a playdate and a mess

talan has gotten sick of being stuck in the house all winter long so he decided to invite some friends over for a playdate.
of course he had to have his bestest good friend, isaac, come over (with nancy, of course) and then we decided to keep it in the family and invite nancy's cousin jenny and her 2 kids, elianna and shay.
as soon as his friends got here, talan decided to show them how to take out every toy from the toy basket in the living room. after that was done we decided to head downstairs for a bit.
they all seemed to have a good time playing and they even ate a little lunch.
after lunch was over, jenny, elianna and shay had to head home. but nancy and isaac stuck around for awhile. nancy and i sat upstairs talking while we let the boys play downstairs. i kept hearing things being dumped and knew that talan was in the middle of making one of his usual major messes.
when it came time for nancy and isaac to leave i finally decided i better see what talan had done. turns out, it was probably his biggest mess to date....and that's saying something.
he had taken out almost every single toy from every single crate, bin and bucket. he had even taken the cushions and pillows off of the couch and chair.
you could tell he wasn't playing with any of it. he would just walk over, open a bin, dump it and walk to the next thing. so at least things were mostly kept in piles and was a little easier to clean up.
later in the day jenny had written me saying she felt bad for leaving the house the way they did. i told her she had NO idea what happened after she left...so jenny, enjoy these pictures!!! this is why i don't clean up after him all day long. it happens once a day. if that.

it's always so much fun trying to get a picture with a bunch of kids!
shay, elliana, talan and isaac:







it gets better. wait for it....:
talan's beautiful mess. and trust me when i say i know he did this all by himself:

the fun you can have as an escapee

now that talan gets out of his crib all of the time, he has found all sorts of ways to have fun while he's supposed to be sleeping. today i went in and he had put his laundry basket in his crib. when i went in to tell him to go to sleep, he was inside of the basket which was inside of his crib and he was saying "i hiding."

33 months

today talan turned, you guessed it, 33 months old. i have been thinking A LOT lately about what a calm, easy going, happy baby talan was. the 33 month old that we have now is NOT the same baby that we brought home from the hospital.
probably the biggest "accomplishment" (for him, NOT us!!!) this month would be that he now climbs out of his crib. and not just occasionally, he does it ALL the time. many people say "uh, time for a big boy bed" thinking that we are worried he'll hurt himself. we have no such worries. this kid is a monkey and knows exactly what he is doing. after he had been climbing out for awhile and i knew it wasn't just a fluke thing, i asked him if i could see how he does it. he very gracefully would flip one leg out, flip the other leg out, hang on and then gently drop down to the ground. quite proud of himself.
one nite, weeks before new years eve, we heard talan climb out and open his door. we stayed really quiet trying to figure out what he was doing. he was just standing in the hallway not moving or making any noise. when i eventually went over to get him, he's standing there in the hallway, looks at me and says "happy new year!" i had never talked to him about new years so i have NO IDEA where he even learned that from. he always knows the most perfect, most cute thing to say or do to keep him out of trouble. he has also been known to come out and when we are telling him to go back to his crib and stay there he will say "i afraid of dark." he's not. he either heard hayden say it in the past (hayden isn't either, it's just an excuse to turn on a light or get out of bed) or he saw it on a show...i think it was a show.
he also knows how to climb back in his crib. again, many parents would be pretty worried as he takes quite the dangerous route. but again, he knows exactly what he's doing. and really, if he gets hurt i figure maybe he'll stop doing it?! so he'll run to his room, grab his rocking elephant (it's not a horse, it's a big stuffed elephant...on ROCKERS), pull it over to his crib, climb up on his back, then up to his head and then over into his crib. it's pretty impressive, actually.
talan could care less about time-outs most of the time. in fact, he will put himself in one if we even threaten that we might. there have been many times that we are down in the basement cleaning and yelling at him to start cleaning up as well since he's the one that took every single toy out. instead of cleaning he'll say "no. i go in time out." and he'll walk over to the step for a time out. we don't let that one fly since we know he's simply trying to sit out while we all clean up his mess. hayden may have had him beat in math and letters by this age, but talan really knows how to use his brain for this kind of stuff.
the other week i was changing his diaper and apparently talan didn't want this done. so as he's laying on the ground he looks at me with his super sassy face and says "i don't like you!" this one i really have no idea where he got it from. i have never heard hayden ever say that and i can't imagine what show he's watching that would say that either. so now, whenever he gets angry he'll just look at me (or anyone else for that matter) and say "i don't like you."
also when he is in a super sassy mood he'll say "don't look at me!" which comes directly from hayden. this one i know!
another new phrase he likes to throw out there is "stop copying me!" something else he has learned from hayden. so while in a store, talan says something and i repeat it, talan will then say "stop copying me!" whatever.
talan loves going to meijer and his new favorite thing is riding in the back of the cart. at meijer or anywhere really. as soon as we start walking up to the store he'll start requesting to sit in the back of the cart.
talan loves basketball and will play downstairs in the unfinished side of the basement. he throws his basketball up at the refrigerator and tries to get it to stay up there. if he does, he apparently made a basket. and then he yells for someone to get it down so he can do it all over again. he loves puzzles and has become great at putting them together. he got several for christmas and has even found an old one in hayden's room. he puts puzzles together almost every day. he loves running around the basement with his trucks, especially with hayden. they just run in circles pushing their trucks around. he loves watching funny videos on youtube of cats and dogs. he'll request "puppy, kitty!" anytime you get on a computer. he loves to go "bowling" in the basement which usually just involves him rolling a ball at things. he loves getting in the car by himself which means he has to run around the car first before getting in. this is very annoying in snow. he continues to love making as big of a mess as possible. he loves dancing and showing off to anyone that will watch him. he loves going to church and seeing his friends isaac and cobian. he loves to color while hayden is sitting at the table doing his "homework." he loves being able to play in hayden's room with hayden's toys. he loves suckers. he loves going to the bank and getting suckers. he loves chocolate. he loves being the center of attention.
talan hates cleaning up his gigantic messes but does quite well when he actually does it. he still hates sitting still, especially to eat meals. he eats much better if he's roaming. he hates having to sit in his stroller at the store. he hates bedtime, but usually goes down fairly easily...of course now he gets out of his crib several times before staying in and falling asleep. he hates being locked out of hayden's room, he hates getting any water in his face during bath time when it isn't him squirting himself directly in the face. he hates being told no. he hates being told what to do.
talan cash keeps us laughing but also keeps us pulling our hair out every single day. he is funny and smart, and sassy. loving and independent and opinionated. we love watching his facial expressions and hearing the new things he has to say. every day is an interesting day with talan around.
we love you so much baby talan! we look forward to and dread, all at the same time, what new things you will come up with next month!! happy 33 months!!!

it's the cuteness that saves him

as i've reported many times, talan cash is a total mischief maker. he manages to get into anything and everything all the time. you can think you have put something away high enough but eventually you find out, no, you really didn't.
i never had to childproof our house with hayden. there were no childproof locks on doors or cabinets. he just didn't care about getting in to stuff like that. talan, on the other hand, is a totally different story. we had to put childproof locks on cabinets and doors by the time he was about 1 1/2 i'd guess. and the day i put them up, was the day he learned to get past them.
his new favorite thing is to move a kitchen table chair all around the kitchen in order to climb up and get to whatever he wants. he is always in the candy bowl leaving wrappers all over the floor and chocolate on his mouth as evidence.
so today i come into the kitchen to find him helping himself to some tortilla chips and dip. he thought he was so clever.