25 months...but who's counting

 

Well hello blog, you old friend, you.  Ok, quick recap of the past 5 months:
-we got a contract on the house.
-two year 18 month tantrums started. 
-said contract fell through b/c the buyer thought we had termites (needless to say we didn't)
-we got another contract on the house, procrastinated packing, finally packed, closed and moved.
-bought a piece of land to build a new home on.
-all 4 two year molars broke through.  Also before 24 months.
-fought for 2 months to have house plans approved, got house plans approved, started building.
-Taygan turned 2
-ran three 1/2 marathons
-did I mention handling a 2 year old?
Yeah, I think that justifies my lack of posting so I will move on to current life :)

I wish I could just video our smart, energetic, mickey-loving, crazy climbing, anti-snuggling little boy 24 hours a day.  He says and does the cutest things.  And then he throws a fit and I forget for a minute how adorable he is... until he says "sorry momma" through the tears. Melt. My. Heart.  Kyte and I are going to try to be better at getting video of him.  Sure we take tons of pics, but his little voice is so precious and I want to be able to hear it forever.  And I want to share it with you.  We have now put the camera on the bar so it is always in reach.  Be prepared for me to be back on the blog.  Here to start is a video from bath time (still is favorite part of the day) with "Mickey-Mouse"

 

 

 

 

 And here are some pictures captured from our 2 year photo shoot taken in our new neighborhood.  The first is from our lot before we broke ground. (and will be going on the wall in the new home)

 

and about those "fits" I mentioned. 

 

which quickly (and thankfully) usually turn into smiles

 

Love his smile.

 

 

working the over the shoulder pose...

these two have my heart!

 And since it's "Thanks"giving month, a quick picture that brings me to tears every time I look at it.  I can't tell you how thankful I am for Taygan to be able to live "with" his great-grandfather. Taygan loves him so much and it makes my heart full when they get to spend time together.  Kyte snapped this sweet moment over the summer.

 

20 Months

20 months.  I was digging through a night stand drawer yesterday and found the schedule routine that I left for Kyte when he kept Taygan for a week alone last Jan while I was in Charlotte, and it almost brought tears to my eyes.  This little guy is growing so fast and becoming so independent.  But on the bright side there isn't 5 feeds a day (with bottles to wash) and 5 naps, ha!  Although, we cannot break this kid from 2 naps a day.  Sometimes they are both 2 hours each.  He LOVES his sleep, if we try to skip a nap he will beg for "night, night".  Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining BUT when you are on the go it is sometimes hard to block out 4 hours for him to sleep. Here are some happenings from the past month:

-Spider Man.  That is Kyte's nickname for him.  He climbs on any and everything.  But his balance is thankfully much better than mine so his falls have been minimal.

-Beach Boy.  He loves the ocean, especially when the tide heads out and he has shallow little ponds to splash in.  He doesn't mind out all to get his face wet, in fact he usually sticks his face in the water. 

 -For the first time last night, he was able to use his fork on his own to repeatedly pick up his own food and feed himself.

-His new words include Macy (Aunt Mate's Dog), Allie, side (outside), night-night, bath, Donald (for Donald Duck), Toodles (can you tell we watch a lot of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse), Daniel, and his first phrase "I don't know" (complete with his hands up in the air for dramatics)

-He loves to give high fives and fist bumps.  Here he is giving Dot a high five when we stopped by to see her this week.  So sweet.

-He can also say "airplane" and will look for them when he hears them.  He had spotted one while playing on the beach...

-We are so lucky to have Mrs. Katie to keep him every other week.  He LOVES her little boy Daniel and thankfully Daniel loves him just as much.  I swear they look like little old men on a picnic.

-I am not sure why, but with his swimmie belt on he looks like such a big boy to me.

I swear a couple more trips to the pool this summer and he will be swimming without Dad's help :(

Along with all these new fun things that he is learning also comes new tantrums and creative ways to pitch fits.  Last night in the kitchen he wanted something that we couldn't figure out and he took to just stomping the ground, or as Kyte called it "river dancing".  He also loves to give a high pitch squeal when he doesn't get what he wants or he wants every one's attention.  Yes, this is very fun while in a public place.  However, he has thankfully figured out that when pitching a fit it hurts if he just throws his head back on the floor, so now he begins to cry and then slowly positions himself so that he is lying flat on the floor and intensifies the crying.   Kyte and I can't help but laugh when he does this, which we know is exactly what we shouldn't do. 

The joy of toddler hood.

 

Memorial Day Beach Trip 2013

Remember when these boys used to nap on the beach? Yeah that doesn't happen anymore.  BUT they are still the cutest little dudes you have ever seen.  I could share 100's of pictures (no really Kyte took 625 pics in 3 days) but I won't bore you with that many.  I tried to pick out a few of our favorites.  ENJOY!

