This photo and the photo above were taken in early December '09. I was trying to get some photos for his birthday party invitation. And he was smiling so much because one of his favorite teachers, Miss Amy, (or as Fenn calls her 'regular Amy' - see explanation down below), was hiding behind my back and playing peek-a-boo with him.
We have a ritual every morning when the kids are about to leave for school. We strap them in their carseats and give hugs and kisses. But then right before Dan starts to back out of the garage, I knock on Fenn's window, mouth the words 'I love you', and then blow him a kiss. He reads my lips and says "I Love You, Mommy" back to me and then blows me a kiss. Talk about making my heart melt. And it always makes me feel better knowing that's the last thing we said to each other before he leaves.
This photo was taken during late December '09 during my own "2-year photo session" with Fenn.
The little stinker is smart as a whip, too. I know he's not any smarter than any other child his age. But I continue to be amazed at the things he knows and comprehends. For instance, he tells me which way to turn each Wednesday night as we're driving to Little Gym. And he also knows which road his daddy's office is on. We pass it coming home from school in the afternoons, and he'll point toward the road and say "daddy's office down that hill". He's been doing this for several months now, too. He also knows where Waffle House is located. As we're coming down Kingston Pike from school and we pass where Papermill Rd. intersects with it, he'll say something like "Waffle House down there" or "I want to go to Waffle House". And you can't even see Waffle House from that point. It's a ways down that road, but he just remembers from going there months ago, probably from back before Boone was born. Oh, and as of today, I can count on one hand how many times he has been to Waffle House since he was a year old (or since he could possibly remember going there).
I took these 2 photos in late December '09 during lunch one day. Just an example of the many faces of Fenn.
A few weeks ago, he had his first real stomach virus that kept us up all night long. And to top things off and make it even more difficult, Boone decided to wake up and wouldn't go back to sleep in his crib. So that meant one of us had to stay up with Fenn {daddy} and the other one had to try and sleep with Boone {mommy}. Dan put the crib mattress on the floor and laid beside Fenn for most of the night. Of course, they were up every 20 to 30 minutes running to the bathroom. But what amazed both of us was how quickly Fenn learned that he needed to run to the bathroom whenever he started feeling sick. We made it through the night, but it is so heartbreaking to watch how scared they are when they're about to throw up and don't know what's going on. Oh, and I think we both experienced the joy of having our child vomit all over us.
Cowboy Fenn... photo taken in February '10. The cowboy hat was a gift from his Aunt Angie and Uncle Todd.
On Saturday, March 20th, Fenn peed in the big potty for the very first time... while standing up. He hasn't even done that sitting down yet. But he's been watching his daddy and wants to do it like big boys do it. And on Tuesday night, April 13th, he poopied in the little potty for the very first time. Mostly, we think both are flukes. And the poopy incident can also be attributed to good timing we think. But it's a start. We haven't gotten serious about potty training yet. But now that tax season is over, we're going to start working on it.
At the park in February '10 on one of those rare nice days we had during this winter.
One of Fenn's favorite things to say right now is "Come on everybody. Let's go!" He says this when he's talking about wanting his friends from school to come and play at his house. We think he picked up the phrase from listening to his teachers try to round up all the kids at various times during the day.
And speaking of vocabulary, he has a HUGE one! He says some of the most surprising things now. He talks non-stop. He uses what I would call complex sentences for his age. He says too many things for me to list here. If you've never noticed over in the right-hand column of the blog, I have a place that says 'And the other day Fenn said this...'. I haven't been great about doing it so far, but that's where I plan to post funny little comments that he makes. So if you're a grandparent or family member, you might want to check that out from time to time. My friend next door posts all the great stuff her 4 (almost 5) year old says and it is hysterical to read.
Another one taken at the park in February '10. Fenn has mastered the rock wall at the school playground. His daddy is holding his hand underneath him just in case, but Fenn climbed it all by himself.
We're definitely seeing some signs of jealousy towards Boone. Fenn has started mimicking Boone to get the same attention Boone is getting from us. From crawling to jabbering to banging pots and pans together, if Boone gets the slighest bit of attention from us for doing those things, Fenn will follow suit. One example is from a recent Monday morning while running around trying to get the boys ready for school. Boone fell down and Dan ran to pick him up and love on him. A few minutes later, Fenn was lying in the same spot on the family room floor and calling out "I fell down!" and doing the fake cry. So I ran over to him and picked him up and hugged on him. That seemed to make him happy.
Is he the perfect kid who never does anything wrong? No. He's pretty much a typical 2 year old. We've started seeing more tantrums over the last few months. Nothing huge yet (like a total meltdown in a public place), but we fear that's coming eventually. Hopefully, we'll handle it well and just try to ignore it so he doesn't learn that's how to get our attention. And we're definitely seeing more stubbornness and more acts of defiance. And when he doesn't want to do something, he's got that whole "drop to the ground and go limp" thing down pat! But overall, I would say he's a well-behaved 2 year old.
Sitting on his chair after a big day at the park in February '10.
We're about to go through a lot of changes around here. Now that tax season is over and Dan will be home earlier each night, we're getting serious about sitting down to eat dinner as a family and making Fenn eat what we're eating as opposed to us being short order cooks for him. We've been feeding Boone and Fenn right after coming home from school, doing baths, and getting them to bed before we actually eat our dinner. That is just what has been the easiest thing to do. Now it's time for Fenn to learn to like a broader variety of foods {or something other than chicken nuggets, mini corn dogs, fish sticks, and grilled cheese sandwiches}.
We also ordered Fenn's big boy furniture last week, so we'll be making the transition from the crib to the big boy bed once the furniture comes in. But that won't be for another 4 to 6 weeks.
Making a silly fish face during lunch one day in late February '10.
And on Monday, the boys will start a new school. They'll actually do a free visit on Friday as a test run. I won't get into why we're changing schools, but for several reasons, we decided it would be best to move them. I'm kind of sad about it because Fenn has been really happy at his current school. I know kids are highly adaptable and he'll be fine in a couple of weeks. But I know he's going to be sad and will talk about his friends and his teachers for a while. He's going to miss all of them terribly. And mommy is going to miss them, too. Fenn actually has two teachers named Amy. His current teacher is known as 'Krazy Amy' to all the kids. And Fenn's teacher from the last classroom is also named Amy. He still sees her everyday because the two classroooms are frequently merged together and play on the playground together. We had to differentiate between the two Amy's and probably started referring to his former teacher as 'regular Amy'. Well, Fenn picked up on that and now calls her 'regular Amy' whenever talking about her. But at least we know which Amy he's talking about.
So that pretty much catches you up on Fenn. There's probably tons of things I'm forgetting since I've been wanting to write this post for so long. But I can always do another post later.
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