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talan cash turned 16 months old today and we're as happy with him today as we were the day we brought him home. that's saying something.
he is still a relatively easygoing baby, however, he has been presenting some challenges as of lately.
within the past week he has started growling. when he's mad or frustrated, or like yesterday in the car when he just wanted grandma to give him more fruit snacks. no reason to say "more" when you can simply growl, right?
he doesn't like to hear "no" and will often cry and throw himself on the ground. but thankfully that usually only lasts a couple of seconds and then he's off to something new.
he still isn't saying any new words and pretty much everyone is called "mama" especially "dada." he loves to look at the family pictures and point to everyone and say "mama." he most recently has started singing "mama. mama. mama."
one of the only people he doesn't call "mama" is jessica. she is now known as "caca." we all think it's great that he calls her "poop."
because of jessica's upcoming wedding we have had all sorts of invitations and pictures of jessica and justin on our refrigerator. so whenever we ask "where's jessica?" he'll immediately go to the refrigerator, look up and say "caca." even when jessica is standing in front of him.
he also tries to say justin but i can't really put in writing what it comes out like. not because it's obscene, just because i can't make out his mumbled talk.
justin. oh justin. how talan LOVES justin. he always has loved him but his love seems to be growing for him each time he sees him. justin has always been able to put his hand on the side of talan's head and talan goes into a trance like a shark when you touch it's snout. he'll stay there, perfectly still, for minutes. and he, of course, always wants justin to pick him up.
yesterday we went to muskegon to watch justin's band play. we haven't seen him in about a month and talan immediately went for him. at one point justin had to hand talan off to me because he had to go do official band things. once talan was in my arms he started crying and trying to get back to justin. it was sick. and at the end of the nite, after only having a 20 minute long nap and being up past 11pm, justin was the only person that could hold him and have him lay his head on his shoulder and start to close his eyes. justin the baby whisperer.
talan continues to be a overly active child. he never wants to sit, not even in a stroller while being leisurely pushed around. i don't know if it's a boy thing or what, but even as active as rainah is, she at least sits and sticks around her parents. neither of my children have been this way. i was chasing talan the entire day yesterday. he even moves while he's sleeping.
he continues to LOVE music and loves it even more when it's loud. he will immediately start headbanging and dancing around if he's not in the car being held down by straps. he will often go to the cd player and sit in front of it until i put music on.
he eats fairly well, although he doesn't want to be bothered to have to sit for a meal. he tends to eat far more if he can roam around and eat. but at least he's not a picky eater. for now.
he gets shy when you first walk into a room with people in it. he won't want me to put him down and he won't look at people for a few minutes. but that quickly wears off and then he's off and running again.
we took talan to the ent the other week and found that he will need to have tubes put in. we were told after having 4 ear infections in the first 15 months of his life means getting through the next winter without any would be next to impossible. luckily we are able to do it when ever we want and we figure we'll wait until january so we can use our deductible up and then have the rest of the year not paying for dr. visits. we will probably have the cyst removed on his nose at the same time.
he continues to wear mostly 12-18 month pants but has been wearing some 18-24 month which are a little long, but i'm a fan of shants anyway. he also typically wears an 18-24 month shirt and size 5 or 6 shoes if you can squeeze his fat feet in them. at least it's summer and most sandals are a little wider...but even sandals don't usually fit him. he continues to wear a size 3 diaper but we'll probably be buying the size 4's in the not so distant future.
he still goes to bed around 7 each nite and wakes up around 7am. i guess we are officially down to 1 nap a day at 1pm but he typically sleeps anywhere from 3-4. he goes down immediately for naps usually without making a sound, and pretty much does the same at bedtime although there are evenings he cries for a few minutes.
