The Harvey Family: June {2015}

This month Brett:

has started screaming when he wants something. The tantrums are in full effect around here. He wants everything his brother has for sure and he'll SCREAM if he can't have it. He points and bounces up and down and reaches with grabby fingers, and if that doesn't work, he'll throw whatever toy is in his hand and plop himself down on the floor as a way of showing just how mad he is. He's very expressive. He still hasn't really picked up on much baby sign language so hopefully he'll start to use words soon, even though most of his frustration comes from wanting things he can't have anyway.
was obsessed with shoes. Has entered the phase where it is dangerous to leave shoes in the main living area because Brett will pick them up and move shoes to different rooms. You have to leave a few minutes extra just to track down shoes before going on a trip. They can be under a stroller, inside toy bins, and dropped in the far corners of bathrooms... they can be found just about anywhere. Oh, and you can bet if they have laces, that they'll be untied.
started laughing when someone else laughs. If you laugh and make something sound funny, Brett will imitate it because he has to be involved. He loves to be right in the mix with whatever is going on around here. It won't be long before he'll be physically able to keep up with everything that Blake does too.
pretends to vacuum with the golf bag. He loves pull/push toys and will drag or push them all over the place. It's really cute that he uses the golf bag as a vacuum once he sees me using the real vacuum. It's pretty funny because Blake used this exact toy the same way when he was younger.
gives really good hugs. Mostly he'll do this when he is so happy to be picked up, either to see something up high or to get out of his crib (he's never woken up in his crib without screaming).
puts his arms up and grunts to try and communicate. He has really gone full bore into trying to communicate with us. He reach for everything he wants, including us when he wants to be picked up. He points and grunts at things and he'll point his whole body toward something and look at it if he wants me to see something. I'm so excited for him to learn how to start using more words.
gives me "yuckies". I'm so glad he has followed in his brother's footsteps for this one. He picks up little pieces of dirt or leaves or string off the floor and hands it to me instead of putting it straight into his mouth, woohoo!
has gotten pretty good at stairs. He knows that he needs to hold onto something for now so he'll reach for my hand (sometimes both if they're steep stairs) and go up or down them instead of just blindly stepping and falling down. He does great by himself with the ones at MyGym that have a railing.
sleeps with blankets. He loves to cuddle blankets so we've started letting him sleep with them even though his room is always so warm. Our ductwork just isn't sized right so it'll be 70/71 in Blake's room at night and his room will be 76 so we keep his ceiling fan on to help as well. Right now he has a fleece blanket and a super light weight Aiden and Anais one that he likes to snuggle with. I'm in the process of crocheting him one like Blake has but it's slow going. I was hoping to be finished by the time he started liking blankets but hopefully it'll get it to him soon.
climbs up and down the inclined ladder at MyGym. Having both boys for open gym is a little chaotic but luckily Brett seems to be super coordinated. Almost everyone mentions to me how surprised they are that such a small boy is so confident on his feet with walking/running and climbing up/down things. One day I was trying to spend time with Blake and Brett ran across the room and started climbing up the incline ladder and he was about 5 rungs up by the time I got over to him. He was perfectly stable and got all the way to the top then once I showed him how to climb down, he easily climbed right back down. Now he can do it on his own with no problem. What's crazy is that this skill was one that Blake mastered at ~20 months and that's why they suggested he move up to the (23 month - 2.5 year) class. Yes, Brett is 13 months. It will be interesting to see how his skills continue to develop.
tried broccoli, sweet potatoes, and grapes and loves them. He's at the age where he wants to try anything and everything. With us being concerned with food allergies we've been taking it slow with introducing new foods. Luckily these all seem to be doing ok with him which is great because I can now eat them too!!
helps throw dirty diapers in the trash. I've been trying to think of ways for him to help around the house and throwing wet diapers in the trash seemed like a good chore (along with picking up dirty clothes and putting them in the hamper) so one day I talked him through putting it in the trash and now every time he sees a rolled up diaper he wants to grab it and (with my help opening the lid) throw it in the trash. He picks it up and points to the trash and grunts to let me know I need to help him. I love the excitement.
has been sleeping a little better. We've had a total of 3 nights where he slept the entire night and didn't wake up until the 6 o'clock hour. Most nights he wakes up once, sometime in the 3 or 4 o'clock hour and sometimes he has a random wakeup before midnight but not too often. We still can't figure out if there is anything we can change to help him, whether it be temperature or full belly or what. Hopefully we keep moving in the right direction and get more all night sleeps.
is phasing out the morning nap. He's getting really hard to put down for the morning nap so I've started to give up on it. We'll go about our business and do our morning activity and if he falls asleep in the car, so be it. Our pm nap ends up being the one where most of the sleeping happens anyway. He'll still sleep 30-90 minutes on his own and then I end up going in and rocking him back to sleep and he sleeps until Blake wakes up (if it's during the week where Chris isn't home to get Blake out of bed).
loves pouring cups of water. He started doing this in the bath and he just loves it. We have some smaller cups that he can get his hands around and he'll just pour water from the tub into a big bucket, or on Elmo (the faucet cover) or the soap dish on the wall.

