It's been way too long since I posted updates on what the kids are up to. Since these posts tend to be insanely long, I'm breaking them up by kid.
And what is a kid update without pics? I need to sort through over 2 months of pics, but I hope these recent pics will keep the anxious pic-hungry grandparents at bay for a bit ;)
Hyrum is 17.5 months old now. He'll be 18 months on the 4th of July. Can you believe it? In 2 weeks, he'll officially be old enough for nursery. I've taken him for the first hour of playtime and he loves it - but only if I stay with him. We're introducing him to it slowly since he's very clingy around others.
Hyrum is such an adorable, sweet little boy. He's incredibly loving and snuggly. He climbs onto my lap all the time and randomly gives us all hugs and kisses.
But oh, is he a handful. He tries my patience in ways his sister never did. He gets into
everything. I can't tell you how many times a day he opens the kitchen cabinets and pulls stuff out. We're not supposed to put baby proofing stuff on the cabinets at our complex, either. I soooo want those magnetic cabinet locks someday.
He loves to unroll toilet paper. He's the reason we keep the bathroom door closed.
And he's a climber. For instance...I was in the bathroom for maybe 2 minutes max, and this is where I found him when I came out:
Yeah. He climbed onto the kitchen counter. He climbed onto the table the same day. He also climbs onto the toilet and flushes it when given a chance. And every single chair in my house. He likes to stand on them. The desk chairs especially freak me out. This kid is seriously going to give me a heart attack.
Hyrum finally started walking for real at 15 months. He could have done it earlier but he just wasn't motivated enough to do it. Now he runs around all over the place!
He's very curious and
loves to explore. Sometimes his explorations drive me crazy. Other times they're just adorable or hilarious. Seriously, how can you
not smile at this?
Or this?
Or this?
Such a curious boy! One of his favorite things to do is put buckets or laundry baskets on his head:
He seriously does this over and over and over again. He can't get enough of it.
He loves to go outside. If anyone goes outside without him, he throws the
biggest fit. Especially if Emma goes out there without him (don't worry, she only goes out with an adult). Oooh man. Huge tantrum.
Thankfully, he doesn't run off much yet. He's still cautious and wants to hold our hands when we're outside. Except on the playground. He's really good at exploring on the toddler play structure. Climbing up was easy for him, but it took a few falls to realize that he had to pay attention to when it steps down. It didn't take him long to figure out that it works better when he holds onto the rail. He especially loves the tunnel:
He loves to go on walks in the stroller. We went to the zoo last week and he just loved looking at all the animals from the stroller.
LOL, I love how he's like, "why are you taking my picture AGAIN, Mom?"
He roared at the tiger (who was hiding in his den).
He loves to roar with Emma. They walk around the house roaring at each other. He knows several animal sounds: cats, dogs, ducks, lions, tigers, and frogs. He probably knows more but I can't think of them at the moment. He says "mmmm mmmm" for vrooming cars.
Speaking of cars...he's obsessed with them. Cars is his favorite movie at the moment. He also loves Toy Story 3, Monsters Inc, The Lion King, Tangled, and pretty much everything. The kids get 2 movies a day and I let each of them pick one. He loves it.
He's a smart little guy. It's so fun to watch him learn. That's definitely my favorite thing about this age.
Hyrum also knows several body parts now: eyes, ears, mouth, nose, hands, feet, bum, and belly button. He can point them out on himself or others.
He can say at least 30 words, including: mama, Emma, dada, more (muh muh), Hyrum (slurred together), amen, thank you (dee doo), please, cat, meow, dog, ruff ruff, duck, cow, moo, car, ball, bubbles, book, yeah, water (wawa), juice, cheese, hi, uh oh, bird, diaper, bowl, baby, bye bye, Jesus, temple, key, fish, cheerios, tree, and right there.
He can fold his arms for prayers, give high 5's and knuckles, nods for yes, shakes his head for no, imitate others coughing.
Whenever we walk over the canal or drive over the river, he points at the water and says, "wawa!" He gets really excited about it. One rainy day he kept exclaiming wawa over puddles! Hyrum is fearless about water. He loves splashing in the tub and dumping water over his head. I can't wait till it's
really warm enough to take him to the spray park. He'll LOVE it. He's also taken to putting his hand directly under the faucet when we clean him up after meals. He thinks it's SO funny to spray us!
