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this morning we took talan in for his long awaited surgeries. he finally had tubes put in his ears and he had the cyst removed that was on his nose close to his eye.we had to be to the hospital at 6:30am and the surgery was to start at 7:30. mom game over bright and early to see hayden off to school and we took off around 6:15.talan only asked for milk a couple of times on the way to the hospital and a few times while we were in the waiting room. i figured he'd be screaming for it, but he did great.they called us in, put us in the prep area and got him all ready for surgery. both of the doctors came by and talked to us for a few minutes and then a nurse carried a screaming talan away from us.i was most afraid of the anesthesiologist listening to him and telling us he was wheezing too much and that they wouldn't be able to do the surgeries on him. but even though he's been rattling and coughing away for weeks now, the dr. listened and said he didn't hear any wheezing. so that was a great relief!at just about 8am dr. stone, the ear dr., came out and told us the tubes were in and he did great during that procedure. he explained everything we needed to know and told us to set up an appointment to see him in a week or two.then just before 9am dr. forte, the plastic surgeon, came out and told us his part of the surgery was done and he was headed to recovery. he explained that there were no surprises with the cyst and that it all went well. they did send the cyst to pathology just to be safe. he let us know the stitches would fall out on their own and that he wants to see him in the office next tuesday. he told us his eye is swollen a bit and could swell all the way shut and turn black and blue.we went back to the recovery room where a nurse was trying to hold a screaming, flailing, talan down. i took him and tried to calm him down but he was pretty out of it. after a bit he eventually calmed down and fell asleep. from there he kept waking up every several minutes and would start crying and wiggling around again but would eventually calm back down.they offered him crushed ice, apple juice with a straw and a popsicle but he wanted none of it. we sat in recovery with him from about 9am until about 10:45 and then we were able to head home. at that point he was pretty happy to get out of that place!he was a little out of it when we got home but not too long after, he was asking to eat and was watching movies and playing like normal. by the time nap time rolled around he didn't even really seem very tired. he did go down right away, however, and slept several hours.he woke up and was in a great mood and still is. he's sitting behind me playing with his magnet letters and numbers right now. his eye is more swollen and red but he hasn't even tried to touch it so far and hasn't ever acted like it, or his ears, are causing him any pain.so the surgeries went well and he didn't even come home with a pig nose and elf ears like i thought he would seeing as though it's april fools day! just a little punch in the eye, i guess!here's some pictures from our day. if it gets any worse, you know i'll be there with the camera!getting dressed for surgery. he did not want us to put this on him:
watching some curious george:
he thought his bracelet was cool...for a few minutes at least:
right after surgery. he didn't want anything but mama.:
on the way home:
home at last:
he decided once he got home that he actually DID want a popsicle!:
after nap at about 5pm:
today talan turned 23 months. that's right, in exactly one month my baby will be 2 years old. that's insanity. i'm hoping this month drags on for awhile.
even though talan is not quite two, he most defiantly has hit the terrible two's. his favorite word is "no" and often times it's not enough to say it just once. it's more like "no, no, no, no, no no" said extremely fast. his favorite activities include screaming and throwing things. and he has picked up the nasty habit of swinging his arms so as to smack you in the face. that's a fun one.
so, yes. talan has learned all about "time outs."
despite all of that, talan still continues to be a hilarious kid with a huge personality that we love to death and would never trade in.
talan was due in for surgery back on february 27th to put tubes in his ears and to remove the cyst on his nose. about 2 weeks before the surgery, the ear dr. called to say there was some miscommunication between them and the plastic surgeon (who was taking care of the cyst) and we would not be having our surgery on the 27th. because the plastic surgeon hadn't seen us since december of 2007, they wanted to see talan again before scheduling the surgery. we went in to see the dr. last tuesday for one of the most pointless appointments ever. the dr. simply felt the cyst and then told me he would have to pull up the old ct scan to see if it was attached to anything so he could determine how he would be removing it. i told him it wasn't attached and almost told him....don't you think you should have done that BEFORE we came in?! but i managed to keep my mouth shut. see, i'm growing! i still have not heard from the dr., so i will be calling them today to figure out what in the world is going on. i would guess he should have the surgeries later this month or next.
