talan's newest skills

talan plays his drums every day. he has always been good, especially considering he was given a full drum set on the day that he turned 2. he has pretty much always been good about keeping a beat.
recently he's gotten really good. so good that i have to remind myself when i'm hearing the drumming that it's our TWO year old drumming, not dave or even our six year old.
here are some video's of him showing off his newest drum skills.

picking apples, red and green

opening day for picking honey crisp apples at erwin's orchards was today, which was also hayden's first day of first grade. so, unfortunately, hayden wasn't able to join us this year.
after waving goodbye to hayden on the bus, mom, dad, jenn, rainah, talan and myself all headed to south lyon to pick some apples and get some donuts!
honey crisp apples have become a really popular apple. a couple of years ago we showed up and they told us they were close to being all picked...and they had only been open for a few hours!!! this year we got there around 10 (they open at 9) since we had to see hayden off to school but there were still plenty to pick. however, this year they decided to rip everybody off since they are such a popular apple. if we were going to pick a bushel of any other apple we would have paid $28 ($26 with a coupon). but since i was picking honey crisp apples they charged me $40 and i wasn't even able to use the coupon!! but boy, are those honey crisp apples good!!!
we paid for our apples and hopped on the tractor to go pick our apples. i brought the stroller thinking talan would be running all over the place, but he actually did really well staying around us. i think rainah is a good influence on him! he wasn't the best apple picker helper, but he did pick a few that he could eat. and instead of taking one bite out of every apple in the orchard the way hayden did several years back, he actually ate the apple down to the core.
after we picked out honey crisps, we headed to the cars to drop them off. then we headed back out on the tractor to go and pick some empire apples. after dropping those off at the cars, we then let talan and rainah play on the bikes and in the hay maze before we went to get our donuts. talan didn't want to stop riding on the bikes even though they were way too big for him, but with a promise of a donut he eventually caved.
the bees surrounded us the second we walked outside with our donuts so we tried to get the kids to eat them quickly as we were walking to the car. talan took maybe 3 bites of his but somehow ended up COVERED in sugar. i honestly have no idea how he did it as it looked like he had more sugar on him then the donut ever had on it.
we headed home and tried (and failed) to get the kids to eat some lunch and then we just hung out and helped peel some apples for our apple pancake dinner later that evening.
i headed home at about 3:45 so i could get hayden from the bus and bring him back over to mom and dad's where dave also joined us after work.
it was a long, exhausting but fun day and the pancakes were delicious!! hayden was bummed that he wasn't able to go but i promised him we would go another time. we have SO many apples though, so now i'm thinking maybe one day i'll take him raspberry picking with me!
and i think next year i'll be looking into other orchard's and seeing if they rip you off on the honey crisps as well. if they do, i'll still buy them, but don't tell them that.

rainah, mom, talan and jenn on the way to the honey crisps:
talan got started right away:
eating apples, i mean:
talan and rainah:






going to check out the pumpkins with papa:

cousin hugs:













talan loves the bikes:

