Colt! You are such a big boy! 20.5 months old – getting too close to 2!!

Colt with Bunny & Wink.

Colt Developments: Colt, you are growing and developing every day right before our very eyes. I am constantly amazed by the new things you’re doing, by the connections you can make, by the words you’re saying and by all that you understand. It’s been a while (8 months…eek!) since I last did a real update on you so here are just some of the things that you’re doing:

– You are a fast little guy, running all over all the time. You also recently discovered “galloping” and you like to gallop around – sometimes with a baseball bat or something between your legs while you click like you’re riding a horse, and sometimes you just straight up gallop. You also like to hop or jump around – especially if you’re in your crib, screaming for someone to come get you. 🙂
– Your favorite toy is a ball and you would seriously be happy kicking balls around all day long. You’re honestly really good with them and have an impressive kick, drop-kick, and you’ve recently learned the “header” where you drop the ball right by your head and knock it down with your forehead. You also have a little t-ball set-up and you love playing with that as well, but you normally hit the tee instead of the ball.
– You love reading books. Sometimes we will sit reading books for an hour straight. The changing table/dresser in your room has all of your board books just stuck in the middle drawer since it’s at the best height for you to be in and out of and you are constantly bringing books for me to read to you. You have learned lots of the words, sounds or things we do while reading the books so sometimes we will co-read and I’ll pause and let you fill in blanks. (You’re awesome at this with Sandra Boynton’s Moo, Baa, La La La book!)
– You have also gotten really into legos (well, Duplos really) over the past couple months. We have the teepee set up for you and we keep your legos in there and you will grab my hand at least once or twice a day and pull me there saying “peetee, ego.” Sometimes you’re really good at building things and other times you get very frustrated if you can’t quite get them to fit how you want them to.
– You pretty much always bring your big stuffed toy “Wink” into your teepee and you’ve also become really attached to your stuffed bunny rabbit lately as well. Most animals have names but for some reason, for your stuffed rabbit and anytime you see pictures of rabbits you just stick your tongue in and out over and over a few times. I have no idea where this came from – my only thought is that in one book there is a picture of a bunny eating lettuce and it says “Nibble nibble” and possibly somehow it came from that? I don’t know but it’s really cute and really funny. Just in the past week you’ve gotten more into getting out all of your stuffed animals and lining them up, calling them by name and snuggling with them too.
– You are talking up a storm and are definitely bilingual. Around 25% of your words are in Portuguese and 75% English. Some words you’ll start saying in English and switch to Portuguese, but you still understand the meaning in either language. i.e. you first learned “bread” then switched to “pão” but if I ask you where the bread is you can find it and if I ask you if you want bread you’ll say “pão peese (please).” You also started out with “shoes” then switched to “shoepatos” and now fully to “zapatos.” But if I ask you to get your shoes you will still go get them. For some words it depends on who you are talking to. With me, you always call ducks “ducks” but with Portuguese speakers you call them “patos.” You also definitely understand a ton in both languages as you will obey commands in either language. It’s fascinating to watch and I think it’s very cool.
– You love letters!! You have an alphabet mat in your room and love to point to letters and practice saying them. You have an alphabet scripture book too that you love to read because you will find the letter on the floor as we are reading. You can find and say all on your own B, D, E, F, O, P, Q, R and W. And when asked, you can identify a few others too and you love to repeat the sounds. You also really like counting in both English and Portuguese (you can more or less count to 3 in English and 6 in Portuguese). In both languages, your favorite number to say is 2. But you love it when we count for something – even just before you kick a ball.
– You do funny little things every day which surprise me and make me laugh. Just today I was cutting your nails and when we finished you took the clippers and went to your stuffed animals and pretended to cut theirs as well even though they clearly just have little stuffed hands and feet – no semblance of nails at all.
– Although you are very expressive and talkative with me, you sometimes seem quite shy around others. It depends – sometimes you will wave to every person you see and call “bye bye” to them as you pass by, even blowing kisses – but other times, especially if I am talking to someone new, you will hide behind my legs and hold tightly to my hand. You’ve only done this a few times but it always strikes me – like, where did you even learn to do that?! And why?
