Colin--18 months and still growing

I realized that I didn't post after Colin had his 18 month check up. We took him in right after the New Year and everything looked good. He weighed 33.2 pounds and was 34.5 inches tall--entirely off the chart in both categories. Dr. Tyler said she's not worried about him though and she suspects he's just going to be a big kid. He got several shots that day and was thoroughly pleased by them...or not. Gabby and I also got the flu-mist at the same time. She put up more of a fight than Colin did. I think it was mostly due to the fact that it was a guy administering it and he was more upfront than he probably should have been with a little girl. We made it through though and had Jimmy John's for lunch. That made it all better.

She's learning

Gabrielle is constantly amazing us with her ever growing knowledge base. Lately we've been encouraging her in the area of language development. She's got speaking down pretty well except for "r"s, "l"s--which are getting better, and "s" when it's followed by a hard consonant, i.e. steps, store, stone, steal, ski, straw, etc. She just eliminates the "s" in these words so we have teps, tore, tone, teal, ki, traw, and so on. The other night we went to the movie store (Blockbuster) and we were trying to work on the "st" sound. She kept saying we were going to the movie tore "Use your "s" sound Gabby, ssssssssss," I told her. So she did. "Ess-tore, Mom!"

She's also gotten into the habit of refusing to do things that we ask of her. Frequently when she responds that no she's not going to (insert activity here) I tell her that I wasn't asking her a question and that she should go do (said activity.) The other night she was playing with Colin and he told her no about something and she said right back to him, "No Colin, that was not a question!"

One of her new favorite games to play is Hide and Seek. We're still trying to hone our skills in this area. Most often Matt hides and Gabby seeks for about 5 seconds before running back to me saying, "I can't find my daddy." Then I give her hints and off she goes for about 5 more seconds and we repeat ad nauseam. When it's her turn to hide I help her find a place to hide and then go back to the chair in the living room to return to my post as "base." The problem comes when Matt goes to find her. If he calls out, "Gabby, where are you?" She yells right back, "I'm in (insert hiding spot.) We'll keep working on that hiding part.

Damn the torpedos!

One of the most intriguing things about becoming a parent is that you develop a sudden interest of the bowel activity of other people--namely, your children. I think it is mostly out of necessity in monitoring the health of your child, but nevertheless I still find it a little strange. I don't think I've posted many poop stories--not lately at least--but I have two pretty good...or would that be bad...ones from this weekend that you might enjoy...or not. Read on if you dare.

Gabby usually poops everyday--sometimes twice. On Saturday she had a particularly large and solid poop. It was so dense in fact that it sunk straight to the bottom of the toilet and out of sight. Being an inquisitive child she always wants to see her poop before you flush the toilet, so like normal she jumped down off the potty after being wiped and looked for the poo. She couldn't see the poop and was puzzled. She asked, "Where'd my poop go?" Then she looked at Colin who was standing near by and asked, "Colin, you take my poop?" How do you explain that to a 2.5 year old?

Colin's poop story isn't as funny but I'll share anyway. We were cleaning up downstairs tonight and Matt noticed a distinct odor coming from Colin's direction. It was bath time anyway so we went upstairs to clean up and take a bath. Colin protested his diaper change but I got him cleaned up and headed to the bath. He loves the bath and insisted on sitting in the tub while it filled. Gabby came into the bathroom and I told her to get in the tub but she refused when she saw what Colin had done in the water. Apparently he'd flooded two tubes and only one made it out into the diaper.

Bumpin' up and down...

...in my little red wagon.

Santa brought Gabrielle and Colin a new wagon for Christmas and today was the first day it was warm enough to try it outside. They had blankets to sit on and cover up with and they shared the leg room nicely. We taught Gabby how to sit Indian style...what's the PC name for that now anyway?

When Elmo Grows Up

Gabby and I went to her first big show tonight. Elmo was in town so we headed out to the Qwest Center for an evening of fun. This was part of her Christmas present so she's been looking forward to this for almost 2 weeks. Anyway...she had a great time and I thought it was pretty cute too. I'll paint you a mental picture--imagine an audience of about 350 people most of them children roughly ages 2-8. There was no holding back the screaming, shouting, shrieking, laughing, or any other making of noise. It was pretty fun to see G react to the show though. She had a good time singing along and dancing in her seat and on my lap. She told me that next time we should bring Colin, "when he's bigger."