The Family Edelhay: Jordan, Alex, and Angus

Over the past week, Angus's sense of geography has gotten way better. He knows where we are. When we get close to Amelia's house, he starts squealing and giggling and shouting "Me me" (his name for Amelia). On Friday, we took a strange route home, and when we finally turned onto 23rd, Angus joyfully yelled "home"!

New Words:
pasta
mao -- Amelia taught Angus the chinese word for cat

First compound words: "bye car"

Angus loves climbing.. he can get into his high chair by himself, he can climb onto a normal dining chair by himself, then he can sit like a big boy to eat or color.

Angus loves to color. He'll seek out the crayons and paper saying "cou, cou". Once we get set up, his attention span only lasts for a few squiggles, but he really likes sitting at the table like a big boy making pretty pictures. He's got some big chunky toddler crayons that Mamie got for him, which he can use well. He's also starting to use normal crayons from a box, and he likes to put them away.

Angus really likes helping his dad and I. If there's a spill on the floor, I'll give Angus a rag and he'll wipe it up. Whenever Alex and I are doing, Angus wants to help. Today he helped me hang up clothes and put away the clean dishes.

Angus has a new-found love of furniture. He has his own little green foam chair. He likes climbing up onto kitchen chairs to sit at the table like a big boy. Angus also climbs into the rocking chair and throws himself into the rocking action. And he got a pillow in his crib.

Angus is having his first time outs. The few small rules we have -- don't throw things (other than balls), don't climb on the coffee table to look out the window, don't hit people, don't play with power cords. Angus is a good kid and only needs about 1 time out a week.

Angus has had a little bit of sickness -- snot, gooey eye, loss of appetite. But he's still in good humor, and he's full of lots of extra snuggling.

Angus has been hiding under the kitchen table and laughing when one of us checks him out. He runs in circles around the kitchen table, cracking up. He's enjoying some early Lego play, but honestly most of the legos are being built by his father and I. Angus, still loves being outside. He likes his trike, slides, running around, and walking for blocks on his own.

Angus is eating less than before, but he's passionate about eating a ton of tiny oranges. And his most complicated words are all for foods -- Cracker is 'cra-kar'. Orange is 'anye', lasagna is 'an-ya'. He also likes to play cook at his little activity table in our kitchen.

Angus and Amelia are good friends. He gets hugs, kisses and dances from Amelia.

Angus likes taking bouncy horse rides on mom's tummy to the tune of the William Tell Overture. He likes to climb on top of dad and hold on while dad walks around on all fours.

We took a practice vacation to Portland with just the three of us. We played in a local playground on a fantastic slide pyramid. We learned that it's best to do only 1 sit down meal a day. We visited OMSI. It was waay too big for Angus. Angus made his first trip to Powells. He loved the Japanese garden which we visited with Asha, Real, and their lovely family. And Angus visited the original, original pancake house!

Angus loved the hotel which had goldfish in our room, dogs in the lobby, and an elevator button to push. Angus loves pushing buttons... any buttons. He likes turning on the nightlight on the baby tracker (itzbeen), his toy cell phone, his real phone, remotes, the dishwasher, grandpa's calculator, and anything else he can get his hands on.

Angus is getting sensitive to routine. When we get ready to leave he goes by the door and sits down to get his shoes on. When the dishwasher is open, he points to the cabinet with the detergent and then to the detergent, wanting to get on with the dish washing process so he can push the on button.


Angus's Words:

• Cracker (Cra-ka)
• Hi (Hi-yeee)
• Bye (buh-bye)
• Milk (meh..)
• Pancake (panca)
• Apple
• Orange (Anya)
• Onion (because we have a giant plastic onion keeper)
• Cup
• Up
• Uh-Oh
• Mom (Mamamama)
• Dad (da)
• Binky (ba)
• Cook (cuck)
• On (used to mean, put this on, on top of, get this off, etc)
• Hot
• Banana (na na)
• Truck
• Car
• Tractor (Trac-tor)
• Duck
• Boat (but)
• Clock

Angus's Animal tricks:

• Jump like a bunny
• Fish face
• What sound does an owl make?
• What sound does a bee make?
• What sound does a lion make?
• He also occasionally does the sound for chicken (bok, bok, bok), cat (meeeee), cow (muuuuh).

Today, Angus assembled 4 pieces of his wooden train track with almost no help. His fine motor coordination is really improving. He's also fascinated by all kinds of machines. His vocabulary includes the words: boat, tractor, airplane, car, truck, bus, bike and train. He loves watching the boats and the airplanes at his grandparents house, and he'll sit by the front window in our house waiting for a truck to go by.

Angus really enjoys imaginative play. He'll drive toy cars and helicopters around while making a rumbling car noise. Angus is playing with: Legos, climbing, cars cars cars, plastic popper ball machine.