he loves to throw things, especially wooden blocks. he loves drinking bottles of water and does really well with it as long as it's a sports bottle style. every animal (and even some objects) are now cats and he meows at all of them. he loves to drum. one of his favorite things to eat is lucky charms, although he usually refuses to eat the cereal, opting for the marshmallows only. if you try to get him to repeat the alphabet with you he'll say "a" and when you get to "b" he'll sting himself with his finger. he is liking to be read to more and more, especially by papa. the house is always a disaster because of talan. he loves to push things. his favorite place in the house is the basement and he'll stand at the top of the stairs waving his hands around until you bring him down. he loves brushing his teeth which is basically just chewing on a tooth brush, hayden's preferably. when looking for or calling for hayden he yells "MA" at the top of his lungs.
talan continues to make us laugh on a daily basis. we can't wait to see what this next month will bring us. happy 16 months, baby talan! we love you.
i'm a little behind on my blogging as i've been preparing for jessica's bridal shower that is taking place this saturday. so. she better not ever say i've never done anything for her!
on july 10th i took talan to the dr. for his 15 month check-up. when we got there he, of course, wanted to get out of his stroller to play with the toys. while he was playing with the toys i was called to the window and was asked to sign some paper about his immunizations. right there i asked...he needs shots this time? and was told the dr. would look at it and make sure. i didn't really think any more about it.
suddenly, talan starts crying and i assume it's because he can't see me. when he comes walking over to me (the lady i was talking to at the window didn't seem to really want to let me go get him as she HAD to have her paper signed) i realized his lip was bleeding. oh well, at least we were at the dr.
so we're called into the room. after the nurse comes in to weigh talan and such, she leaves and hayden turns on his mp3 player. suddenly, the two of them are dancing around the room and never did stop until we left (or until talan had to get his shots, actually.) the dr. was pretty amused. she knows us well by this point so she understands the endless energy that travels with us.
one of the first things the dr. did (as most dr.'s do at any checkup) was to look in his ears. and right away she said "oh no." yup, that's right. talan has another ear infection. because he has now had at least 4, and especially having this one in the summer when he shouldn't be getting any, we were told we need to make an appointment with the ent. she gave us the name and number of a dr. that she likes the most because unlike most ent's, he doesn't just say "oh, this is his fourth ear infection, he must have tubes" he actually looks at the ear and decides what would be best. and sometimes that means not getting tubes at this very moment.
she asked us to set the appointment up in two weeks so that his ear infection would be all cleared up. we now have an appointment with dr. stone on july 30th so we'll keep you posted on that situation.
talan's cough has not gone away, by any means, and on top of that he's been snotty for the past 2 weeks. i mean nonstop snot running out of this kids nose. usually when she listens to him, despite the horrendous cough, he ends up sounding perfectly clear inside. this time, not so much. he was wheezing quite a bit and she said it wasn't clear inside this time around. so she then prescribed us the ear infection medication, some new sort of allegra and a new kind of singular trying to clear up his snot/cough/wheeze. she also told us to start giving him his breathing treatments again. so that's 4-5 different medications this kid is now getting.
yes, we did simply go in for his 15 month CHECK-UP, not an sick visit.
so the dr. FINALLY leaves and tells us to wait for the nurse to come in and give talan his 3 shots. the boys continue to dance around the room.
the nurse comes in and gives him one shot in the arm and then 1 on each leg. he cries for a few and then continues to cry, but mostly because he's so offended by it. she hands us our 14 prescriptions and we are on our way. after leaving the office i remember thinking...crap, i forgot to give the dr. talan's immunization card so she could document the shots he had gotten. oh well, the next time we're in i'll have her do it.
talan weighed in at 23 pounds 11 ounces which puts him in the 25-50%. he was 31 inches long which put him in the 50%.
right now he is wearing 12-18 month clothes but does wear quite a few 18-24 month as well. although the shorts the other day looked more like shants....but that's alright, cuz i love shants.
he is in a size 3 diaper although could wear a size 4, but why if the size 3 still fits him alright? they just give you less diapers for the same price.
so on monday, i believe it was, a nurse called and left us a message. when i called her back she said she needed to talk to me about the shots talan had gotten. she asked if i had given our immunization card to the dr. i told her i didn't and that i realized it after the fact. she said the the dr. had thought she had asked for it, but apparently not. turns out, talan already had gotten the 3 shots they gave him the other month. i took him into the immunization clinic and they had taken care of them all. when they were putting the immunizations into the main system it showed up that he had already gotten them.
