we suspected he had an infection. He got some medicine and after a couple days it started to get better. Poor little guy. Can't wait for him to be done teething.
