28 months

Avett is a third of the way into his trip around the sun for the third year in a row. He's such a bright kid. He can count to 15! His lexicon and articulation continue to astound me. His incessant, repetitive questions and statements have the ability to drive me insane!

His memory is ridiculous! He can recall the most minute of details from days, even weeks and months ago. The stuff from long ago isn't maybe a free recall but instead comes up from a trigger. For example, he won't necessarily sit at the kitchen table and talk about the Bubble Run anymore, but if he sees bubbles or I wear my shirt, he will name all of the people who were at the run with us! It just floors me. Gets us in trouble a little bit with our language; he really does pick up anything! 

The boy loves to terrorize his puppy. He chases him around, flops on him, pulls his hair, spooks him out of hiding places, wakes him up from naps, and gives him his bones just so that he can take them away again. Harken isn't so thrilled by him anymore. He does love Haddie though. But we'll see how Harken does once she gets mobile!

He continues to enjoy playing with his jungle animals -- not so much the dinosaurs. He continues to play with his planes and has started pulling out his cars again. His favorite way to play with these animals is to line them up so that they are all facing the same direction. You turn one animal around when he's not looking and he notices it right away! He likes to make his animals cuddle (there are parent/child sets) and he has them say "I love you mommy/daddy". His imaginative talking and playing are emerging. He continues to play with his kitchen, and this past weekend he got a "cookie" set from Nana Cindy and enjoys handing those out to everyone. 

He throws a fit whenever he's told "no" or given any sort of instruction or guidance into something he doesn't want to do. His whining for no reason and his occasional refusal to eat his meals are the most common reasons he gets time outs.

His eating habits continue to be weird. He's all about cereal and pancakes and requests those any time of the day. He went from loving sandwiches with the crusts cut off, to only eating the crust. End pieces are not a problem. Any food in the middle though, is. I literally watched him eat the top half of a piece of bread so that he could avoid the peanut butter! He likes bagels, rice, any type of chip including veggie straws and sticks, yogurt and applesauce from the squeeze pouch - he won't eat it if it's in a bowl. He's hit or miss with fruit but usually will eat watermelon, blueberries, bananas and apples. And he's all in for any type of candy or dessert. 

He's doing a good job with potty training. He very rarely has accidents. If you ask him if he has to go potty and he says no, he's usually telling the truth 95% of the time. He's even to the point of telling you that he needs to go potty- like will stop playing or watching a movie to go potty. But no poops on the potty yet (and fortunately very rare accidents here as well). He has learned how to put his potty seat on the toilet, though some toilets are much easier than others. He continues to take his shoes, pants and underwear off completely, but we have learned that when he doesn't do this, pee ends up everywhere but in the toilet. 

He is learning to dress himself. He picks out his own clothes and helps to pull up his underwear and pants. He can finally take his own crocks off! And then he lays on the back stoop and reaches over the edge to place his shoes on the first step. :-) he is wearing size 6 shoes, size 4 diapers, 18 month pants (can still wear 9 month shorts when laundry is tight) and 18 months to 2T shirts.

He continues to enjoy baths and he is fine with having his head rinsed. He still asks for his "big towel" but he doesn't need it immediately. He will lay down in the tub now and kick his feet as if he's swimming.

He is a good big bro to Haddie. Since the pack n play has moved into our room and I most frequently change her upstairs when he's downstairs playing, he doesn't help with that as often. He loves to help burp her -- though now that means patting her on the head since one time his hand was up there when she burped. He loves to "look at her blue eyes" (he says that all the time and then giggles) and tickle her toes. He usually asks to hold her once a day. He is generally pretty aware of being careful around her and to touch her gently. He has started playing with his toes around her and likes to lay next to her on the ground or couch every once in a while. He's getting better at calling her "Haddie" instead of "Patty". And he is a big sweetheart when I ask him to sing her songs when she's crying. He has expanded his repertoire from only Happy Birthday. to "Tinkle Tinkle Little Star" and "Rock a Bye Baby" (or his favorite version - Rock a Bye Puppy). One day when his singing was unsuccessful at quieting her down, he came back into the kitchen and said "she don't want dat".

He has started to play on other gym equipment at the park again and not just staying on the swings - thank god! He loves going to the lake and walking in the water, pushing his boats around and will even let you "float him" in the water. He is a huge lover of animals since spending a week at Nana and Papa Bollwahns! He helped with the "chores" by feeding the fish (and enjoyed looking for frogs) and the horses. He tells you they eat "cookies, hay and gain". On our first night home as it got later into the evening he said to me "time to feed the horses soon". Poor kid misses his "Pilgum and Inny".

Love that kid to death. He is still my favorite boy!!! I enjoy every eye kiss, nose kiss, cheek kiss, head kiss, hug kiss and smooch kiss he gives me!