the extra shots will not hurt him in any way, but they also won't count towards the ones he will need in the future because they were only a couple months apart. and the fact that we had to pay $17 per shot that we didn't need. and of course, his discomfort.
so our 15 month check up was quite the adventure. now here's some pictures of the dancing.
talan has had a pretty big month. it seems like every time i turn around he's learned something new. it's such a great age. an age that you can do something with them a couple of times and they've suddenly got it down. an age where everything is a game. i wish learning could be fun for me like it is for talan!
talan still is a fairly good sleeper, although he does wake up much easier than hayden ever did. he hasn't been taking many morning naps lately, but he has been getting out of bed later in the morning...sometimes 8 or even 8:30. he still takes a good long nap in the afternoon, usually from about 1 until 3:30 if not 4pm. if he's overly tired, it's almost impossible to get him to fall asleep. the other day after swimming we put him down for an early nite. he was quiet for a bit and then started talking and then started crying. we tried to let him cry it out thinking he'd cry himself to sleep...he had to be exhausted. but that never happened. at about 9:30 i took him out of his crib and he got down and started playing as if it were the middle of the day. i let him play for awhile and then put him back in his crib where he didn't make another sound until after 9am the next morning.
this month he learned to make several different noises. including a cat, dog, an elephant where he would also raise his arm as his trunk (although he recently has lost the elephant and refers to his cat noise instead), a truck where he raises his hand in the air as if he's pulling the semi-horn and yelling "HONK HONK", a car "beep beep," an indian (feathers not dots) and as of 2 days ago, a bear. you can ask him any one of these and sometimes he'll make the correct noise, but often times he meows or woofs until you make the correct noise and he'll do it back. unless he really just wants to meow or woof and then he'll just continue with that noise completely ignoring you. i'm used to it. i've had hayden around for 5 1/2 years.
he continues to say "mama" all of the time. he pretty much calls most people mama. he'll look in the bedroom in the morning for dave and say "mama." when i tell him to look out the window when dave has gotten home he says "mama." i believe he's called jessica and justin and mom "mama" within the past week. and just the other day while i was downstairs i heard talan say "mama" and hayden yell "i am not your mama!"
one day talan was in the kitchen whining about wanting something but i had no idea what is was that he wanted. i picked up a banana and asked him if he wanted that then i shook my head and said "yes" and he copied me. he now shakes his head yes often. almost anytime he sees a banana usually. but it does it other times too. like yesterday when hayden had left his video game on the couch and talan got it. he walked over to me with it in his hand shaking his head yes as if to say "yup, this is what i want to play with." he seems to know what it means as i've asked him if he wants something and he'll shake yes.
we have recently come to the conclusion that talan is a dog. when he was crawling, justin pointed out that he crawled like a bulldog with his hands pointed in. now, he walks around barking all day, he loves to go in the garage and will even take things out and possibly stick some of those things in his mouth, and he "digs." he will take out a bunch of toys like blocks or something with a lot of pieces. he will then get in the middle of all of the pieces and then basically start digging, scattering all of the pieces all over the room. he also loves to carry things around in his mouth.
he's starting to get all of those fine motor skills lately. for christmas, hayden gave talan a piggy bank toy and until a few weeks ago, he need us to put the coins in it. then the other week i looked over at him while he was playing and he put the coins right in the little slot as if he'd been doing it for a year. that's probably one of his most favorite toys. he opens the stomach, takes the coins out, puts them in the slot, claps for himself and then dances as it plays the music.
he has also started to learn how to put things away or "in." he dropped some cereal on the floor a few weeks ago and while i was picking it up i realized...hey, he can do this. so i started telling him "in, talan. put it in." and he picked up several pieces and put them back in the bowl. he CAN do it, he just usually doesn't.