– Your personality has remained very consistent from birth as you continue to be a calm, easy going guy, pretty cautious and very observant. In big play groups you often sit back and just watch quietly for a while before finding something you want to do.
– You give the sweetest snuggles, hugs and kisses in the world. I love how you get a little turtle-face when you’re puckering up for a kiss. Melt my heart.
– You are excellent at sharing and play very well around other kids. I volunteer in the nursery at our church and am always impressed with how you behave in that environment of a pretty small room with a bunch of toddlers running around.
– You are really incredibly obedient and I’m shocked at how well you receive instruction for your age. You totally get that your dad and I are your parents and can tell you right from wrong and you respect us. If I ever really want your attention or need you to calm down and do something I just need to look at you and say, “Colt, I’m your mother. XYZ” and you totally respond to that. We do discipline you a little for very direct actions of disobedience when we it’s clear that you knew you were directly acting against something we had told you and you have already quickly learned to honor our requests. From an early age we have talked to you about the biblical authority that we have with you, how God has called us to be your parents and how, out of our obedience to Him we are called to be in authority over you and ensure that you stay within that and it’s kind of like you get it and are happy with it. Or maybe you just haven’t turned 2 yet and a little rebellious surprise is still waiting around the corner for me… 😉
– In addition to the above, you’re a great little helper! I have tried to help you make it a habit to clean up after yourself and put things away in their correct place before getting out too many other toys. Of course this is not always a 1-for-1 type of thing and we play freely, but if the room is getting too cluttered or if we are moving rooms or going outside, for a nap or to bed at night, we always clean up first. I hope this will help it become an easy habit for you so that being neat isn’t such a struggle later in life. Of course at this age I still need to be actively engaged with you in the process (i.e. talking to you at your level, encouraging you and pointing at things to get) but you will do 100% of the picking up and putting away. It’s impressive. I’ve even started to let you help me put dishes away (like tupperware or plastic measuring spoons) when they are clean since you are definitely familiar with where everything under the counter goes. (Funny note: you often will say “bye bye” to your toys as you put them away – so cute.)
– Kind of along with that, you’re good at “helping” with other little tasks too. If, for example, I leave my cell phone or water bottle in the other room I can say, “Colt, where is Mommy’s water bottle? It’s on the desk in the living room. Can you go get it and bring it to Mommy?” And you will get excited, run out of the room and 95% of the time return with the requested product. This is quite nice. 🙂
– It’s not all giggles all the time though. You struggle with “independent play” and REALLY want someone to be engaged with you or at minimum sitting with you almost all the time. A small amount of each day you will busy yourself kicking balls, reading, playing with legos etc. on your own but it’s usually short lived before you come running to me, grabbing my hand saying, “Mama peese. Mama peese.” It’s hard to resist the sweetness and innocence of the request but it’s a little exhausting sometimes. If I sit down at my computer you immediately get upset and try to move me away because you know my attention won’t FULLY be on you – even if you’re basically playing right at my feet and I’m still talking to you! Some of my friends have said they think that you can sense I’m pregnant and want more attention but I also think it could just be the age. Kind of wears me out some days though.
– You are also in the stage of frustration-fits where you will panic and body flail at RANDOM if something totally insignificant doesn’t go how you were hoping. Sometimes it’s legos. Sometimes it’s that I was laying down flat on the floor and now I want to have a pillow. Sometimes it’s that I moved your tee-ball set 1 inch. It’s rarely a contest over something we’ve asked you to do but instead just a random freak out. I either ignore it so as not to incentivize such behavior OR I try to get you to zero in on saying a word which stops you from crying and helps enforce that we solve frustrations with communication. Who knows though. I think it’s also just the age and it’s not something I’m loosing sleep over.
– You adore your daddy and get so excited when he comes home at the end of each day and love to wrestle around and do boy things with him. You are blessed with a truly excellent father who models well for you the love that your Heavenly Father has for you.

