July 17th-August
We had our first finger painting experience this month. As you can see, it was a hit.
He cracked up after mischievously ensuring I was watching before putting some paint in his mouth.
He cracked up after mischievously ensuring I was watching before putting some paint in his mouth.
Homeboy is hot stuff with his sunglasses. He loves putting them on and let's face it, he looks good doin' it :)
Walks to our local grocery store are a regular occurrence. They usually involve coconut yogurt, a banana, and a free cookie (the latter being, (naturally) the most highly anticipated part). Halfway through our walk he'll point with his pointer finger to his mouth and say 'coo'?? For cookie. He LOVES them.
Walks and Outings and still a regular occurrence. When you're walking distance from a library, five parks, a grocery store, pet store, the toy store, the mall, and pretty much anything else you could imagine.... that's kind of a given :)
We still are lovingggggg our duck pond and the animals that dot our little 'campground' like apartment complex.
Anthon's cute little wave at himself in the reverse camera on my phone. Not the most flattering picture of yours truly, but look at his little face! I can't believe how much fuller his little mouth is with teeth in just the three (short;) months I am late in posting this!
Anthon's first time posing for pictures--his response to Matthew saying, 'Anthon, say cheese!' These are in some pj's grandpa Jim found for him. Oh, yes, cars are still his FAV.
Fall sighting! ..in July! Who would have thought!
Anthon started helping me with dishes this month! Honestly, he just loves being involved in everything I am doing. I wash the dishes and he puts them on the drying mat, typically sucking any remaining water off of spoons or pouring remaining water into his mouth off of bowls, cups, and plates before placing them on the drying mat. Totally cracks me up.
To continue the Cars saga, Cathy (my wonderful neighbor from Colorado), sent us a whopping 3 cars shirts for Anthon! He was SO excited to get them and could barely choose which one to wear first--he kept going back and forth trying to decide which.
A little piece of heaven I snapped while Anthon were out walking in our complex.
No pants, no shoes, no worries!
One of Anthon's FAVORITE things to do--play with his cars on our bed. He either makes wrinkles in the blankets himself, or has me make them, and then drives cars over them saying 'bump, bump!' everytime they drive over a wrinkle. Honestly, he spent SO much time this month standing up next to our bed driving cars around--SO much.
Pool time with dad. Matthew or I would throw plastic eggs (which are still a regular form of entertainment) and they'd swim after them.
We rarely do sit-down restaurants, but one of our neighbors gave us a giftcard to a Mexican restaurant nearby. The second we walked in the door, Anthon was off claiming a booth for us. You'd have thought we eat out every night. haha.
Anthon's favorite new discovery at Target--the hat aisle.
We were out walking around our lake one day and Anthon spotted this truck. It's in shared space...so, I figured, if they left it out....it could only mean it is also a shared toy :D
Birthday Schenanegans
On my birthday, we all went on an outing to Toys R' Us and picked out Anthon his first Hot Wheels pieces.
We also did Dunkin' Doughnuts for breakfast. Though Anthon, who is about to double fist himself some doughnuts in this picture, might beg to differ...Matthew and I have put Dunkin' on a list of things that are overrated. Seriously, they're EVERYWHERE here. Don't get me wrong, they're not horrible. Just nothing extremely special, either. It was a fun birthday breakfast nonetheless!
We also did Dunkin' Doughnuts for breakfast. Though Anthon, who is about to double fist himself some doughnuts in this picture, might beg to differ...Matthew and I have put Dunkin' on a list of things that are overrated. Seriously, they're EVERYWHERE here. Don't get me wrong, they're not horrible. Just nothing extremely special, either. It was a fun birthday breakfast nonetheless!
Truck Day
Our Children's Museum here puts on an event every year where trucks of all types and ages come and park in a big parking lot. There were fire trucks, tractors, busses, pickups, semis, construction vehicles...you name it. Kids got to sit in the trucks, honk the horns, and push buttons at will. Anthon.was.in.HEAVEN.
I was sooo grateful Matthew prints off his little activity calendar for us from work that tells us about cool things to go do in the area so we were able to find out about this. Anthon was seriously on cloud nine the whole time we were there.
A friend of mine was giving away some children's books--three of which were cars and truck themed. This, of course, meant we read nothing else at naptimes and bedtimes for about a week straight. Oh, and frequently thereafter as well.
