Wouldn't it be fun to be Olivia for a day

Our girl is almost 22 months now and is loads of fun!  What's happening...

• She loves to sing right now! 
• Totally into everything her brothers are doing
• WORLD'S SLOWEST EATER.  My goodness, last night she had been eating for a while, so I sat next to her to eat.  Pretty soon she starts sliding her plates in front of me to eat on my lap.  This would be totally fine if it didn't take an hour for her to eat.
• She is always helping her teacher clean when I get to school, or reading.  She loves books!
• She's discovered the slide in the back and wants to go down over and over and over
• Lately it seems every question you ask her she says no first.  
• She has the sweetest little, "yeah", "uh huh", "love you"
• She is really into saying, "hi", like if we bring her to our bed in the morning and you are trying to sleep, she will lean over on top of you about an inch from your face and say, "hi, hi, hi mommy, hi mommy"
• Lately she has been asking Stella for fives.  And she is a bit disappointed when she doesn't get them. Tonight I had her on the potty and she says, "Stella, going potty, five." Stella... not impressed!  But Olivia did get her five.
• Really into taking her sandals off.  
• The two questions I get all the time, "what's that" and "what's that for".
• Had a big parenting fail at the boys tball game on Saturday.  Thought she was just playing with the rocks and I looked over at her only to find she had popcorn in her mouth that she found under the bleachers.  GROSS!  
• We are still somewhat rocking her to sleep but I think she might be starting to grow out of it a bit and I have had to put her in her crib awake.  So this is exciting.  However, I was thinking back and when the boys were her age that had been in big boy cribs for a few months and we were spending a good 30-60 minutes holding their door shut.  So really not so bad with what we have going on!  Check out this post of the boys back then..  HERE
• She is really into riding our Y bike.  Every time the boys get on their bikes, she grabs her helmet and hops on.  Then Keith had the boys old cars bike down and she walked straight to it and wouldn't move until she got to ride on it. She isn't quite strong enough to get the pedals going.  
• Still into dressing herself.  I got her new PJs with shorts/pants, which she had to wear both at the same time.  
• So far she has been super awesome at the boys' games.  For the most part she sits in her chair, hangs out and then tries to get her share of the post game team snack.
• I'm hoping we finally have this winter coat out of rotation, she has been insisting on wearing that almost every day!
• Lately she has been saying, "my mommy, my daddy"

Olivia and her ABC's....almost!

This girl loves to sing!

22 months!

They are growing up fast!  Almost two!  And if you can't tell, they have only had two hair cuts.  At this rate, I'm thinking they could dress up as the Bieber twins for Halloween this year. 

So what's happening with Carter and Dylan at 22 months?  I must say, outside of some challenging moments, I am still loving this stage. 

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  Sleeping in our beds has been going MUCH better!  Naps can still be a challenge, but we aren't having near as many issues.
• 
  
  They do seem to wake up about three times a night, which I think is crazy since they are about two.  They go back to sleep easily, but that's a lot of lost sleep for mom and mostly dad!
• 
  
  Chatter boxes!  This weekend Dylan was on a "mommy" kick, I think he is thinking this word means a lot more than just me. "mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy" translates to "mommy, pick me up, hold me, I want milk, now, now, I want....."  - Keith said he was getting a little tired of hearing "mommy"
• 
  
  Carter is really into bringing me my belongings, he will bring me my phone, hair band, camera, Keith's pedometer and he will be so proud when he gives us these items. Now if Dylan gets a hold of these things he takes off and runs!
• 
  
  They just can't get enough of going up and down stairs! Especially Carter!  He will stand at the top of our stairs and scream and try to break our gate.
• 
  
  Dylan is still really into wanting us to change his diaper ALL THE TIME!  This morning he had four diapers by 9:00, Carter - one.  I feel like I have a newborn again at this rate.
• 
  
  At any given moment one will suddenly be pantless or shirtless
• 
  
  We are still using the potty some, the glam of it all has gone away and now they will sit on it a lot, but not let go.  They do enjoy the toilet paper! 
• 
  
  It's getting tough to keep things out of reach, they can even reach things on the counters now
• 
  
  Carter just LOVES planes and trains
• 
  
  A lot of nights Keith and the boys will be eating when I get home from work and the moment the door opens, Dylan always says "Hi Mommy", I love it!
• 
  
