Catch up

After Royal's first birthday, I stopped writing down stuff that he was doing. I wish those baby books went behind the first year. But, I decided that with blogging I would be still be keeping up with his growing and funny stories, etc. But, since I have been MIA for the past 2 months I need to try and catch up on everything that has been going on and everything that Royal has been up to. If I don't I will hate myself later when I read back and have two months of important moments and memories of things that was not accounted for. I won't be able to remember everything, so I think it is important to write it/blog it/photograph it/tie a song to it...whatever you need to do to capture that memory.
Since the last time I posted about Royal loving to wear our shoes around the house, he still loves wearing our shoes and anyone else's shoes. He will walk around wearing them for 10 minutes sometimes without them falling off. He is pretty talented when it comes to wearing oversized shoes. Some new things that have happened are:

• He started peeing in his potty all by himself at 17 months old. He will take my hand and pull me into the bathroom and lift the lid to his potty letting me know that he needs to go. He is so good too. He understands how to pee. You know what I mean? He understands the muscles you use and how to hold it and to relax in order to go. I know it can be an issue sometimes for kids to understand the feeling of having to go and how to hold it, etc. You mom's know what I'm talking about. Anyway, he has never had a problem with it. Michael and I are so proud of him. But I'm not surprised, he has always done everything a little early.
• He says, "I did it,"whenever he is proud of doing something. For instance....
  
• He started waving bye bye. Not just when you tell him to, but if he hears Michael leave, even if we are in the other room where he can't see the front door, he will still start waving bye bye. He understands what it means without seeing it or being told. Smart boy. And just this week and starting saying bye bye.
• He climbs everything, to the point that we got a climber for him for Christmas. We thought we could keep him from climbing things by removing chair seats, pulling chairs and tables away from other things so he could use furniture as steps, but he figured out how to push the chairs back up to the table or stack things up to climb up on the end tables, and he figured our how to get the seat of the computer chair and put in back in order to climb up into the chair and onto the computer desk. He is just too smart. He outsmarts me all the time.
• He says mama and dada if he wants us for something. When most kids learn to say mama and dada they don't necessarily direct it at you, but he finally understands that is our names and he will address us now. I love hearing him say mama.
• He helps put on his socks and shirts and pants.
• He likes putting the key in the front door and unlocking it and locking it. He just picked that up from watching us.
• He started knocking on the front door or any door that someone else is behind. We don't know where he saw this are learned this because he just did it one day when we were coming home. Neither one of us remembered knocking on anyone's door, but if we did, it only took one time for him to see us, and he learned the etiquette of knocking. : )
• He has incredible balance. He likes to rock on his rocking horse, but mostly he likes to stand in the seat without hands. He doesn't lose his balance or anything. It's pretty incredible. And he started doing this when he was about 14 months old. But, Michael was a skateboarder and I was a horse jumper, so maybe he got his great balance from us.
  
• He knows where his tummy is.
  
• He loves playing hide and seek.
• He was a bunny for his first Halloween dressing up. So was I. He actually wore the little bonnet with ears that my mom made for me.
• He started feeding himself with his spoon and doing it efficiently. He has been "feeding" himself with a spoon before he was one, but that doesn't mean that he actually got any of it into his mouth. It mostly ended up on his shirt.
• Michael took me to see Jackson Browne for my 25th birthday. It was a surprise!
  
• He learned how to ride a tricycle over Thanksgiving.
• He loves playing the drums and dancing, and has really great rhythm. He will play drums while his daddy plays his baby piano and they just have little jam sessions. He will actually follow Michael's beat and play right along with him. My little prodigy.
  
• Michael was in a Robert Redford film playing a Union Soldier and we went to see him on the set. He actually was filming on my 25th birthday.
• He is learning how to drink from a glass.
• He loves sitting on the counter while I wash dishes. He will open all of the canisters with the tea packets, etc. and usually I'll give him a spoon and he will sit there for a while and play.
  
• Whenever we leave the house I'll hold his hand and he holds onto the railing and he can go down the steps like a big boy. Then he will run over to the car and try to climb in, but he is still a little to small, but he tries. It's so cute.
• I had my first girls weekend with my best friend Daniele, since before I was married...so that means over two years.
• I'll say hold mommy's hand and he will run over and grab my fingers. I love feeling his sweet little hand holding mine tightly. It is heart melting.
• He loves to eat, a lot, and he is pretty messy. But, he is a boy, so I'm not surprised.
  
• He gives us kisses.
• One night last week he couldn't sleep and woke up about 4 or 5 times, so one of the times I was rocking him, he sat up and looked at me, and I leaned in and gave him an eskimo kiss. After that it became his new favorite thing. Now he will come up and crawl in my lap and grab my face with both hands and brush his little nose across mine. I love it. And I love him.

That is all I can think of right now, but I'm sure there is a lot more that I'll be blogging about later. I know this is a long post, but it's mainly for me. I feel better now that these are written down. : )