22 Months Old! T-Minus 2 Months!

Little Man is getting ever so closer to the age of 2. And I'm in complete denial. I haven't done anything or planned anything for his 2nd birthday. Except that it's going to be a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme. Cael loves MMC. Someone today asked me how old my son was. I stuttered as I replied "He's 22 months old." 22 MONTHS OLD!? That's only 2 months until he turns 2! Oi vey. The next 2 months will fly by too. I can't believe it's already July, and with July comes busy weekends. With August comes even busier weekends. I have 5 friends that are all pregnant and due anywhere from August to October. Plus, Cael and I will be going camping with my mom in the middle of August. I've taken off 2.5 days of work to go, and I'm super excited. (Minus the 7+ hour drive to get there).

Here's a breakdown of July. This weekend, we're helping Matt's brother and his wife move into their new apartment. In Virginia. Two floors below us!! Yup, that's right! We'll have family here, and Cael will have his cousin to play with! We're both super excited. Then next weekend, Matt, Cael and I are going to Long Island for the weekend. It's my bff's son's 2nd birthday party. Plus, she's pregnant and due in September, so I have to see her and her cute bump. Then Matt and I want to go to King's Dominion this month with Cael, which leaves the 3rd or 4th weekend in July for that. KD is a theme park within an hour of us, and it has a kiddie area for Cael. He loves things like that, so I'm excited.

Now onto Cael!

We have finally reduced Cael's binky usage. Granted, he still gets it for naps and bedtime, but I'm more than happy being back to that. After having it away from him, then Cael getting sick and needing it back, to the obsession that was having 3 binkies at one time, I'm happy we're back to where we started. It sounds like a waste, but how Cael was with the binks was bordering obnoxious. He'd have one in his mouth, and then have one in each hand. And when he didn't have them, he was miserable. Which made us miserable. So now, we take it from him when he wakes up in the morning, and when he wakes up from his nap.

I was home this past Wednesday so Matt could spend the day fishing, so I conducted Operation Binky. I let him cry and scream and whine and pull on me while he didn't have a binky. All day. It was obnoxious, but by Thursday, he was better. Distractions and playing with toys definitely helped him too. And over the past week since he hasn't been walking around with a bink in his mouth, he's become a TON more verbal. Just babbling and his babbling is changing. He's pronouncing different sounds that he hasn't pronounced before.  He even started saying a new word!! He now says "Bye!". And he knows when to say it, too. Granted, he says it with a British accent, but he says it nonetheless. He also started saying "Stop it!" He's heard us say it a million times to the dogs, so why wouldn't he pick that phrase up!? When he says it though, it sounds like he's saying "Stupid". It's kind of funny, actually.

Cael finished his first season of soccer 2 weekends ago. This past weekend was soccer Open House, so we went to that as well. Since he seemed to love it so much, and did so well with the program, we signed him up for the summer season. We're going to continue doing Saturday mornings, and his first "practice" is July 13th (which we will be missing, since we'll be on LI). I love watching him kick the ball and participate in all most of the activities. He has so much fun, plus he gets to socialize with kids his age. Fabulous program.

Over the past month, Cael has developed some new obsessions. He LOVES to play video games like his Daddy. Meaning, he'll hand us the XBox controller, whine for the game to be turned on, and sit and stare at the TV while he spins his character around. I guess seeing Matt play a couple times, it's something he likes. It keeps him quiet and occupied, and Matt doesn't let him do it all the time. But Cael will let you know if he wants to play.

He also loves water.  We knew that from his baths, but we've introduced Cael to a few new water areas this past month. We've gone to the pool here in our complex a couple times, and I took Cael to the local splash pad last weekend. He absolutely LOVED it. He'd run through the water sprays like it was nothing, and laugh out loud. And when he's in the pool, he thinks he can swim on his own. We got him a one piece swim suit that has the floaties built in around his body. He does really well with floating, and he loves to jump off the end into the water. He even goes under without a problem. I love that he's a water baby.

This past month, we introduced Cael to peanut butter. No, we didn't get the permission from his doctor (GASP!), but I've seen other moms with toddlers Cael's age giving peanut butter. Plus, we don't have any nut allergies in my family, and only Matt's sister can't have tree nuts. We were on full alert the couple of times we gave it to him, but he did fine with it. He enjoyed it, so I bought him the Ritz snack crackers with pb.

This past Christmas, my older brother and sister-in-law got Cael this really cute, real-metal car. It's the type that he sits on and moves by pushing forward with his legs. He finally figured out how to push himself on it. Granted, he moves slowly because his feet hit the front tires if he goes fast, but he seems to really enjoy the car now. I'm so happy that he figured it out, because now he gets a kick out of pushing himself around the kitchen and living room. It's another toy that he can play with.

I think that's about it for updates regarding Cael. Stay tuned for growth stats and pictures!!

Stats Update:

Length: 36 inches! (95th percentile)
Weight: 27 pounds! (46th percentile)
Head circ: 50.8 cm! (96th percentile!)

So in summary, I have a big-headed beanpole!