talan's old man cough had taken a little break these past several months but is now back in full force. we took him to the dr. because it had gotten so bad that he ended up throwing up in his crib one evening. turned out he had an ear infection on top of the cough. we made it almost the entire winter without one!!! and just days before his almost tube surgery. the whole surgery cancellation worked out for the best as they never would have preformed it with him wheezing and coughing the way he was.
the dr. put him on amox. for the ear infection, 2 different kinds of medicine for breathing treatments and a steroid to open up his lungs. later that evening he had a fever so we also put some tylenol in him and then some nite time cough medicine to help him sleep. even with all of that, he was as active as ever.
the cough has cleared up a bit, but yesterday started getting a bit worse again. i think it's because he's coming down with a cold though. shockingly, his nose will start dripping and he'll tell me "nose, nose" so that i wipe it. and he actually lets me!!
talan has done quite well with his breathing treatments. he loves to sit and watch the they might be giants here come the abc's dvd and look for the letter i. last month his favorite letters were m and w. he still likes them, but they can't touch the letter i. he runs around looking for words that he can point the letter i out in. there is a part in the dvd where the recite the whole alphabet and he says each letter after the robot does. he says almost every letter next to perfectly. he's quite the good talker.
a few weeks back talan and i were driving to church for mops. we drove past mcdonalds and i heard talan yelling something from the backseat. i listened a little closer and realized he was yelling "yeahhhh! fries!"
i was down here in the office one day doing something on the computer when i noticed talan pulling on his pants and saying something. i couldn't figure it out, even though it sounded very close to what he was actually saying, because i never in a million years thought he'd fess up to it. he was standing there pulling on his pants saying "i tink. i tink" (i stink, i stink).
he now also says "chair" "door"...which he kept saying while in the dr.'s office hoping we would leave..."dude" "outside" and he knows a lot of the thomas trains names. thomas is just a noise he makes that comes from his throat...it actually sounds a lot like justin. percy is "fifi." james is "dames." emily is "emmy." henry is "henny." and he doesn't just say their names, he can point them out to you as well. oh...and track is "cack." every day we have to build a wooden train track in the living room. several times a day actually because he likes to destroy it and then want it built again.
for whatever reason, talan has grown a huge love for basketball. or so he thinks. whenever we pull up to the house, he sees the basketball hoop sitting in the driveway and has a fit when we go inside instead of going back to play. he is ready for spring!
he continues to LOVE music and wants to "rock" often. he has gotten quite good at holding his guitar and showing off his rock moves. he loves to spin it in the air and sometimes he'll even play it behind his head. his favorite time to play it is when he's watching fireflight on tivo. he'll point out justin and say his name and now will also saw dawn's name. but every time phee comes up he will simply say "dum dum." don't worry, he's not calling phee dumb, just pointing out that phee is playing the drums. at least i think....
he still is enjoying reading books and will come over, hand me a book and crawl up in my lap to have me read to him. i try to do it as often as possible. to have him sitting still for that long is a rare thing.
he loves to take as many things with him when we leave the house as possible. he goes around collecting things like a rubber duck, his drum sticks, blanket, pooh bear. whatever he finds that he thinks he might need while we are out. you know, the essentials.
he loves running around shooting guns with hayden. he loves baths but not so much when bubbles get all over his hands. he loves music. he loves watching movies. he loves chicka chicka boom boom. he loves papa. he still loves making as big of a mess as possible. he loves the toy aquarium he has in his crib. he loves seeing train tracks. he loves isaac gregg. he loves suckers. he loves fruit snacks. he loves his blanket and pooh bear. he loves to dust bust. he loves it when his daddy comes home. he loves to dance. he loves to jump on beds. he loves to show off. he loves a big crowd.
he still hates sitting still or being changed. he typically hates being put to bed, but usually quiets down after just a minute or two. he hates being told no. he hates having crumbs or really anything on his hands. he hates to sit to eat. he really doesn't like eating breakfast at all. he hates that he can't play with the train track in hayden's room.