he loves walking and you almost never see him crawling anymore. i don't even know if i got his "bulldog crawl" on videotape. he also can get himself back to the standing position from anywhere that he is. no more falling and then crawling to something stable to help him back up again. the other evening he was trying to get up and had his hands on the floor, butt in the air trying to push himself up. dave started kicking his butt so he kept falling back down before he could stand. he thought this was hilarious. good thing, because he'll be harassed this way for the rest of his life.
he has rediscovered his tongue and just loves to stick it out. he'll stick it out in hopes to get you to stick yours out and then you just go back and forth like this for way too long. he could care less if he just took a drink of milk or just put something in his mouth. in fact, if he did just stick something in his mouth he'll spit it out so that he can stick his tongue out. a good laugh is far better than a good meal.
speaking of laughs, he thinks that anytime anyone is laughing in his presence they simply must be laughing at him. yet another trait he has in common with his brother. they are both comedians and always want to be the center of attention. we were all in the living room watching hayden's new favorite show, wipeout. people were standing up on tall posts having to jump over a rotating arm. we were laughing as people were falling and talan figured...oh, they must be laughing at me....and if they aren't then they should be. so he sees what's going on on the tv and he suddenly starts laughing forcefully while he is squatting up and down as if he was jumping over the arm. he kept this up until the next commercial break.
talan loves shoes. he has for quite awhile now. if there is ever a pair of shoes by the front door he has always gone right to them. he'll pick them up and try to chew on them or just sit there playing with it. lately he has really taken an interest in his own shoes. he'll find them and bring them over to me and try to get up in my lap telling me to put them on him. i'm not sure that it's he wants shoes so much as it is he wants to go outside. either way....he likes his shoes on. when he does actually take one off, he'll happily hand it over for me to put it back on him.
and while we're on the subject of shoes. this kid has monster sized feet. no joke. and we thought hayden had big feet. we had to start buying way too expensive shoes for hayden because his feet were so fat at about age 2. he was in wide and extra-wide shoes from 2 until about 4. a little odd seeing as though my feet were so narrow as a kid we had to buy way to expensive narrow shoes. and dave's feet were never wide either.
so we have all of hayden's old clothes out from 1-24 months. talan has actually been wearing hayden's sandel's from when hayden was 18 months and talan is not even 15 months. and not only has he been wearing them...most of them are actually too small for him. i finally took him in to the way to expensive shoe store for fat feet the other week and his foot measured at about a 6 wide to extra wide. a 6. i all of the old shoes i have out from hayden none of them are a 6. that means i need to go out to the garage and get the box that says 2T. the box of things hayden wore when he was 2 years old. nothing else will fit him from that box, just the shoes.
his hands are also bigger than haydens, we noticed at his first birthday. we made hand prints and when i got the one we made for hayden at his first birthday we realized talan's hands were at least 1 knuckle bigger than hayden's. so hayden was short and stocky while talan is pretty average but has giant hands and feet. he's gonna be dave's football player.
talan loves to stand in his high chair. even if he's not done eating. he'll just stand up laughing away. when you yell at him and make him sit down, he cries and then stands right back up and is laughing again. he loves to hold the football that is in dave's car every time he sit in that carseat. when we get to stores and he sees a football he usually wants to hold one. and then it turns to throwing it. he loves to throw balls and he actually throws really well. he never sits still. he likes to do something when you tell him no. he loves music and loves to dance. he loves to make messes. in every room of the house. he loves to play in the basement. he loves playing with the drum machine both at our house and grandma's house. he loves justin. he loves justin so much so that when he fell and scraped up his face 2 nites ago, he was trying to get away from my hold and into justins. he loves to laugh, be it fake or real. he loves chasing hayden and playing hide and seek with him. he loves turning the clock radio in our room. he loves jumping and throwing himself on our bed. he can hear a dog bark when nobody else can. he's not afraid of loud noises. he loves to climb and can now get himself up onto the couches and chairs. when he falls, he usually laughs. he likes banging things together and will say "bang bang bang." he loves playing with cars. he loves pushing hayden's little einstein rocket toy around. he eats just about anything you give him, and usually eats way more than hayden. he loves playing at grandma and grandpa's house. he loves to have papa read him books. and lately he's been wanting more and more books read to him at home. he loves to entertain people. he loves to climb and will open my dresser drawers to climb up it.