We used some creative packing to get the wagon in Kyte's car and take it with us, these two needed to be strapped in to get them to the beach each day. 

Of course Taygan decided to climb in the chair and ended up like this.

Sharing his toys with Momma. 

Big boy.

We let him play under the tent as long as he would entertain himself, but he finally decided to go check out the ocean.  Thankfully it was low tide and we had a huge beach.  I honestly have never seen the water at Myrtle as beautiful and colorful as it was this trip. 

 Testing out the (freezing) water.

 He obviously loved it!

 "Ohhhhh noooo"

Little running man.  

 Look at these two adorable faces.

 Looking a little different than they did last year in these same chairs. 

 Sweet Cruz man.  Always with a ball in his hand.

 Daddy's and their boys.  I swear some of this pictures it looks like no one else was on the beach with us when in actuality it was PACKED.  No idea how we lucked out with these awesome pics.

 I wonder how long he will give me kisses every time I ask. Sweet moment.

 Who invitied this guy to the party?

 Kyte and Chris worked all day building these sand sculptures for the boys.  NOT ha!  We came out one morning about 10am and someone had been hard at work.  We waited until late evening and let them play on them when everyone had went in.  Taygan had a blast with the slide that Kyte made on the turtle. 

 WHOAAAAA look at that belly!

 Such a mess.

 When you get tired of chasing, you strap them in the stroller and walk :)

 Moms and babies.

 Still loving the tossing in the air in the pool. 

 Where's Taygan?

 And to close, one of my most favorite shots.  Love these boys to the moon and back.

1.5

A rainy Sunday equals a minute for me to do nothing and update the blog.  You're welcome! 

Here is a snapshot of what our busy little bee is up to at a year and half of age.

Climbing on anything and everything:

 What isn't pictured above is how he will climb in a patio chair and if it's close enough to the table then use it to climb on top of the deck table.  How do I know this?  I looked out the window to see him on top of the table one day.  Needless to say the chairs are all now pulled back from under the table where he isn't tempted to climb from the them to the table. 

He had his first flights this month and did great!  We had a layover missed our flight coming back from Dallas so we killed time by walking around the airport.

 The kid loves to run and isn't afraid of falling.  He will run up and down the hill in our yard, sometimes he eats some grass on the way down but will get right up and do it again. 

 He still gets to watch cartoons in Mom and Dads bed on Saturday morning.  He gets so excited when I take him in the room and he sees "Da-Da" in the bed.  He looks like such a big boy in this picture but I love his sleepy little eyes (he gets those from Kyte, who resembles a chipmunk when he wakes up, ha!) 

His vocab now includes night-night, bites, eat, shoes, belly, toes, Mate, Mimi, Pop and as of today Dot & Ben :) He is just now starting to be a little parrot and attempt to say most anything we ask (or don't ask him to say ha!), let the fun begin. 

Thankfully he is still a really good eater!  Some of his favorite foods now are blueberries, mango, cucumbers with ranch dip, and egg sandwiches.  I find myself not giving him onions a lot because I don't like them but if Kyte is eating a loaded sandwich or burrito Taygan will take a big ole' bite of it and always ask for more.  The only think I have found that he dislikes is rice.  Weird, right?  It must be the texture.  He normally only gets home cooked meals, but I was lazy this past Friday and didn't cook so he got to eat pizza while we were at Highland, and I think he liked it... 

 We finally did it.  We went  My dad made us go to Chuck E Cheese.  And I will admit, the pizza wasn't half bad and Taygan loved the rides!  The jeep ride below was one of his favorites, it moved around as if you were 4-wheeling.  I swear the kid isn't afraid of anything. 

Easter 2013

Can you believe how much this little guy has changed in a year?! Where did my baby go?! It seems to be an Easter Tradition for him to sleep in. This year he woke up a little after 9am, maybe he will wake up earlier when he knows the Easter Bunny is coming. This year the Easter Bunny left a trail to his basket...

 

I would hate for you think that the whole day went by and this adorable face never once cried...

But snap into reality...

Yep, that is how the family picture went.  Welcome to life with a toddler. So needless to say shortly after those melt downs, it was nap time.  For all of us. 

I had decided that I wasn't going to dye eggs with him this year since his little hands move way faster than mine.  But since the weather was nice, we headed out to the back to dye some (after the nap of course.)

After they dried, we gave them to him to see what he would do with them. 

 And I guess because he was used to the plastic eggs and them coming apart in the center, he thought these should too. 

His reaction to it breaking apart is priceless, I just love his little voice...

And a pic from the day after Easter to close, this is what our house is like most evenings just before bedtime when we let Allie in to say goodnight.

He goes crazy when he sees his doggie!