we have great hope that talan will quickly grow out of his terrible two's. at least when he throws a fit, they don't really last that long. as much of a challenge as he has become, he's still a great baby. i love spending every day with him. not necessarily every minute, but every day! he is hilarious. he is smart. he is crafty. he is sweet. he is active and busy and determined. he is a huge part of our hearts and family.
we love you so much, baby talan. we will do all we can to enjoy this last month with you as a 1 year old! happy 23 months!!!!
today talan turned 22 months old. that means only 2 more months until he is 2. and that seems crazy to me. it also seems like a lot of 2's.
it seems like talan had a pretty big month this time around. he is starting to at least try to repeat almost everything he hears. and he is almost always trying to communicate with us using words. some of the words in his vocabulary are: cracker (cwaca), stuck (duck but without a huge d sound), dog (sounds a lot like duck), duck, please (at the beginning of the month it sound like peace or peas, now he dropped the s sound so it's pretty much pee), he says hot when given some food or when he is around the space heater, he now usually says chip instead of pip which is sad, drum (dum), tick (stick...usually drum stick), pickle sounds like people, and a whole slew of other words.
one of my favorite new words he says is rock. he will bring a hockey stick or some other toy that seems like a guitar and just start saying "rock! rock!" until you turn on some music for him to rock out to.
one nite at dinner he started saying something that sounded like "knock knock" so dave asked "who's there?" he then said "pooh." when asked "pooh who?" he just went back to "knock knock" and would continue to say it was pooh or poof or something similar to that. he thought he was way funny (which he was) so he continued for quite awhile.
each morning when he wakes up and i go in to get him he will point to just about everything in his crib to have me name them all. "blanket. other blanket. pooh bear. binky." it's just something it seems he feels he has to do before asking for some milk and letting me get him out.
and every nite before bed we are now in the routine of reading several books to him. he is finally in a spot in his life where he will sit still, and actually wants to sit still, to read book after book. i feel like hayden started around the same time as well. before now he was just too busy to have to just sit. he's still busy, but he has found that books are pretty cool. he pretty much has the same books he wants read to him every nite but they have been slowly changing. it was "chugga chugga choo choo (he calls choo choo), dog, 10 little ladybugs, and i see a monster. sometimes he'd throw in swing or gallop. now he is SUPER into chicka chicka boom boom and chicka chicka 123. he calls them both "boom boom" and starts calling for them the minute he wakes up and will bring them to me throughout the day as well.
he hasn't been very interested in learning his letters or numbers like hayden was into, but hopefully with his new love of chicka chicka boom boom he'll start to learn them. his favorite letters are m and w and he can pretty much pick them out now. he also will occasionally repeat almost the whole alphabet with us with many of his letters sounding just about perfect. as far as numbers, he loves the number 8.
talan is so happy to have justin and jessica back home again this month and he still has his crazy love for justin. in fact, if jessica walks into the house without him, he won't even look at her for awhile. but as soon as justin walks in he runs over to him and when he picks talan up, he lays his head on his shoulder and stays there for an obscene amount of time. he still calls justin something that is impossible to type out. it's basically a noise he makes in his throat. and he now almost always calls jessica "ca ca". i love it.
he is still has a huge temper and has a fit when he is told no. but....if you do something he wants you to do he'll run over to you all excited and give you a hug....well, he lays his head on you. when he does something he's not supposed to do we many times tell him "bad" and slap his hand. the other day and then again today, i told him "BAD!" about something he had done. he then yelled "bad!" and then slapped his own hand. well, i guess that's one less thing i have to do.
he is loving most of the baby einstein movies now and watches the same one over and over. but he has been changing it up and has slowly been making his way through the entire collection. right now he is very into "baby's first signs" and will try to repeat everything they say and will many times try repeating the sign for the word as well.
whenever someone burps....which, let's be honest, is A LOT in this house...he will let out a burp of his own. he used to say "excuse me" after it but has recently dropped that.
talan loves babies. every time we go to the store and walk past a baby doll he wants me to give it to him. but he's pretty picky. just any baby won't do. he has to have one of the creepy ones that will cry or talks and crawls and stuff. i'm not too worried since he seems to still prefer footballs, trains and guns over the babies.