29 months

today is not only 9-9-09 but talan cash turned 29 months today!!! he has continued to grow and change quite a bit this month.
he continues to talk a lot and loves to repeat almost anything you say, and he usually says it really well. his new favorite thing to say is "yup." it is rare that i hear a straight up "yes" anymore, as it's always "yup."
talan is mr. personality and loves being the center of attention. he'll show off anyway he can and he always knows just how cute he is. the faces he makes are indescribable and i wish i could have a video camera constantly taping him. he loves sitting at the dinner table, dancing to music and rolling his eyes back into his head. there isn't a whole lot of eating that goes on at our table as hayden and talan feed off each other and love to be silly together.
talan loves to open the pantry and he'll just stand there looking in it saying "ummmm" until he finds something to point at that he might want. if the answer is "no", he'll move on to other things until he gets a "yes."
he also now opens the refrigerator. if he wants milk, he'll just walk over and open the fridge right up until you come and get it out for him. i have at least once walked upstairs to find the fridge door open. wonderful.
talan continues to LOVE babies. he loves watching tv when a baby is on, he loves walking down the baby doll aisle at target and holding one in the cart for the rest of our shopping trip. he just loves them and always wants to pet them. he's usually really gentle with them.
he has been deathly afraid of the potty and we haven't even tried to get him to go on it in quite some time. the other week i asked if he wanted to try to go pee pee on the potty and his answer, of course, was no. then i told him that when he goes pee pee on the potty he gets candy. well, as soon as i said that he immediately ran to the bathroom and tried ripping his clothes off by himself. he ended up sitting on that toilet for probably 15 minutes. when i asked if he wanted to get down he would just say "no. candy. pee pee on the potty." i think his butt started to hurt though as he kept getting down for a few seconds and then climbing back up. at one point, he climbed down off of the toilet and seconds later he was peeing on the floor right next to it. i grabbed him and put him on it again but at that point he had stopped. he was pretty upset when i finally called it and said it was time to get off the toilet and that we would try another day. he really had his heart set on that candy!
talan continues to love music. he'll let you know what he does and does not want to listen to. and he almost always has stellar taste in music. dave hates that fact that he LOVES green day, but i think it's great. he plays his drums every day and continues getting better at it. he is amazing. he also loves playing his guitars and showing off all of his rock moves. he has recently added a "rock face" to the mix which is hilarious. he knows how to keep a beat and loves to dance and play air drums or air guitar along to music.
he also has been singing and humming quite a bit lately. if he's looking at a book and sees a number 3, he'll just starting singing "number 3" over and over again. he'll walk around the house humming songs he's made up.
talan is still captain mischief maker and gets into things he shouldn't on a regular basis. he is only supposed to have his binky when he is in his crib but he almost always manages to be able to get one during the day. it doesn't matter how far back i put it in his crib, he somehow is able to get them. he's very clever about it. and if i put them away somewhere else? well, he climbs up onto his rocking chair, then climbs onto his changing table, opens the drawer and pulls out a binky. the problem with this plan is that he can't get himself down so he'll end up sitting on the changing table calling for me until i come in to rescue him. and at that point i take the binky away again.
one day during nap i heard him yelling "GET OUT!" over and over again. i knew nobody was in there but had no idea what he could be talking about. after this went on for way too long i finally went in to try to get him to go to sleep. he had his curtains open and apparently saw a fly outside and was yelling at the fly to get out.
his routines haven't really changed. bedtime is still usually around 8 and he wakes up between 7 and 7:30. he takes a nap from 1-3 or 4 in the afternoon. he hates to sit and eat breakfast, but he'll usually eat some cold cereal or a poptart while roaming the house in the mornings. he has also really slowed down and become quite picking in eating lunch and dinner. there are many days i wonder how he has any energy at all (let alone the excess he always has!) with how little he has eaten. he still wears anywhere from an 18-24 month to a 2t pant and a 2t or 3t shirt. he has grown out of his sandals that i bought him at the start of summer and is now wearing a pair of hayden's that hayden wore when he was about 4 years old. they are a tiny bit big, but not really.
he loves music and dancing. he loves baths and playing with his rubber ducks. he loves playing with cars, especially in hayden's room. he loves spotting every mcdonald's on the road and saying "m, mcdownawds." he also loves spotting target's or meijer's. he loves playing with isaac gregg and rainah. he loves papa. he loves dora and diego and little bill. he also still loves yo gabba gabba. he loves suckers. he loves making messes. he loves coloring. he loves milk. he loves climbing up on a chair to press play on the ipod. he loves fireflight. he loves his drums. he loves playing "bowling pin" video games. he loves playing outside. he loves shoes.
he hates having water sprayed at him or poured over his head. he hates sitting still. he hates having to stay out of hayden's room. he hates being told no, but still gets over it quickly. he hates bugs. he hates structured meal time. he hates being stuck in a stroller or cart.
as you can see, his loves still outweigh his hates by quite a bit. and that's a good thing. he continues to be a funny, loving, sweet little boy that we love being around. he gets over his tantrums quickly and on his own and is typically a very happy toddler.
we love you so much, t-money! happy 29 months!!!