27 months

talan shares his 27 month birthday with my, um, well, not 27th birthday.
this past month, talan has decided to add an "a" to the end of most words. words he was saying perfectly before, now end with an "a." all doneah, outsideah, greenah.
at the beginning of the month we worked for about 3 minutes on saying "rainah" and "hayden" properly and he now has it down. no more ray-ray and heyhen.
he still could care less about learning colors, or i guess paying attention to them. anytime you ask him what color something is, his first guess is green. he does almost always get pink and black right though. and for whatever reason, he really gravitates to pink. when we went to play putt-putt the other evening, he, of course, picked the pink ball. i'll let it go for a little bit....
after switching classrooms at church and not liking it too much, he now has now problem walking right in and getting down to business. we will occasionally go to pick him up and see that he has cheated and somehow gotten them to give him his binky. as soon as he sees us, he'll touch his binky and laugh saying "haha..a, binky" he totally knows he shouldn't have it.
a few weeks ago, the three boys were in the kitchen. something happened with a chair and hayden said "what the?!" talan chimed in to complete his sentence with "heck!" he will go around the house at times saying "what the heck?!" over and over.
he also will say "dang it!" at the most perfect times as well. while over and mom and dad's one day, he was setting up the pop beads to use as bowling pins. he knocked one over on accident and just said "dang it!" it took us a minute to figure out that was actually what he had said.
talan still loves to watch yo gabba gabba which has replaced the imagination movers as his favorite show to watch. he also loves wednesday nites which means the family sits and watches wipeout at 8pm. as soon as we say "are you ready to watch wipeout?" he immediately starts asking for popcorn which is the weekly ritual. he watches a good amount of the show before he starts getting crazy and running around the room. then we'll usually stick him in bed so we can watch and laugh in peace. he does love it though.
talan has gotten back into the habit of wanting books before bed and he will ask for more, more, more, just to keep from going to bed. his new favorite book to read every nite is a short little book called "night night baby." he also loves to read a touch and feel book called "playtime." one nite he had me read him a bunch of books and even after putting him into his crib he started crying for more. i left his room with him yelling "playtime! playtime!"
as often as possible, talan loves to go into hayden's room and check out all the cool toys he has in there. we keep hayden's door shut, and thankfully, it's a door that talan can't open (yet!). he loves to go in, turn on the music "rayoh!" and take out every toy from his containers. he also loves to go into hayden's art supplies and put stamps all over his arms.
up until recently, when you would put a phone to talan's ear he would just stand there listening to the person on the other end. several months ago he would start answering people's questions with a quiet "yeah" but recently he has started talking to people. the other evening, hayden called from mom's house and talan immediately said "hi hayden!" and started telling hayden all about how he was talking his toy dog for a walk." hayden was even able to understand quite a bit of what talan was saying.
while in meijer the other week, we passed one of the phones on the poles on talan threw both of his hands up to his ears and started loudly shouting "HEWO?" i have a hard time telling him to be quiet in those instances cuz it's just so dang cute.
he also knows that if you go to the deli at meijer you can get a free sample of cheese. as soon as we walk in the door he starts pointing to the deli area saying "ovah therah. cheese." he doesn't typically eat cheese at home, but he loves to eat it at meijer!
i have noticed that talan has gotten a bit better about not running away when he steps outside or is walking with you. i can now help him down off the porch, and he'll run right over to the car and get in. i think it took hayden about 4 years before that happened! talan does love to walk and anytime we get to a store and grab a cart or his stroller, he immediately starts saying "no! walk! no!" if dave is there, we sometimes let it happen so one of us can hold his hand, and he does really well with it. i still don't trust him as far as i can throw him, but it seems to be getting better!
his drum skills have also improved this last month with him crossing his hands over to play the snare and cymbal. he'll then take both hands and do a snare fill and then go back to the snare and cymbal. it's quite amazing.
talan still doesn't eat a whole ton, but it still depends on the day. he still has his same bedtime routine, although many evenings he gets to go to bed quite a bit later then before as it's summertime! he has also been sleeping in a bit longer as well. during hayden's school year, he was up around 7, just like hayden. i'm thinking since he's staying up a bit later plus the fact that there isn't a whole lot of moving around in the mornings now that we don't HAVE to be up and moving at 7, he's able to sleep a bit more. so he is typically up between 7:30 and 8 now. there have been a couple of morning where it's been close to 9 though!
he continues to love playing outside. he loves riding his bike. he loves baths. he loves coloring (for a few seconds at a time at least). he loves music and dancing and his drums. he loves running around the basement pushing his big trucks with hayden. he loves skateboards, and footballs, and basketballs. he loves swinging. he loves his blanket and binky and pooh bear and a few other stuffed animals. he still loves making messes, and can do so in record breaking time. he loves playing with the dixie cups in the bathroom. he loves motorcycles and still points out every single one. he loves dogs and cats. he loves putting all of his toy cars in the windowsill. he loves to harass hayden. he loves playing with "bowling pins." he loves cake and ice cream. he loves to climb on things and get into things he shouldn't.
he hates getting his hair washed in the bath. he hates bugs. he hates being told no and will have a tantrum anytime he hears the word (thankfully he still gets over it very quickly). he still hates sitting still. he hates being wiped while getting his diaper changed. he hates being cold or having wind blown in his face. he hates having to sit in his stroller. he hates having his face wiped clean. he hates sitting to eat. he doesn't really like anything to drink other than milk. he hates the toilet and is scared to death to sit on it.
talan continues to keep us on our toes as he is still the world's biggest mischief maker. you will often find him getting into thing you never thought he could. he is very determined and will pretty much do anything he puts his mind to. you can find him yelling and screaming many times throughout the day, however, his tantrums never last long. he is still able to get over them very quickly and move on to something else.
he continues to be a super fun, funny kid with a huge personality. dave thinks he wakes up most mornings thinking...what can i do to make people laugh today?! he also knows his cuteness and uses it to his full advantage by giving us looks and turning on his cute voice. he is usually quite generous with his kisses and hugs which are some of the greatest things in the whole wide world.
we love you tremendously, baby talan! you make our world so much better. happy 27 months!!