This month Blake:

loves to play the "oil game" on his kindle. I'm not sure what the real name is but you have to use tools to redirect the oil that comes out of a pipe and make it end up in the right spot. He just uses the clues to position each of the tools but I think he at least understands what each of them do to help reach the goal. He also loves playing the "mouse game" with Daddy, but he makes Daddy hold the Kindle and actually play for him since he's too scared of the cats that come after you.
got so tall I had to take out the hem on all his 3T pants. I had to hem them shorter only a couple months ago and then all of them became high waters rather quickly so I took out the hem. Now we have to make sure they're pulled up and they just barely touch the floor when he's standing up straight. He still lives in pants to keep his skin from rubbing on everything and drying out while we're inside in the air conditioning. He wears them outside because every time I decide to put shorts on him (and he doesn't protest them) he trips and falls and scrapes up his knees.
learned to read 2 digit numbers. He started by learning to count by 10s up to 100 then on a road trip over to Tampa one day we started practicing the speed limit signs a lot more and he started reading road numbers and everything out of the blue. He even correctly identified 5,000 which shocked both Chris and me.
repeats one word over and over or says "beep" to get your attention when he wants something. Instead of just asking for something he decides it is more effective to be obnoxious and he knows it pushes my buttons and I can't finish anything else I'm doing when he starts in on the beeping.
sits in the big chair at the kitchen table. He sat in the booster seat for a while but he never really had anywhere to rest his feet so he would always push the table or kick the chair over and over and that got really frustrating to deal with so he decided he would just sit in the big chair. That is fine most of the time, except when he wants to get down and walk around and spin in circles while he's still finishing his food.
always says "I think Baby Brett really loves me" when Brett snuggles with him or smiles at him. It is so adorable. As soon as they make eye contact, Brett will lean in and begin the loving wrestling match. They love to roll around the floor together and roll into and on top of each other and giggle the entire time.
has been saying "I'm so sorry" in this pitiful voice. He says it when he does things that really deserve for him to be sorry, but then he'll also say it for super trivial things so I never know what he's going to follow it up with. Sometimes he's just sorry for using the wrong word for something.
loves stickers. We keep a few art supplies in the kitchen now so Blake will just help himself to construction paper and the pile of stickers and decorate page after page to hang on the wall in the playroom. I think his goal is to completely cover the wall with artwork.
is really into the show Team Umizoomi on Nick Jr. He just happened upon it one day and it is a pretty cute show for learning numbers and math skills.

Pics:

The boys playing very close together while we waited for the scary/loud lawn guys to finish up mowing outside.

We went to take family pictures one day but I forgot the tripod so Daddy was left out.

And it was ridiculously hot so the boys didn't last long anyway.

We headed over to the playground for a little fun before we melted.

We ended up getting a couple pics the next day but it was impossible to get both boys looking right.

Blake was tired of waiting for Brett to cooperate.

Silly Blakers.

My cheeseball.

Always climbing into or on something.

And again. This one I have to keep folded up or he'll end up either in it or on the floor.

I always take pics of Brett doing new things so I have to try and keep it even by at least getting cute ones of Blake.

This is where he stands and does his Tarzan yell.

Brett pushing Blake around as usual.

Hey cutie.

That's one way to carry the laundry hamper.

This was Blake's first time bowling and he got to use bumpers and the Gator to make sure that 6 lb ball made it all the way down the lane.

Great aim buddy!

Nine pins! Look at that finish, haha.

Now, to run back and watch the ball come out of the ball return.

Gotta be comfy to play on the Kindle.

Of course now he likes his gymini and he's much too big for it.

Always a climber. We can't keep him off this thing.

The boys were pushing things around the house and this is Brett's super excited scream face. I think Blake was checking to make sure he didn't get run over.

We had a water day in the driveway and Blake has always loved this sprinkler so we decided to use it instead of him just carrying it around.

He didn't want it in the grass so we just used it in the driveway under the canopy for a few minutes.

Then it was time for chalk painting. Blake loved this and had to paint with every color chalk we had!

Just a dip in the water table, and here we have red.

Brett was in charge of the chalk container.

I finally remembered to take a decent picture of Brett's room setup. Brett was in there helping me (behind the rocker). And thanks to Kelly for the awesome handmade picture on the wall!