Hyrum will point at a picture of Jesus and then say His name ♥ He also points out pictures of the temple, babies, and immediate family members and labels them correctly.
Yesterday he pointed at a tree and said "tree" - I didn't even know he knew what a tree was!
He's totally fascinated with technology. He always wants to play with my camera, phone, or computer. Once he even opened Photoshop! I'm still not sure how he managed that...I had the mouse way out of his reach when it happened.
A few days ago, he sat down on my belly and the baby kicked him right in the butt! It was hilarious! He didn't seem to notice, though. Brotherly love, anyone?
Sometimes when he needs a diaper change, Hyrum will grab a diaper, wipes, and a changing pad. Then he'll put them on the floor, point at his bum, and say diaper.
Just recently, he's taken to throwing food on the floor when he's done eating. We tell him that's not ok and such, but it takes time to nip that in the bud. Ugh. It wouldn't be as frustrating if our table wasn't on carpet...someday we'll have a real dining room with hard floors. I hate cleaning food off the carpet.
He loves to feed himself. He's really good at using a spoon now. He gets super messy sometimes, especially with mac and cheese. He just
inhales that stuff. He eats a TON. Seriously, this kid out-eats his pregnant mother. And he's only a toddler. Imagine what he'll be like as a teen! John jokes that he'll have to get a 2nd job just to feed this kid. He just
loves food.
But he is kind of picky. He won't touch meat unless it's mixed in or hidden. Even then he usually picks it out. The only veggies I can consistently get him to eat are corn and potatoes. But he inhales the corn whole and it comes right back out. I need to start hiding veggies in his food so he can't tell they're there. If you have any favorite recipes that hide veggies well, I'd love to hear them!
Hyrum loves bread, pasta, cheese, yogurt, jello, bananas, diced peaches, diced pears, mandarin oranges, crackers, and any kind of dessert. He drinks milk, water, and any kind of juice (when we let him). He's a total pro at using a straw and has been since the moment he tried it. He loves juice boxes, which we use for picnics and such. Here he is drinking a juice box at the zoo:
We took him to the dentist about a month ago and the dentist confirmed my suspicion that he was cutting at least 6 teeth at once. Poor little guy! Actually, the dentist then said it's probably more like 8. And sure enough, he had all 4 side teeth and the first set of molars coming in at the same time. He's still working on 3 of them. He has 3 of the molars in now and 2 of the side teeth. It's funny; the 2 side teeth he has are the top and bottom on the right side. Poor Hyrum was miserable with that many teeth coming in at once. Especially at sleep times. But I'm glad they all came in at once. I'm all for getting teething over and done with.
We've had some sharing issues. Hyrum gets really upset if Emma is playing with something he wants or if she takes a toy from him. I'm constantly having to play referee. "Who had it first?" "Did you take it from him/her?" "If you can't share nicely, no one gets to play with it." "If you take it away again, you're going to get a time out." And on and on and on, all day long. Hyrum of course doesn't get the sharing concept as well as Emma, but now is the time to learn. Ah, the joys of siblings.
Thankfully, he's pretty good about time out. He'll stay there and doesn't usually fuss about it. Sometimes he'll put himself in time out!
Hyrum is a great sleeper. He cries in protest for a minute, but it doesn't take him long to fall asleep. If he cries longer, it's usually because he soiled his diaper right after we put him to bed. We change it, give him some snuggles, and put him back to bed - and he's out. He rarely wakes up at night. When he does, it's for a good reason (diaper, teething, sick, etc). It's awesome.
Oh, you may have noticed his hair is long in some pictures and short in others. I just gave him his 3rd haircut last week. I messed up in the back, but it grows so fast that soon it won't even be noticeable. I have to cut it every 2-3 months. I cut John's at the same time. Hyrum is pretty good about it, for the most part. He sits and doesn't fuss...until he reaches his limit. Then he cries and squirms. Thankfully it's mostly done by that point. The back and around the ears are the hardest parts. I tried ear guards for the first time this time and it worked out pretty well...until I botched the back.
All in all, Hyrum is a very cute, curious, sweet, cuddly, smart, and lovable little boy and we just love having him in our family.
