Theo goes to the beach Part 2: whoa! wa!

Once Theo's feet were free to feel the sand between his toes he began to realize that the beach was awesome, in every sense of the word. In his words, "whoa", "wa!", and "beach!"

Theo goes to the beach Part 1: so this is sand

Theo's first trip to the beach since he was 2 months old was a joyous adventure full of the wonder of children experiencing things for the first time. Of course, as with anything experienced for the first time, it can be a bit uncomfortable and confusing. Theo found his first experience wearing sandals walking through the sand just that. Fortunately, Mama was there to offer some reassurance and in the safety of my arms he began to see again the wonder of what lay around him. However, it was Dada who had the brilliant idea to take off his sandals so he could experience sand under his feet without the hinderance of sand in the sandals. And so the real fun began...

Cleaning and digging

New activities lately include using a sponge to wipe off the table (he likes everything in its place!) and digging in the dirt. He has learned the words pond and bridge and can ribbit like a frog and hoo hoo like an owl. He finally likes carrots, and now LOVES ketchup. He is still obsessed with cars and now can name trucks and vans, and identify the sound of a choo-choo train. He likes ethusiastically naming mama and dada and himself (baby) and talks about "papa" and "m-m" often. He loves the camera which makes it harder to take pictures...

He can have so much fun with ordinary household objects...even at 6:30 in the morning.

Theo throws tantrums?

Theo is usually so well behaved in public places and when we have visitors that people are often surprised to hear that he has quite the temper on the home front. When we're in the privacy of our own home, Theo is known to throw multiple tantrums in an hour over heartbreaking frustrations such as not being allowed to bang on the window, having to change his diaper, or anytime he doesn't get to do exactly what he wants. These moments are only getting more frequent, and more intense, as he gets closer to being two. One of his latest, and less obnoxious, tantrum methods, is running into the corner and sitting or lying down. Admittedly, this is kind of cute. He is also cute sometimes when he frowns, as evidenced in this photo. Of course, he also had a screaming crying fit the other evening at bath time because he had to take his shirt off, which lasted several minutes and included lots of kicking and grabbing at my face. This wasn't so cute. You guys hear a lot about the fun, sweet stuff, I just thought I'd throw a little dose of the true day to day in... Now back to the cute stuff.

Little daredevil

Theo right now is sporting an awesome purple, scabby chin. He was practicing standing on the seat of his scooter like Evel Knevel (sp?) when something when wrong and he landed right on his chin. Now he likes the saying the word "chin" and pointing to it proudly with a sly smile. At a year and a half now, Theo is just under 34 inches and weighs just 24 lbs. He is long and lean and seems to have an athlete's body - agile, graceful (toddler-style), and active. He loves to climb and run. He can play on the playground equipment without any help and is working on his fine motor skills like drinking from a cup. He is quite the busy little man.

More spray please!

More 95 degree days in Portland means more time in the turtle-pool and more getting sprayed by the hose when Dada waters the garden. Theo signed "more" and then said "please" (this instance not shown in video) - we think that might constitute a sentence. Earlier this week Theo also said "Dada Ni-Ni", also a contender.

Stopping to smell the flowers

What could be better than smelling flowers with Theo?

Feeding the ducks

Last weekend Theo fed the ducks himself. He's a fan of duck-feeding. This weekend, we took him to his first car dealership. Most of you know he's a HUGE fan of cars. It is probably his most-used word. Going on walks with him, or just looking out the window, he's bound to utter "car" several times. When we walked into the showroom, and Theo saw all of the cars INSIDE, he was so excited and awe-struck, I'd never heard him say "CAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR" with such drawn-out, incredulous, childlike enthusiasm.

First live music

We spent a couple of hours with Grandpa Steve and Grandma Linda at the Cathedral Park Jazz Festival on Sunday. This free, low-key neighborhood music festival was the perfect way to introduce Theo to his first live music and event crowd. He was most taken with the balloons and the crowd, but busted a little dance move here and there once he got over his awe. He also had fun playing hats with Grandpa.

Pop and Grandma Janet come for a visit

Pop and Grandma Janet were here last week for a visit and had such a fun visit with Theo. They went to the park, the zoo, on walks, read books, and had so much fun playing all week long. Theo learned to say "two" playing the game "one two three lift".

Tackling little challenges

Theo displays a remarkable pattern in his learning behavior: he often identifies challenges and re-creates them over and over again. He seems to be drawn to challenges, teaching himself how to overcome them by practice. For instance, he'll find difficult terrain to walk over and walk back and forth over it carefully over and over again until he becomes more comfortable. This evening, we put some water in our kiddie-pool turtle, and let Theo play in it for the first time. He found it challenging to step into it and out of it, so he did so over and over again until he could do it without using his hands!




























Later, he played under the spray from Daddy watering the garden. There's Lucy's friend Big Head in the background.

Sweet boy

Giggle fest

Sometimes when I get home from work, Theo, tired from his day of play, can be very fussy and not very much fun. Other times, we have fun like this!

Crossing bridges

We took Theo for a walk in the woods behind the Audobon Society this morning. Theo enjoyed walking down the steep trails holding our hands, saying "wa" for water while checking out the creek, and walking across bridges over and over and over again. He walked all the way back the steep slope by himself, then we checked out the birds in the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. Theo practiced saying "bird" as we looked at the raven, peregrine falcon, owl, and turkey vulture in their enclosures.

Happy Birthday, Grammy Betsy

Here's a recent video of Theo singing and saying some of his words, including two of my favorites, "home" and "poop". What more could a Grandma ask for other than a new video? Happy Birthday, Grammy! We love you!