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What a busy and eventful month!

If you didn’t see the post about our Valentine’s Day celebrations – it’s right here.

And here’s a little movie I posted on FB a while ago with all of Henry’s tricks. A must view, if I do say so myself  : )

We also celebrated President’s Day!

made henry a george washington hat

And of course Pa’s 90th birthday.  What a wonderful, fun, HUGE celebration!

Lloyd is really fun, although definitely more stubborn than ever before.

He uses these silly voices while playing, giving his toys different personalities.  He loves role-playing, but adds this hilarious touch of tacking on “… says Lloyd the cat.”   So for example it’ll be something like, “‘Let’s go find our water!’ says the boy cat.”  Delightful.

Lloyd with his cousin Logan

He continues to be the best eater.  He’s tried new foods such as sour cream, spinach, and guacamole and responded really positively to each one.  He even tried black rice, although that took a bit more coaxing.  It was a proud parenting moment for me: He saw the black rice and said, “That’s not for me, right? I don’t like that.” I said, “Well, it’s just rice, and you like rice.”

“But not that rice!”

“Why not? You like lemonade right? Do you like yellow lemonade and pink lemonade? This is the same.  You like white rice, and you like yellow rice!  I bet you’ll like this rice, too.”

Then I had him take a sip of his milk.  I said, “You like that milk, right?” Then I went and put a dot of blue food coloring in his milk.  “Now you’re milk is blue!  Do you think it will still taste good?” He tried it (laughing, because you know – blue milk!) and of course he was delighted to find out it tasted the same.  So then he tried a bite of the black rice and shouted out, “Pretty good!” and now he eats it whenever we have it.  So proud – of him and myself!

But Lloyd also has this fickleness that is a little challenging.  (e.g. “I NEED THIS” / “I DON’T WANT THAT!” / “GIVE ME THAT” all in the same breath… sigh).  But when he’s at his best, he’s the very, very best.

Henry is starting to make the big transition from baby to toddler.  He’s taken a couple of accidental steps, and can stand unsupported for close to 30 seconds.  He clearly says “Mamama” at me and “Dadadada” at Greg, although he will also mutter those sounds at several other objects and as he crawls about.  He “RAWRS” for all animals (including cows and sheep), but is starting to “Meow” at the cats.   When he crawls into a room or pretends to talk on a cell phone he says “Ah-row?” which is his version of “Hello!”  He also can clap, kiss, and wave all on verbal cues alone.  And he signs “More” but really he uses it to mean “I’M HAVING FUN! MORE OF THIS ALWAYS.”

One especially neat trick is how he plays with this little kid stereo we have.  He can turn the stereo on all by his self, then fast forward it to “When you’re happy and you know it.”  Then he claps along, and then after the clapping verse he will re-wind it to go back to the beginning.  It’s pretty special.  : )

Both Lloyd and Henry are true jokers.  They love making us laugh.  Lloyd tells jokes now, like “Hail! To the Cheetahs!” and “Blue light, blue light, what do you say?” (instead of red/yellow/green – trust me, this is hilarious to him).   And if we laugh at something Henry does, he’ll do it over and over again – looking right into our eyes the whole time.

Sadly, we ended the month on a rough note.  We all caught the norovirus, which is a particularly nasty stomach bug.  Everyone took their turn being an absolute mess – and sadly we infected the Crawford parents and our babysitter.

But now we’re all feeling on the up-and-up and ready for a festive March!