February

February is usually my least favorite -- and seemingly longest -- month of the year. This year it is just flying by.  Gulliver has been in a really good place. He is just as pleasant as can be the majority of the time. My mom always said I was done with the "terrible two's" by the time I turned 2. I'm starting to think this may be the case with Gulliver as well (hope I didn't just jinx it).

We have a good time together all week. We don't butt heads nearly as much as we did just a couple of months ago. I think his increasing vocabulary is one contributing factor. New words are coming out all the time. Many of them revolve around food (imagine that). Throughout the course of the day he requests oatmeal, cheese, "ewert" (impossible to spell how he says it, but it means "yogurt"), and "kers" (crackers). Yes, I do feed him.  But he never seems to be satisfied.  His appetite continues to thrive. He has also mastered a few more names… "Cashie" (Cassie), Cocoa, Harper, and "Door" (Dora, his favorite TV show of late). And then there are the random words like bubbles, bus, "yesh" (yes), hi, bye, and "peese" (please). He still uses sounds and signs for a lot of things like dog, cat, mouse, cow, and thank you.

Since I haven't posted in awhile, here are some random pics from the past several weeks...

Picking out his outfit for the day

We love driving in to town, catching the bus up to the mountain, and snacking on "O's" (Cheerios)

I took this photo trying to capture the latest bump on the forehead. I just LOVE this expression!!!

 

Earlier this week, Gulliver went into his closet and insisted I take down a bag that was on the top shelf. The bag has been there for months. He's never seen the contents, so I'm not sure why he became so fixated on it. Inside were large Ninja Turtles and accessories handed down from cousin Jake. He is way too young for these toys, but he was totally enamored by them. Hoping the novelty wears off in a week or so and we can put them back up on the shelf. If not... well, I guess they provide good entertainment. And we still have a bin full of smaller figures that I won't let him have -- yet. I already have visions of him lying on the floor for hours, moving the different guys around, acting out different scenarios. All in due time.

Gulliver loves his crib. He sleeps so well during nap time and at night. He wakes up happy and usually entertains himself for 15 minutes or so before anyone goes in to get him out. And when either Mark or I walk into the room, he gleefully shouts "mom" or "dad" and then points to the family photo on the wall to acknowledge whomever is missing. Many days he doesn't even want to get out of his crib. He bounces around, runs back and forth, and then lays back down. I'll ask him if he's ready to get up, and he says, "nooooo." He never tries to escape, but he jumps like crazy in his crib. He puts both hands on the crib rail and then jumps and jumps and jumps. I'm afraid he is going to launch right over the bar, so we decided we needed to do something to ensure his safety. We're not ready to introduce him to a bed, so we tried the crib tent. It's been working quite well.  The first few nights he woke up crying about an hour or so after going to bed. He *never* does this. After a little comforting and rocking, we just put him back in the crib and then he fell back asleep without a peep. So I think it just took a little getting used to. It's so rare these days that I get to sit and cuddle with Gulliver's head on my shoulder that I secretly enjoyed those couple of incidents.

Yesterday he decided to rearrange all the kitchen chairs, move his chair with the booster to a position with a better view, and then turn around and give me the "eat" sign. He knows what he wants.

 

Today we finally got to meet a very special friend. Layla was due 1 week before Gulliver, and ended up being born 1 week after him, which made her 10 weeks premature. My friend, Kristie, used to live in CB but moved to Golden a few years ago. We exchanged phone calls while we shared similar NICU experiences in different cities, as well as swapping stories and advice for the past two years. This is the first time we got to meet the little ones in person. So fun to see what typical little toddlers they have both become. And now Layla has a little brother, Cooper, so it was fun to get to meet him, too!

Since we were up at the mountain anyway, we stopped in the Trailhead Museum. Lucky us... we arrived just in time for a cheese-making demonstration. Needless to say, Gulliver was thrilled. He walked into the room singing, "cheese, cheeeeese" which made everyone laugh. Here he is enjoying the fresh, homemade cheese...

Such a beautiful day we had a picnic outside and then headed home. Aaaah, living in paradise!