All Right Dada!

A language breakthrough has recently occurred--Robin can now use two-word sentences.  It started out with "all right Dada," (yes, I know that's three words, but "all right" is basically a single word to him) progressed to "all right Mama," and within the last week he really started putting words together.  He'll say "more banana" or more of other things that he wants and "hi" and "bye" will now precede names, although "all right somebody" is still his favorite.  His vocabulary is still quite limited, but he's made a lot of progress.  Something recently clicked.

We're getting ready for his second birthday!  It's hard to believe he's been around for that long already!  Here are the invitations:

Robin examining an invitation

And here are the party favors

Some pictures from our visit to Estes Park to see the Bagpipe Parade a few weeks back:

My friend Cora was in town for another friend's wedding, and she stayed with us a few nights.  It was excellent to see her again!

Robin's not sure what to think of her "Cousin It" impression

The three of us, my parents, and Cora at a Rockies game (the Rockies won in the 10th!)

Growing Up

Robin's showing growth in both his cognitive skills and his empathy lately.  I love that he now expresses understanding in what others may be feeling.  This applies particularly to pain.  If we tell him that we got hurt (or simply if he witnesses us get hurt) he will come over and kiss our injuries for us, and will often give a hug as well.  He's also doing this for stuffed animals.  He seems to enjoy climbing up on our bed, throwing Dean's stuffed dog "Flicka" off the edge of the bed, doing the sign language for "hurt," and then climbing down to give Flicka a hug and kiss.  The fact that he understands that Flicka gets hurt when falling off the bed shows his growing understanding of consequences.  He hasn't fallen off our bed, but we frequently tell him to be careful at the edge of the bed because he could fall off and get hurt.  He will also point to the edge of the bed and then sign "hurt."  He'll do the same thing in regard to rocking his chair back at the table, and he now says "hot" when he points to the stove, too.

I took this video a few weeks ago, of Robin stacking his mega blocks.  He can put them together so much better than just a few months ago.

Robin said a name that didn't belong to a family member last night, for the first time.  Dean's friend Lannie ('annie) is now Robin's new best friend, and Robin managed Charlie before the evening was over too.

He's also getting physically stronger and has much more endurance.  He walked most of the way home from the park the other day, barefoot, pulling his wagon behind him.  The walk to the park is about a half-mile.  (He was barefoot because he had an accident at the park and his shoes got wet.)

He's started interacting with other kids now, which I think is awesome.  Last week at the library he took a little girl by the hand and led her over to show her the fish tank.  He'll give toys to other kids sometimes too.  I love seeing him interact with others.

He's also getting a lot more willful and stubborn.  I guess it's the Terrible Twos.  It isn't so terrible, really, (at least so far) but his tantrums have gone up in frequency a lot.  I'm trying to make sure we have plenty of time and to give him options so he has some control over his life, but we still butt heads frequently.  I'm loving how he's using his imagination and interacting with the world so I think this is a great age, but it's definitely going to be hard on both of us.

We took Robin to an airshow a few weeks ago and he LOVED it!  Here are a few highlights of the day.

My God, What Have We Done? I mean, Robin's First Haircut

We gave Robin his first haricut today!  His hair took a long time before it started growing.  It took 22 months to go from this:

to this:

(Hard to believe he's the same boy, isn't it?)

We've been commenting that he needed a haircut for months now, and finally decided to do it.  There was much deliberation about whether to do it ourselves or pay someone.  In the end, we decided to give it a shot.

Getting ready

Our complete setup.  Robin got to watch videos of himself on Mommy's laptop to keep him occupied.

"Eek!  Mama??!!  What are you doing???"

Snip!

Daddy taking a turn at making things even.

So here's the end result.  I think we did pretty good on the back:

and on the sides:

And now for the front:

D'oh!  He looks like a monk.  Somehow "the bangs should be about here" turned into them becoming way too high.  It would've been better to keep them about the level as the hair above the ears, but... Alas.  At least it will always grow back.  Perhaps in two months, at his birthday, he won't look quite so crazy.  Which lesson did we learn?  To cut his bangs longer next time, or to pay somebody else to do it?  Only time will tell.  What do you think?

Robin's hair.  Yes, I've kept some for the baby book.  (The papers are actually keepsake envelopes.)

Dancing

This is Robin with R2D2.  Robin typically has mixed feelings about R2--he wants R2 turned on, but then is scared of him.  Robin continues to be fickle, but today, during one of his "R2 is fun" moments, he danced along!

Dean and I went to Las Vegas and Moab by ourselves last week, and Robin stayed with his grandparents alone for the first time.  He did really well, even at bedtime, and Dean and I had some nice time off.  We're thinking that we ought to send him to his grandparents' for an overnighter regularly, and give ourselves a night off here and there.  I blogged about our trip in detail here on ScienceFictionMommy. 

The weekend after we got back, we took Robin to Heritage Square, which is sort of an amusement park, music hall, and olde-town shopping town rolled into one.  Robin had gotten a certificate for free ride tickets from the library's summer reading program, so we decided to take advantage of them.

He was kind of silly about the rides.  He wanted to go on them, then got a little scared and wanted them to be "all done" before they were, and then he didn't want to get off (even started a tantrum when we took him off the carousel.)  Silly, silly boy.  Just like his relationship with R2D2.

Enjoying the roller coaster

Clinging to Mommy on the roller coaster

With Daddy on the balloon ride

Paddle boat

On a banana airplane

One Smart Cookie

We have a small folding stool that we keep in the pantry (when it's not being used as a toy, that is) for reaching things on high-up shelves.  Robin likes to play with it, and has already learned how not to pinch his fingers in it, and how to make sure it's stable before stepping on.  He particularly enjoys launching himself off it into somebody's waiting lap.  Well, yesterday he seems to have made the connection between the stool and getting taller.  He heard an airplane pass overhead and ran to the back door because he wanted to go see it.  We'd just come inside, so I told him we weren't going out again.  The next time I looked over, he'd carried the stool to the back door and was standing on it so he could see out the window.  Later in the day, he was placing it next to the wall under a lightswitch so he could climb up and flip the light on and off.  His problem solving skills are definitely improving!

I made myself an alphabetical list of his words a few weeks ago, and we're up to 41 now including spoken, signs, and sounds.  Many of them don't sound exactly the way you or I would say them, but we know what he means by them.  A lot of what he babbles now really sounds like words too, and sentences.  I'm really looking forward to hearing what's on his mind, once he starts stringing sentences together.

We think Robin might be starting to know his colors too.  He's not completely consistent, but he will follow commands like "can you bring me the blue ball."

Our biggest news is that Robin is mostly potty trained!  I'll probably blog about this at length on ScienceFictionMommy, but for now I'll tell you that he's almost 100% on pee training:  he understands and communicates when he needs to go, he can hold it until he gets to the toilet, he goes standing up like his Daddy, he has successfully let other people help him, has been successful at other people's houses, and finally used his travel potty (meaning he ought to be okay at parks and stuff.)  We have yet to master public places, mostly because he hasn't had to go while out running errands.  #2 is a bit slower, partly because he does it less, and partly because he often does it right after waking up from naps (he's in pullups while asleep), so when I don't get to him right when he wakes up, I've missed teaching opportunities.  However, we have had a few successes now, he definitely understands the feeling, and he hasn't had a #2 accident in his underwear in almost two weeks.  We're very proud of him!

Wearing his daddy's Spiderman shirt like a cape

Shampoo mohawk

Reading to his moneky