Catching Up

Wow. Time flies. 

Aaron was only 7 months old when I last blogged and now? 

He's a thriving, silly, inquisitive, book-loving, car-adoring 16-month old.

I've missed recording over half his life on here and there has been so many changes, the thought of trying to catch up is overwhelming. But, I'll attempt to at least spit out a few facts so that I don't forget more than I probably already have.

* He has been walking solidly for about three and half months now and is just now increasing his speed to a half-walk, half run.

* He sleeps roughly 11 hours a night. However, he's in bed from 7pm to 7am with no complaints. While he wakes up around 6:15am every morning, he contently waits for his light to automatically turn on at 7am (signaling get-up time). It's made for great alone time with Brandon at night and some good sleep for Mama! :)

* He can identifiably say: dada, mama, "pa" (grandpa), ball, dog, "nana" (banana), "tr" (truck & train), "sna" (snack), "bii-b" (bible),

"that one" 

* He can accurately label objects beginning with "B" (butterfly, ballon, block) but, to date, they all just sound like "ball."

* He recognizes some letters and can even say (some of) their sounds! "A" "B" "E" "F" "G" "H" "M" "P"

* He recognizes his name.

* He amazes us with his "genius:" from stacking blocks to make high towers, to putting chunky puzzles together by himself, to sorting things by colors, to identifying objects correctly from a random pile, to building things with Legos, to follow two to three step commands, to recognizing words of a story and accurately picking that story off the shelf. It blows us away daily to see what new thing he has picked up. Definitely the little sponge!

* He favorite things at the moment are: CARS, BLOCKS, BALLS, BOOKS, and DOGS.

* He is such an awesome independent player. Sometimes I have to stop MYSELF from following him around because he loves his space and I don't need to be with him every moment. He will disappear into his room for long stretches of time and, rather than getting into mischief, you can walk in to find him reading or playing with his toys.

* He has to carry a book with him wherever he goes. His favorites at the moment are:

"Tractor Mac," "Goodnight Moon," "Good Buddies (Pixar Cars)," "The Eye Book," "Miss Spider's ABC," and "The Ear Book."

* He eats well at breakfast and lunch but dinner is downright torture these days. He has recently refused to eat all his old "favorites" which have made it difficult on us to find new things that he'll actually enjoy.

* He is a sweet, tender-hearted boy. He loves giving us hugs and kisses and seems in tune with others' emotions. This also means he cries a lot, as he is super sensitive to others. To date, discipline is pretty much summed up in correcting him verbally, as he immediately starts crying and walks away from the "no."

* He is also the silliest little boy you've met. He's constantly trying to get us to laugh and succeeds the majority of the time. We love his goofy little personality and it can make the most difficult days seem less burdensome.

There is, I am sure, much more that I have forgotten to list. For now, at least, this serves as a good reminder to me of just how much he has developed in the past 9 months or so. We are just loving this little boy so much and are so very thankful to be stewards of his sweet life.