he continues to hate having his diaper or clothes changed or sit still for any amount of time. he hates doing what he doesn't want to do. he has kicking tantrums when you pick him up and take him away from something he wants. if you give him something he doesn't want he'll throw it. he sometimes likes to be dramatic and throw himself on the floor and "cry" but that usually only lasts a few seconds.
really, there isn't much that he hates. i asked hayden some things that talan doesn't like and he said...i don't know. maybe going to bed? but even that he's pretty good about.
for the most part he's still a very happy and chill baby. although he now has his opinions and stubborn streak which leads to a few minor tantrums. but those are usually just a few yells and kicks and then he's over it.
he heads to the dr. for his 15 month check up tomorrow so we'll post those stats then.
happy 15 months, talan! we love you and still think you're about the best baby there ever was!
for years we've wondered how people are able to take their babies/children anywhere where they need to sit and be quite. hayden was NEVER that kid. we took him to his first wedding last august and even then we sat in the very back row and i packed tons of snacks, coloring books, mazes, etc. and we also bribed him, i'm sure.
when talan was born we were able to understand what parents of "normal" children are actually able to do. talan was calm as could be and would happily (and quietly) sit with you for pretty much as long as you wanted.
oh how things have changed.
taking after his big brother, talan now hates to sit still. quite a bit different than how we thought he'd turn out. when people see him them comment on how much energy he has. but really, as parents, it's all we've ever known. now that he can get around, he never wants to stay in one place for long. and that includes while he's eating.
he really would rather just walk around and eat, but sometimes we actually force him to sit in his high chair to eat with the rest of us. we recently have started strapping him down, but that just means he twists, turns, groans and yells trying to get free.
if i leave the room i'll hear hayden warning me "talan's starting to stand up again!" and i'll come in to find this:
oh yeah, and did i mention that he thinks it's hilarious?!
(
his shirt is soaked simply because he's been one big walking drool machine. every shirt has looked like this for a week now.)
back on january 9, 2008 i posted a blog on hayden's page entitled "what are big brothers for?!"
now talan gets his turn:
quite a bit has happened in the life of talan this past month. the biggest being that he is now a full time walker! it was pretty shocking how quickly it happened. he has never had any interest in walking, even while pushing something. then suddenly one day he took a step which lead to 2 steps which led to 5, then 10 and then just walking. i am relieved, as it came just in time for summer so he doesn't scrape up his knees with all of that crawling nonsense.
when he falls, he typically will crawl over to something to help stand himself up and then he'll just keep right on walking. although, there has been a few times where he has stood up all by himself.
he continues to take two naps a day and goes to bed around 7pm. since hayden's school has let out, talan has been sleeping in a little more than usual which has been great for me! he'll get up anywhere from 7am-8am.
he loves to eat and has finally become quite a bit better at chewing. he had a tendency to put something in his mouth and just swallow it. he loved chips but the faces he made, you knew they were just scraping his throat all the way down. it's been nice not to have to cut everything into microscopic pieces for him!
he eats more then hayden does at a sitting. for example, last nite i fed him before we ate. he ended up eating a couple of crackers, 3 chicken nuggets and some melon. then, when dave brought dinner home for us about 15 minutes after he had finished his dinner, he, of course, wanted more. so then he ate a small piece of cheese bread and a half piece of pizza. AND about 2 cups of milk.
we went to trader joe's a few weeks ago and he had a sample of raspberries which he LOVED and then started mooching the mango lemonade i had. ever since that day, anytime he sees you drinking out of a cup, he opens his mouth and starts breathing like darth vader until you give him some. i usually don't give him any unless i'm totally done with my drink because he's gross. and he makes a huge mess. but i have been giving him the tiniest amount of water in a dixie cup so he can start learning to drink that way by himself without making such a big mess. he does an ok job, but many times he prefers to just chew on the cup.