talan continues to go to bed somewhere between 7 and 8 in the evening but has recently started waking up earlier. around 7am....many mornings well before 7. and because he keeps throwing things out of his crib, he has a hard time going back to sleep without his binky's and blanket. so he'll just sit in his crib yelling "uh oh" over and over. he goes down for his nap at 1 and gets up around 3:30 or 4. he usually takes a really good nap, although there have been several days he refuses to sleep. those are the days he is in bed by 7!!!
he seems to really be growing as he can reach things he couldn't before and his clothes are getting smaller. he typically wears an 18-24 month top, but some of those have been looking a bit shorter so i have started putting him in some 2t's. he can also still mostly fit in 18-24 month pants but they have been looking a bit short as well so recently i put him in some 24 month/2t pants. lengthwise they are decent but he is able to crawl right out of them at times.
he's a good eater when he wants to be, but still would rather to eat on the go. many times he'll tell you he's "all done" just two bites into a meal. but if you tell him to eat more, he'll continue to shove food in his mouth and say "all done" at the same time.
on february 27th talan will be having two surgeries...finally. he will be having the cyst by his eye removed and he will be having tubes put in his ears. both dr.'s were able to coordinate their schedules so that we will only have to go in and have him put under once. for awhile i could hardly even see the cyst. the dr. said it was because his face was filling out. it seems that he is thinning out a bit now and i can see the cyst much more now. as far as the tubes go, he shockingly hasn't had a single ear infection this entire winter. but i'm guessing it's still the best thing to do for him since he has had so many.
he loves running around with hayden and most recently playing shoot 'em up. he'll just run around pointing the guns (yes, i said guns, he has to have 2) backwards, pointing them at people and making a shooting noise. he loves going into rooms that have childproof locks on them and taking everything out of all of the cabinets that are also childproof locked. he still loves making a mess. he loves holding a football in the car. he loves watching movies and shows. he loves taking baths. he loves playing with trains. he loves dancing to music and pretending to play the guitar and drums. he is very selective about his music and will scream when something is playing that he doesn't want to listen to. he's learned to love the nursery at northridge church and now i can just say "do you want to go to church and play on the slide?" and he'll shout "yup!" and usually become much more cooperative. he loves suckers and tomatoes and pickles, he loves sitting in hayden's lap and pretending to play the drums to music after he's done eating dinner. he loves watching the slide show of pictures on the computer.
he continues to hate being told no and sitting still, unless he's being read to. he still hates having to sit around while someone changes him. some days we literally need to lay on him to get him to stay still long enough. he hates when hayden has a toy that he wants and he will start shouting "mine!"...he's not a very good sharer. he hates getting in and out of his car seat when we have to run to several stores and by the last store he will start arching his back so you can't get him buckled in anymore. he hates sitting for a meal. he hates getting his hair cut.
talan is definitely becoming more and more grown up with every day. it's sometimes hard to even remember what a calm, chill, happy baby he was for so many months. he's still plenty happy, but the whole calm and chill thing definitely doesn't describe him anymore. he is active, impatient and independent. he is also truly one of the funniest kids i have ever seen. we honestly believe he could have his own reality show and would make millions off of it. the faces he makes, the way his walks at times....things that i am unable to describe in writing. he just has perfect timing and reacts perfectly funny in every situation. at times i miss that calm, chill baby, but i wouldn't trade this hyper, hilarious toddler for the world.
we love you so much, baby talan! happy 22 months!
today talan is 21 months old. 21 months sounds way better than 20 months. just think how it will sound when i call him 53 months. that'll be fun.
i feel like talan has done A LOT this month and i'm not even sure that i'll be able to begin to capture it in this blog.
talan can now get past child proof items such as the door knob locks. i have heard there are better ones out there, so i may have to look into them. he doesn't usually bother most doors, like hayden's which is a bit surprising because he LOVES to go in hayden's room. but he does now go into the bathroom anytime he feels like. so not only can he get past the door knob child proofing, he can also get past the cabinet door child proofing as well. he just very casually opens the cabinet door as far as the lock allows, the sticks his finger in, presses down, and bam, the cabinet door is open. his favorite thing to do once in the bathroom and then once in the cabinet is to open the drawer where all of the bathtub toys are kept, empty the ENTIRE drawer out by dumping each toy, one by one, into the bathtub and then climbing into the tub himself. one day he even turned a water knob right before i came in to get him and it got his blanket, which he of course had with him, a bit wet. "uh oh. waa-waa" he told me. yeah. thanks, talan.
