Catching up

I knew I hadn't posted in a while, but I didn't realize it had been over two months! Steven has grown a lot in that time, both physically and developmentally. He had his most recent pediatric appointment last Friday and he was 33" and 26#4oz, which is the 96%ile for length and the 89%ile for weight. This means he's about as big as the average (50%ile) 20 month old. But he still has the same amount of hair as most newborns. We're not complaining because it's easy to clean and he's a cute baldy. He's SLOWLY but surely getting more hair all the time, and it looks as if it will be blond or maybe a bit strawberry blond.

Mike's parents came to visit the second week of July, and they got to witness the onset of Steven's new language abilities. Before he would occasionally repeat words we said (only once, though!) and had a few words (Daddy, stairs, dog) that he would say regularly. But now he is repeating and retaining new words almost every day and has a much larger number in regular rotation. The most common (and useful) word he uses is "up", but his favorite word is "car", which applies to pretty much everything with wheels, including trucks, vans, and the toy turtle at the library. I can tell that once he gets the hang of this he's just going to take off, because he already understands so much.

If you couldn't guess from his weight, he's a very good eater. He'll eat just about anything we put in front of him. Tonight I made Indian food and he ate every bit of the chicken curry and the saag paneer. We're hoping he keeps this up, since we want him to be an adventurous eater. Now that he's got more teeth we're willing to let him try more things. He had corn on the cob for the first time on the 4th of July. He didn't quite get the idea the first time, trying to stick the end in his mouth, but he figured it out when we had it again a few days later. It was a big hit.

As with most of the Midwest, we had a bit of a belated summer, so outdoor activities were few and far between until late May. But Steven loves being outside and we try to spend at least an hour or two everyday playing outside, either at the house or at the park.

Checking out the landscaping in the front yard

He loves playing with the rocks under the deck out back.

The Hobby Farm at the zoo. The goats are EXTREMELY patient.

A budding naturalist? Examining trees at the park.

More rocks from the backyard

In early June my good friend and college roommate Katie came to visit for a few days, and we took the opportunity to go out to Lake Michigan for the first time this year. It was a bit chilly for June, but we had a good time. Steven loved playing with the sand and our soda bottles. We took him down near the water, but as soon as his feet hit the cold wet sand he refused to go any further and didn't even dip a toe in the lake.

You think you can keep me away from the soda bottles? Foolish parents.