20 Months. Crazy Town.

I'm still scratching my head at the people who told me that going down to one nap would be a really great thing. So far, I'm not really seeing the benefits. This is how a typical day goes for us:

Waiting for his breakfast

7:00 wake up
7:10, Axel sits in his high chair and chants "grot, grot, grot" until we serve him his oatmeal.
7:30 - 8:30, Crazy town. Meaning, we play trains, legos, jump, bounce, destroy the house, whatever we can until we're bored being indoors.
8:30 We go out in the yard and ride his cars and bike.

Loves the helicopter at the zoo

9:00 Axel's bored with the yard, and I am scratching my head, wondering what we should do for the next 2 1/2 hours until he takes his nap.
9:00-11:30, Since this is the time the rest of the world is out and about (while we have been ready for at least 2 hours), we sometimes go to the park, zoo, meet friends for playdates.
11:30-1:30, Nap. This is the unfair part. He used to nap at least 4 hours per day. Since we went down to one nap, it's around 2 hours, sometimes 1 1/2 hours. That is so unfair!
1:30-5:00, Crazy town. Play, go to the park, run errands, basically moving, skipping, hopping, being active anywhere and everywhere and not stopping for a single minute.
5:00, Dinner. At least he is a good eater.
5:30, bath. He loves his bath time. He has a routine too. He runs to the bath when I say it's bath time, we take off his clothes, then he runs away wanting us to catch him. He and Johan sometimes play this for 20 minutes.
6:00 Bedtime

I do realize that while I am complaining that the naps are not long enough, he sleeps at least 12 hours per night, if not longer. It's just that I'm not yet willing to risk putting him down later with the hopes that he'll nap longer. I enjoy having a quiet house at 6:00 pm!

Dad and Axel at Mission Bay

Other than those complaints, life is really fun. It is amazing that watching a child grow really never gets old because there is something new they learn to do almost every single day. He is starting to really get good at his balance bike. He is starting to push and lift his feet up. It's an amazing idea to teach kids to ride a bike. He will never need to use training wheels, he'll just switch over to a regular bike when he's ready.

On the balance bike

I also feel like he really understands us. We can ask him to do something and he does it, understand our instructions. He has started using words more regularly, like mama, agua, grot, and woof woof (for the dog). He can point out his body parts when we say the name, and he can imitate some animal sounds like lion, dog, and cat, when we say their names. He also is understanding how to communicate what he wants with us. He doesn't say a lot of words yet, but he will pull us to where he wants us to go, point, drag objects to us, whatever it takes! He doesn't give up on getting what he wants, that's for sure.

We have also entered the pushing phase. Just today, we went to a local toddler music class, and we had to leave because he was pushing every kid that looked at him. I could even tell when he was going to do it. The funny thing is, that I will tell him that what his did was not nice, and ask him to give the kid a hug or a kiss to say I'm sorry, and he'll do it willingly. The same thing with taking objects. He'll walk up to a kid, take his toy out of his hand. I'll tell him that's not nice and to give it back, and he will. So I feel like it's not that he's mad and pushing, or he enjoys stealing and really wants their toy (I don't think, at least), but maybe it's more that he is learning that he has the power to do these things and is testing what he is allowed to do and what is not allowed? I do love the fact that he loves to give kisses, though. We have started teaching him to kiss goodnight and goodbye, and it's really cute. It just kind of freaks some kids out when he goes for a kiss on the mouth!

Biking around Mission Bay

Turnhout, Belgium

In recent events, Johan was asked to run a project at his company's office in Beerse, Belgium, but we would be staying in nearby city, Turnhout. We decided that we didn't want the family to be separated for too long, so we are all going together for 8 weeks! At first I didn't want to go. I was a bit pessimistic as to what there would be to do with a toddler in northern Europe in February. I imagined gloomy, wet, cold weather, and staying indoors. But then I realized that I just needed to change my attitude. So I recently researched some indoor playgrounds, a city park, and other kid friendly activities in the city. I also think we'll try to bring a couple of indoor activities in case we can't go outside. But I have to admit, we are not good at staying indoors. I don't think we have done that since Axel was 3 weeks old. We go outside and walk or play every single day. That's normal, right? :)

So this will definitely be a new experience for us. But we have traveled quite a bit, and we are pretty adaptable to different cultures, so I'm looking forward to these next couple of months. Now I just need to learn how to say "where's the bathroom?" in Dutch.