Colt you are a TOTAL JOY and bring light to our lives every day. You are our treasure and your dad and I cherish the blessing that it is to parent you.

Health: We continue to thank God for your health. To this point you have never really gotten sick or had to go on antibiotics. The most you’ve ever had have been a few little colds here or there, fussiness related to teething, and a 24 hour stomach bug once. You definitely get banged up though and your legs are constantly covered with scrapes and bruises but it doesn’t slow you down at all. You’re still in size 4 diapers and continue to basically be right on track with clothing sizes. At your last appointment you measured in the 75th% for height and 62nd% for weight. Healthy boy! Your hair is finally growing and it is like the finest, softest, silkiest gold. Your eyes continue to confuse me, looking different all the time. I guess I would classify them as hazel although they are a very deep hazel with browns, grays and hints of green whereas your dad has much lighter, more honey colored hazel eyes. One thing is for sure – they are heartbreaker eyes.

Eating: You’re a good eater sweet one but not the easiest in the world. You are a little picky, very hesitant about trying new things and are generally resistant to strong flavors or large chunks of veggies or meat in a dish. Like, you would never just bite into a big piece of broccoli or even a strawberry. You do better with shredded chicken, cooked spinach, mashed up broccoli, peas, peppers if they’re pretty cooked down, etc. (Putting chicken and veggies in the slow cooker has been good for us in this respect.) However, foods you love and will always eat include corn, pasta, fried rice (even with chunks of meat, eggs and veggies!), yogurt (your FAV), cottage cheese (or any cheese for that matter), smoked fish, crackers or snacks. Sometimes you will love a food one day and refuse it the next. Scrambled eggs/omelets, quesadillas and grits are always a gamble.
We aren’t big on snacks but once or twice a week you’ll get a couple of crackers, cheerios or a very plain version of a cookie but we don’t give you things like real sweets. I have actually been craving chocolate pudding lately and whenever I eat it you refuse to get near it! Ha.
Your eating schedule is: Milk when you wake up (5-6 oz), breakfast of a banana mashed with oats and yogurt or oats and a homemade fruit/veggie sauce then lunch and dinner meals that include meat, veggies and starch. You also take 7oz of milk when you wake up from your nap (so that kind of serves as your afternoon snack) and otherwise you stick to water. We will give you juice during meals once or twice a week but you honestly prefer water and so do I. Better for your teeth and less mess if it gets anywhere.
We hold hands and pray before each meal. Your dad and I always close each prayer with, “in Jesus’ name, Amen” and as you hear us starting that phrase, you love to join in with “Amen.” The funny thing is that you totally demand that everyone who is in the house at that moment be involved in the prayer. If your dad is home but not in the room with us you hold your hands up and say “Dada amen, Dada amen” until he joins. You do this with any guests we have over too and just want everyone involved. I love it.
You can feed yourself pretty well and I’m trying to let you do it more and more but if it’s going to be particularly messy or I’m trying to get you to eat something you’re not a huge fan of then I still feed you myself. This is fine but you have to be distracted to allow it so you generally read books or play with your play food during this time.

Sleeping: Aside from that one weird week that I wrote about a couple posts back, you are an awesome sleeper. You are always happy to go down for naps or at night and you basically never wake up until it’s time to get up. Sometimes you’ll wake up a little earlier than normal but usually if I let you cry for a few minutes you’ll go back down until a reasonable hour. Naps can vary a little in length depending on how you’re feeling, but you always do at least an hour/hour and a half and sometimes up to 3 hours.
Your bedtime routine is not very involved – we never wanted to get sucked into a long, drawn out process and also didn’t want you too tied to a big routine since we are often traveling or want to put you down at a friends’ house or with a sitter. Basically we clean up any toys you have out or any messes you’ve made (pulling things off shelves in the kitchen), change your diaper and your clothes, brush your teeth (I feel like we are FINALLY making some progress in this department although the effort is still pretty pathetic – you just don’t like it!), we read one or two bedtime books then put you in the crib, pray for you and walk out.
You pretty much have to sleep with your sound machine on (also lets us feel like we don’t have to tiptoe around the apartment while you’re sleeping) a pacifier, your blankie and your water bottle. You have an elephant pacifier in there too but basically just hold onto it sometimes – you don’t really use it. You would love to walk around all day with your paci and blankie but I don’t think that’s best (especially for verbal development) so whenever you get up you have to throw them back in the crib and you say, “Bye bye paci. Bye bye blankie.” I have to move them to the back middle of the crib though or else you’d grab them back out 5 minutes later. But if they’re out of reach you’re fine.

