Tater Ramblings

Well, the Tate man has just been cracking us up lately. He is adding words and speaking short sentences and I am amazed at his ability to pick up words. I think in reality he is right on target for language development for kids his age, but to me it is just incredible, as he is really my first experience with a child in any manner.

He is also a great mimic. For example, whenever we color with him, Cael and I write his name out for him and say each letter for him. Well today, he was looking at a magnet on the fridge that had writing on it, and he said "T-a-t-e." It was so funny! He was spelling his own name and he didn't even know it.

He is adding words constantly, and today he was looking at one of his books and I believe he said "chicken." I just adore it when he says monkey, which sounds more like "ockey." And Thomas has finally turned into "Ta-muus," rather than "Ta-bus."

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but Tate is in love with the song "Smoke on the Water" and every morning when he wakes up he hums the tune. He also hums himself to sleep this way at naptime. He learned this song because it is on the Guitar Hero game for Playstation. Well now everytime we go downstairs (another of his favorite words-"dowstairs") he points at the tv (in Tate speak, the "tb") and asks for his "song."

He is putting together really short sentences, and there are a few that I hear alllll day long: "Mommy, o cup." "Mommy where daya go?" "Mommy, where T go?" "Oh no, Thomas!"

In an interesting turn of events, Tate has given the binky up partially--during the day. He has been so nonchalant about it that I am amazed. Since he was six months old, I've been hearing from friends, family and complete strangers about Tate and his binky and that I need to take it away from him and I worried a bit because he loved it so much. But I also didn't feel the urgency that everyone else felt. His pediatrician suggested just taking the binky away during the day for now, and that at naptime and nighttime he could still have it.

So with this in mind, we decided to do it gradually. When Tate would pop it out of his mouth to eat breakfast I would whisk it away and hide it until naptime, and then a few days later I begain hiding it during his afternoon snack as well. Then a couple days ago I just started asking him to gather his Thomas engines (he sleeps with them all in his bed) and leave his binky in his crib. And to my surprise, he spits it out everytime and gets out of bed like its no big deal. During tantrums and times of frustration, he does ask for it but we just tell him it is for bedtime and try to distract him. I am amazed (repeatedly) by his ability to adapt, and I think he 100% takes after his dad!

Now I guess we will see how adaptable he is when we start potty training....and putting him in a big boy bed...oh boy. This should be fun. :)

Tate is 2!

Hi everybody! Once again, I am being harassed by my younger sister to update my blog. Sorry, I admit that I am lazy.

Tate had his second birthday (Feb 3) and it was really fun. He was very spoiled and had a good time with his cousins, Uncle Cody and Aunt Sarah, Hranac grandparents, and my cousins the Vogelaars. Tate is still entirely obsessed with Thomas the tank engine, and Grandma Debbie sent out Thomas decorations for the party, which Tate absolutely loved!! He also had a Thomas cake, as you can see in the picture.

Tate is really starting to grow up. He is putting short sentences together now, and pretty much talks all day long, even if we don't understand what he is saying. He cracks me up because all day long he says "dowstairs," because he wants to play with Thomas downstairs. It is also amusing to hear the variations of words he makes up; "please" went from "cheese" to "pease" to "wheeze." Tate is a ton of fun and is becoming more playful. He finally enjoys being tossed up in the air and being tickled by his "da-ya" and his uncles.

Tate finally likes the daycare at the fitness facility. They put a train table in the room and now he basically leaps out of my arms to go play. What a relief! It was a struggle at first. For all the fun that Tate is, he is definitely becoming more of a discipline challenge for me (and we all know what a pushover I am to start with). For example, I took him into McDonald's on Friday night before the wrestling match to sit down and eat together. He got mad at me in line because I wouldn't put him down while ordering, so he hit me and head butted me in the lip, which split and bled. Unreal. I also had to remove him from the play area at Jordan Creek after warning him repeatedly about not pushing the little girls over. The resulting tantrum was very embarrassing! However, Tate is very sweet for the most part and we love that little pumpkin.

Cael is doing well, in the middle of the wrestling season, so things are busy, but we get to be with him a lot more now than during the summer, so that is nice. ISU wrestles Tennesse-Chattanooga on Friday and then travels to Missouri for a match on Sunday.

Hope everyone is doing well!