A Boys Update

I am way behind on the boys and their milestones, checkups (maybe because they are late on those too!) etc. Lane is 2.5 years and wow, it is like a flip has switched. I was getting a little worried about his speech, he was stringing together short sentences, but they were hard to understand. He also would not attempt words he knew he could not form certain letters, example: I love you...he can't say "lo" so would just go silent. In the past month, all of this has changed. He is speaking longer sentences very clearly. He is coming up with stories and ideas and has begun showing his reasoning skills. A typical rant:  "we can't go outside momma, it got dark.  the moon out. we go inside. I watch "who who" and go night night time." (who who is Curious George, which he can say but prefers who who.)

The other day Mom wanted to take just Holden for a little quality time. I said sure, we will just distract Lane and you can take Holden without him knowing, thinking we would prevent a meltdown. I underestimated Lane. He didn't see Holden go, so at first thought he was playing hide and seek.  Lane walked around the whole house, laughing looking for Holden thinking they were playing a game. Finally, he got worried and said "the monster got Holdey, took him on the choo choo train. I got to go to D's house to get big track hoe and get him off" WHAT? Where do they come up with this stuff?  I explained that Pie had taken him to run errands for the morning, and he would be back soon. Then the meltdown came :)
His favorite expressions are: "See ya next time",  "I Do dat Momma", "But WHYYY?" "I not go to school today, I stay house, Hold go to school"

 He is a pretty good eater. He will at least try everything. His favorite things are riding tractors, playing outside with his toy tractors, and watching tractors. Do you sense the theme? We are working on potty training. He is does great when we leave off his diaper and just let him play au naturale. As soon as a diaper goes on, he reverts back to using it. I totally understand this, but some days are just not conducive to no diaper. I think if we do the three day method one weekend, it would stick for good.

Holden is all over the place at 14 months.  He is a parrot. He repeats everything you say. He is a talker, James says he is definitely a Russell :) His most consistent words are: Eat, Ball, No No Dog (when Amos goes after his breakfast), Ba Ba, Juice (he only gets water though), Momma, Da Da, Pie, Crac Crac (Tractor), Mickey, Hot Hot, Out, Nack (snack) and really the list goes on and on...

This weekend, he went to the oven which was preheating, said "Hot Hot", opened the draw next to it, got the oven mitts, put them on and attempted to open the oven. He doesn't miss a thing. He also probably could be potty trained faster than Lane as he mimics big brother. The other morning, he went and squatted next to the potty to do his business. 

He is a picky eater. He flat refuses to try things. It is exasperating sometimes as Lane was not like this. I have stopped catering to his opinions, and at the advice of other moms, only serve what we are having. He loves his milk, and drinks around 30 ounces a day. 

He still is a cuddle bug and loves to sit in a lap. He has such a sunny disposition and is a content little guy. He sleeps great now that I separated he and Lane into different rooms. A side note on that: At around 8 months, I moved them into the same room. Holden in a crib, Lane in a trundle bed with a rail. At first it was fine as I would just rush in and grab Holden as soon as he starting stirring in the morning as to not wake Lane up. Overtime, I realized this was not really working as Lane would wake up half of the time and be in a terrible mood because he was still tired. Then about two months ago, Lane went through a stage of getting out of his bed and coming into ours in the middle of the night. The problem was when I went to put him back in his bed, it would wake Holden up. I finally would give in and let Lane stay in our bed so I didn't disturb Holden. I realized we were creating a monster and knew something had to give. So now, I moved Lane into the other bedroom that has a queen bed. I just added rails and some of his stuff and we made a big deal about a new BIG boy bed. He bought in, and it was been wonderful! They are both sleeping at least a full hour later in the morning. Also if Lane wanders into our room at night, I walk him right back to his bed. 

I want them to share a room again one day, but they are just not ready yet. 

Sometimes you do what you have to do.