  Dylan is a GREAT helper!  Every time we get the vacuum out, he gets his broom out and cleans up too.  At night I try to get them to help clean up toys and Dylan always works really hard and puts things away.  Carter helps some too, but loses interest fast.  I guess in this arena, Dylan is a little more like Keith and Carter is a little more like me:)
• 
  
  Carter is still obsessed with doors and shoes
• 
  
  I'm working with them on being "nice" boys- they both push, pull hair and bite.  I would say the pushing is the worst. 
• 
  
  We have to watch what we say because they just repeat everything!  Poor guys got tons of bug bites, but now they keep saying "bug bite"..."bug bite"
• 
  
  wipes are probably one of the most popular toys right now
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  Lately they have been into saying things are "broken"
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  They have been really enjoying putting together puzzles and drawing with sidewalk chalk
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  They are into this more milk phase which is driving us crazy.  They have like two drinks of milk and think they need refills.  This happens about eight times a day
• 
  
  Shopping trips have been challenging, Carter refuses to stay seated in the cart no matter how tight the belt is
• 
  
   Eating is still a challenge, they are really liking pasta right now, some meat and fruit
• 
  
  Carter has gotten even closer to his blanket, I'm lucky if I can make it out of daycare without it
• 
  
  They are really into Elmo
• 
  
  Every time they get into Keith's truck, they still both say "oh no" and point looking for their movie
• 
  
  Dylan's still Momma's boy and Carter is a dadda's boy, although Carter has been snuggling up to me a little more lately
• 
  
  They really like to say "no", I'm starting to think they think it is "yes"
• 
  
  They have NO FEAR!  They will climb anything or jump off of about anything

Muscle Men

Here is our latest battle!  The boys think it is really fun to swing on the bar above the slide.  So far it doesn't seem too dangerous, but we are not encouraging in the event that they would fly right off the bar and Carter did attempt this over the rock wall, so that was a little scary.  Dylan doesn't do it too often, but Carter LOVES it!

Dylan and Carter words....

While watching them "share words" over that glass of water, I thought I should write down "their words"!  They are starting to talk so much now!  And they are funny too because sometimes they try to give you an entire sentence that is all gibberish except a word or two and they can get so serious about it.  I've read at their age they can learn 10 words a day!  So I thought I would jot down a few of their first words while I can still, somewhat, keep a list and remember.  Otherwise in six months I will have completely forgotten.  Here goes: (And of course this is the two together, I think they both say most of these words)
Mommy
Daddy
Cart Cart
Stel
Outside
Milk
More Please
Up
Down (lately Carter has been mixing up his ups and downs)
shoes
more rice
sheep
eyes
nose
knee
hand
toes
cookie (dylan knows this word really well, so we have to be really careful to NOT say it!)
Go Go
bubbles
Mine (popular one!)
bath
potty
poo
Hi
Bye bye
Night Night
Star
Plane
Ball
Book
giraffe
banana
paci
Elmo
car
tree
truck
toast
swing
slide
turtle
fish
monkey
butt wipes
No, not sure how I almost forgot that!
Oh No
Uh Oh
help me
juice
hot
sun
Blue

If Keith were here, he could probably remember another handful.

Carter and his PJs

At nighttime, Carter avoids getting his jammies on and puts up a kicking and screaming fight about every night.  Then somehow throughout the night, he grows a strong attachment to the jammies and by morning when you try to change him, he gets so mad and holds onto his pants so you can't take them off! 

I poo!

Dylan is doing this funny thing now, every time he poos, he will say "I poo", run into the living room and lay down in front of the TV and wait to be changed.  Sometimes he even pulls his pants off.  He stared it a few weeks ago when he stayed the night at my parent's house and he would lay on a bench.  It's kinda nice because he will just sit still until he is changed, where as it is normally a wrestling match trying to get the diapers on and off. 

So now when he goes, I've been trying to tell him to do that on the potty.  As exciting as that will be, can't say I'm looking forward to the clean up!  I think I will call a permanent "NOT IT!"

Itsy Bitsy Spider... SPLAT!

At daycare they sing a lot of songs and do the actions with the songs.  So the last couple times we have done Itsy Bitsy Spider, we start to do the motions and every time Carter will quickly slap his hands together, so I'm not sure what's going on with the spider at daycare???  Funny too, because they used to do the normal actions for the song. 

Carter is really into airplanes right now, every time he hears one, he points at the sky.  He is also really into saying and pointing at trees, flowers and cars.

Also, right now if you asked the boys what color anything is, it is always "blue".