At the Grandparents

Chris is spending the next week and a half with his grandparents in GA. This is the second time in the last few months he has gone to spend time with them by himself. The first time was during my surgery and initial recovery. This time around he is staying with them while we move to our new home. For a two-year-old, Chris handles himself well when he is by himself with his grandparents. Of course, what is not to love when you have a doting grandma and grandpa (or "ga-ga" and "pop-pop" as he likes to say). While he is there having fun, we're painting, packing and cleaning. It is definitely much easier without him underfoot, but we do miss him so. Can't wait to see my little Chris next week!

Just In Time For Fall

Again, it's been months since I last updated. Perhaps with some extra time on my hands, I will earnestly get this back on track.

Chris is almost 29 months old. He is probably as big as a three-year-old. In fact, strangers often think he is three already. They are amazed by his speech and his size. He loves to talk and can often talk non-stop. Not all of it is legible, but most often you can make out what he is saying.

One of the more notable things going on in Chris' life right now is he is attending preschool three days a week. Technically, it is not preschool but a program called Parents Morning Out. It is three days a weeks for three hours each day. We started him off going twice a week, but he loves it so much that we added in the third day. He is loving playing with other kids, playing tea party, playing cars and other fun things such as painting and crafts. They also have a great playground with slides and an indoor gym for those rainy days. It has been exciting for us to watch him go off to school these days.

Other things going on for Chris:

• Elmo rules our home 24/7.
• He has a lot of "bes friends."
• His glasses get used a good amount of time.
• He loves to eat Target popcorn and drink water.
• He started using please, thank you and occasionally you're welcome correctly.
• He says, "Bless you," when he sneezes.
• He loves cars, trucks and anything that has wheels.
• He dances when a good tune is playing.
• He's going to be right handed despite the fact both Paul and I are left handed.
• He has excellent memory.

That's about it for now. Hopefully the next update is not too far off...

More Than I Can Say

A lot has been going on the last few months. I'll cut to the chase and say Chris is doing wonderfully except for his strabismus. Paul and I, on the other hand, were in a car accident in late April (Chris was not with us thankfully). Although our car was totaled, we came out of it relatively fine. We did have some aches and pains, but overall, it could have been much worse. While I was in the ER being X-rayed and CT scanned, I found out I had a mysterious mass in my chest wall.

After going to see my regular doctor and being referred on to a surgeon as well as having a PET scan, two MRIs and more X-rays, it was determined to be an almost benign tumor. However, it had to be removed, so I had surgery in late June, and now I am recovering splendidly. This is really the reason for not updating much lately.

Chris turned two in May, and he had a pretty quiet birthday. He was sick that weekend, so we took him a week or so later to Monkey Joe's, an indoor play area with inflatable slides and such. He had a lot of fun and kept pulling his daddy to go down the different slides. Our boy has no fear!

Right now we are going through a big language explosion. He picks up fast, and he is getting to know most of his alphabets and can count confidently to ten. His pronunciation is getting much better, especially when it comes to two syllable words. We also have to spell things we don't want him to hear us talking about.

Other things going on are he loves to brush his teeth, points out messes, thinks STOP signs and flags are da bomb and he enjoys eating. He is growing fast and getting taller each day. He is truly a little boy instead of a baby!

Strabismus

If you heard of Dannielynn (Smith) Birkhead, then chances are you know what strabismus is or are familiar with this condition. A few months before his first birthday last year, we took Chris to a pediatric ophthalmologist because of the history of this problem in Paul's family and the fact Paul also had this as a child. At the time, our doctor said Chris had signs which pointed to the possibility of this happening, but we should watch him. She said the condition would normally show up around the age of 3 but could be earlier. We were told to bring him back every year.

This year, he went in for another check up. There were no signs yet, but again his check up revealed the possibility of this happening. As a preventative measure, she told us to "patch" his good eye (right) to strengthen his weaker eye (left). The patch was really an eye coverlet which looks like a bandaid and not like a pirate patch. Unfortunately, you can't tell a barely 2 year old much less a stubborn kid to wear a patch. We also got him glasses, but we can't get him to wear those either. Chris will go back to the eye doctor next month for a follow-up.

Here's a current picture of our smiling little boy, but you can see his "lazy" eye pretty good. Despite it, he still manages to get into all kinds of things at home!

Where Has All the Time Gone?

In Chris' short life so far, three months is a long time to go without providing an update. I am sad to say I wish I had more time because there are so many things which have happened in the last three months. Pretty soon Chris will be able to provide his own updates, so my job as the archiver of his life will be done in some respects. I hope my mind keeps up so I can at least get down some of the highlights.

• Words Abound - We are entering the phase of spelling things because the kid is sharp as a tack! He even knows some words I cannot possibly figure out how he learned. Some examples of words he loves are car, cup, clock, no, shoes, cheese, poop and socks.
  
• Running - This kid loves to run and jump! He has more energy than both Paul and I combined. I wish I could harness the amount of energy he exudes.
• Glasses - Yes, Chris already has glasses, but he refuses to wear them. Since no one can reason with a 22 month old, how can we get him to wear them?
• Shyness - The phase of being shy has kicked in a little. He is very sociable and personable, but there are times he acts a little shy. It's cute in the "he still needs me" way, but I really want him to be independent. For the most part, he really is so independent.
• Bye- Bye - Apparently, this is what he says when he wants us to leave him up to his own devices. Uh. Yeah. No.
• Sippy Cup No More - Hallelujah! He is finally ending his sippy cup phase. He can drink out of a regular cup but somehow forgets there is no top. He has finally mastered the straw.
• Toilet Training - C'mon, you don't believe we could be THAT lucky now, do you?

There is so much more to say and pictures to post, but I'll have to leave that for another day.

Goodbye 2007

The last three months has been busy for all of us. I guess that was evident by the lack of entries. Hopefully 2008 will bring more time for updates. Chris grows in every way every single day. This year has been filled with many milestones, and we look forward to what the new year will bring for all of us. Here were a few pictures to end our year:

Santa worked hard to get our little guy to laugh!

Enjoying Christmas Day at the grandparents with one of grandma's cookies!

He looks grown up!

Have a happy, healthy and prosperous new year!

Another Haircut Courtesy of Mommy

Before:

After:

The expressions tell the whole story. This took place during dinner if you notice the spaghetti stains again around his mouth. He never knew what hit him (or rather what clipped him) until it was too late. I'm glad he can't verbalize his displeasure yet.