The Harvey Family: November {2015}

This month Brett:

has a high pitched laugh and sounds like a machine gun.
when asked a question he has to think about it and says ummm.
nods head yes to answer questions. And sways his head side to side if he wants to dance to music (and sometimes if he just has a song in his head).
loves raisins and pop corn. He's gone through phases and I think these might be short lived but in addition to being obsessed with these for a few weeks, he started calling them words that are very close to right. Ah-zin (raisin) and I forget what he calls popcorn. He also is obsessed with Sunbutter and he'll grab a spoon and scream "bodyn-bodyn-bodyn" and point to the fridge until we pull it out. The child would eat a few Tbsp of Sunbutter at every meal if we'd let him.
signs more, all done, drink, bread, help, cookie, airplane, and potty. As long as I use the sign a couple times he'll start doing it which has been extremely helpful since he hasn't started saying a ton of words just yet. The words he's saying include: drink (dadin), bug/boo/baa (baa), more (ma), and daddy (dada).
has started making a lot more letter sounds. For a while it was just B and M and D. Now he's started making the sounds for the letters H, P, C, N, and T.
says thank you with his mouth closed. (You just tried it didn't you.)
loves going tinkle on the potty and pats his diaper when he wets or soils it. Decided that he wanted to start going in his little potty and he has gotten really good at it. I taught him the sign for potty and he'll do it and run to the bathroom. I'm not sure if that means he's already gone in his diaper or what, but we go in and change his diaper and he sits on his potty and goes (most of the time it isn't much, but when he goes before bathtime it is a lot). He also loves to empty it into the big potty and flush the toilet. He gets this big smile when he's done... such a sense of accomplishment.
assumes anything made of paper is trash. We always ask him to pick up tissues or junk mail envelopes so he can throw them away (a task that he enjoys doing) so now he assumes that any paper product that he can get his hands on has to go in the trash. We have to be careful with store receipts or any napkins that are currently being used or they could disappear.
loves eating with a spoon. He wants to do everything that Blake does and when he saw Blake eating Sunbutter on a spoon he had to do the same. After practicing with Sunbutter he has wanted to use it with rice and cereal and even popcorn, and he is actually quite good with the spoon now. We tried cereal with milk just for fun and that didn't go well because he likes to turn the spoon halfway over once he gets it to his mouth to dump the food onto his tongue and that doesn't work well with milk.
loves playing hide and seek behind shower curtains, the laundry room door, etc.
is just about weaned! We'd been down to 3 feeds for most of the month (nap, bedtime, and early morning) and then when we went to Virginia we were so busy that we ended up not doing the midday one so we were down to 2 when we got home. After his 18 month birthday I decided that 2 feeds a day wasn't enough to keep me on such a restrictive diet so we're down to 1 feed a day (early morning) and plan to drop that in the next week (there will be so much crying). He demands his "num num" and will fall to the ground in tears when I redirect and offer him a fruit pouch or something to drink instead.
closes doors behind him. He's finally tall enough to reach up on his tip-toes and pull the door handle so it closes. Now if he goes in the laundry room hallway he is compelled to close all 3 doors over there. He has also figured out how to lock the twisty locks and push locks so we have to keep un-locking devices handy at all times. He's even locked himself inside a room (not just closed the door). I think he thinks if he locks the door that is the same as twisting it to get the door to open. It won't be long before he is tall enough to actually twist the doors open.
asks to hold your hand when he wants to cross the street. He will put his hand out and insist that you hold his hand so he can drag you over to the other side of the street. Most of the time I think he just wants to get a closer look at the squirrels that just ran over there.
is doing really well with shape sorting. He is really fast at doing the 4 shapes that are on the big house toy in the playroom. He will grab the circle, triangle, square, and star and throw them in the right spots really quickly. Once he started doing this I had him try a few other shape sorters and he was really quick at doing them too. Once that clicked, he has started to get more confident with puzzles too.
has learned a few animal sounds. He knows what sounds the sheep, horse, and duck say and he can say them. For the pig he just sniffs (maybe because I used to snort for the pig sound), and for the cow he always says "baa" (but I think he knows the real sound but just can't say it).

This month Blake:

