23 and 24 months

My baby turned two!!!!! Can you believe it??!! The days sometimes seem long, but the years pass with a blink! This year has been the best. I was reminiscing about Isaac a few weeks ago. I was saying how much I missed him as a baby. As the day went on we decided to go for a walk. Isaac was so busy looking at everything and picking up pinecones. I was glad we weren't time bound so he could just enjoy himself. He kept saying "mommy look!" And running to me for hugs. He always says "I love you mommy" and gives hugs and kisses fairly generously... Somewhere near the end of the walk it dawned on me. When Isaac was a baby he didn't love me, but he does now. Why would I want to go back to that place of insecurity and uncertainty. Sometimes I would cry because I thought he didn't love me, but it's been a while since I thought that. I love that Isaac is 2, he is so confident and fun. I get cuddles that I didn't when he was smaller and he can tell me he loves me now. 

The funny things you say:

-you don't stop talking so it's hard to figure out what your new words are! There are so many! 

-you try to tell stories and often tell daddy about your day, the only way anyone would know what you are saying is of they had spent the day with you! You get excited and say some actual words and then start filling in with jibberish. It turns out to be one exciting story on your end and a very humorous one on ours!

How you play:

- we went to gymnastics drop in a few times and you loved it!!! Jumping, running, climbing, you could think of nothing better!!

- you are starting to play nicer with friends, specifically oli and jilly when it's just two of you. 

-your aunties bought you a jumpy house for your birthday and you have had many fun play dates on it!

-you like your push bike and are trying to figure out the peddles

-your favorite is helping daddy build the hobbit house outside. You follow him around with tools and pencils and he lets you help when you can!

The naughty things you do:

-I could go on and on in this section haha I'm learning that you figuring out your independence is not nesseccarily you being naughty. You want to try things and figure them out which often results in a large mess! 

-you still have a love/hate relationship with lily and like to try and put her in her place by yelling and flailing arms at her. You will always say sorry and attempt to give her a kiss

-you like pulling out the spices, dumping them out and then grabbing the broom to "clean up" for the record this is VERY annoying

-you like essential oils and have tried to pour them into my diffuser resulting in a large puddle of oils... Again very annoying :)

-you like banging the walls with your hammer, I'm thankful we have lots of distressed furniture that you are allowed to bang on!

-and while I realize these things aren't really naughty per say, I'm trying to find a balance of allowing you to explore and not allowing you to trash the whole house!!! Well welcome to having a toddler I guess!!

You are the joy in our family and we continue  to praise God for placing you here. Your everything we could've hoped for and even more. You light up a room with your presence and we continue to fall in love with you daily. Watching you grow has been the biggest blessing in our lives. You are our sweetheart :)

As far as your relationship with daddy goes, I'll have to get him to write you a letter... The two of you are glued together. He texted me yesterday and said "if I could take him everywhere with me, I would" he also said "I'm not sure why everyone said parenting would be so hard, my life has only been better" I hope you always know how much you are loved!!!

22 months

This entire month has been spent in Hungary, it was weird that he left canada at 21 months and came back 23 months old! I can't believe he is almost two! Isaac has grown so much over this past month, he is turning into a little boy... He's not a baby anymore!

At 22 months you say:

- you officially don't stop talking! You love to talk to people and tell stories. You use English and Hungarian interchangably and also like to throw in some gibberish! 

-you talk to mommy and daddy the most and say all kinds of things to us, "mama watch!" "Dada sit!" "Mama fix" "dada help" but the best words you said just two weeks ago, "I love you mama" melt my heart!!! You say it to us many times a day. I always got on your level and looked you in the eyes when I said "I love you Isaac" so sometimes when I look at you and catch your eyes you will say it to me first. 

-your using so many words now, since we were in Hungary you picked up a lot of Hungarian!!! We were laying in the bed when you looked out the window and in Hungarian said , "the pigeon left!" I put a shirt on you from the dryer and you said "melag!" Which means warm! You understand everything daddy tells you in Hungarian. Everyday I sit there and say, "how does he know that word!!!??" 

-you also memorize names. You have a lot of family in Hungary and you learned about 30 or more names. You'd meet people one time and remember their name the next time you saw them. You won over everyone's heart by learning not only their language but also their names. They couldn't stop talking about how smart you were! 

-you also like to sing, you have learned many songs and like to sing in the car, your favorite songs right now are "Jesus loves the little children" and " the wheels on the bus"

- I'm teaching you the beatitudes, you have the first one down and are working on the second. I'm hoping to have taught the entire passage to you by the time your 3... I think you'll learn it a lot quicker than that though!!

The way you sleep:

- you have blessed us with the way you handled travelling and an 8 hour time change. You took it all in stride and did the time change both ways within two days!!

-you slept in out bed and I always made sure to be around when you woke up

- when we say it's bedtime you never cry. You go around and say goodnight to whoever is there, take your bottle and my hand and walk to bed. We lay down and you have been falling asleep within ten minutes!

At 22 months you play:

- You finally got to go outside after a nasty winter at home. You played everyday outside and loved it!!! 

-you played alone in the sandbox for about 15 minutes on your own...it was amazing!!

-one day I stuck a warm bucket of water outside for you to play in and you had so much fun in it

-you played with all your cousins and loved when you could boss the older ones around to do whatever you wanted.

-you splashed in puddles, fed chickens, rode on a plastic tricycle, pulled around a tracker and played in tonnes of sand!

