Phoenix Passes 18 months

Just some quick Phoenix updates while we're thinking about them. He's spending the day with his "Ba Wai," his Vietnamese grandmother so I have some time to myself to get caught up. He's jsut passed the 18 month mark. His vocabulary has started to explode in the last few weeks. He picks up several words a day and demonstrates a great understanding of meaning that shocks us. He continues to be a fantastic helper, assisting Dad with whatever project he's on that day including washing the car, painting, cleaning, fixing things. He has grown a strong affinity for Mom's computer. I find my desk disheveled...wait, that's from me. Well, I find the files on my desktop all renamed to strange things like: "0..&.MMMVVV". I find icons moved around and projects open that I'm not working on. It's like there's a ghost in my machine. He especially likes to watch his YouTube video collection. If I could figure out how to get it to continuously play videos from my postings, I could probably take an uninterrupted shower for once. He cries every time I take him from the videos.

He loves reading books with people. We've garnered a great collection of board books that includes a lot of Eric Carle books and Dr Seuss, of course. I think his current favorite is Mr Brown Can Moo. He likes the part where I say, "BOOM BOOM BOOM! Mr. Brown makes thunder," and I wrap on the window cover. He imitates me and says the "BOOM" part. He does still watch quite a bit of TV. His favorite character is Moose A Moose from Noggin. He's partial to Wow Wow Wubzy at the moment, too. But, there are certain characters that give him a scare and cause him to cry. In general, he is so easy to care for during the day when he's feeling healthy. He plays in his crib for anywhere from 1-2 hours without complaints. I've got a lot of footage of him playing with his animals. I think he likes the peace and it gives his mind time to rest. He takes a late nap for a couple of hours as well which gives me a total of 3-5 hours during the day where I can focus all my attention on adult things. He's also brushing his teeth every morning with me. And, he's starting to become quite fashion conscious. He likes certain shoes, hats and even likes his wrap sunglasses. He is extremely playful and loves to be handled/wrestled/tickled/tossed. But, the downside of that is that it is nearly impossible for me to change his diaper or put pants on him (which is why you often see pics of him sans pants). I usually sedate him with a bottle of milk when it's a challenging diaper. Oh, and he LOVES bath time! He still loves the water. We just picked up a cheapo pool that we plan to set up for him and the cuz's to enjoy for the summer.

And just this evening he seems to have become self aware. We were having dinner at my Mom's house. We've been trying to teach him who all the people are. "Where is Phoenix?," we ask. He always gets a blank look. Well, whenever we're at Ba Wai's house, Phoenix likes to pull out the photo albums. I pointed at a picture of Phoenix and asked, "who is that?" Phoenix said, "You." THen, he took his palm to his chest and said, "you you you you you." I guess that makes sense. I mean, we do point to him and say, "you," right? Anyway, it's pretty cute when he calls himself "you."

Well, one of the great benefits of moving to Albuquerque was knowing that Phoenix and Amanda (and now Courtney and baby X) will grow up knowing each other. Jas and I have made efforts to make sure the kids get lots of playing time together. Phoenix has always liked interacting with other kids. But, Amanda has shown a much more independent nature. She is quite happy to wander the house investigating things without a bothersome other party. For a time, Phoenix would just follow her and try to hand her things in what looked like an attempt to encourage play together. Sometimes she would take the item (like a ball) and place it behind a baby gate, squirreling it away. She likes to squirrel things a lot. Well, just this week while watching them play at Jason's house, I observed Amanda egging Phoenix on with a big smile and protruding tongue to chase her around the kitchen in a kind of Hide and Seek game! It was very exciting to see them begin to get entertainment and joy from each other.

Phoenix is currently wearing 2T clothes, but has been supplied with a decent summer wardrobe from recent shopping sprees with Grandma Donna and Ba Wai. He cold probably use some light pajamas. I've just been putting him in a t-shirt which makes him kind of look like a bum.

I've posted some new videos on Youtube (username gadgetronica). OK, all for now! Ryan and Laura are coming in this weekend so I will be posting pics from their visits next week sometime.