Update: 26 Months

From February

From February

There's been so much going on but without having a camera and a photo to post, I don't feel as compelled to blog about it. It's the old philosophical problem, if you can't see it, does it exist? Well, yes. And I'm here to tell you all about it as my gluten-free, vegan, refined sugar-free almond gem cookies bake in the oven (which are really not as hork-tastic as some of you might think - but yes, they are a throw back to my hippie natural foods beginnings, and sometimes I just can't get them out of my head. Much like my indulgence in patchouli from time to time.)

* Mmmm...first tray of cookies are out of the oven! Oh, how sandy and delicious! *

Anyways, onward. August has been growing by leaps and bounds. It seems he's crossed another threshold of development and there's no stopping the little man. He's been alphabet-ing and counting, leaping, jumping and climbing higher than I've ever seen, reading stories to himself and asking me to sing to him when we snuggle. Here's a quick list of his most recent achievements and milestones.

• The physical feats of strength have been very noticeable on the playground. He can essentially swing from anything and do pull-ups. I've even seen him swing like those men on the rings in the Olympics - with his arms almost straight out. Needless to say, the little guy looks like Groundskeeper Willie from the Simpson's.

• While at the market the other day the cashier happened to ask him what his name was and he said "Augie." Clear as a bell! He's never said his own name and certainly never when someone asks him. I nearly fell over! So of course we had to teach him the answer to the follow up question which is, "How old are you?" to which he now says. "Two." Sometimes he gets mixed up and says "Shoe" but for the most part he nails it.

• For Christmas August got one of those alphabet magnetic talking do-hickers . I often press the song button with my bodacious bottom as I pass by the fridge and wonder if I should 'hide' the little sucker but August actually has learned a lot from it so it stays. He can now say almost the whole alphabet, can pick letters out of written text and tell me which ones they are and likes to sing the alphabet song. Of course he replaces the actual letters with the word "zhoom-ah" (his word for cars), but it's coming. He even asks me to sing "Ah, Bay, Says (A,B, C's)" when I'm rocking him to sleep at night (which I then follow up with a little Debbie Boone, Doe, a Dear from the Sound of Music and round it out with a selection or two from Journey and the Beatles.)

• As an upshot from all the questions and alphabet-ing, Kris started teaching him numbers (there are two sections to the SAT's after all). So now August keeps trying to hold up his fingers and tell us the numbers. I'm not sure how much he understands about numbers (although he will hold up two of something and say "TWO!"), but he gets them in the right order more often than not. He can now count to ten. Yep, ten. Kris was putting him to bed the other night and as they were looking up at the stars August started counting them. Kris said he got all the way up to ten all on his own.

• Yesterday, and this is just funny, August was running around with my stainless steel water bottle. I was sitting in the living room as he trotted right by with the bottle in his hot little mitts. I heard him fuzzing around in his room but let him be. A few minutes later he trots out into the kitchen and crosses back across the living room, this time with a dish towel. He had apparently spilled the water but was going to clean it up. I was in stitches laughing! I mean really, how adorable is that? A few minutes later he had gotten himself up on the changing table and was calling for me. I went in and he tells me that he's WET! Yep, he was wet alright. He had poured water all over himself, but the floor was dry : ) I can't tell if we've made him a nervous wreck about making messes or if he's just naturally tidy.

• August just woke up a few minutes ago and caught me typing. He just ran into the kitchen, filled a glass of water and brought it in here for me to drink. He can now reach the water dispenser on the fridge. No, it has no lock and yes, I do think I should buy more dishtowels.

So there's the short list. Our camera is coming in the mail (by Pony Express if you asked me to guess) and should be here by mid to late February. We decided on a dSLR that takes video and I am just itching to get my hands on it. We got the lens last week. It sits on the shelf.

Waiting.

Waiting.

Waiting.