a rare but sweet occurrence

talan doesn't usually want to hold london. he's got far better things to do with his time. but today he actually asked to hold her. it didn't last long but i did manage to get a few photos.

big brother!

on saturday, march 6th, 2010, talan cash became a big brother to his little sister london avery.
for awhile talan had been insisting he didn't like the baby and that the baby wasn't allowed to touch his toys, but ever since london arrived, talan has been a great big brother.
it took him a little bit to warm up to her at the hospital, but he eventually sat on the bed and held her. and after we brought her home, he even wanted to help feed her!
when he was leaving the hospital on saturday nite he asked "you stay here with baby?" so i explained that yes, i'd be staying at the hospital that nite with the baby but that we'd all come home the next afternoon. he then said "baby go with his (everyone is a "he") mama?" to which i then had to explain that i was london's mama and that meant london would be coming home with me.
only once, shortly after bringing her home, did talan saying anything. i was changing her and she was laying next to me and talan on the couch. he just looked at her and said "that's my mama" not in a mean way, just in a letting her know kind of way. i just let him know that i was his mama. but i was also hayden and london's mama. and that was that.
i'm sure talan will be a great big brother and will be very protective of his little sister!

35 months

and yet another month has passed which brings us only 1 month away from talan turning 3 years old. it was surreal being in the hospital just days ago giving birth to london. it really does seem like talan was just born and now he's 35 months old today!
this month talan has continued to add new phrases to his vocabulary. usually very funny ones that we wonder where in the world he got it from. he listens to everything, even when you don't think he is, and then he'll repeat things at the most perfect of times. he says things like "what is going on here, mom?" and "what are you talking about?!" he's just adorable and he knows it.
this month he took a big step and is now sharing a room with hayden and sleeping in a big boy bed. we were planning on not moving him in to hayden's room until june when hayden got out of school. we figured they would end up keeping each other up till all hours of the nite. but hayden was off for february break so we decided to give it a try. if it didn't go well, we'd move him back to his room and do it in june. the first nite was amazing and they were both quiet and asleep in no time. same thing with the second nite. in fact, i don't think they've ever been in there talking for more than 5 minutes. it's amazing. we can't believe how well it worked out. and talan has only fallen out of the bed twice! he love's his new room and "bunk bed!"
since moving into hayden's room, talan has discovered a whole new bookshelf full of books. so far he has only taken them off the shelf once. and hopefully that will also be the last time! he loves to make a mess! but he has found a whole bunch of new books...mainly veggie tale books...that he loves. his favorite is "where's god when i'm scared?" and he's had us read it to him several times every day. he calls it his "god book." the book is based off of one of the video's so i sing the song to him and now he sings along with us. he has decided not to listen to the whole book, however, and ignores the part about god being with us and we don't need to be scared. so now, we'll ask him to go to his room and get us a diaper and he'll say "i can't. there's something big and hairy." which is a part of the song. or he'll just randomly ask me "mom? are those eyeballs in the closet?"
talan will also randomly tell me that he doesn't like someone. either someone he knows or just a character on a tv show. he usually says he doesn't like tina, but as soon as she comes over he'll tell her "i like you tina!" so that one is just a lie. but recently he has decided he doesn't like dawn, from fireflight. when asked why he'll simply say "i too shy for dawn." yeah, like he's shy.
this month he has also really taken to the name "uncle justin" and every time he talks about him he always adds the "uncle." it's super cute but i'm not sure why that started and why it's every single time. in fact, i think he actually says "MY uncle justin." yup, he still love justin.
he continues to have zero interest in potty training and i haven't pushed the issue. moving him into a big boy bed and having him share a room all before the baby came was enough for us. i figure we'll really start working on it after his birthday once things have settled down here a bit. half the time i still don't think he even gets it. he'll tell me he pooped when really he only peed. he has no idea what he's talking about. he'll sit on the toilet sometimes but he's never done anything on it.
talan continues to keep us on our toes at all times. he makes messes everywhere he can. his attitude has gotten way worse and his favorite word is "no" which is totally annoying. he fights with hayden all of the time...usually he's the one that is starting it. he's got the pesky little brother thing down!
talan is wearing mostly 3t clothes but wears some 4t shirts. he's in a size 5 diaper but probably could go to a 6...which means potty training is near!! he hates structured meals and has been eating less and less recently. he usually goes to bed between 7 and 8 with hayden and wakes up at 7 if not earlier. oh the joys of room sharing! he still takes a nap and goes down at 1, usually waking around 4 or so but some times it's much earlier!
he loves causing trouble, making hayden crazy. he loves playing with legos. he loves making a mess. he loves listening to music. he loves an audience. he loves his drums and guitar and microphone. he loves his new bed. he loves his binky's and blanket. he loves doing skateboard tricks. he loves his friend isaac and playing with the nursery worker joe at mops. he loves taking a bath. he loves max and ruby, yo gabba gabba, olivia, and many other shows. he loves reading books...when he wants to. he loves being outside. he loves fireflight's new album.
he hates sitting. he hates eating. he hates being told what to do. he hates water in his eyes during bathtime. he hates having his hair washed and we must only use a wash cloth...not a bucket or the shower head. he hates being buckled into a booster seat or high chair...and sometimes even his car seat. he hates listening. he hates being quiet. he hates not doing things for himself.
talan become more and more independent every single day. he continues to be a super funny kid that makes us laugh all the time...even when we should really be angry. we still like him a whole lot and wouldn't trade him (most days) for anything. i really can't believe he's going to be 3 in just 1 more month.
we love you so much t.c. happy 35 months!!!