You had a lot of fun this past month and I loved watching you play and run around!! I didn't have any distractions and could hardly talk to anyone so we spend a lot of time together, I wouldn't trade that time for anything! You grew very attached to daddy and would throw a fit if he tried to leave the house without you. You would grab you boots and run after him. You loved being carried around by him and riding on the bike on his back. You really became the best of friends over this month together. I loved watching you guys from the side lines, and I'm so happy you had all this time together! You two play nonstop, no one can make you laugh like your daddy can!!!

You are almost two and becoming a big boy. We are trying to be the best parents for you by loving you and disciplining you so you can grow up feeling safe and confident! Can wait for month 23 :)

20-21 months old

Once again I am a few weeks behind, I will make it to 24 months though! Time is flying and Isaac is turning into a little boy. He has changed so much lately. They say at this age they learn 10 new words a day, and that seems true for Isaac. He is so smart, people are constantly commenting on his language skills. I got stopped yesterday in a store and the lady said her two year old grandsons don't even say as much as him. All I remember him saying was "Kitty, Meow".  We are enjoying every stage as it comes, each with new joys and challenging. We spend most of the day laughing at the cute things he says, he is quite the funny little guy! I thought my favorite age was 12-18 months but I now feel my favorite age is whatever age Isaac is :)

The funny things you say:
-You love telling the dogs off. You yell, "Bedtime!" "Out!" "Down!" and they listen to your every word. They are a little afraid of you as you still hit them sometimes and grab their skin (no I  do not allow this!) but you also pet them gently and kiss them.
-You love to eat so a lot of your words have to do with food. You love ketchup and call it "Dedup", we have now convinced you that all sauce is dedup.
-It's hard to think of everything, you say the cutest things.

How you sleep:
-We still haven't kicked you out of the bed yet haha, you love having us beside you at night. Sometimes I can feel you reaching around to touch skin, I think you do this to see if we are still there.
-We don't rock you to sleep anymore, you like to lay down to fall asleep now. We lay beside you and sometimes you curl up to us, other times you want to lay in your own space. I asked you the other night if you wanted to cuddle and you said no. I tried to tickle your head and hand and you picked my hand up and pushed it away. I was so sad, yes I put too much emotion on your responses. Then after a few minutes you rolled over and curled right up against me and fell asleep. I admit you made me cry, it's hard to not be emotional when it comes to affection from your children!
-We sing Jesus Loves Me, to which you now know almost all the words, then we pray. You list of a name and I will pray for them. You always pray for your family, specifically Uncle Bobby at least 5 times in each prayer.

Playtime:
-You will now play with toys for about five minutes on your own! You still prefer to play with us or play with whatever we are using, but you are starting to venture out on your own.
-You love playing with your cousins, although you fight over toys with them, you think they are hilarious and always want in on their games.
-You are very active and the weather has been very cold...this does not make for the best mix. We take you to play places, swimming and anywhere else that you can be active and warm. You like hockey now and finally got to try some hockey skates on! I can tell we will need to get you involved in lots of sports!
-You have loved watching Olympics over the past few weeks, your favorite being hockey. This is the first thing we have actually let you watch, so when you see a remote you yell, "Hockey! GGGGGGOAL!!!!!"
-You still love music, your favorite song is Little Drummer Boy. You ask for "Pump pum pum" about 5 times a day. You have learned the first half of the song and always go to the ladder to dance. You love drums and have recently discovered the set at Uncle Bobbys house.

The funny things you do:
-I thought Daddy was watching you so I went and sat in the car, apparently he thought I was watching you so you took the opportunity to start booking it down the driveway. When we caught you, you yelled, "Uncle Bobby House!!!" You were on a mission to get to Uncle and Aunties house a few doors down!
-We were upstairs, I turned around and saw you hit Lily in the face. I asked you why you hit Lily, you grabbed your bum and said, "Lily eating bum!!" Fair enough, I couldn't get you in trouble for that!
-We have been potty training in the house, you are so smart that you started telling us you needed to poop, you kept your diaper dry and have been doing fairly well. We bought you big boy undies, the smallest I could find, and you are the cutest thing ever walking around in them with your tiny buns!!

The naughty things you do:
-This category could go on for a while haha, you are in to everything! It's not that you are meaning to be naughty, it's more that you are curious and adventurous.
-You fight your cousins for toys, you think you can grab from them and that all toys in the house belong to you at any given moment. You are working on sharing and when asked nicely will share with others.
-We ask you to sit while you eat, which is really hard for you to do. You want to run around with your food and have to be reminded about 20 times a meal to sit down to eat. Feeding you is sometimes exhausting as you now insist on feeding yourself. Food is fun, and you like to muck around with it as you eat it. You were eating chili with a dinosaur tail and I actually didn't have the heart to stop you, at least you were eating!
-We believe your heart is good and you have a desire to do what is right. And granted you aren't hungry or tired, you will correct yourself and listen when you know what is right. You are a sweetheart and love to say thank-you and please.

Attachment: 

The other day we were at a playplace. You were in the ballpit with friends when I went to get my phone to take pictures. You had three aunties standing around right in front of you. You noticed I left and I saw you look around. You then starting saying, "mama? Mama?". No one heard you but me. I grabbed my phone and rushed back. You were still looking for me when I crawled up to you so our eyes met at the same level. I smiled and said,"here I am". You smiled back then proceeded to show me how you jumped in the ballpit. You have no idea what that did to my heart. You look for me, you need me, not only to give you something but for companionship. You want me to watch and share in your joy and I don't want to miss one minute of it!!

I'm sure I've said this every update but we love being your parents, you bring us joy and are a gift from God. We thank him continually for giving you to us, we could not think of a better gift. We love being a family, through the good times and bad, we are figuring out what it means to put others above ourselves and selflessly serve. We love you!