Happy 4th and Not a Baby Anymore

What a fun weekend. For the 4th we met some friends at a nearby park to hang out and watch the fireworks. Since lasts year's attempt to see fireworks fizzled out bad, I was determined this year. Our son didn't want to be contained on our picnic blanket and kept running all over. After 30 minutes of following him and bringing him back, I thought I would take a break and walk with my friend to get dinner. Turns out our little walk turned into a 1.5 miles, so we took the bus back to save our feet and the chocolate shakes. The fireworks were fun. Our son was pretty scared at first and used his blanket to cover his eyes for the first half. After that he relaxed and we started pointing out the colors of the fireworks and copying their noise "boom boom boom". He couldn't stop talking about it on the way home and it was the first thing out of his mouth when he woke up in the morning.

We got him a toddler bed and last night was the first night he slept in it. He did great. He fell right asleep and we didn't hear him until he came walking into our room at 6 this morning. It was a little earlier than usual, so I let him climb in and he slept next to daddy for another 45 minutes. Today's nap was a little different. He escaped twice and I had to calmly put him back. He fell asleep soon and has slept for a little over 3 hours now, so I think he will be just fine.

The other indicator that he is not a baby anymore is that he successfully told me that he needed to go #2 and then went on the potty like a big boy. We have a long way until he is potty trained, but every little bit closer is a nice blessing.

Sleepy Lunch

I love this!

Brushing Teeth

We are trying to teach good oral hygiene and so are doing whatever it takes to get toddler's teeth brushed. Singing a song while we brush helps make sure we do it for enough time, but we didn't count on the other benefit. He sings along, which distracts him from the unpleasant task.

A Magic Day

We had a fun day at Magic Mountain yesterday. He loved the little kid rides and I had a blast on the new X2.

Chris's Graduation

Last week we went to Salt Lake to see Chris's graduation. Congrats, bro!

We had a wonderful visit. It was nice that the cousins were around. "Becky, where are you" could be heard all weekend, and even after we returned to California.

We also visited our good friend Kalana and her son Carson.

Visit to the Botanical Garden

Our Parent Ed class had an outing to the Huntington Botanical Garden this week. It was a very fun trip, with so much for mom to enjoy and toddler to discover. We especially loved the children's garden. Here are some pictures and a video.

This fountain is so beautiful and the kids couldn't resist splashing in the green water. I loved this little umbrella tree. It was the perfect hiding spot. Best of all, the fog kept us cool.

More airport

We're driving west to go pick up hubby from his class, and I hear coming from the back

"more, more airport"

"more airport!"

I can't help but laugh. He is also doing the sign for more while very passionately expressing that he wants "airport". He has been able to say airport for a few weeks now. Hubby had a few business trips, so on the way to and from the airport I tried to teach our little boy a relevent word to go with airplane. He picked it up right away, but now he says it anytime we head west and/or approach a large parking lot or city area with a lot of concrete.

Keep those synapses forming, little guy!

Here are the other words that he says and we can understand at 20 1/2 months:
(no particular order)
numbers 1-11, hat wet water picture what, Where are you? I love you. Ernie Elmo Sunny sun hippo dog cookie meow cup milk drink juice yellow red purple orange banana truck tractor book color drawing crayon pizza, All done, I pooped, Bert egg yeah no play happy silly head toes nose ear lips hair comb hand table chair kitchen hot cold clock helicopter (hekahoca) puzzle toy airplane diaper sock shoes lunch breakfast basketball baseball football soccer ball wheel car choo choo train track clue help dance Steve Joe show watch bike singing square star circle triangle twinkle hug diamond walk run up down yucky bubble boat bath light lock on off piano park grandma church Owen Hannah Chloe Adam April Sam Barbara crocodile duck bird quack tweet moo cow chicken noodle apple pear peach tree flower butter butterfly penguin bear monkey blanket pants shirt nap sleep lion giraffe elephant bunny rabbit ice cream bucket shovel fish sandwich cheese boat leaf glove pillow blocks Max Jack Talia build climb jump tower tall bug squirrel spider grandpa popcorn mama mommy yummy daddy towel frog cookie bread cupcake cracker snack clean, all clean, gorilla baby, boom boom boom, oh-no uh-oh pancake waffle airport spoon fork straw happened dropped play rock swing

Yeah, we aren't really worried about his cognitive development at this point!