Schedule: We are on a great schedule with you little angel.
7:30-8:00am (with the occasional snooze fest until 9am) Morning wake up with milk
9:00am Breakfast
9:45-11:45am Downstairs to play outside and with friends in the complex or run errands with Mom
12:00pm Lunch
12:30-2:30/3:00pm Nap then wake up with milk
3:45-5:45pm Play outside again
6:00pm Dinner
8:00pm Lights Out!

Mama: I’m enjoying this stage that you are in SO much Little Colt! You are turning into such a real person, a real little friend and playmate with new thoughts, ideas, words and actions every day, yet you’re still such a sweet and innocent baby. My baby. I am cherishing these days with you as our only and I can’t believe that I have been blessed with the privilege of being your mom.

Since I haven’t posted anything specifically about this pregnancy yet, I wanted to take a minute to record how things have been, are going, etc.

FIRST TRIMESTER:

Highlights:
1) Obviously the first highlight was finding out that we were pregnant!
Although we were trying, it happened really fast (first time!) so was a bit of a surprise. Without saying too much, I will say that I had just stopped nursing a few months prior and so hadn’t quite returned to “normal” so we were really expecting it to take longer just since I didn’t know if I was physically even able to get pregnant again yet. At any rate, we were SO thrilled and thank God for the blessing of this baby.
2) The second highlight was getting to share the news, in person, with our families!
We happened to find out we were pregnant the day before we traveled back to the US for the holidays so we were really excited that we would get to share our news in person. It was a sweet blessing that God allowed us this grace in both pregnancies since we rarely see our families in person. That being said, we didn’t have time to create a cute announcement but we decided we wanted Colt to be involved so I just drew on one of his white onesies.

Front.

Back.

In Phoenix (where we were first), we waited a few days until most of the family was together in one place. I don’t think anyone was shocked by the news but since we had been there a while and not said anything I think they were a little surprised. In South Carolina we shared the first night we were home and while my mom said that she thought we may be waiting a little longer, I don’t think anyone was too surprised. But let’s be real – when you have a child over 1 years old people are practically just waiting for news about the next one.
3) We also loved sharing the news with our friends!

Colt, proud to announce!

Outtake.

It was especially sweet getting to tell our Brazil crew since two of my best girlfriends here are also pregnant with their second! Paige is due 2 months ahead of me (side note – she and I were due 2 months apart last time but Mailey was a week late and Colt 3 weeks early so they turned out to be just 4 weeks apart!) and my friend Michelle is only 4 days ahead of me (and her little boy Jack is just 2 weeks older than Colt). So it’s really fun to share the experience together.

Lowlights:
1) While I was in South Carolina at around 8 weeks I started to have some bleeding which was very scary to me. Since it can be an indicator of miscarriage, I have always feared seeing blood during pregnancy. I actually had nightmares about it during my first trimester with both Colt and this little one. So, when I saw it for real one morning I was pretty freaked out. It wasn’t much but since I never experienced that with Colt I was definitely concerned. At first I thought I should wait to see if it persisted but by that night I told my mom I wanted to try to see someone the next day. Her neighbor is an OBGYN and he was kind enough to squeeze me in for a quick ultrasound and check up in the morning. Michael was already back in Brazil at this point and I didn’t want to worry him so I waited until I was confirmed for an appointment to even tell him about it. It was weird to go in for my first ultrasound without him though. But, my mom (and Colt) came with me and we were all so relieved to see a healthy baby with a strong heartbeat. The doctor said that the bleeding would probably persist for another week or so but unless it became heavier, it was normal and nothing to worry about. This was definitely reassuring but the whole episode made me much more guarded and cautious about the pregnancy. It was a reminder that the pregnancy was not something I wanted to take lightly but instead something for which I want to thank the Lord every day and pray for constantly. And even still, nothing is guaranteed. Anyway, the bleeding did persist for about 10 days so when I got back to Brazil Michael was eager for me to get checked again and to go with me! At this ultrasound my doctor explained that the bleeding was caused by a small part of the placenta which had separated and was just making it’s way out. He said it was so small and insignificant that there is no way it would affect the baby and that it was normal and everything looked good. We praise God for this and for the fact that since then, everything has tracked totally normally.