Empire State Aerosciences Museum
Our library here has free passes to museums you can check out for three days. Anthon LOVED this museum. Kiddos get to climb into planes and helicopters and sit in the drivers seat. The buttons and levers still make the wings/gadgets go. Anthon LOVED it. And so did we! Seriously--Truck Day and an airplane museum all in one month? Anthon couldn't be happier.
Our library here has free passes to museums you can check out for three days. Anthon LOVED this museum. Kiddos get to climb into planes and helicopters and sit in the drivers seat. The buttons and levers still make the wings/gadgets go. Anthon LOVED it. And so did we! Seriously--Truck Day and an airplane museum all in one month? Anthon couldn't be happier.
So...our faces don't change... but Anthon's does. And how cute is he?!
Letters
Anthon is a champion of letters. At nap times, in between singing/snuggling him and putting him in his bed, he loves to point out letters on the canvas I have hanging in his room (it just has some sayings on it). I say a word, i.e. Dad, Run, Mom, Grandma--and he points out the corresponding letter that that words begins with.
As you can see, we like to practice letters at other times too. He had so much fun realizing I could arrange cars into letters and then saying which letters they were (and then asking for more letters...) I soon ran out of cars, so the letters got smaller and smaller. haha
Other Items of note this month...
-Kissing me goodbye without a second thought when I leave him for nursery--it's the cutest thing EVERRRR. I still stay and play with him for awhile, but when it comes time for me to leave, I ask him for a kiss, he sticks his little chin up in the air, gets a kiss, and then looks to the nursery leaders with a smile on his face in a content, 'I just got a kiss' kind of way. haha. He waves at me and then just goes on playing. SO wonderful and such a relief!
-Standing up next to me on the chair in his room while I read bedtime stories with his little arm around me. MELTS my heart..
-Getting bugs around our house: This month of summer brought SO many little black beetle type bugs things around our apartment. Seeing as I don't want to raise a bug killer, Anthon and I get the bugs on a piece of paper and then put them outside everytime we find them, which was multiple times a day in August. Whenever he'd find one on the ground, he'd point at it, say, 'buh, buh!' and then bend down to the ground closely to watch me scoop it up on a piece of paper before running to the front door with me to put it outside.
-M&M's in Easter eggs: As I mentioned before, those eggs are the gift that keep on giving. Bought them on clearance at Target after Easter and he still LOVES them. Our newest game is me putting m&m's inside a few and him going through a pile of eggs, shaking each one and getting INSANELY excited whenever one would make noise, thus indicating chocolate within :D
-Just spending time with me: Some days I didn't feel like I was getting anything done, or I was frustrated because Anthon wanted me to come play with him and I couldn't get things done around the house--on those days, it was like, all of the sudden something would click, and I'd start to involve him in the dishes, floor washing, or even make-up donning process, and he just lights UP! He really just wants to be involved. Things may take longer to do, but life is SO happy--for the both of us, when I choose to do things a little slower and involve Anthon in whatever it is I'm doing. It's something that I sometimes need to remind myself of, but I'm always so relieved when I do--because life is just simpler and happier that way <3
-Watching cars go over speed bumps: still a HIT. Every day all day. Really though, he could.
-Letters he knew as of July 25th: AWDMKOSRH
-Bras: We were walking past the bra section at Target one day when Anthon pointed at my chest. hahaha. Apparently, I get dressed with my toddler around too often. lol.
-Run: Anthon LOVES when we run with him. We did a few family runs this month (keep in mind, I'm like, 7 months pregnant...), so I would stop to walk. Whenever I did, Anthon would look at me and pump his arms really quickly to try to get me running again.
-Cars on our bed: Anthon LOVES those wrinkles on our bed. He's content to play there for like 40 minutes, which is HUGE for him! I just love watching him make noises and play happily to himself there.
-Saying 'GO!' everytime we sing a hymn in church. hahaha. He clearly associates hymns with it being time to go...
-Saying 'Hat' while pointing to his head: He moved on from monkey noises when he wants to watch Curious George, now he points to his head and says 'hat' for the man in the yellow hat.
-'MOM, MOM, mom, mom, MOM': repeated in a very curt, high pitched voice from an adjacent room. hahaha.
-'Han': What Anthon says to me when he wants me to hold his hand (usually when he's decided he wants to get/drag me off somewhere :P. He hatesss playing alone generally, so this isn't that uncommon of an occurrence.
-Drying dishes for me: AKA, rerinsing and licking or pouring remaining water from dishes into his mouth before setting the dishes on the drying mat
