Boys Update

These two boys are just growing way too fast for me.  I don't like it, but at the same time, I'm anxious to see them grow up and watch them learn new things.  Kayton is now 21 months and Merrick will be 4 months next week.  I love having two boys around.  Kayton loves to help out with the baby and he still can't really say Merrick so we still refer to him as baby.  There are of course always some jealous moments, but Kayton does generally well having Merrick around.  Here is a little update on them individually. 

Kayton just has so many new things he does all the time now, it's hard to keep updated on him.

He is so good at saying what we tell him to.  He is still using just one or two words at a time, but I feel like he is at a level where he can definitely tell me what he wants now and I can talk back.  He is very good at saying please and thank you.  The words he says the most is ok and hi.  We are trying to work on explaining things to him so when we get done, we ask him ok? and he will respond with the shrugged oooook.  He drags his o our longer.  Then, he has definitely hit the terrible two stage and when he gets in trouble we either put him in his room for time out or put his nose on the wall.  When he thinks he is done being in trouble, he will come out of his room or take his nose off the wall and look at you and say "hi", as if to say, look at me I'm done being in trouble and now I'm coming to do what I want.  That is not always the case, but it's cute when he does it. 
We are working on teaching him things like colors and letters and objects in pictures and he is catching on pretty good.  He loves animals and remembers them really well and also knows alot of their sounds too.  His growl is so cute.  Then, almost every time you ask him what color something is, he responds by saying "blue".  He can say the other colors he just says that everything is blue. 
A week or two ago, I was feeding Merrick and Kayton was being awfully quiet so I just assumed he was playing in his room, but then he comes over to me with a crayon in his hand and tells me "uh-oh".  I got up and realized that he had taken the crayon and colored on the floor with it.  I wasn't too happy because we have white floors and so it didn't come off so easy, but he was so eager to help me clean it up, it was funny.

He loves to wear his jacket when we go outside.  He is good at finding things and then yelling "there it is".  He still likes Mickey Mouse and at the beginning of each episode, they show all the characters and say their names and he does it now too.  When he is all done, he will get excited and say "I did it".   When I go to feed Merrick, there are some times when he will come over and raise his shirt too and ask if he can feed the baby.  I'm trying to teach him that only mommy can feed him like that.  Maybe he will do good with feeding him the rice cereal here in a few weeks. 

His terrible two phase is very hard sometimes.  He has such a hard time leaving our friends house and his friends leaving our house.  It's like death is coming, I don't get it.  He also has come to hate taking baths when I use to have to fight him to get out of the bath.  Bribery has become a bad habit of mine lately just so I can get Kayton to leave somewhere so that I don't make a huge crying and dragging him away scene somewhere.  

He is now in a toddler bed, we switched his crib to the bed when we moved to our temporary apartment, and he sometimes has a hard time staying in bed.  There have been many nights lately where he wakes up at like 3 in the morning scared and he will go sleep with Nate in bed.  If he does stay in his bed though, he wakes up at like 7 and when he sleeps with Nate, he sleeps in until like 8 or 8:30.  So weird. He is really good at going to bed when we tell him it's time for a nap though.   

Merrick, still doesn't do that much, but he definitely is getting big.  We call him our chunky boy, even though he isn't really that big, he is bigger than Kayton was so we think he is big. He has some rolls in his legs and a nice double chin.  He talks to us a lot and he has the best smile ever.  Just this week, he has become quite a pro at rolling over.  He gets so frustrated with it sometimes, but Kayton is good at helping him out too.  Kayton thinks he is such a good brother because he rolls him over.  It's so cute.   He grabs his toes now and plays with them a little.  He has pulled his socks off many times.  He is such a wiggle worm and if I leave him on the floor, he is never in the same spot when I turn around a minute later.  He is very strong and loves to have something in his hand all the time.  Whether it's a blanket or some kind of toy, he just loves to have something to hold and play with.  He won't take a pacifier, really he doesn't like anything but skin in his mouth so he has chapped hands and cheeks from sucking and rubbing on them. 

He loves to play on this mat