if he's not playing in the tub then he's climbing up on the sink trying to reach his toothbrush. he loves to brush his teeth. his new favorite thing is to suck the water off of it and hand it back to you to "refill" it over and over again.
talan's favorite christmas gifts this year were music related. a yo gabba gabba guitar that hayden got for him, some drums for the bathtub, a little thomas drum, and a tambourine that justica got him which he broke in literally the first 2 minutes he had it. but he sure did love it for those 2 minutes. he has little to no attention span, but with a toy like these, he might actually play with it for over 2 minutes. he has about 4 different sets of drumsticks and he carries them around with him all day long. he usually is very good about not banging on things that he shouldn't be banging on, although we have had our moments. he actually calls his drumsticks "bang."
talan is no dummy and it appears he really does not like the cold weather. even if it's not THAT cold out and i bring him out to the car with no hat on, he covers up his face or ears and makes a horrible face and starts breathing all funny. i don't blame him one bit.
talan is a total daredevil and pain really doesn't seem to bother him most of the time. he loves to skateboard in the basement and actually does quite well at it. he loves to climb on anything he can. he jumps and spins and does kicks. and apparently while we were out on december 28th, jessica and justin witnessed him do 2 perfect somersaults...his very first ones. since then he does them almost every day.
he has recently started wanting to go up and down the stairs by walking instead of crawling. he usually will do the first two that way and then turn around to crawl realizing it's much faster that way. if someone is there though, he'll take your hand instead so he can get down faster but still by his preferred method.
i have been keeping peanut butter away from talan for as long as possible as the last thing i want is for him to have a peanut allergy. months and months ago dave did give him some peanut related food and he's gotten his hands on several other things from hayden's plate so i wasn't too concerned, just tried to keep it away the best i could. one day, jessica and justin took talan and hayden for the afternoon and apparently justin fed talan some of his peanut butter fudge. they didn't tell me for several days thinking i'd be upset. on christmas eve, talan reached right up on the counter to the plate of peanut butter fudge, grabbed a piece and ate the whole thing. he LOVED it. since then we have gone to "the peanut restaurant" as hayden calls logan's because you throw your peanut shells on the floor, and i realized there is no reason to keep it from him anymore. so he ate peanut after peanut. his new favorite food is the orange peanut butter crackers. we'll just keep hoping that in a few years he doesn't suddenly become allergic.
talan is a fairly good eater most days. he has been known to eat more dinosaur chicken nuggets than hayden. i know that's not saying too much, but he's eaten 5 before. he also loves apples. he still would rather eat on the go, however. if he's sitting to eat, he'll take a bite or two before he starts saying "all done" which actually does sound just like "all done" he's finally added the n to the done. i usually can get him to sit a bit longer to eat some more. but he would be perfectly content to just keep walking back to his plate and grabbing something to eat for the rest of the day than to sit and eat a whole meal at the table. he is also a food grabber. just last nite he went into the kitchen when nobody was looking and ate the rest of hayden's cupcake that was sitting on the table.
we are already into january and talan hasn't had a single ear infection yet this winter! i actually just set up his surgery appointment to have tubes put in and also to have the cyst removed on his nose at the same time. he will be going in to the southfield providence hospital on friday, february 27th early in the morning to have those things finally taken care of. figure after those surgeries are done, our super high deductible will be met for the year! which will mean frequent visits to the dr. for any little thing!!!
his bedtime continues to be between 7 and 8 with nap time at 1 lasting until 3:30 or 4. although we had a streak of days where he never did take a nap at all. those days were definitely 7pm bedtime days! he goes to bed really easily still and doesn't usually wake up at nite. he has been sleeping in a bit more recently and gets up anytime from 7:30-8:30. he used to be a huge grouch when he would get up but lately he's been much more pleasant (unless you wake him up!). he'll sit in his crib and point up at pictures saying "dada. mama. haen" then he'll point to his blanket until i say "blanket" he'll grab his stuff pooh bear and say "pooh!" and immediately start saying and signing "milk" until we get him up and into this kitchen.