started pronouncing the L sound when it is at the beginning of words. The first words he told me that he could pronounce were two of the names of kids in his class, Lily and Logan. He is so used to using the W sound that he forgets most of the time, but when I remind he he'll say lots of words correctly. It is far from being second nature but hopefully if he keeps practicing it'll become that way.
has been waking up with dry diapers. As long as he doesn't drink too much before bed, it is very possible for him to wake up with a dry diaper. I'm not sure how long to wait before switching him to underwear at night but for now it has been pretty nice to have an almost fully potty trained child!
had a pow wow performance at school and did a great job learning all of the actions and performing it for all the parents. They made the cutest little outfits and sang along with a little 2 minute song the week before Thanksgiving. Blake doesn't really like performing (so he was in the back behind all the tall kids) but when I could see him, he was doing everything really well. He even told me that he had been working really hard and knew all the different parts of the dance.
has been sick for weeks. It appears that his school this year is more lax with keeping sick kids home, so many of the kids have little lingering coughs at school or slight nose runs, so it's nearly impossible to keep him healthy. It seems like once he finally gets over one sickness, within a day or 2 he's picked up something else. Sadly this also means poor Brett has been sick as well since they can't stay out of each other's faces.
started writing his name at school. His teachers made little laminated strips with his name dotted so he can trace it with a dry erase marker and he loves tracing and erasing it over and over. He's getting really really good at it. He even surprised me by bringing home a sweet Thanksgiving card from school where he signed his name on the bottom and it was very legible! I have to say, it made me tear up a little. #proudmommymoment
quotes: "If you don't let me do paint chips (use his punch presses on the paint chips we get from Home Depot) I'm going to do a lot of arguing at night." "Baby Brett is sleeping how I sleep in the car, I sleep with my eyes open." (After an exhausting night at the dinner table of tending to way too many needs while trying to eat my own food, I put my head down and gave a big sigh) "I'm so sorry I broke your brain."
likes doing things in patterns. When he does his "stampers" (punch presses) he likes to pick shapes and do them in a pattern (ie: circle, heart, star, circle, heart, star...) Poor boy has a lot of his mother in him.
says things smell "rotten" when he doesn't like how they smell.
helps me unload the silverware from the dishwasher. He and Brett have always wanted to help me do this but it was too much to have them each grabbing ceramic bowls and handing them to me at the same time. Now Blake can take the big basket of silverware and sort out all the "big boy" silverware into one drawer and the little forks and spoons into the other drawer. He is such a good helper!

Pics:

Mimi and the boys decked out in Tennessee orange.

Blake's class carved a pumpkin at school. This is the plant that Blake grew from the pumpkin seeds they pulled out and planted in cups. I was shocked at how fast it kept growing. We eventually planted it out in the garden and we'll see how long it stays alive.

These boys love to snuggle. Sometimes it's hard to figure out if they're fighting or hugging though.

Look where I climbed Mom. I'm so proud of myself.

We made our journey up to Virginia for a few days to visit with family and help 3 of our nephews celebrate their birthdays (Tristan - 4, Vernon - 3, and Wesley - 2). The last time we were up there was about 2 and a half years ago and the number of cousins have doubled since then. Here are some of the family photos we were able to get!

This group has gotten so big! It was great to get everybody together. Thank you Lindsay for making this happen!

The whole crew plus Granny.

Michael, Lindsay, me, and Dad (the source of all our green eyes)

Michael, Lins, and I

Michael, Lins, me, and Mom

The next day we took a quick trip into the city so the boys (and Chris and I) could experience the DC Metro. It was a whirlwind trip but we enjoyed it (and the boys were able to get a nap in on the way). This was the only thing we had time to see once we spent 15 minutes finding a public restroom.

Uncle Travis got out the leaf blower and put together a huge pile of leaves from the yard and the boys had a great time playing in them. Blake and Brett missed a lot of it since they were sleeping in the car after being tired out from Vernon's birthday party.

Wesley trying to decide if the leaf pile was fun.

Vernon's birthday present was a big hit with the boys.

Uncle Travis trying to teach the boys how to throw leaves.

I love this pic of Vernon. He had that balloon in his hand for like an hour, until the wind finally took it up into the trees.

Such a cutie!

Meanwhile, back on the road.

Off-roading didn't work, so Tristan had to push Wesley back to safety.

Trying to figure out how to get all 3 in the car.

Success!

And Brett finally woke up.

He had a new obsession with raisins while we were up there.

Michael and Maggie staying warm (and yes, he has shorts on haha).

Back on the homefront, Brett has started lining things up.

And here is Blake watering his pumpkin plant that we planted in the front yard.

We had our first sugar cookie making experience and the boys loved it! They were cutting out shapes faster than I could put them on the cookie sheets (needless to say, I didn't get a picture of that). We found a recipe online that used rice flour and I did some research and found that mashed avocado can be substituted for butter (in cookies) and I was extremely impressed with the consistency of the cookie dough. It was better than any regular cookie dough I remember using growing up. However, the end resulting cookies didn't taste nearly as good as the ones I remember eating when I was younger. Brett ate a couple, and Blake licked his and decided that was enough. The best way I can describe them was tasteless. The sprinkles helped but they weren't enough.

It's hard to tell, but the cookies most definitely had a green tint.

Blake's class had a "pow wow" on the second to last day before Thanksgiving break. They all dressed up and performed a pow wow dance at the end of class and it was adorable. Here is Blake in his pow wow outfit. They used pillow cases for the vests and headbands, and they made beaded necklaces out of noodles. It was really creative and super cute.