Abe is 2!

On December 2nd our baby boy turned 2 years old! We celebrated with a small party a few days early and celebrated as a family of five on the evening of his actual birthday. Those pictures will come in a different post. But this is just to document our boy in this stage of life. Oh this stage of age 2...it can be tricky one. Learning that you can't get everything you want in life. :)

Abe is a bright spot to my morning when he wakes up. Even if he wakes up at ungodly hours when I prefer to be sleeping. For some crazy reason, I enjoy rocking him at 4:30am and singing him our little song...You Are My Sunshine. I mean, sure I'd rather him (and me!) to be sleeping through the night consistently. But I didn't do much rocking with the other two boys and I've loved it with this guy. And for the most part, he is sleeping well. He wears a sleep diaper layered with a regular diaper at night and he still soaks through....I think that is the culprit in waking him up. At least, that is what I've been blaming it on. Yesterday morning Abe slept until 9am (after our diaper change and 4:30am rocking session of about 3 minutes). As I was cleaning up the kitchen, waiting for him to wake, I caught myself saying "ut-moh" in my head. That is his word for oatmeal and it's usually one of the first things he is asking for when he wakes. I was just ready for him to wake and join our fun. He wakes ready to eat. And his typical breakfast of choice is old fashioned oatmeal that I mix with frozen fruit to cool it off. He would eat this for 3 meals a day if I allowed it. Some other favorite foods are applesauce, yogurt, bananas, cheese, beans, broccoli, green beans, crackers, grapes, chips, granola, hummus with veggies, ham and chicken. The boy still has no interest in bread, or breadlike foods such as cake, waffles, etc. It's nuts. But it makes for a healthier diet in many ways, so I'm not complaining. Sometimes he is not very adventurous in trying new foods. I'm working on that with him.

Abe's vocabulary has boomed in the past several months and he has many new words. Some new ones are Holden, Pax, bubbas, eat, bite, nigh-nigh, muntee (monkey), puppy, paci, soos (shoes), wok (walk), o-tay (okay)...that's one of my favorites and I request him to say it several times a day. :) He is now to the point that he will repeat everything we say. So his vocabulary is continually growing. He does really well following directions when he wants to. In the picture below I caught him in my room and he had helped himself to our tablet. He loves anything media. I hate that but he does. He's always stealing our cell phones and calling and texting people. He steals the remotes for the TV and turns the TV to caption and makes other crazy changes for us. He will drag a bulky, heavy chair across the kitchen floor, climb on the chair and get whatever looks enticing. He's busy. And he keeps me busy. :)

Abe loves books and loves for me read to him. For some reason he really enjoys me reading the big boy's Early Reader books. And as I read each page he yells the last word as I read it. It seems like he has begun memorizing some of the books. It's funny.

Some favorite toys are cars and trucks. We caught him months ago making car noises as he rolled them. It's crazy to me how quickly little boys pick up on those things and start mimicking the noises of vehicles. He also loves to play with our Mister Potato Head. We've had that toy for 6 years and he is the first one to really be interested in it. And of course anything with buttons that makes loud obnoxious noises.

Lately Abe has been doing some new things and I'm not sure where he learned them. First, he knows the song Deep and Wide and sings it for us often. I'm pretty sure he learned this one at Mother's Day Out. And the other thing is counting into his teens. If I ask him to count, he acts silly and shy and will not do it! But I've caught him a handful of times counting to 17 or so. It is usually in amoment when he is off playing alone. He has the sweetest little voice.

At Abe's 2 year appointment he weighed 29lbs and 2oz (65%). And he was 35 1/2 inches tall (85%). His size right now is very close to where Pax was at age 2.

He loves to play outside. He loves to slide, swing and cautiously jump on the trampoline. He loves to ride in his little outdoor car. Abe loves bath time. Especially splashing half of the water out of the tub. Abe is our snuggle bug. He loves to be held and cuddled.

Abe loves his big brothers. And they also think he is pretty great. Both Holden and Pax really enjoy him and are so sweet to him. Abe used to always ask me for hummus. He went through a stage where we wanted hummus five times a day.  So Holden somehow started this "game". Abe will say "hummus?" And Holden gets in his face with a very serious look and says "No hummus!" And then Abe dies laughing. And then they do it again about 20 more times. This scenario happens about 5 times a day. It is hilarious to me.

Abe Malachi is a sweet answer to our prayers for another child. We are so thankful that he is ours. Here are a few more pictures that my dad took several weeks ago of our little two year old.