the triple b's ~ big boy bed

we were not planning on moving talan into hayden's room until hayden was out of school in june. the one time the boy's slept in the same room together, they got little sleep as they were up all nite playing around together. the next day they were both total crabs and we realized it would never work to have them sharing a room while hayden still had school to get up for.
hayden has been sleeping up on his top bunk for several days now and he loves it. he asks all of the time when talan can move into his room with him. they both have seemed pretty excited about it. so the other day i realize that hayden is off of school for midwinter break this week and realize it might be a good week to try out the room sharing situation. so on friday evening we put talan in his brand new big boy bed.
we were amazed to only hear talking coming from their room for about 3 minutes and then it was quiet. and it was quiet for the entire evening. nobody got out of bed, there wasn't talking and laughing and playing with toys...nothing. it was amazing.
talan woke up in the morning so proud saying "i be quiet!" and so it has been for the entire week. the boys have done so well sleeping in the same room together and they seem to love it. i actually think they both are getting a little more sleep than normal.
hayden used to get out of his bed several times to go to the bathroom or to get books or his leapster. but now that talan is in his room, he almost never gets down from his bunk until the morning. and come 7am, hayden will quietly slip out of the room and let talan continue sleeping if he isn't awake yet.
i have gone into their room a couple of times to check and found hayden totally out but talan wide awake. but talan keeps quiet and stays in his bed instead of getting up and getting books or toys or coming out into the hallway like he used to when he was in his crib.
the move couldn't have gone any smoother and we are so happy to have it done before the baby comes! now we don't have to sleep with the baby for 3 months and he/she can have its own room!
talan continues to LOVE his new room and his big boy bed and is always so proud every morning when he tells us that he was quiet and slept in his "bunk bed."
in over a week he's only fallen out of bed twice and the second time he didn't even cry. he hasn't even mentioned it the next morning until i bring it up. and even then i don't know if he's just agreeing with me or if he really remembers.
now if only potty training could go this easily....

hayden and talan ready for their first nite as roomies:
talan ready for his first nite in his big boy bed (he prefers to call it his bunk bed):


later that nite. evidence that he did actually fall asleep:

