20 1/2 Months Old

So, I meant to do this closer to his 20 month birthday, which passed on June 30th; however, I since I missed it, I figured that I would probably miss his 21st month as well since we will be out of town. (We have to leave to renew our visas. We think we will go to Egypt, since it seems the cheapest option and sounds really cool!) So anyway, that is why I am posting mid-month about our sweet boy!

The cutest thing happened at the playground yesterday, and has happened before when I take off Canaan's hat. Most of the time he runs around with a hat on when we are outside, because I am afraid his bald head will burn! However, every-once-in-a-while, I take his hat off for about 15 minutes to try to give it a small chance to soak in the heat and vitamins. I did this yesterday and a little girl who was just a few inches taller than Canaan came up to him and grabbed his arm. (She was trying to slow him down because he loves to run away/ be chased by other kids- especially girls!) Anyway, she grabbed his arm and pulled him close, and reached her other hand up and rubbed the top of his head! Then she let go and they continued playing! It was so cute! Everyone wants to get their hands on his adorable, bald head. Which, I must say looks like it has a little more hair on it. It is just very thin and light colored, so what there is, you can't really see anyway! But, another little girl did this to Canaan the other day as well and people at church always find a second to reach down and rub the top of his head as he walks by!

He has a few new words. It is interesting how his language learning mirrors ours in a small way. He picks up on some words and will use them correctly. However, with other words, he will use them in just one way and is confused when we use it differently. For example, when he first learned the word "go," he thought it was only to signal leaving the house, such as in "go outside" or "go to the store." So when we would say, "Let's go to the kitchen," he would run to the door and start trying to put on his shoes to leave. While we moved past that fairly quickly, the other day Dougle asked Canaan if he was "going to finish" something. He looked confused and pointed to the hall and said, "go?" In other instances, he picks up on words and uses them correctly, as well as in the wrong contexts. Such as with a favorite word, "new." He pronounces it correctly and throws it around in all contexts. He says it for "new diaper" or "new bowl," which are correct, but a lot of times he says it for other things that don't make sense to me, but apparently seem just fine to him: "new water," "new stairs," etc. I am sure we sound like this with some words in Russian that we throw around, thinking we understand what context it should be said in, but we really just sound like 20 month olds trying to acquire a new language.

Also in words, Canaan has started repeating a lot of things we say, especially the last words of our sentences if they are do-able for him. He doesn't say the "s" sound yet. New vocabulary include: go, new, catch (tatch), stinky (kee-kee- for stinky diaper!), don't touch (doe tuch), running (nu-neen), hopper (for grasshopper), rock (goo-wok), snap (boo-wap), roll (which he uses for any type of bread), and more. I have been meaning to write down all of them, so when I posted, I would remember what he is saying, but I keep forgetting to do that! My mom always told me that "the dullest pencil is sharper than the sharpest mind." I need to heed that advice better! As far as sentences, we are only getting two word phrases, so far. Such as, "truck, go?" for Where does the truck go?

Canaan is growing up more each day! He loves playing with his cars and trucks still. Everyday he sits around and runs them on the floor, up and down the furniture, etc. He is so cute and such a boy! Sometimes I'll look down on the floor and he has all his cars and trucks (and any other vehicle-airplanes, trains, etc.) all crammed close together like they are in a major traffic jam. At other times, he lines them all up in a long row, end to end, and pretends he is counting them. Actually, I am needed for this fun activity; he just points to each one, while I say the number. He has even started recognizing a few numbers from counting books we read, but he won't say any numbers. He just likes to hear me say them!

FIRST LETTER...and some other Canaan info

I am happy to say, we received our FIRST SNAIL MAIL letter here! It has taken so long because we have not had an address for several months. However, we now have an address and a key to our mailbox, and we are receiving mail. This was very exciting for us! Our first piece of snail mail came from LUCILLE SCHRAMPHER. I don't think she uses a computer, so she probably won't see this blog post. But, she is the lady after whom I was named. So, it was very special in that regard.

As for other stuff, I just have a few random stuff. I forgot to add some new words that Canaan has been saying on his 18 month update. He says star (tar) and triangle (ti-kl). He is now asking for his alphabet letters by pointing to them (up in the cabinet) and saying "Beee." He can now identify the letters A, B and O (his favorite).

Well, that is all for now. Stay tuned for a glimpse into culture shock...coming soon! We love you all!

18 Months Old

Canaan turned 18 months old about two weeks ago. I am a little late getting this posted (as usual), but I still like to write it out, even if it serves only as a record for me of how much my little boy is growing!

Special Thought: When I think about having more kids, I always want to have one who is the same age as Canaan (whatever age he happens to be). I think it is so wonderful that we have such a good time with him in each stage of life he is in, and that we can't imagine how another stage or age could be so wonderful! I love being a Mommy~especially of a precious, bald boy!

Basic Stats
Height: 31.8 inches. He's grown almost an inch in the past month (as far as our home measurements show)! His growth chart here in in centimeters, and it shows a two centimeter growth, which seems more accurate than inches, and it seems like more growth- having grown two cm to the almost one inch!
Nothing Else New-We don't have a current weight. He still has 16 teeth, though I think I see a back molar starting to peek through, which might explain part of the moodiness of the past few days.

