SLEEP? What's that!?!?!?

Jason turned two yesterday -Happy Birthday Little Man!! My friend said "good luck with the terrible two's." Little does she know, Jason's been in the Terrible Two's since he was born! Oh, I kid -I say that with LOVE.

He got a birthday haircut (he looks like a little boy again!), which he didn't like. Luckily, the girl that does his hair (yes, he's got his 'own stylist' now! Ha!) is VERY QUICK and so the crying and all that is down to a minimum! :) Then we came home, had some lunch and I put up one of his birthday gifts. He's REALLY into Matchbox/Hot Wheels cars so I bought him a 'parking garage' so he can zip the cars down. As I sorta figured...he played with it for all of 2 mins, and instead played with the BOX by sitting on it like a horse - and laughing the whole time. Glad I spent $32 on a box! :)

We are thinking we are going to have to put up the toddler bed for him. Yep, the toddler bed...No, no, he's not climbing out or anything - he just SCREAMS when he wakes up in it. I'm thinking that now that he's up and about, moving around, when he wakes up in that 'cage,' he freaks out because he can't get out and about. Seriously - screams like crazy. At 2 in the morning. Ugh.

Lately (I'd say the last week or so), he's been sleeping with either us (which Kevin and I always SWORE "Our kids won't sleep with us unless they're sick or scared!!" Yeah, well...) or he's been sleeping with Jake (Jake's got a full-sized bed). Jake LOVES it, actually. In fact, he's been 'begging' us for months now (or at least the last YEAR) "can Jason sleep with me?" Well, looks like he's got his wish...Jason has slept like a, well, like a BABY, with Jake for the last three nights!! Awww, sweet sleep for mom and dad!! Since we don't have a gate to put across the doorway (I don't know how we managed to go thru the walking stage without baby gates!!!), I've just pulled a tote full of clothes in front of the door. BUT...the other morning I heard "Maaaaaa..." I went and looked and there he sat, right in the middle of the clothes in the tote! And just about 10 mins ago, I heard "Maaaaaa" at the stairs. Looks like he climbed in and OUT of the tote. TIME FOR A GATE!! :)

His speech is coming right along...at his last therapy session, his SLP was really impressed with his words while she was there. Said it seems he's using more words more consistently. I think so, too. I can't tell you how WONDERFUL it is to just hear him say "MAAAAA..." He knows it'll get my attention (and it DOES!). Before that, he wouldn't even make a peep. Let's see...he says the following:

Ball (bu)

Cheese (sheeeth)

Juice (shoooth)

Bear (he pretty much says 'bear' actually. This is his 'code' for "The Jungle Book" movie - which he watches repeatedly - he LOVES this movie!!)

Down (ow)

Up (UP!)

More (moe)

Play (pay)

Out (ut)

*This is cute - I tell him to say "LOVE ya MOM" and he goes, "MOOOOOOOOOMMMM." He drags it out and uses 'inflections' so it's more like a 5-syllable "Mom." It's too funny!

And he can make a lot of animal sounds. All this (and a bit more) in 4 months of therapy! Wow, it's been 4 months already...

Go, Jason!!!!! :)

*side-note, he just handed me a Star Wars action figure and a gun and said 'elp' - wanted me to put the gun in the guy's hand. He's all boy...

We are supposed to get pictures done OUTSIDE today...what?!?! I think right now it's like 30 out!! I think we'll go to the Greenhouse in Joliet (it's warm inside!!) and try to do some outside, too. Brrrrr...I'm glad the girl we're using for the pix is more of a 'candid' type of chick...Trying to get Jason to sit for more than one nano-second for a picture is HARD!! No, not hard - IMPOSSIBLE!! He'll sit and just as you raise the camera - he's gone. So, I hope she can get some good ones of his face and not the back of his head as he's running away!!

Alright -it's 745a (yawn), I'm starving, and I still need to get Jake up soon, too. I don't think Kev is going with us - he's had a cold now for the last few days and said he doesn't think he'll feel like going...

Have a great day!! :)