21-month Update

At 21 months, Trey:

* Weighs about 27 pounds. We aren't exactly sure how tall he is because we haven't measured him lately. Mommy just ordered a growth chart to match Trey's room, so hopefully we will start keeping track of Trey's height regularly.

* Is working on getting his last round of molars, and then he will have all of his baby teeth.

* Says a million words, with new ones every day. If he doesn't know the word for something, he quickly picks it up. He is only just now starting to combine words, but he is on the verge of saying full sentences!

* Is still a great sleeper, sleeping from about 8 at night until around 8 in the morning, and longer if we let him. But ever since we started weaning him from the night-time paci a couple weeks ago by slowly cutting the tip off, he no longer "sleeps in" until 10 on the weekends.

* Can name all of his major colors and shapes, most of his letters, and numbers 1-5.

* Loves to sing, especially "Twinkle Twinkle," requests "Row Row" regularly, and can match pitch when he tries.

* Has pretty much no interest in television, but recognizes when "football" is on TV.

* Has a pretty good pitching arm for a kid who is not even 2, can kick a soccer ball, but is oblivous to the skill of catching.

* Loves seeing dogs, buses, the moon, and pretty much anything else in his books.

* Can eat just about anything, though he is not shy about telling you when he is not interested in a particular food. But he is getting more and more adventurous. He tried artichokes for the first time the other night.

* Knows and loves Elmo because a friend gave him an Elmo toy for his first birthday, but otherwise has no familiarity with any other commercial character.

* Will use the potty about 75% of the time we put him on it, and will sometimes ask to use the potty, although often it means he has already gone in his diaper.

* Says that "Anna," a little girl in his class, is his best friend. He also knows that his music teacher is named "Anna" and she says "la la la."

* Has started displaying "crocodile tears" when he doesn't get his way.

* Is incredibly quick and nimble and can almost outrun most of the women in his family. Despite this, he often wants to be held "up" when traveling any notable distance on foot.

* Gives the sweetest hugs and kisses, and after months of giving precious open-mouthed kisses on our cheeks, now puckers up and gives us "real" kisses.

* Knows pretty much all of his body parts and can name many of them.

* Loves to "read" books. Lately he does not want to be read to, but insists instead on flipping through the books while "reading" them out loud.

* Will almost always ask for an "orange" shirt when you ask him what he wants to wear.

* Loves to draw. Also loves puzzles and doing "work" at school.

* Can do a perfect somersault.

* Wants to be a big boy SO badly. He always gravitates towards the older kids, and he desperately wants to be able to do things himself.

* Has really started getting into cars, trains, and other "boy" things, without much guidance at all towards things that are stereotypically "boy."

* In his parents' eyes, is just the sweetest, cutest, brightest, most special 21-month-old boy in the entire world.

New tooth!

It's been several months since the last tooth, but Trey finally has another new one! We discovered his lower left second molar breaking through today. The fun thing about this new one was that Trey told us himself about the new tooth. He stuck his finger back in his mouth as if to chew on it and said "teeth!" When Mommy asked Trey to open up, sure enough, a new molar was poking through!

Gynmastics

This semester, Trey has been taking gymnastics at school on Mondays. Mommy went recently to observe and see whether Trey was enjoying the class. He seemed to love it! Although he acted up a bit because Mommy was there (it seems he was "showing off" somewhat), he had a great time running around the room and doing the different obstacles. Apparently it changes each week; sometimes they bring a trampoline, which Trey particularly enjoys!

Trey running up to the springboard and jumping on it:

Walking the balance beam:

And last but not least, his favorite obstacle of the day - climbing up and sliding down the foam incline:

Peek-a-Boo!

Where's Trey???

I

I

I

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There he is!!

Kissing Cousin

Baby Graney is still about two months away from being born, but Trey already loves his cousin. Whenever we ask him what's in Aunt Dabney's belly, he smiles big and says "baby!" We aren't really sure he understands what this means, but when you ask him what's in Daddy's belly, or Mommy's belly, or Trey's belly, he shakes his head and mumbles as if to say "I don't have a baby in my belly."

Aunt Dabney and Uncle P were both in town this past week, and we were fortunate to be able to spend some time with them. Trey was sweet to his unborn cousin, kissing the little baby in Aunt Dabney's belly. We are excited they are moving here soon and the cousins will be closer to each other!



Trey had a busy, but fun, weekend. In addition to hanging out with Baby Graney and parents, Trey attended his regular music class, played with Mama C and Aunt Kacie while Mommy and Daddy went out, went to a birthday party for a friend of his, and had dinner with Aunt Jenny and Uncle Joe. Phew!

Weekend in Austin

We are a week late in reporting on our fun trip to Austin last weekend! Mommy, Daddy, Trey, Mama C and Aunt Kacie all took a weekend trip to Austin to visit Uncle Ryan and go to the UT football game. We had a great time!

We arrived in Austin late Friday night, and while waiting at Trudy's Mexican restaurant, Trey had a fun time running all around the outside of the restaurant. It was already past his bedtime by the time we got there, but Trey was a good sport. He is a night owl, just like his parents!

