Chase has had such a fun month! He got to see family, had a fun weekend with Nasya, and has been loving the warm spring weather. He loves being outside and throws a tantrum when we try to bring him in (acting like a 2-year-old alerady). But I'm getting ahead of myself.
At 23 months, Chase is:
Saying something new everyday. He says almost every word we say (watch out!), even hard ones. We now try to give him the words he needs to identify or describe what he is talking about, like ketchup instead of dip (dip is also maple syrup). It's amazing how many words he remembers the meaning for.
Chase's sentences are becoming more complex: he's had a couple of 8 word sentences lately. Last week he said, "Chasey look at the truck through that window," and yesterday it was, "Daddy, Chasey shoot the basketball in the hoop."
He still refers to himself in the third person, but there are more mines, my, and yours lately.
His play talk is almost all real words. Maybe this is because we understand him better, but for example, when he is pretending to make us coffee he talks about the milk and mixing.
He sells hello and goodbye to us when we leave the room, whether that is going to work or just upstairs. He also loves to get into his little tykes car and tell us he is going places, often work. This morning he told me that he had dropped the baby off at Sona's (the woman who runs his daycare) and was headed to work.
He was sick earlier this week so we've been a bit of a rough patch with sleeping. He's been waking up a couple of times a night and I, wanting to get back to sleep as soon as possible, have been putting him in our bed or sleeping with him in the guest room. (I blame the pregnancy hormones) It is actually really nice to snuggle with him (even if he is kicking you while he snuggles) and he's been sleeping later, but we really want him consistently sleeping through the night again by the time the baby comes.
As for baby prep, Chase went through a short bout of babying his bear, but he forgot about the bear for a few days so I think that's over. He knows that there is a baby in Mommy's belly and he sees the baby's room and some of his gear. Chase likes to pretend to sleep in the baby's crib and got himself stuck in the baby's bumbo this morning. He also loves all of the baby toys that used to be his. He has two books about waiting for baby and the new baby, but they are kind of boring and he loses interest in them pretty quickly (as opposed to books about trucks and construction equipment, which he loves). We show him pictures of family and friends, mostly with him when he was a baby and he recognizes the baby in the photos as "Chasey baby." I've tried to tell him that I will be going away for a few days when the baby comes but that Grammy and Grampy will come and that they will all come see Mommy and baby in the hospital. It's hard to say whether or not he understands what is happening, but we are doing our best to prepare him.
Invitations have been sent for Chase's 2nd birthday- I'll post details soon. We're hoping it doesn't have to be postponed due to an early arrival of his little brother.
Happy 23 months, sweet boy!