talan loves playing with trains, just like hayden always has. instead of making the "f" sound he now says "choo choo" perfectly.
he actually has come pretty far this past month with his speech. he is trying to say a lot more than he ever has and he is becoming much easier to understand with certain words. he says dada, mama, and has even said daddy and mommy a couple of times. hayden is still haen and justin is some weird noise that comes from his throat. the other day, mom came over to watch him for a bit and he ran to her and said something that was grandma. the ma was on the end but i missed the first part. he said it again a day or two later. he also says papa. when he was over at their house the last time, he went running in and said "papa!" and apparently he said it so well, dad thought it was hayden.
he recently started saying "hi" and it is one of the cutest things you will ever hear. he is typically a really loud child, but he'll just wave his hand and in the sweetest, softest voice say "hi. hi. hi." over and over again. he has also said bye several times, but not nearly as often as hi.
he also says "bity" for binky and has been pretty good about not having it except for at bedtime. there are times we forget and times that he finds one, but for the most part i'm trying to keep them away until he is put in his crib. they are always on hand when we go out in public though. just so darn handy to shut him up!
his temper is even stronger now and his favorite word is "no!" it really is SO cute when he says it because he puts this funny little accent on it and he runs away from you while he's yelling it. of course there are plenty of times it stops being cute and funny, but for the most part we have to try to keep the laughing in. he will grab something he's not supposed to have and when we go to take it from him, he RUNS from us and hides somewhere that we have a hard time reaching him in. the whole time yelling "no! no! no!" ahhh, the terrible two's strike early!
recently whenever we go to a store, if i turn my back for a second or walk over to get something to put in the cart, he'll sit in the cart and YELL "MAMA! MAMA!" the whole time. one old lady told me the other day "well, he'll never get lost!" he keeps the store entertained, that's for sure.
he loves to ride on his big trucks in the basement and says "beep beep" the whole time. he still loves to make messes, especially in the basement where he takes out every toy in about 5 minutes. he loves watching fireflight on our tivo...we typically watch it over 3 times a day. he loves to rock out with his guitar showing moves that he surely picked up from fireflight shows. he loves throwing and catching balls and is very good at it. he says "baball" for football anytime he sees a football or whenever it's on tv. he loves babies and points them out all of the time. he still has a crazy infatuation with justin and will run and lay in his arms for minutes on end and he won't look at or talk to anybody else while he's in justin's arms. he loves going "bye bye" and is very easy to get dressed because of it, but when we're out he typically doesn't really want to be out. i think it's strictly for the snacks he gets while in his stroller. he loves suckers and has become a much less messy with them. he loves to hold our hands at dinner before we pray. he typically loves playing with and chasing hayden. he loves using a fork to eat but is still horrible with a spoon. many days he loves to sit in your lap and have you read books to him. he loves "pips" or what we call chips. he recently developed a love for the baby einstein movies. he loves to point and say things as if he is counting, but most of it sounds just like "8" or other nonsense. when you ask him something, you used to say a VERY energetic "YEAH!" recently it has turned into a "yup!
he hates leaving socks or slippers on. he hates being told no. he still hates sitting still. he hates having his haircut and most recently it became a two day event. he hates when i walk out the door, but he typically gets over it pretty quickly.
he really knows how to keep a person on their toes, but most days we still do far more laughing with him than not. he is hilarious and knows just what to do at just what time to make someone laugh. his facial expressions are amazing and i wish we were able to take pictures of every single one so we don't ever forget them.
we love you so much, talan! can't wait to see what you get into next month!!!! happy 21 months!
why yes, that is the best laying down picture i got.talan turned 20 months old today. and i wondered, how much longer am i going to do this every month post?! probably until he's two and then maybe every 6 months...or something like that. or maybe i'll continue....123 months...that could be fun.
