my big little guy

  

 Hendrix will be 20 months old next week. 

It just hit me that he is closer to two years old than one year old.  I know he was growing like a weed anyways, but ever since we told him he was going to be a big brother it seems like he has been growing exponentially into a big boy preparing to tackle that role.  

Before i let too much time get away from me, i want to take a moment to reflect on what he is up to right now....

This kid is joyful! He loves to smile, laugh, giggle and just be silly :) he is going through a 'cheesy grin' phase when i bring the camera out, and it often involves squinty eyes and a scrunched up nose. ;)

he plays with enthusiasm and imagination. He loves to hide and is good at staying in his spot quietly for minutes on end.......he adores gabe and wants to imitate everything he does, which most recently includes playing baseball and working on his alphabet.

Hendrix has always been quite a talker, though recently i am seeing his language evolve.  His vocabulary has been strong and full of both nouns and verbs that he loves to share whenever he sees something he knows (like pointing out animals and cars or trains as we drive across town).  

recently he is experimenting with stringing words together like this morning while we were snuggling in bed and he heard an airplane, he said "mama  airplane  fly  look" pointing at the window.  Or later on when he wanted to draw a picture he said "mama  color marker  please".  Obviously we need to work on all those little filler words to form sentences.....but it is fun to see him starting to try!  

He is also getting very good at using his manners without having to be prompted (most of the time) :).  Oddly enough he is also really good with names.  He can name everyone in my family (which is a lot - 11 people!) both in photos and in person, he knows most of his friend's names (though he does do this weird thing where he sometimes calls two siblings by the same name.....), but most importantly he knows the names of all our friends' and neighbors' pets, namely their dogs. 

Arts and crafts is a serious obsession right now.  He can sit with a pad of paper and some crayons, markers or even just a pencil for up to 45 minutes.  He likes to draw and does a pretty decent job at making a circle (and will tell you that is what it is) but also make scribbles and imagines them as other things (like horses or balls).  

He seems to be left-handed dominant right now, though he does color with both hands, and really prefers to have a marker in each hand at the same time.  I am impressed with his recent coordination of the 'pencil grip'. He also adores playdough (making snakes), sidewalk chalk, stickers and bubbles.

He is starting to understand the alphabet and that it is made up of letters, and when he is trying to spell something he says random letters. He knows that his name starts with an 'H' though i am not sure that he recognizes what it looks like yet.  He loves saying 'X'.  

He is learning his colors. The one that he consistently gets correct is yellow, and all the rest he guesses/ mixes up, but we are working on them since he spends so much time coloring.

He loves music.  He likes to play daddy's guitar and our piano, but mostly he just likes listening to and boogeying to tunes on the radio or computer.  He has got some groovy moves and isn't too shy about doing them in front of other people.  

Recently gabe and riley taught him how to wiggle around saying 'shake your booty' and he loves to do that because it usually is rewarded with a chuckle.

He has mastered jumping with both feet off the ground at the same time.....and this has invited a whole world of animal moves pretending.  His imagination is growing as he pretends he is an animal, or a football player, and he loves to turn even the least likely objects (like an open book) into a hat.  What a goofball.

every minute of each day is filled with a new adventure, and i am trying desperately to take it all in, savor each moment, and enjoy what precious time is left as a family of three ;)

oh, and as you might have noticed from some of the pictures.....we have spent some time working on potty training this week......nothing makes your sweet little boy look more grown up than seeing him in big boy underpants!  more to come on that journey later......

i love you, big boy!