Last weekend we went to a festival in Amherst called "The Taste of Amherst". We go every year. And almost every year it rains. This year, a thunderstorm rolled in within 20 minutes of our arrival and we ended up huddled under a tent waiting it out. It wasn't what you'd call a fast moving storm...and by the time it let up the festivities were closing up for the day. Pretty much a bust...but Tanner did have fun in the huge puddles on the way to the car! The pics you see of him looking at the goats happened right before the sky opened up...The last 2 on his little 4-wheeler were just random pics from last week...

Visit from Banga

Tanner has taken to calling Gramma Va "Banga." It makes us laugh almost every time, especially in public when he calls out to her "Banga Banga!" I wonder if it will stick...

Mom was here all day yesterday and we had such a good time. The swing at the local playground was the highlight of our day...Tanner just LOVES the swing. He calls it the "Wheeee!"

Tid Bits

Those of you with multiple kids might think "yeah yeah, get over it..." but I can't help but be sooooo amazed by Tanner's daily learning - it brings me a kind of joy I never experienced before to watch him learn life. Yesterday he walked up to us with a rock in each hand and said "Two." I was so impressed. :)
He's 22 mos and picking up words by the handful. He's an endless flow of yackety yack pointing out everything he can identify all day long. I never get tired of it though. Some of his favorites are "bye", "money", "monkey", "no no no no no!" (exactly 5 no's), "move", "one", and "green". He counts to three but sometimes misses two (one...three...). Tonight we were all visiting in the yard with the neighbors. I started trying to get Tanner to come in so I could start bedtime. Everything I tried he said "no" to. Finally I offered for him to come in to watch Dora and he lit up. He whips around says to everyone very rapidly "I go home, BYE!" I couldn't believe it! That's his longest sentence yet. I was so proud.

Pee Pee and Hudini

Yesterday Tanner went Pee Pee on the Potty! It was early morning and he didn't want to get his diaper changed (nothing new). I told him that if he went on the potty he wouldn't have to wear a diaper. So he walked over to his potty, sat down and peed! Simple as that. Wow! We did a dance, high fived, double high fived, celebrated, etc...I left his diaper off for a bit and followed him room to room with his potty chair...we talked about it periodically and about a half hour later, he peed on the floor. Then again on the tile. So on went the diaper. Oh well...at least its a start!


A couple of mornings ago Tanner woke up at his usual 6 o'clock not a minute later...and I heard him calling "mooooommmmy", "moooommmy"....I took a couple of minutes getting out of bed, used the bathroom, etc...He called me every so often but not in any distress - rather calmly actually. By the time I opened his door up it had been probably about 4 minutes since I first heard him. When I opened the door to his room, much to my surprise there he was sitting on his floor playing his fishing game! What the?!@#

I never heard a crash or a thump so apparently it was a pretty smooth escape. Later that day I wondered if he'd do it again after nap. Sure enough, even though I headed upstairs right away when I heard him, there he was, walking around his room like he owned the place...

The next morning Rob rushed in right away and caught him in the act - he throws one leg over the top, shifts his weight, holds on to the rail, lowers himself, hangs for a second then drops. Just like David Copperfield...

Oh boy. Time for the toddler bed?


Here's a priceless pic from our day in the backyard Monday...

Trip to Rochester - 6/6/08

Last weekend we drove to Rochester to visit my Gram and Stepmom. We've been making the trip every 6 months or so and this was the best ride yet. We made it there in less than 6 hours (or exactly 4 1/2 Dora's). We only made one 1/2 hour stop. Tanner was perfect in the car the whole way. He only slept 45 minutes out of the 6 hours (still not a car sleeper) but he sat back there watching his DVDs and we really didn't hear much from him. I never thought I'd say that! He's finally tolerating the car quite well!

Tanner went a million miles an hour the whole time we were there...He was a major ham and ate up all the family doting...

Tanner walking Gramma Bonnie's dog, Chance. Theo didn't let Chance out of his sight. Despite being 13 years old and neutered, Theo tried to have his way with poor Chance all day long...

Daddy doing a little Tanner entertaining...

Tanner loved Gramma Bonnie's pool toys. But he didn't want to get IN the pool, despite the 95 degree heat...every time we'd ask him he'd say "nope."

Rob made up for it by floating around peacefully with his beverage in hand...

Tanner taking Gram (Granny to him) for a walk.

My nephew Danny taking Tanner for a ride...he is so good with him and provides lots of valuable Tanner entertainment...

Back at Gram Jean's, Tanner reads Granny a book...

Granny gave Tanner this little porcelain figuring of a boy and a girl under an umbrella. It winds up and plays "raindrops keep falling on my head."

Tanner LOVED it...

and kept carrying it around with him while we were there...it now sits on his dresser in his room and we wind it up every night before bedtime...

There is nothing quite like sharing your child with family, who love him near as much as we do...its such a good feeling...

Gram and Bob relaxing on Bonnie's porch...

Gramma Bonnie's house...1000 Penfield Rd. Where I grew up visiting my dad. The house looks wonderful.

and we had a wonderful trip. Gram and Bob made us a hearty breakfast each morning and pulled pork for dinner one night. We went tag saling and to the Fairport Canal Days in the 98 degree heat on Saturday...even though we didn't stay long, it was worth it. The afternoon at Bonnie's was so special and as usual, she put on a wonderful spread for us. A highlight for Tanner was when he got to scoop his own ice cream ("eye keen")...

