Colin at 22 months

Well, it's been a hectic and wonderful month (although we don't have that many pictures to show for it!)  Colin is talking and singing like crazy - constantly! He has begun having real conversations with us in which we get lots of meaningful information out of him - it's so much fun! We are hearing lots of "almost" sentences - three or four words meaningfully strung together, but often missing prepositions or articles. He also has this very cute way of saying, "yeah," that sounds like he's prompting you to continue talking to him. He now knows that Mom and Dad are otherwise known as Karen and Brian and will use those names when he isn't getting our attention quickly enough.

Colin's latest obsession is singing. He has nearly taken over Anna's microphone/karaoke machine from her birthday and loves to croon "ee - i -ee - i - oooohhhh" into the mike. He will sing full renditions of Twinkle Twinkle, Baa Baa Black Sheep, or the ABC song, and do a duet with Mom of Baby Beluga.

Colin also can count to twenty! It's pretty cute because his pronunciation still isn't great so the teens are garbled but definitely recognizable. He is recognizing more and more letters. He's obsessed with a small collection of books that he wants us to read over and over - I think he likes that he can fill in the blanks if we pause to let him finish a line. Among the current favorites are "Go, Dog, Go," "Olivia," "Green Eggs and Ham," "Oh My, Oh My, Oh Dinosaurs," and any and all of the Thomas the Train books we own. There's one Thomas book with very simple sentences that I caught him trying to read out loud to himself, and he was doing a decent job!

Colin's very physical and loves to challenge himself by jumping off higher and higher surfaces. (Let's not talk about the fact that he is climbing out of his crib several times a night!) He loves sports. When he's not practicing baseball, he's throwing a football around. Occasionally he'll get into a soccer mood, too. He is in love with the book "Hello, Stanford Tree" which takes the Stanford mascot to a football game. Colin was lucky enough to attend a football game last weekend where he saw the Cardinal defeat Arizona State. He was in awe of the whole experience.

We've all gotten into the groove at school and learning our new routines. Colin's routine has not changed much but there is talk of his impending promotion to the two year old room at school. Colin's favorite friend at school, Aaliyah, moved up and Colin was a little sad about it, but it will be good that he has familiar faces to see when it is time.

In Anna related news, her big accomplishment this month was learning how to ride a bike with no training wheels! She was really determined to do it and succeeded. She has yet to master stopping on the bike without training wheels, so there is still some work to be done. She has discovered that if you turn on to a patch of grass you will slow down and it will not hurt as bad when you fall :) She has begun both swim and gymnastics lessons, and loves both.

Click on the picture below to see what we've been up to!

Colin at 22 Months

Anna's Birthday Party