Sixes

Right now, when Daniel counts a group of objects, the total always comes out to six.

Mockingbird

My Mom and Fiona came over to visit. My mom noticed that Daniel is repeating back a lot of phrases, "like a mockingbird." Daniel replied, "mock-ing-bird!"

Adverbs & Adjectives

Christy reports Daniel's first use of an adverb today: "carefully."

In recent weeks, he has also been using the adjective "pretty" quite often, sometimes for unusual things that he nonetheless finds, well, pretty.

Happy Solstice!

The holidays are upon us.  Daniel loves looking at the lights and can say: "Chrit-mas Tree" "Holidays" "Dreidel Dreidel" "Presents" "Santa" "(s)No-Man" "Or-ment".  We've been singing Christmas carols before bed and the dreidel song throughout the day depending when the mood strikes.

Sweets for the Sweet

Daniel likes sweets. Now that he can ask using words, he requests sweets early and often.  When I ask him if he'd like toast for breakfast, the exchange goes something like:
   Daniel: Cookie!
   Mommy: No cookies for breakfast.  How 'bout toast?
   Daniel: Ice cream!
   Mommy: I don't think that's a good idea.  What do you think about toast?
   Daniel: Cake!
   Mommy: We don't have cake.  I'm making you toast.
   Daniel: Candy!
   Mommy: Mmmm...toast.

When he wants to pull out the big guns:
   Mommy: Are you hungry? What should we get?
   Daniel: Cookie!
   Mommy: You haven't had lunch and didn't eat much breakfast.  I could make you a sandwich.
   Daniel: Cookie!
   Mommy: I would like you to eat something more substantial.
   Daniel: Cookie! ...please.

At this point, Mommy usually caves because he's used 'please' in the correct context and probably won't eat anything else anyway.

Daniel's 2 Year Check-Up at the Doctor's

Daniel is now officially 36.25 (90th percentile) inches tall and he weighs 24.1 lbs (7th percentile).

He got two shots (Hep A & Flu), and Mommy & Daddy also got flu shots - solidarity!

Even with the shots, his 2 year check-up was less upsetting for him than previous ones. He spent most of the check-up opening and closing all the doors and drawers in the examination room.

Football!

When Christy was putting Daniel down for his nap this Sunday afternoon, he protested: "Football!" He kept the protests up for quite awhile, so we relented and got him out of his crib to watch the Broncos and Tim Tebow get drubbed by the Patriots (after a 6 week winning streak). Daniel would watch the game and exclaim, "kick it!" and "catch it!" Daddy is still trying to get him to say "Go, Broncos!"

Christy tells me that football has caught Daniel's attention early in the day: as he went with his Mom down the hill to get a paper (for the crossword puzzle) at Einstein's, there were large crowds of Bronco fans in their gear waiting for the shuttle to the game. So, as a result, Christy and Dan already had football on the brain.

Daniel's 2nd Birthday

For Daniel's 2nd birthday, we once again visited the Children's Museum. Last year, we waited patiently for him to creep across the quilted bridge. This year, he was a blur of action. He spent quite a while throwing balls in a trash can, and saying "2 points!" (basketball). He also spent another lengthy session in the kitchen room.

For lunch, we went back to My Brother's Bar.

For dinner, we had pizza from Parisi. Daniel usually likes this pizza, but he stiffed us on it tonight because he already knew cupcakes were on the menu.

We had a big family celebration for Daniel on Sunday, 12/11/11. Guests included: Grandpa Tom, Grandma Mindy, Georgia and Ryan Tidd, Grandpa "Pappy" Craig & Kathy, Grandma Denise, Aunt Heaven and Grandma Denise Sheehan, and Daniel's favorite cousin, Fiona Ferry (Who he now calls "Green-O"). It was a full house @ 5709 Saulsbury!

We had pizza from Proto's for dinner, and Daniel's cake was Thomas the Tank Engine pulling a long train of cup-cake freight cars - Christy's genius. Daniel helped his Mom blow out the candles.

Questions

Daniel has started stringing words together and repeating commonly spoken phrases.  The ones getting the most air time are:

• who-er-u?! This phrase is the result of a game where Daddy (or Mommy) says "I'm Daddy (Mommy).  Who are you?"  Last night, he also started answering the question with "Dan-el".
• what-r-doing? When Daniel's out of the room, he's often asked "Daniel, what are you doing?"  He doesn't just repeat this question but seems to ask when he is genuinely curious about what you are doing.
• Bob...Builder Just one example of combining words.  He was very pleased with this phrase when I heard it for the first time last night.

We've been talking about 'please' too.  When we're sitting in his room before bed and he asks for milk, I ask that he say "Milk, please."  Sometimes he does, others he signs 'please', still others he balks and refuses to say/sign but will acknowledge my request with a "yeah".

Presents!

Daniel's 2nd birthday is fast approaching, and I've tried to get a jump on wrapping birthday and Christmas presents.  Everything that's wrapped is piled on a table next to the desk.  Daniel likes to look at them.  He tells us "Presents!" and sometimes pulls a bow off or carries a smaller one away from the pile.  He hasn't tried to open any of them yet.  I'm looking forward to seeing how he feels about what's inside the wrapping paper.

Also, the Build-a-Bear that Fiona gave Daniel when he was born received birthday accessories last year.  This week, I dressed him in his birthday t-shirt and hat.  The bear also has a stuffed present with an insert that plays a pop-y birthday song.  Daniel enjoys listening to the song so we play it often throughout the day.

Story Time

Daniel seems to be listening to stories more now.  We have a book called "Owl Babies" that he has always enjoyed looking at but usually flips the pages too quickly for me to read so I summarize.  Recently, Daniel waited to turn the pages until I'd finished reading them.

When we read "Five Little Pumpkins", he tells me what's going on.  "Gate!" [5 pumpkins sitting on the gate] "Witches!" [the second one says there are witches in the air] "Wind. <blowing> Candle. Light." [oooo went the wind and out went the light]

I found 10 small board books at a book sale.  Each one has 6 pages, little text, cute pictures, and fits easily in Daniel's hand.  His two favorites are "Busy Day" that walks you through breakfast, play, lunch, bath, dinner, and bed times and "Shapes".  There's a kid in a bathtub on the front of "Busy Day" so Daniel says "Tub!" when he wants to read this one.