Tanner's Favorite Things at 21 months

I thought it would be fun to keep a list of Tanner's 5 favorite things - every so often I'll post an updated list since its ever changing...
Right now, Tanner's 5 greatest passions (in his words) are:
1. "Side"
From the moment he wakes up right up until bedtime, the child wants to be outside. Sometimes we're out in the dewey yard before 8am. He loves it so much that I have to bribe him to get him inside. I continually have to think of ways to get him in the house when its time to come in. It can be tough, since almost nothing trumps outside. Lately "want a cookie?" works quite well...but if we don't have cookies or if its right before dinner, I can count on a meltdown. Many a times I've had to drag him in, kicking and flailing all the way. He'll cry passionately for a few minutes then I can usually get him distracted with another favorite activity, like:
2. "Bubb-o"
What kid doesn't like bubbles, right? Well Tanner is VERY passionate about bubbles. He gets so excited he shrieks and jumps around when we get them out. He usually insists on holding the bubble container himself, which he inevitably spills...I've tried other things but have relinquished to just filling it half way and letting him go to town...The no spill types of containers don't work as well so I decided to let this one go...and buy lots of cheap refills...
3. "Eye Keen"
A couple of months ago, when it became clear that dairy was no longer an issue with Tanner, we started treating him to ice cream every so often. Well of course he LOVES it. He makes this face when we ask him if he wants it- we call it the "ice cream face" - he looks so excited that he can hardly contain himself - its hilarious. I'll have to try to capture it so you can see. We have a Friendly's about a 1/2 mile from our house and we've been there a couple of times for ice cream. Now he yells "Eye Keen" "Eye Keen" "Eye Keen" every time we pass by. If we give him ice cream for dessert, he tends to ask for it right away when he wakes up the next morning. Apparently, its made a big impact.
4. "Bah-Gah"
This is Tanner's word for Dora the Explorer. We figure he's trying to say backpack, one of the show's characters. Anyway, he has yet to say "Dora" he just says Bah-gah Bah-gah when he wants it turned on. Dora has just recently replaced Elmo as his favorite show. Dora is our wind down time at about 7pm when he's tired from his day and needs some down time to unwind and chill out before bath and bedtime at 7:30...Its wonderful.
5. "Binty"
Binky Binky Binky. Tanner has LOVED the binky from day one. Literally. His binkies are his most prized possessions. He has not picked a lovey yet and has no attachment to any of his blankies or anything. Those binkies are his ultimate comfort. He likes to have 3 or 4 of them at a time, switching them in and out as if they are all different flavors. He makes a "mmmm" sound when he first lays down with them, as if he's tasting the most delectable treat ever. We only use them for sleeping and once in a while during the day if he gets hurt or has a meltdown and needs a calm down. I hope he lets go of them easily one day when he is ready. I really don't want it to be a challenge...but it very well may be one of our vices.

A few other notes on Tanner:
His naps have been fabulous the last couple of months, going down around 11:30-12:30 and averaging 2-2 1/2 hours. 3 hour naps are not uncommon occurring once or twice a week. He's even slept 4 hours on two occasions! I never thought I'd have a good napper - mr. cat napper is a thing of the past!

Mommy thinks Tanner is very smart. Not only his language amazes me on a daily basis (he regularly says help ("elp"), thank you (dank goo), and "I did it", by the way) but he also recently learned to count to 3. Its so sweet - I'll hear him doing it on his own "un. doo. tee." Today we went on a long (over an hour) walk and he did not stop talking the ENTIRE time - pointing out everything he saw "bike, barn, boat, dog, mow (cat), bunny..."

Just this week he started pretend play. It was so funny - he reached down and picked up nothing off the ground and handed it to me saying "a piece?". He then pretended to eat it. So mommy did the same. Well he continued to do this for every person that was there. Going back to the deck (kind of a long walk), picking up nothing, and carrying it back very carefully giving it to each person and saying "a piece?" - we were at Rob's parents at the time and there were about 8 people there. Everyone got "a piece".

Danga, Banga, and Magda

This past weekend we visited Schoharie. Tanner had a great time at Nana and PopPops and at Gramma Va's. He talks nonstop these days - he's an endless flow of jibber jabber. Sometimes to himself and sometimes to us. Its darling and such a riot. Some of his words are clear as a bell, and if not, I can usually figure it out. And every now and then he stumps me. We practice a lot of words and if he's in an agreeable mood, he'll try to repeat almost anything (one or two syllable). He loves to say "Nana" and "PopPop" - he's had those down for a while. This weekend we were working on "Gramma". I even dropped the "r" and tried for "Gamma"...but no matter how hard he tried, it kept coming out "Danga", "Banga", or "Magda." It cracks me up. We tried not to let him see us laugh but it was the cutest thing, especially when he really wanted to get Gramma Va's attention - you could just see him struggle to call out her name - he would have this sort of urgency in his voice and he'd start with a forced consonant and just fudge it after that. Probably one of those things where you had to be there...but anyway, it was priceless.

Danga Va set up a sand heap and a play area in her backyard. Tanner just loved it - all the rocks and obstacles to play with...right up his alley.