Picey

T has taken an interest in cooking and especially loves adding picey (spices) to the pans and stirring with every single cooking utensil in the holder next to the oven. He'll add picey to pretty much anything given the chance.

A bucket of Laughs

T is so big and yet still so small that he fits in this Ikea bucket for toys. He climbed in and asked for blankets (ge-ket). T is surrounded by soft "blankets" or large pieces of minky and other soft fabric from my sewing room. Luckily T doesn't care that the blankets aren't finished yet. A Brightly colored piece of died silk also qualifies as a blanket apparently.

After the bucket was full he wanted to swing (wing), so the Scoot swung him in this bucket over and over ... and then later in the day he swung him wrapped like a hot dog in a blanket ... and now The Scoot goes to physical therapy to strengthen his low back and we encourage T to swing in the Hammock instead of the bucket. Don't worry, there was no permanent damage.

A Bucket of Laughs

Bee was The Scoot's when he was little and he's been T's little buddy for over a year now. Bee plays Brahms's lullaby when you pull his string and T especially finds that comforting at bed time. T say's "Bee" perfectly and even makes a very impressive buzzing sound.

BEE

Coy

This series of photos was taken in our new play room on May 27, 2012.

Roaming

I'm making up for the photo famine by posting some oldies. They aren't that old, but they are still a testament to my procrastination. This batch is from a family trip to the Hoyt Arboretum that included an impromptu train ride on May 6, 2012.

The Scoot and T at the Hoyt Arboretum

After wandering randomly around the Hoyt arboretum, we realized we were pretty close to the zoo, so we decided to go ride the train. We took a break at the bottom of the hill so T could play in the grass.

The Point - a trick he learned very early (thank goodness). We still love it!

Huh?!?

The Escape!

The Pout

Here we are riding the train between The Oregon Zoo and the Rose Garden. Despite his pouty expression, T really enjoyed the ride. This was our first ride on the zoo train and T could not wait to get on once he saw the choo choo. He was really antsy while we waited in line and really couldn't get on that train fast enough.

rm rm rm HAT!

rm rm rm HAT! - this means motorcycle. T recently added HAT! to the end of his motorcycle noises to indicate that people on motorcycles wear hats (helmets). He can actually say helmet, but I just love the way he says hat. Last night T and The Scoot modeled hats. The Scoot wore his motorcycle helmet while T wore the welding helmet. He looked like a little super hero and sort of reminded me of Strong Bad with his tiny body and huge mask.

No Dad, that's not what I said

I was changing T's diaper on the floor out in the family room. T was looking past me at the fireplace for a few moments while I had my back to it. He suddenly said "nu-noh". I didn't acknowledge him. He repeated "nu-noh," slightly higher pitched. I asked "piano?" and looked around. No piano's behind me. "There aren't any piano's over there." There was a long pause. "NU --- NOH" said T very emphatically. His tone was perfect, suggesting I was a complete idiot. I looked around again tracing his eye sight, landing on the painting "Passage to the Sun" by Michael Whelan. This is a painting of an archway within the ruins of a stone castle. "Oh, tunnel!"

I swear I'm not a complete idiot. To be fair, there is an almost undetectable difference between T's pronunciation of "piano" & "tunnel". Context is the real indicator which one he is saying.

Phrasing

T has started with simple phrases! Yesterday morning he said "Hi Daddy," in a perfectly clear sweet little voice. My all time favorite and possibly his very first phrase is "made a mess." T enjoys making messing and talking about it. One of his favorites is to pull all of the hangers off of the low bar in Scott's closet - what a fun game! T never misses an opportunity to let us know he made a mess. This morning he dribbled milk down the front of his shirt while drinking it out of his cereal bowl and guess what he said. You got it, "made a mess."

This morning he said "Go Outside" for the first time. He loves to go outside and it's so fun that he's graduated from "outside ... outside ... outside" to "go outside." Saturday morning he was so cranky and kept begging to go outside. Once we finally headed outside he was so happy and ended up playing outside almost all day. We spent a couple of hours in the morning planting a garden and doing some cosmetic yard work and T very helpfully watered the new plants and seeds as well as his shoes and shorts. He loves to water the plants. Before we moved the tomatoes into the garden he watered them in their little planters on the back patio and did a surprisingly good job. I'm not very good at watering plants, so it's awesome to have a little person obsessed with watering plants around to remind me.

In the last few days T has been gabbering A LOT in multi-sylable phrases. I don't understand most of it, but he seems to be trying to carry on a conversation. He does say another phrase fairly regularly and I'm pretty sure it's "please help me." It sounds something like ee EP ee and when he says it we try to help him with whatever he's trying to do. I hope I've got that right. There's one more thing he's been saying a lot over the last couple of days and it sounds exactly like the German phrase "Ich Auch." That translates to "me too" but in context I'm sure that's not what he's trying to say. We really need to figure that one out because it's so common.

Chocolate

T is always putting things in his mouth ... still! The other day he seemed to be chewing on something, but I couldn't see anything in his mouth. The Scoot also noticed the chewing and asked T what he was eating.

"Choc-late" said T

After fishing around in T's mouth the Scoot found a small rubber knitting marker ... great for chewing, but not actually chocolate.