it has become official. he is a climber. his newest thing is to stand up in his high chair. he'll eat a little bit and then suddenly he's standing up surveying the land. yes, there is a seat belt on the high chair, but i always forget to belt him in as we never had to with hayden. and it's just a pain, really. but i suppose we'll be getting used to it as he refuses to stay seated anymore.
he also climbed further up the baby gate yesterday then i have ever seen him do. so far i became a bit nervous. that's just wonderful. he also loves to climb up the slide outside and has almost made it all the way to the top. and just yesterday while dave and the boys were in the basement and i was just getting out of the shower, talan managed to climb up the whole set of stairs before dave even realized.
he loves to make messes. he'll go from toy basket to toy basket pulling out pretty much everything in them, play with each toy for a couple of minutes and then crawl (oops, i guess that would be walk now) away leaving a trail behind him. i tend to have 3 major clean-ups a day...nap times and bed time. there is no point in putting anything away while he's still awake....if he notices you cleaning up, he'll just come right over and take it all out again.
he likes to say "mama" and SOMETIMES i think he realizes that i am mama...but not usually. he also continues to say "up" when he wants up or down, although the other day at mom and dad's someone said "down" to him and he repeated it. justin was there and said "awww, i've never heard him say that before!" well i hadn't either! he continues to sign for milk and more and will still say "mi" for both of them. when you ask him what a dog says and then you say "woof woof" he will repeat it. i have heard him do it a few times on his own, even when he just sees a picture of a dog.
he babbles a TON. and while he's doing so, he walks around with his finger in the air and yells quite passionately . dave now calls him "cwack cwaa" as that's what he is typically running around yelling at us.
he continues to LOVE music and loves to dance. he has learned how to open the glass door on the entertainment center and he will go over and turn on the cd player. when i tell him no and sit him down away from it, he'll start moving side to side, dancing, to tell me he wants music on. the other day while i was downstairs i suddenly hear the music blaring upstairs. he had somehow managed to turn on the cd player, tuner and turn the volume all the way up. i ran up there and he just looked at me and smiled and started to dance.
although not many, he does have some similarities to hayden. the other day we were outside playing with the neighbors. they had brought chalk over and talan got ahold of a piece. i noticed he was putting it in his mouth so i went over to take it away from him. he had taken a big bite out of it and his whole mouth was blue. so i take it away and tell him no and show him what you're supposed to do with chalk. then i walked back over to where my neighbor was sitting. talan then proceeded to pick up a piece of chalk, bring it to his mouth, open his mouth and stare at me. not in his mouth, just acting as if he was going to put it in there. then he'd put it down, pick it up and do it all over again. yeah.
he loves to sit and kick his legs, especially when you say "kick, kick, kick!" he loves to open ALL of our drawers and pull everything out. he likes to carrying around pens and could play with a capped pen quite contently for long periods of time. he continues to love his baths and continues to hate being laid down to get changed. he likes being read to a bit more then before, although he'll still try turning the pages before you're done. the wheels on the bus is still is favorite book. he loves to go "bye bye" although i think he really only wants to go outside, and not necessarily to the car. he LOVES it outside. he loves pushing cars or trucks around. he likes chewing on a toothbrush. when he gets mad or upset he can become quite dramatic. he'll start to cry and then from his knees he'll throw himself down and bury his face in the floor. if you pick him up when he's mad, he'll kick both legs as hard as he can. he recently learned to fake laugh and will do this back and forth with hayden for long periods of time. he can also fake cough but because he continues to have his 90 year old smokers cough, even his fake cough sounds bad. as soon as we get to a store he wants snacks. NOW!!! he loves to hold dave's football whenever he's in the fusion and when we passed one in target the other day he had to have one to hold. although he can be quite needy and whiny while we're in the room, he can be left alone to play by himself for long extended periods of time.
he continues to be happy most of the time and has a sense of humor the way hayden always did. we wondered about this one when for awhile he just seemed to be a bit serious. we weren't sure how a serious kid would do living in this family, but he has quickly adjusted. he is always on the go but still goes with the flow. and he somehow gets cuter every day.
we love you so much, talan! happy 14 months!!!
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