Angus likes to spin around and around until he's dizzy, 1 arm sticking out. Then he'll try to keep his balance while walking and bobbing up and down. He likes spinning with mom too. Angus is also getting really good at throwing balls -- very exciting. Is also starting to throw other things – not so exciting.

Angus loves being in the bathroom. He sits on his own little potty. He likes to flush the toilet. And he has a ton of fun with dad in the bath.

Angus had a visit with a pediatric dermatologist. She determined that he has Keratosis Pilaris. Before, Angus's skin regimen involved Vaseline 3 times a day and a soak bath before bed. About once every 2 months, he had to go on a regimen of hydrocortisone and Muipirocin. Now, we use Cera-Ve cream twice a day, and give him a bath at night with exfoliation and Vaseline. He's also wearing all cotton clothes near his skin now. His skin has been much better.

We went up to Grandma and Grandpa's house with our Peps friends for a weekend. We were joined by Colleen, Matt, Bram, Eden, Eric and Addie.

For the first half of the month he was a little manic -- alternating between yelling and laughing hysterically. By the second half of the month he was much more even and mellow.

Angus has lots of new teeth (including his lower wolf teeth). He now has 14 teeth -- his four front teeth on top, the four front teeth on the bottom, a full set of 4 molars (upper, lower, top and bottom), and the bottom wolf teeth.

Angus is talking, talking, talking. His best words are cracker (cra-kar), lasagna (an-ya), and clock (clok). He still loves airplanes, and will point them out, saying ah-plan. Angus loves saying goodbye to people (buh-bye!).

Angus is still quite the eater. He's eating a lot of ham and peas, but his favorite is graham crackers which he joyously dips in milk. He loves watching us cook, but he has no patience. So cooking is almost too much for him. He strains and strains to watch what's going on.

Angus is just getting into imaginative play. He likes to pretend cook -- using a wooden spoon to stir whatever he can find in a big mixing bowl. He is also playing with his first action figures -- sliding See Wees down the side of the tub and laughing as they splash into the water. Angus's favorite play game is talking on the telephone. The telephone itself is a vastly superior telephone, but almost anything can stand in -- a banana, a shoe, a remote control.

Angus loves word books. He likes looking at a page of 20 pictures, thinking about each one - animals, colors, food, things in a park. He loves them all. At bedtime, Angus likes reading the Binky book - "Where's binky? Is it under the couch? No. Is it in the potty? No...." At the end, the baby finds the binky in his crib, which is just where he likes it best. It's a nice way to start thinking about sleep.

At bedtime, Angus still loves his blue blanket (Thanks Jeanne!). But he also likes his glowworm. He plays the songs to sooth himself. After we leave him in his crib, we'll hear him play two or three songs as he settles in to bed. It gives him a little bit of independence. One night, we heard the glowworm go off every 5 minutes, then nothing for 20 minutes. Then it went off a few more times. When we finally went in to check on him, he was sleeping on top of the poor little glowworm.

Seattle got a record snowfall which our friends have dubbed 'Snomaggedon'. Just before the snow hit Seattle, we went out to the mountains. Angus would walk into the snow, he'd get pretty deep in. Once he stops he'd decide that he's stuck and look at us with a panicked 'help' look.

Angus has a new uniform. He wears jammies posing as long underwear. At night they go under a blanket sleeper. During the day, they go under overalls. No snow sneaks up against Angus's skin.

Angus has a new attitude. He wants his independence, but he really, really wants us to pay attention to him. So Angus runs all around and plays hide and seek, always checking over his shoulder to see if everyone is watching him. Angus likes being in Angus-sized places... behind the rocker, in the narrow space between furniture, under the kitchen tale, behind the christmas tree.

Angus is also enjoying his new-found independence. He is walking to the car on the way to and from Kim's house on his own, and holding my hands and going down the stairs. It's good because Angus is a heavy little guy -- so heavy that he strained Alex's back.

Amelia had her first birthday this month. Angus had a great time at her party. She had a red dress, red balloons, and a whole load of new toys to share. Angus had juice for the first time.

Angus is using lots of words.... all-done, open, uh-oh, cold, snow, dog, dad, ball, mamamamamamama. His favorite word is hot, which he uses in all sorts of circumstances.... tasty, good, hot, I want to see what's going on in the kitchen,

Angus loves climbing the sofa, running around, then jumping off into my arms. He also loves having his head and laughing. When we do it back, it totally cracks him up.

Howdy everybody, happy holidays, happy new year.

Our 2008 year-in-review is now online. It's chock full of photos, witty anecdotes, and a dash of sentimentalism. Enjoy and leave some comments with what you have been up to lately. We'd love to hear from you.