talan is continuing to improve upon the art of the tornado. he loves to make a mess. leave him in a room for about 2 minutes and every toy, and non toy, will be spread across the entire floor. i have cleaned out the basement at least two times now getting rid of things that don't seem to get played with but still make a huge mess. there is still plenty for him to find to tear apart though.
i was scared to death to put up the christmas tree this year. but surprisingly he hasn't really bothered with it....too much. mom gave him a drum set ornament this year and he always looks up at it and says "bang bang" because once we let him drum on it with a pen. i came home the other nite to find that he did break one ornament and was playing with several others. but it's nothing like i thought it would be. thankfully!
i started wrapping presents the other evening and last nite wrapped some toys for my bff's children. since we will be celebrating christmas with them next friday, i decided to leave those presents under the tree. while putting them under there i thought about talan. then decided he really hasn't opened too many presents in his lifetime and at thanksgiving he couldn't have cared less to open up his ornament so i figured i'd be safe. well....about 15 minutes ago i went upstairs to find he had completely unwrapped one of the gifts. i mean completely. all of the paper was off. i thought he tried opening the others, but he didn't. just the one.
talan had a fever a couple of weeks ago but no other real symptoms with it. after a couple of days the fever was gone but he remained incredibly whiny and clingy. i decided to bring him in to the dr. to make sure it wasn't an ear infection since thanksgiving was just 2 days away. they looked in his ears and said they were all clear (to the shock of me and the dr.) and then they started to look in his mouth. right then i remembered that three weeks earlier i had strep so i mentioned it to the dr. at that point she just decided to take a strep culture just to be safe but she really didn't think he had it. 5 minutes later the test came back positive. the dr. said he shouldn't have gotten it so long after i had it...it should have been about 3 days later. but the test showed a weak positive meaning he was JUST getting it. leave it to talan. but thankfully i did bring him in so he wasn't contagious on thanksgiving! and nobody else in the family has gotten it.
talan has seemed to lose his appetite lately and isn't eating very well at all. he rarely eats a real breakfast. he usually just chooses to drink his milk and walk around eating fruit loop cereal straws. although i have gotten him to sit and eat some oatmeal a few times. for a couple of days he was on a grilled cheese kick for lunch. but just a couple of days. most of the time he'll eat some cheese, maybe some crackers and some turkey. occasionally he'll eat some apple, but many times he chews it and then spits it out. that's fun. he used to have no problem eating chicken with us at dinner but he doesn't seem to eat very much of that anymore either. he will usually eat chicken nuggets though. and he LOVES tomatoes. loves them.
he still wakes up around 7am, although the past week or so he's been getting up later. one morning i walked hayden to the bus stop at 8:45 and he still wasn't up. or if he was, he wasn't yelling to get out yet. he still takes a good nap from about 1-3 or 3:30 and then goes to bed between 7 and 8. some nites you think he should be tired and we'll put him in his crib and he'll just cry. and he won't stop crying. many of those evenings i'll take him out, let him play for awhile and then put him back in and he goes right down. so he's pretty good about letting us know when he really does want to sleep.
talan is quite the independent toddler, most of the time. he knows what he wants and he does it, no matter what. if he doesn't get to do it, he screams. and screams loud. he has perfected the tantrum. this calm, happy baby has turned into a raging tantrum toddler. he fits in perfectly in this house now.
dave told me a story the other week about talan harassing hayden. apparently they were all in the basement and talan had a ball in his hand (which he can hold with one hand because his hands are so freakin' big) which he would act like he was going to throw but just hold it right in hayden's face. hayden would yell "don't throw that at me!!!" and talan would do it again. and again. and again. dave finally let hayden in on the fact that talan was not going to throw the ball, he was just messing with him. and the thing is, i don't even know that talan learned that from hayden.
