What's Up with Aaden - An Update

Here we are - on the countdown to Aaden turning 2!  I know I have been saying this over and over again but dang, time really does fly when you become a parent.  And I know I always say this too, but what a fun age!  I won't lie, it has it's challenges too but it's so fun to see how much he's learning everyday and how independent he's becoming. 

Vocab
I LOVE that he's talking so much now and his enunciation gets better everyday.  Some of my favorite words he says are nope, nnooo (I like the way he says it in a sweet voice and kind of drawn out and how he tilts his head to the side a little), ehh-hot (for hot), a-shooes (shoes)banket, Guy (for Gus), doggy, pwane (plane), baf, tank you, pease, wuh-whoa (love you) and pap-stick (all of his c's are p's - pup for cup, pake for cake, etc).  He's really like a little parrot now, always repeating the last word in our sentences.  We have to be careful with what we say now!  His vocabulary has grown by leaps and bounds - I don't think I could count or list all of his words now.  He knows words that we didn't even know he knew!  We are surprised sometimes by what he knows - like he knows the number two.  Like, if he has two lovies or two of anything, he'll hold them up and say "two".  This seriously came out of nowhere - I don't think we taught it to him. 

Favorites
Some of Aaden's favorite things are - playing with water "wawa", brooms "boom", playing outside, swimming, bubbles, playing with the dogs, playing with bubbles in the sink, trucks "guck", motorcycles "mo-mo", hanging with Daddy either outside or eating breakfast together in the morning, his baby (glo-worm) and Elmo "Melmo" (I think it's the cutest thing that he calls Elmo "Melmo").  He started liking Elmo out of nowhere too.  Apparently he watches Sesame Street at daycare.  Another favorite of his are books.  He loves books!  He is always saying "book" and goes and grabs one for us to read to him.  His favorite ones right now are The Noisy Farm and the recorded Elmo book from Emmy and Papa.  He still loves the Matthew Van Fleet books too.

Least Favorites
Brushing his teeth.  Hates it. 
Sitting still at restaurants.  Nope, no way, no how.
Squash.  Although we've gotten good at hiding it in food so he'll eat it now even if he doesn't know he's eating it. ;)

New and Exciting
The transition to his big boy bed.  He's done pretty well in his new room and his big boy bed.  I think he's liking his baseball room (it's pretty cute, I think).  It's so funny, we close his door all the way so that he can't get out in the middle of the night and wander the house (he hasn't figured out door knobs yet) so in the morning when he's up, he knocks on the door until we come and get him.  As soon as we open the door he claps and greets us with a big, excited smile. 

Challenges
He is still not saying many two-word phrases.  The ones he does say are, "I see you" and "Here you go".  He also says "ready, set, go" when jumping in the pool with Papa.  But other than that, if we ask him to repeat a two-word phrase, he usually won't.  Another challenge we are facing are tantrums.  For the most part he is a very sweet and cooperative boy but he's starting to find his independence and with that comes a little stubborness and defiance.  And if he doesn't get his way sometimes he has a bit of a melt-down.  Aaron and I have learned just to ignore tantrums (even though it's hard for me!).  We've also been starting time-outs if he's just straight-up not listening.  They are working well so far and he's only had to have a few. 

Bossy
With the independence - he's becoming quite bossy. ;) He wants to "go" all the time.  He can tell when we're getting ready to go somewhere and so he'll walk around the house whining "go, go, go".  If he wants us outside with him, he'll stand outside and look at one of us and say "out" while pointing to the ground.  But also likes to do things on his own now, so if we come to help him, he'll push us away and say "go".  Or if you're doing something he doesn't like, he'll run over and say "no! no, no, no".  Stinker.  And I taught him "excuse me" the other day - so he would push me out of the way and say "'cuse me". 

Things to Come -
Turning two!  If you ask him how old he's going to be, he'll say "two" and hold up his pointer finger and his thumb.  It's too cute.  We'll be having a splish splash birthday party for him, I think he'll love it!
Getting rid of the paci!  I'm not looking forward to that but it needs to be done.  And potty training.  We are not really close with it but we sit him on his little potty in the bathroom often.  Aaron has also been letting him run around without a diaper on and will ask him often if he has to go potty.  I don't know if he knows yet what it feels like to need to go but we're starting to go through the motions and at least get him thinking about it. 

Big Brother
Aaden has become obsessed with babies.  He loves them.  He sees them everywhere and points them out.  He knows I have a baby in my tummy and we'll ask him "where's mommy's baby?" and he'll point to my belly or try to lift my shirt.  Sometimes he kisses my belly.  Now I'm not sure if he can exactly correlate that the baby in my tummy is going to be a real baby that's living with us someday.  He'll find out soon enough!

It was so cute, the other day we asked him if he could say "sister" and he said, "Sissy!". 

One day I was asking him about becoming a big brother - "Aaden, are you going to be a big brother?" and he giggles, "Are you going to play with your sister?" and he giggles, "Are you going to love your baby sister?" he giggles, then I ask, "are you going to share with your sister?" and he promptly shakes his head NO!  Hahaha!

Some recent pictures of my little man ~

Testing things out for his baby sister



My poor guy with pink eye

At Kaylie & Ashlie's Grad Party

 

At the rodeo

Aaden and Alivia playing with play-do

 

Aaden and his cousin, Chase

Aaden with his cousins, Emery and Ellie

 At the Oakland Zoo

 

Dinner date with Livie

 Swimming with Papa

 Loving his little pool in our yard

  His first bubble bath

 Quite the bad-ass on Alivia's bike

 Wearing Aaron's bike helmet, he walks in saying "My HAT!"