So, what do all these people have in common...
John Candy
Celine Dion
Pamela Anderson
Wayne Gretzky
Jim Carry
and Blaze W.
If you guessed that they are all
CANADIANS.... then you'd be correct! Our Blaze received his Canadian Citizenship on November 8th. So we are officially a family of dual Canadian/American citizens.
Well the holidays are over. Just as quick as they came...they left! We had a wonderful Christmas. On New Year eve, both Gerry and I worked, and I also had to work on New Years day. We are not really party animals too much anymore with a toddler in tow, so it didn't really matter.
Blaze is doing incredible. He grows and changes and learns every day. He teaches us so much about being parents. The other night I was watching TV and they showed a baby being burped. It felt like such a lifetime ago now when Blaze was that small. He is now running...yes, I said running all over the place, bare foot or with shoes, once he started there was no looking back. He loves to explore and see new things. He is so very gentle, which I know Neyla appreciates, since he has now dubbed her back, his new chair. She is SO good with him. She lets him do anything and she just looks at us with that 'REALLY guys?!?' look on her face. I cant' say it enough, we sure lucked out with this rescue dog. It was Neyla's first real Christmas with a family and I think she liked it.
Blaze starts survival swim class next week. He has done so well over the past 10 months in parent-tot classes that Coach Bryce says he is more than ready to advance. We are a little disappointed cause we can't get into the water and share it with him, BUT we are proud of our little Michael Phelps.
Gosh he has changed SO much in the last few months it all just seems to roll together. He is getting his top two incisor teeth, which has significantly helped in the chewing department. He still likes to ride the vacuum, but figured out that its a little loud, so whenever the vacuum starts up he puts his hands over his ears like ear muffs.
He signed his first 2 signs last week. 'All done/finished' and 'more'. I got so excited when he did them, I think I scared him to death when I screamed. He is trying very hard to communicate to us. 'Ahhhh' is his favorite word to talk to us or answer any of our questions. He is pointing to what he wants now, which is a huge help, since 'Ahhh' covers just about everything. He says, Ma Ma, Da Da, dog, Pa Pa, Gamma, Nanny, pretty clearly and every now and then will say a new word, but not consistently like the others.
Man of many faces, that's our boy! He loves to furrow his brow and pretend like he is either mad or really thinking hard. Mostly he smiles and is a real charmer with the ladies when he tilts his head and squints his eyes to really reel the girls in. It totally works as they all respond with, 'Ohhhh he is SO cute!'
We also have his first job lined up as soon as he can work... he is going to be the youngest ever Walmart Greeter. He says hi, to every single person (which was not an easy task over the Christmas holidays). Most people say 'hi' back to him, because if they don',t well then he just gets louder and more persistent until they cave. Even then he repeats it over and over to the same person to the point that they end up laughing and walking away, after Gerry or I say, 'Blaze the nice lady already said 'hi' to you five times now.' When someone is leaving, our little man will wave his little hand and blow kisses to them, so darn cute!
We have decided they need to rename the 'Terrible Two's' They need to call it 'here comes the 15 month old with an attitude...look out!' We can't really complain though. We haven't had any all out kicking and screaming temper tantrums...yet! But we are patiently reading and learning how to redirect our little monster who decided that the one time Mommy wore her hair down for family photos was the PERFECT time to take a couple of fist fulls of it and pull with what looked like demonic possession in his eyes. Photographer got a nice shot of that one. SO embarrassing!!! ' No', is not in a toddlers vocabulary. Well, I suppose unless its coming out of their mouth. If not whatever they have in their hand goes hurling across the room at mach speed in an instant, followed by a loud yell. I am convinced though that it is only Mommy that seems to be subject to this devilish treatment as Daddy just has to look at him the wrong way and the bottom lip comes out with a face that would pull on anyone's heart strings. Daddy says Mommy is a 'pushover!' Mommy says she just has to learn to look scarier then Daddy does. As I said...we really can't complain, however its only 16 months in, so Blaze may just be testing us for what's yet to come. I did teach him, 'gentle.' and he usually will take his hand and stoke our faces very softly, unless the devil rears its ugly head.
A great accomplishment at 15 months was Blaze going to bed on his own. We will say...'Its time for bed.' or 'are you ready for bed?' and he immediately walks to his room and waits for us to pick him up and lay him in his crib. Also, if we say, 'Ok time to eat.' he goes over to his highchair and pulls it back from the table and waits for us to pick him up and put him in it. Still, once we put him in bed, then that's it and he is out for the night till around 8 or 9 a.m. My parents didn't believe us till they babysat a few weeks ago and he did it for them too. I think we totally have the smartest 16 month old out there. ;)
He is learning the parts of the body and he loves when Mommy sings, 'head and shoulders, knees and toes...' His very favorite is 'belly-belly-belly.' He giggles and pats his belly. Daddy thought it would be fun to also teach him 'Dinky-dinky-dinky' and yes, he pats that too. Boys will be boys!
We were excited about Christmas this year thinking how much fun Blaze will have tearing all the Christmas wrap off. Not so much....he still had 3 gifts under the tree on boxing day (day after Christmas for all you non-Canadians) He loves his new set of wheels. Spoiled child already has a cool ride at the age of 16 months. Check out his mongoose quad.
So other than Blaze growing like a weed, Not much is going on around here. Life is pretty status quo: work, spending time with Grandma and Papa, trying to loose all that Thanksgiving/Christmas turkey weight, finding out that we are pregnant with twins, etc. etc. Not a whole lot happening.
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