talan loves to go bye bye. at least for a little while. many times while we're out he lets it be known that he is ready to go...but the act of getting ready to go bye bye is usually a breeze with him cuz he's excited to go somewhere. so he'll happily sit and let us put on his socks and shoes and coat and hat. the other evening we were getting ready to go to dinner for dave's birthday. i went and picked out a pair of shoes for talan (the wide sized ones as they are the easiest to get on those logs of his) but he picked up a different brown shoe and handed it to me. i thanked him and told him i already had shoes so i put the brown one away. he then threw one of his fits, pulled the basket back out, found both brown shoes and handed them to me still yelling. i decided not to fight it so i put the shoes i already had away and said ok, let's go put them on. he then looked in the basket and at the shoes in my hand to make sure i didn't pull the 'ol switch-a-roo on him and that he would, in fact, be going to dinner in the brown corduroy shoes he had picked out. 20 months old and he's telling me what he wants to wear. hayden still doesn't do that...usually.
he continues to try talking more and more. most of which most outsiders wouldn't understand...most of which we can understand most of the time. he says "star" and was so funny after the tree was up and he came into the living room the first time and saw it. he just kept looking up saying "ooooo..dahhhr!" over and over. he now also LOVES elmo and says elmo perfectly. he also says dante, although he could be saying kitty, but i think it's dante. and he says something for shoe, but it pretty much sounds like what he says for train...it's not really even a word, he just makes this sound from his throat. he finally has started saying mama again. when he sees a picture of dave he'll say "there's dada" but it doesn't come out quite as clearly as that. and of course he always says "bang" as his favorite toy is still drumsticks. he says "all done" pretty clearly now as well and still makes tons of "oooo" "ahhhh" noises at all of the appropriate times which is hilarious. he says "pip" for chip which is probably my favorite. he also says "bibee" for binky. and he will say "cheese" when you take his picture or at lunchtime when he actually wants cheese.
his newest thing is skateboarding. last year hayden got one for his birthday. they typically used to just roll around on it, but recently hayden has been trying to stand on it. not sure if talan saw that or if he just decided to try it on his own, but he now will stand on the skateboard and walk off of it as it's moving under him. and he almost never falls. he has perfect balance. it's ridiculous how good he actually is on that skateboard.
he continues to love to dance. he loves watching thomas, yo gabba gabba and the imagination movers. he still loves his baths but hates having his hair washed. he loves playing in the basement. he loves playing on his pretend computer, especially when someone else is playing on theirs...but he'd rather the real deal. he loves music. he loves messes. he loves going outside and wants to get "down" no matter what the weather is. he loves going to target and seeing the "balls" outside and saying "ball" over and over again. he loves his binky and blanket although i know it's about time we start only allowing the binky in the crib only....but it's just so convenient to shut him up! he loves taking all of the movies out upstairs which i believe i hear him doing right this second. he loves taking the cushions off of the couch. he loves picking up the phone and pretending his talking and laughing with someone...but he won't say a word if someone is actually on the other end. he loves jumping on our bed. he loves playing on hayden's leapster video game. he loves trying to walk up the stairs instead of crawl up them. he loves brushing his teeth. he LOVES to give five's and to dap up. he loves to give kisses with a real kissing sound effect. he loves justin. he loves to jump into people's arms. he loves my dad. he loves to take the batteries out of the dvd controller. he loves cell phones and recently called dennis varty where apparently hayden took the phone and started talking to him.
he hates sitting for anything, even a meal. he hates being told no. he still isn't a fan of cold wipes. he hates being put in his carseat when he's not ready...and he'll stiffen up so that you can't buckle him in. he refuses to talk on demand. or do any of his trick on demand for that matter. he hates root beer. on the few occasions that jessica has given him some he makes a horrible face and sticks out his tongue. he acts shy around people when he first sees them by turning his head away and rolling his eyes so he can't see them. there just aren't a ton of things that he hates. although there are plenty of times during the day that he throws a fit because he hates something...but that's mostly the hates being told no thing.
even with all of the screaming and tantrums, talan is still a very good and happy baby with a hilarious personality. he says things, walks a certain way, or makes certain faces at the exact moment he should in a situation. he really is a funny kid. he keeps us moving all day long and he makes our house nosier than it was before....and it was plenty noisy before.
i'm so excited for this christmas and to watch him take it all in. i have a feeling we won't get a very good santa picture this year, but it will be a memorable one! speaking of pictures...i'll have to take on talan and the bear pictures after nap.
happy 20 months, baby talan! we love you!
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