New Words
"ash"- trash
"hup"- help (previously he just signed help, now he signs and says!)
"too-tr"- rooster (it is a cross between choo-choo and tractor!)
"moo"- movie (he asks for them a lot- but we restrict his viewing to 30 minutes or one hour a day, depending on what Mommy and Daddy need to do or how he feels)
"me"- I ask him if he wants to come with me and he just repeats, "Me, me, me." Too cute!
"go"- He knows exactly what this means. If I ask him if he wants to go, he runs to the door to get his shoes. If I tell him to go to the kitchen, he starts running in there, saying "go, tichen."
"tichen"- kitchen
"woll"- roll- He uses this for both the bread and the verb (there are certain balls we only "woll" in our house)!
"tair"-stairs-He loves to go up and down stairs. He even calls playgrounds "tairs" because he associates them with the stairs on the slide!

Favorite Words:
For two months, Canaan renewed his interest in the word "uh-oh." He would purposely drop things and say "uh-oh" repeatedly, while laughing. For every tiny little thing, he would say "uh-oh" several times in a row.
Now, he is saying "Mo" (more) all the time! Let me explain. Canaan says "more" for everything there is two or more of. As we walk down the road, he points, saying, "More, More, More..." This means he sees several birds, several trees, several flowers, etc. I get to guess what he is talking about.

New Interests

• He has recently taken a keen interest in trains. I am not sure why. I would think it is because of the metro here, which we tell him is a train, but he still insists on calling it a truck! So, I am not sure why, but he does love trains.
• He is much more interested in airplanes, since our trip. He usually refers to them as "bye, bye." I think this is mainly because we saw a lot of planes taking off; he would watch them until he couldn't see them any more and then say, "bye, bye."
• Other little kids are also fascinating to Canaan. The older he gets, the more he is interested in watching them, playing around them, and at rare times, playing with them.
  

New Stuff
He is noticing what is on his clothes (the pictures). He pulled out his "uck" shirt today and was excited to put it on. Tonight we talked about his choo-choo pjs and the puppy pjs that he has. It is fun to see him noticing different things.

His imagination is growing! He loves cooking with me in the kitchen. I give him his own pots and bowls with wooden spoons. He also loves to pretend drink out of a cup. He is very dramatic and forceful, like he's throwing a glass back, when he does it. Then he will look over at us and grin mischievously. It is really quite amusing. He also just started to pretend to put his trucks "nigh night." He lays them on their side and says, "nigh night." I have no idea where that came from!

Canaan has also started working puzzles in the past two months. Three of the four puzzles he has have the picture of the same piece underneath it. So, it is really a matching game with the added bonus of situating it in the hole. Through these puzzling experiences, he's picked up a few meanings of words, like "turn that around" and "try another place." He does really well, but he doesn't show a lot of patience. We are working on that!

Canaan also has started counting things. He doesn't really say any numbers, but he lines things up and points to them. He likes it when I count, pointing to each thing as I say the number. Then he will say "again" and he will point while I count. I really like how he is growing up and we are doing more interactive play.

So, Canaan also has started giving us bad looks. It is hilarious and we have to try so hard not to laugh. (Dougle doesn't do well at trying not to laugh; he usually covers his mouth or face to try to hide it.) Half of the time, he looks at us with his "dirty look" and then laughs, but the other half of the time he is serious and I have to get onto him and tell him not to look at me like that. He even gave this look to Mila when we were at her house. She was telling Canaan not to touch the trashcan and he rolled his eyes up in his head and then stared at her with his eyes half closed. She laughed while I got onto him (and her for laughing)!

Also he is in the repetition phase. Anything that was fun or interesting, we do 3 or 5 or 10 or 20 times (basically until mommy gets tired of it)! Some things he wants to do over and over forever. Things like: counting cars after he lines them up, pouring water out of a cup into the bath, singing our favorite song, reading our favorite book, playing chase, etc. He will say "gg" or "ah-g" to mean again. It is just like he is sounding out a "g" sound. Too funny! He also repeats words over and over until we acknowledge what he is talking about.

He hasn't started dropping things in the toilet, but he does like to stick his fingers in the water. He is very fascinated with anything "water" these days. He adores fountains and will start talking about the wa-wa when he knows we are getting close to a fountain. Then, of course, he talks about "wa-wa, wa-wa, wa-wa" for a minute or more after we can no longer see the fountain. He loves talking about water in his cup, in his bath, in a pond ,and I suspect this is the new fascination with the toilet. Now I am trying to keep the toilet lid closed, hoping that "out of sight/out of mind" will work; and when I forget, we are working on learning how to shut the lid on the toilet!

He is going through a shy/clingy stage. When other children are around, they can usually draw him out of his "mommy death-cling" and stop his crying when we enter new houses, etc. I think some of this is just his age, while the rest might be attributed to all the traveling we've done over the last month.

Though shy, it is interesting to note that Canaan LOVES to leave places. He loves leaving the house and when we say we are going "bye" but don't do it fast enough (Mommy is always having to run back in b/c I forgot two or three things), then he gets impatient and starts to whine. He loves leaving other people's houses, as well as arriving home. In addition, he loves getting in elevators and going down stairs out places. He smiles and giggles really silly when we get in the elevator that takes us up to our 12th story apartment and he gets impatient when we take too long wresting with the locks on one of the 3 doors we have to enter through in our building. I just think it is funny, how much he loves leaving and coming back!

He is still a picky eater. He still goes through days when he eats not much and days when he seems like all he does is eat. He prefers orange juice (I water it down) to drink, though he also drinks plain water. He also loves his morning and night milk.

Singing is still very interesting. He pays attention to and loves most of all those songs with motions. He tries to do some of them. It is very cute.

On just a more interesting note, we are going through fewer diapers. It has gradually gone down from the infant age. We hope that potty training will start in a few months.