Symptoms:
My symptoms this time were very similar to my last pregnancy, but not identical.
Although I felt full more quickly and wasn’t super hungry with some food aversions (mostly chicken), I was able to each MUCH better this time. I still lost a little weight during the first trimester but honestly I was really surprised by that because I felt like I was eating all the time. In comparison, when I was pregnant with Colt I struggled to eat so much that Michael would make me fruit smoothies loaded with Ensure just to help me get more calories because I couldn’t stomach most real food. This time I felt much more normal and also generally less nauseated.
I have had more and stronger food cravings too this time. Random things (mostly unhealthy) like chocolate glazed donuts, eggrolls, corn fritters, and sushi (although that’s kind of all of life).
I think I was equally tired this time but because of sweet little Colt, I was less able to get the amount of sleep that my body was asking for so as a result I really struggled. I honestly slept EVERY chance I could during the first trimester. I slept every time Colt was napping, went to bed as early as possible and when I was in South Carolina I let my mom do pretty much all of the heavy lifting and slept a ton. When we got back home to São Paulo, Michael took mornings with Colt as often as he was able in order to let me sleep in, and he would often come home early to help out and then do work after Colt and I went to bed. But even with all of the help, I still wasn’t able to sleep enough and was chronically exhausted. But, worse than the exhaustion is that, as a result of not getting enough rest I would get regular migraines. And since I knew that’s how my body worked, I would basically spend each day trying to expend as little energy as possible so as to prevent a migraine from happening. But that’s pretty hard to do when you’re trying to keep up with a toddler all day! I got bad headaches during my first trimester with Colt but at that time I was better able to manage the amount of sleep I got (since there was no little human to look after) so this time around it was tougher.
Thankfully however, I started feeling good again a lot faster this time! With Colt it took about 17 or 18 weeks before I was feeling normal and this time I was really recovering around week 12 and basically normal by week 13/14. That was a huge blessing as I was expecting to feel crummy for longer but am praising God for the energy He’s given me these days!
All in all I know that many women have it worse and even the bad symptoms were just a reminder of the blessing that it is to be pregnant.

CURRENTLY – 18.5 weeks:

Body: These days I’m feeling totally back to normal except for the growing belly. 🙂 I have stayed really consistent with my weight gain from last pregnancy (I try to weigh once a week and so far it’s been almost exactly the same!) but my body is definitely changing more quickly. I either do the “rubber-band trick” with my regular jeans or wear leggings or dresses. I’m trying to put off maternity clothes but the reality is that I may as well just go for it since things are quickly not fitting as well anymore.
Baby: Praise God the baby continues to develop normally. Also, I felt him move for the first time last night and it brought me so much joy!
Thoughts: We are so excited to be having another little boy!! I totally think I could have waited to find out the gender of this baby but I really love finding out early. As soon as we opened the envelope and read “boy,” I instantly felt so much more connected to this sweet little life inside me and generally got 10x more excited about the pregnancy and having another baby. I am sure I would have had the exact same feelings had it said “girl” instead but the point is that for me, knowing is a really positive thing. Although I only had 1 brother I think that same-gender siblings are a special thing and I am so excited for that dynamic to be a part of our family and for Colt to have a brother for the rest of his life.

We can’t wait!