The next day, we were up relatively early to head to the UT football game! We dressed in burnt orange (or the closest thing we each had to it) and headed to the stadium, stopping to visit with other fans along the way. We even bought Trey his own UT baseball cap so that he would fit in just right (and have a little extra protection from the sun).

As we left the stadium, Trey said "bye bye football!" And after a marathon nap, we joined Uncle Ryan for a belated birthday dinner, and then brunch the next morning. (We even got to meet Uncle Ryan's new girlfriend!)

We were so occupied with family events that, unfortunately, Mommy and Daddy didn't have a chance to see any of their friends in town. But we wanted to visit Uncle Ryan for a football game one last time before he leaves Austin. Trey did great in the car, and overall we had a really nice family weekend!

School Picture

Trey took his school picture last week. Picture day for a one-year-old is far from predictable, so we just did the best we could to make sure Trey was dressed cute and his hair was reasonably in place.

We think the picture turned out reasonably well.

Not perfect, but certainly an improvement from last year.

Diagnosis

Mommy took Trey to the doctor last week for a long-overdue appointment to see about his cough. For months now, Trey has had a reoccurring cough that bothers him at night and at nap time. He also coughs a lot while running around (although he doesn't let it stop him!). In this way, it's a lot like the cough that Mommy had struggled with her entire life. As a child, Mommy suffered with a lot of respiratory infections, and every time she was sick, it ended up in her chest. As an adult, she has suffered with a chronic cough. But it was only a few years ago that Mommy was officially diagnosed with a mild form of asthsma. We were worried that Trey had the same.

After explaining all of Trey's symptoms to the doctor, he said that although a 20-month-old was a little too young to diagnose with asthsma, that's sure what it sounded like. In fact, the doctor wrote the diagnosis of "asthsma" on a couple official forms that day. The doctor gave Trey two different inhalers to use: one short term (to get rid of the cough now) and one long-term (to help with his condition overall). We are hopeful that the inhalers will help Trey get rid of his awful cough.

We hadn't seen Trey's regular doctor since his 15-month check-up because the doctor told us there was no need for an 18-month check-up, and he hasn't been available for the couple of times Trey has been sick since then. We love his regular doctor, so it was nice to see him for a short visit and have a mini-well check-up. Asthsma aside, the doctor was very pleased with Trey's progress and everything he has learned so far. We'll see him next for Trey's 2-year check-up, unless Trey has another sick visit in the meantime (fingers crossed!!).

Handyman

Over the weekend, Daddy put together a step stool for Trey. We'd had this stool in the box since Trey was born, but have only recently really had the need to use it. But now it is so handy to have in the bathroom for hand washing and teeth brushing. It is a little taller than your standard step stool, which makes it just right for Trey. Plus, it matches his room!

But never mind the step stool's wonderful qualities. The point of this post is that as Daddy was putting together the stool, Trey felt the need to help. At first, he grabbed his toy hammer and screwdriver and gave them to Daddy to use. When he realized Daddy was sticking to his own tools, Trey "helped" Daddy screw in the various pieces of the stool. It was so sweet, and Trey really thought he was helping, and really wanted to help. What a nice moment between father and son.

First Phrase? and Singing

We have been waiting patiently for the day when Trey's cute voice would bless us with a phrase or two. Of course, he has been saying "I don't know" for quite some time now, but for some reason we don't count this, probably because he said it so early that we figure he couldn't have possibly meant it as a phrase.

But this weekend, Aunt Kacie was over, and Trey somehow got his hands on one of our clear plastic 2-cup measuring cups. And he put the bottom of the cup over his eye, looked through it at Aunt Kacie, and said "I see you!" And he did this a few times, enough that we're sure he really meant what he said and it wasn't just a coincidence.

Perhaps this marks a turning point for Trey's verbal skills, because later that day, Trey starting singing. And I mean *really* singing. He has always been a singer, but on Sunday night, Trey starting singing "Twinkle Twinkle," and it had actual words and a tune to it. Then, in the car today, I swear Trey was singing "Ba Ba Black Sheep." I'm not positive, because I'm not quite sure how he would know that song well enough to sing it, but he was definitely singing, and there were definitely words set to the tune that was (I promise you) on pitch!

We just can't wait for Mama C to hear our little vocalist, as we know that she in particular would be proud. Stay tuned for more words and phrases from Trey!

Editor's note: Although most of you will not be surprised to hear this, I'm embarrassed to say there was a time when I was *almost* worried about Trey's verbal skills. He just didn't start talking, or even verbalizing things like animal noises, as early as some of the other children in his class (who all have very smart parents and are probably ahead of the curve on any standard). For a while, I blamed it on his ears and all of those darn ear infections. But then he got tubes, and well, he didn't start talking right away. For those close to me, this is nothing new -- I worried about him crawling, and walking, and basically everything else in between. I have to admit it: I'm a worrier. I try and try not to overcome it, and my sweet husband has certainly helped me to chill out a bit, but it's just in my blood. So I will try to remind myself of this the next time I worry about Trey not advancing as quickly as I somehow think he could or should. This is yet another reason I feel I am a better mother for being a working mother. If I were home all the time, I would worry and obsess about every little aspect of Trey's development, and that's just not healthy for anyone.