34 months

today talan turned 34 months old. only 2 more months until he is 3 years old!!! that's crazy.
i have decided that the terrible 2's are nothing compared to the terrible 2 1/2's and early terrible 3's. talan's tantrums have become much louder and even a bit longer, although he is able to calm himself down relatively quickly.
the sass on him continues to grow. he loves to tell people "i don't like you." mostly when you need to do something he doesn't want done. one day tina was going to come over and she was going to cut his hair. when i was telling him this he put on his mean face and just started saying "i don't like tina!" of course when tina came over he decided he liked her after all.
talan continues to climb out of his crib anytime he feels the need. one nite i was in the bedroom watching tv and when i got up and opened the door i found him laying in the hallway right next to my door with all of his blankets and stuffed animals. one way we have found to keep him in his crib is by threatening to turn the hallway light off. he loves having it left on as he falls asleep and if someone accidentally turns it off he'll immediately start screaming and crying until we turn it back on again. so every nite before bed we tell him "if you get out of your crib, we turn the light off." and that almost always keeps him in for the nite.
he also loves to get out of his crib and put everything he can get his hands on into his crib. i'll come in after nap time or in the morning to find he has taken 2 whole shelves of books and put them all into his crib. he also has included all of his stuffed animals and anything else that is loose in his room. thankfully it doesn't happen all of the time, but it does happen on a somewhat regular basis. i find that if i just let him go to sleep with 3 or 4 books he won't empty out the whole bookcase later in the evening.
he used to be a great cleaner but has recently decided he'd rather just make the messes and have someone else clean up for him. he will eventually clean if you stay on him about it, but it's a LONG process. one afternoon he wouldn't clean up his mess so i put him in his crib for a timeout. he stayed in there for just a few minutes screaming at the top of his lungs. then suddenly he stopped, climbed out of his crib, walked out to the living room and said "i clean now, mom." walked himself downstairs and cleaned up his mess all by himself. all the while yelling up the stairs "i cleaning mom! all by myself! i cleaning!"
talan loves to watch the show max and ruby. it's a show about 2 bunnies....max, the younger bunny who really appears to be quite slow for being 3 years old and ruby, his older sister who is bossy, rude and actually dumber than max in most instances. we hate max and ruby, but the boys love it. apparently there is one episode (i wouldn't know since i try not to watch them) about the emperor's new clothes. in part of the episode, max takes his clothes off. i have found talan on MANY occasions stripped down to just his diaper after watching that episode. needless to say we have since deleted that episode from our tivo.
usually when asked about the baby in my tummy talan tells us "i not like that baby!" when asked why, his usual response is "the baby going to cry!" he will also get very possessive and start saying "baby not touch my toys! baby not touch that tv!" or anything else in the room that he sees. he sometimes changes his mind like the other day when i asked him and he gave a heavy sigh and then said "i sink so."
talan picks up so many phrases and always seems to use them at the most appropriate times. one of my favorites from this month is "no problem." talan...can you help me with this "no problem, mom." another one is when we ask "who did such and such?" and he'll answer while pointing his thumbs at himself "this guy!" talan is one rad little kid.
depending on his mood, he will only allow certain people to dress him, change him, put him to bed, give him milk...whatever. if dave goes to do something for him but talan wants me he'll just start yelling "no! mama try it!" and if dave gives him the milk after he has asked for me to "try it" the milk will be thrown across the room.
he hardly eats dinner anymore. and he almost never eats breakfast other than a poptart. of course he tries to snack through the day. and he usually eats a pretty decent lunch. i guess it's good he eats at least one good meal a day. we don't always get that from hayden!
talan loves chocolate. he loves getting a letter in the mail. he loves playing "fight" with swords, guns and light sabers in the basement. he loves making messes. he loves strawberries. he loves salami and waffles. he loves tormenting hayden. he loves bowling with anything he can knock over. he loves going to church/mops. he loves isaac gregg. he loves making people laugh. he loves music and dancing and drums and guitars. he loves his "green blanket" and pulling at the fuzzy's on the corner of it. he loves milk. he loves running around the car before getting into his seat. he loves making silly faces. he loves playing with hayden (most of the time). he loves his binky's. he loves fireflight. he loves the "nana song" (pink's so what) and the "yahoo" song (king of leon's sex on fire).
talan hates having to sit for meals. he hates sitting in his booster seat. he hates being buckled in his seat. he hates having water get in his eyes during bath time. he hates anyone telling him what to do. he hates to hear the word "no." he hates it when anyone corrects him, especially hayden. he hates cleaning. he hates fuzzy's which he calls "funnies." he hates getting hair in his mouth. he hates hiccups and has been known to put his hand over his mouth and yell "NO!" when he gets them.
talan can really push our buttons and drive us crazy through the day, but for the most part, he remains a happy toddler who loves to make everyone laugh. and laugh we do. he is a total entertainer and always wants people to watch him. "watch this guys" he will say many times throughout the day. he still loves playing his drums and he is AMAZING at it. dave and i just look at each other in awe most evenings when we sit down hear and listen to him. you would never know it was a toddler playing...he plays better than i do. he is a total rockstar. he is mr. personality and he is ALL boy.
many days i may count down the hours until bedtime, but i would never want to trade him in for anything!
we love you so much, talan cash! happy 34 months!!!!

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.