Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Update - Finally!




I keep telling myself to sit down and write an update, but working full time and having a very active 18 month old is about all I've been able to handle recently! Kannon turned 18 months at the beginning of this month - 18 months! Time flies and stands still at the same time. To think that three years ago today I had no intention of ever becoming pregnant and since then have had two baby boys mystifies me.

This has always been a sad time of year for me. 11 years ago tomorrow, my mother lost her brave battle with colon cancer. 11 years ago Friday, on what would have been her 58th birthday, we buried her. I miss her so much. She was the ultimate mother and would have most definitely been the ultimate grandmother. It does give me some comfort knowing that her soul and Dash's soul are together somewhere. I feel them looking out for me and I know in my heart that she is taking care of him.

It seems as though Kannon does something funny, says something new, figures something out every day lately. Here are just a few of the many things I want to remember:

FEBRUARY 2010: While friends were over (yes, I had witnesses to this) and I was changing his diaper. He reached down, grabbed himself and said "penis" clear as day!

MARCH 2010: We took a trip to Florida. Kannon had his first trip to Disney World and loved "Its a Small World". He also rode the Dumbo ride and saw the parade. We spent some time in Orlando with my sister, Kelly and my niece and nephew Brady. Kelly and I made the mistake of buying the same blanket for Brady & Kannon. Of course, they were 6 months or so at the time. At times, they had all out wars fighting over their blue blankets! Kannon also liked to go up to Brady and take his pacifier right out of his mouth and promptly put it into his. When we were not in Orlando, we stayed at the Daytona condo with my dad & Barb. Kannon LOVED the ocean. I swear, the child has no fear. He would chase the waves back into the ocean. Although I loved my time there with him, I think I did get a few new gray hairs from the experience. We also got to see my sisters Ashley & Jennifer, my brother-in-laws and my beautiful niece Caroline. Kannon was great on the plane, but we both became extremely ill the day that we got home. (thank you, norovirus). I won't soon forget how awful it was to try to take care of a vomiting, feverish 15 month old by myself while I was vomiting and feverish right along with him.

APRIL 2010: Glenn returned home on the last day of March, so we'll call it April. He couldn't believe how big Kannon was. It took a bit for Kannon to warm up, but they enjoyed going to the park (sometimes multiple parks) each day.

MAY 2010: On May 22, Glenn's opening night, I left Kannon with a sitter at night for the first time ever. The only other day I have not been there to put Kannon to bed was the day I had to stay overnight in the hospital after my surgery in Feb '09. It was nervewracking, but we love our sitter so much (and so does Kannon) that it made the evening a little easier. He did really well with her.

JUNE 2010: Kannon turned 18 months! He just had his check up and is between the 15-20% for weight (24.9 lb) and in the 75% for height (33") - a little string bean, just like his dad, of course. His head is still extremely large and we have to go back to the doctor in 2 months for another check. Hopefully, the head growth will taper off. He's doing great developmentally and has such a sense of humor. Although he still looks nothing like me, he definitely has some of my mannerisms.This month, he also figured out how to get over the bed, so we had to take down the gate we rigged. Within 2 minutes of taking the gate down, he scaled a bookcase and got up onto the windowsill and "hailed" a taxi!

We also tried fingerpainting for the first time on Sunday. I made the paints out of flour, water & food coloring and it was quite the experience. He talked the entire time and I laughed the entire time. We were trying to make fathers day gifts. I'm so thankful Taifa was with me. It was definitely a two person job, but it was also so nice to share the experience with another adult who could appreciate how my kitchen, Kannon and I looked when it was all over!


THINGS KANNON DOES / HAS RECENTLY DONE:
- One day while cleaning in the kitchen, he suddenly stopped tugging at my leg. A few seconds later, I heard him "ROAR". I looked down and he was sitting grabbing the front of his diaper (which had a tiger on it) and roaring.

-The other day while eating dinner, he looked at Glenn and said "oh" with the saddest expression. He held it for a few seconds, then laughed. I really hope we don't have another actor here!

- Glenn had a friend come visit recently and it was the first time I realized we may have a bit of only child syndrome on our hands. He wanted to be the center of attention the whole time. He would climb onto our guest's lap when we weren't paying attention to him!

- Kannon loves to play in the hallway. He will run and laugh hysterically if you run after him. I'm so thankful that we have such nice neighbors

- Kannon is loving the water features at the city parks. He has boundless energy!

-The other day, I was cleaning up some toys on the floor and he grabbed my hand and said, "don't"

-Kannon likes to "help" in the kitchen. By help, I mean go through the fridge, play with the dishwasher, etc. He also loves to "sort" the laundry.

WORDS KANNON SAYS
Hi
Help
Mama
Dada
Clock
Hallway
Tick tock
Head
Linny,Tuck, Ming Ming (the wonder pets)
Sit Down
No
Stop
Don't
Out
Naughty (can you guess where he learned these last few words?)
Down
Sad
Happy
Hello
Who is this (when playing with the phone)
Hot
Coffee
Taxi
Car
Read (sounds more like wenye, but he means read!)
Pat (as in pat, pat, pat from Little Einsteins)
Red
Elmo
Close(d)
Swing
Slide
Whee! (as in whee, I'm on the swing)
Shoe
Sock
Please
Thank you
On
Off
Hole


- I know I'm missing a bunch here, so I'll come back and edit this later.

Letters Kannon Says and can Identify:
A, B, C, L, O, Q, X, Y

Numbers Kannon
Says and can Identify:
3,4,5,6,8 (the numerical sequence in our elevator is L, 3, 4, 5, 6)

I cherish every day I am blessed to spend with this little guy. He brings me more joy than I ever could have imagined! (He also makes me lose sleep more than I could have imagined, but it is all worth it)