The Harvey Family: Blake

In family news last week, Chris' car got totaled. He was rear-ended in the rain by a young girl who didn't have insurance so we've spent the last 2 weeks trying to find a replacement for the beloved Maxima. It has been an impossible task since it was worth way more to us than what the insurance company gave us for it. It was going strong at 143k miles with its top of the line features for 2001. It will be missed! Hopefully we figure out what to get soon since rental car expenses are out of pocket... ugh.

Blake:

is getting much more independent at MyGym. He's as familiar there as he was at Gymboree now; once he goes onto the floor, he pretty much acts like he owns the place and fusses and looks at me if someone starts using something he wants to use (we're learning about sharing). He also made huge progress at music class last week when the teacher invited everyone to bring their teddy bears for a special "teddy week" (that Blake was the inspiration for). Having his teddy gave him the courage to go up and get his rhythm sticks from the teacher by himself and also got his instrument by himself and marched in the circle playing it without me needing to hold his hand. Proud Mama!
has finally moved down to one nap. His MyGym and music class schedule has helped since they take up a good portion of the morning. I can normally hold him off until around 11am and then he sleeps for 2 hours give or take, which is perfect!
likes the sand at the beach but is still scared of the water. He'll play for a long time if he has something to scoop sand into but as soon as his feet touch the water he just freaks out. Maybe it would be better if we went much earlier than normal naptime but he's been pretty consistent with his dislike for the water at the beach.
has been talking in 3 word sentences. For example: more say boo (he likes us to jump out and scare him), i hear airplane, i get teddy, i press button (loves pushing the buttons on phones). It's so funny how slow and deliberate each word is when they first start using sentences.
loves wooden puzzles. We finally brought out a Cars puzzle and a Train puzzle that he got a little while back and once he finishes one he says "more" and dumps it out and makes it again. He even knows which pieces go where when they're upside down. He's gotten good at doing puzzles that he's never seen before as well (at playdates).
gets very attached to Mimi when she comes to visit. After she left he has been sleeping terrible at night; he wakes up a lot and has been waking up really early in the morning. He asks about her for a day or two after she leaves and he even gets confused and calls me Mimi instead of Mommy sometimes.
is back to loving books. After every book that I read him he says "more", even the ones that are longer. I'm shocked that he will sit through the long books these days since it wasn't long ago that he would just keep turing pages or close the book after a few words on each page.
got a step stool so he can reach more things and he LOVES the new freedom that it has given him. It helps him climb onto all sorts of chairs but then he can't figure out how to get down so we'll have to keep working on that.
never sits still. I'm beginning to wonder if there's something off with him since he has to constantly be moving a couple parts of his body. Even sitting down to watch a tv show or when I read him his bedtime stories, he is either wiggling his legs or playing with his toes... it really makes going to bed difficult when he can't relax.
got his second haircut and was terribly uncooperative. He freaked out as soon as the lady tried to put on his cape and wouldn't settle down even on my lap. He spent half the haircut with one side of his face buried into my chest while sitting on my lap, and the other half facing the opposite way. So much for that haircut.
has started taking notice of other kids playing near him and he actually tries to interact with them now. The older kids seem to keep his attention longer since they look him in the eyes and talk to him. Although he mainly just looks at me and fusses when other kids try and play with the same thing that he is playing with. Trying to explain the concept of sharing isn't easy to kids this age.
is obsessed with running water. He loves to put his hands under running water so he constantly wants to wash his hands. He loves when we fill up his bath, fill up the water table with the hose, and especially wash our hands because he can join in too and feel the running water. His stool doesn't get him quite close enough to be able to feel the water from the faucet but I'm sure he'll be there soon enough.
can close doors behind him. I've been teaching him that he can't close himself in his room but he still feels powerful when he can close the doors himself, so he's figured out how to pull the handle, while on tiptoes, closed behind him so he's on the outside of it. It won't be long before he's tall enough to open the doors back up.

Pics:

He stacked all these legos himself except for the base that I helped him with.

The new golf club set.

Calling Papa on Mimi's phone.

This was as close as he got to the water before freaking out and needing to be picked up.

Blake loves to help unpack the water bottles but this time one of them had a label falling off so he thought that all the labels needed to come off...