Birthdays and stuff

Robin has reached a sort of cognitive milestone, where he's learning the difference between reality and pictures.  There have been numerous times lately where he'll try to grab something out of a picture (in a book, his mural, magazines, etc,) then he'll look at me and shake his head.  He's starting to grasp that there's a difference between solid objects and pictures!  I think it's neat.

We went to two separate 2nd birthday parties Memorial Day weekend, although I only have pictures of Gavin's.  Here are Robin and Gavin together

We gave him the hat.

The party was at the Railroad Museum, which was awesome.  We're planning to come back sometime that we don't have to rush off, to take full advantage of the various attractions.

The other boy here is Tristan.  Both Gavin and Tristan are the sons of Dean's coworkers.

I recently made Robin a sensory bin to play with, to give him more to do and have more stimulation.  Click here for the post I made about that on Science Fiction Mommy.

Robin's Aunt Kat decided to spray whipped cream directly into his mouth on Memorial Day.  Good grief!

Robin helping Daddy vacuum.

Our Trip to Avon

I got online to make an update, and it occurred to me that I hadn't blogged about our vacation to Avon last month, so here ya go!

It was a pretty restful vacation. Dean and I got a fair bit of writing done during Robin's naps, we caught up on several episodes of "Lost," and we spent a lot of time at playgrounds and swimming pools.

Some other kids wanted to ride the teeter totter with Robin.

Some other fun playground shots.

Robin really loves his Spiderman coat. He'd never worn it before this trip, but he often didn't want to take it off when we got inside, and would even point to it hanging up to request to wear it. We think that he might recognize Spiderman from some of the books he has.

At the Avon Rec Center. Robin really enjoys the water.

Click here for the other slide video I posted on Science Fiction Mommy.

This statue is in Beaver Creek, the ski resort uphill from Avon. The bear has an arrow sticking into his bum, and the child is hiding a bow behind his back.

Robin's not sure he wants to walk on the snow. For good reason, I suppose: after we wandered around for a little while and were heading back, he slipped and got his pants all wet.

This is the pool at our timeshare. The air was just a tad too chilly to be comfortable swimming outdoors. Then we came home, and it's like somebody flipped the switch to 80 and 90 degree weather. Hello, summer in Colorado!

Robin loved riding the luggage carts (that part of the video didn't focus, unfortunately) and he also learned how to use keycards. He also loved the doors in the condo, because they had lever-style handles, so he could open and close them to his heart's content!  We had to put the security chain on the door at all times, to make sure Robin didn't escape from our unit.

Lifting weights in the gym. He's so strong!

At the prow of the pirate ship in Vail's pirate playground.

Play dough and words

Robin played with his play dough today. I've shown him how to make snakes with play dough before, but he's never been able to reproduce it. It's also been about two weeks since he's played with play dough at all. Well, today I looked back over at him, and I discovered that he'd made a snake all by himself! See it? Just to the right of the big clump?

Doesn't he look proud of himself?

And now, for your viewing pleasure, here are some videos of Robin talking. We can add several animal noises to his repertoire, including snake and dog sounds (in the video) and pig and train sounds (which I forgot to prompt.) He's also learned the Dreaded Toddler Negative. He's not actually saying "no," but he's figured out that shaking his head has the same meaning. *sigh*

Mother's Day #2

For the past couple of years, we've gone to the Zoo for Mother's Day brunch, but it was a bit hard on us last year (what with pausing to nurse every few hours and the weather being chilly.) This year (especially since Dean's grandma can't get around very well right now) we decided to have

brunch at our house. Dean's goal was to replicate the Zoo's brunch, so he prepared a lot of batter and fruit the night before, and set all the non-moms to work fixing it when they arrived. Us moms got to relax and play with Robin (in a few years, we'll put him to work, too.)

It was very yummy, and was nice not to have to change diapers all day.

Here's Robin giving me a Willow Tree statue called "Child's Touch."

Later on, Dean, his sibs, and I played croquet while Robin refused to nap (he cried for a L-O-N-G time.)  Kathy had to leave her shoes at our house because Robin had snuck them into his room before his nap, and we didn't want to disturb him to get them out.  That evening, Dean cleaned out my car for his gift to me.  All in all, it was a great day!

18 months old and loving it

I guess I've been a little lax in posting lately, so it's time for a few updates. Oh, and people have been lax in commenting, too. We like hearing from everybody, so please let us know what these posts make you think about from time to time!

A few more words: Robin's vocabulary has expanded a little bit--not fast enough for impatient me, but that doesn't diminish the fact that he's definitely learning.

New spoken words: (we're up to 9)
fish (sounds like shh)
oink (okay, it's more of a snort)
baby (about two days after he started saying this, I had a book out with lots of pictures of babies in it, and he was getting a big kick out of flipping through it, pointing to babies, and saying "baby."
He started babbling "no," but hasn't used it in context yet

New signs: (we're up to 7)

cheese
hat

He's getting really good at identifying things. We can look through most of his books now, and ask him to point to a certain animal or object, and he can find lots of them. It's so awesome to watch him learn! He doesn't have colors yet, but we're working on them.

He's much more assertive these days, and he's certainly good at communicating in non-verbal ways. A big thing he does right now is grab for our hands, grip a finger, and lead us where he wants to go. Then he'll either point to what he wants (a door opened, a toy/book/food that's high up, etc) or he'll grab a toy or book and hand it to us. If he handed us something, he'll next show us where he wants whatever-it-is done, by pointing or patting a chair or something. He's still very much into books, so we go to the library regularly--and like all kids, he's learning by repetition, so we get to read the books over and over (and over and over and over and over) again.

I learned today, though, that he definitely needs more peer time, and more chances to practice sharing. I know kids don't grasp that concept for a long time, but I want him to get more practice at it. He took a book away from another kid at the library today, and continually tried to take a puzzle away from another. Since he hasn't done that sort of thing before, I felt a little surprised and embarrased. I have been trying to get together with some friends with kids more often (I met a friend at a McDonalds playplace yesterday and Robin had his first Happy Meal) so this is just more motivation to step it up a bit. (Normally I never go to McDonalds, but we needed an indoor play area since it was so chilly, and we wound up staying much longer than I'd expected, so I decided to just do lunch there.)

Robin's favorite place to read these days is in the coat closet. I guess it's nice and cozy in there. Now that he's found it, we have to go in there at least once each day to read.

He's started going down slides by himself. He even went down the big slide at our park by himself once (although it's not something he's decided to repeat. He can also hang on to zip lines and monkey bars for a short while, supporting his own weight. He also likes playing with his bucket and shovel at the park. I've already decided that Dean and I will get him a sandbox for his next birthday.

He likes trying on his Daddy's glasses. He looks so funny, and he always makes this same face when he's got them on. We think he looks like the old man in the cartoon "Up."