23 MONTHS

It never fails.  Another month flashed before my eyes. And as the months fly by, they seem to just get more fun with our little man.  He's growing and learning at a rate I never imagined.

At 23 Months...

-Hanley mastered his colors literally the day after I posted his 22 month post.  So, I decided we needed to start working on letter recognition. One of the things I purchased for him was an alphabet place mat.  Since so much of our evening is spent at the dinner table, I figured that would be a good way to incorporate letters and learning into our nightly dinner conversations. It's been a great addition to our evenings. 

-Beyond learning, the place mat has been fun for Hanley too.  Most evenings after dinner, he hides his fork under the place mat and says "Where the fork?" with the biggest grin on his face. 

-I mentioned in my last post, Hanley had school pictures. His individual pictures turned out pretty good. His class picture just cracks me up though.

2014 Class Picture

-One morning, Uncle Wayne and Hanley were playing and they made a couch fort together. That started Hanley's fort obsession. Now, He has to have a fort on a daily basis. Sometimes we will be playing "dumps" and all of a sudden he will say "dump fort". So, we have to build a fort to park all his dumps in. 

-Hanley loves stickers.  What a boy will do for a sticker is unbelievable! Who knew something as simple as a sticker would have such an impact on him. Once we realized how important they were to him, we started using them as a rewards. He "earns" stickers by using his listening ears, using the big boy potty, etc. One evening we learned they work quite effectively as a punishment too. We had an incident where out of frustration, he hit me.  I told him that was not okay and he needed to use gentle hands.  He hit me a second time.  I told him if he didn't use gentle hands, I was going to take his sticker away.  He said "no" and hit me a third time so I took his sticker away, walked straight to the garbage and thew it away.  He followed me screaming and crying "No! No take sticker!!" I had a cold that week and lost my voice so I knew he couldn't hear me over his crying. I told Cody to sit him down and explain why I took his sticker away.  He refused to listen to Cody and hit him too. It landed him in time out then an early bedtime.  It was a rough night for everyone.  We could hear him in his room crying "No take sticker" clearly still upset about losing his sticker. This was a good learning lesson. Since that evening, we have never had to take another sticker away from him.  Yes, there have been times that we have warned him that he would lose his sticker if he didn't do XYZ but that simple warning always does the trick.  He knows Mom and Dad WILL do exactly what they say if his behavior doesn't change. Following through with what you say has already proven to us it's importance as parents. Something we need to always keep in mind but especially as we near the terrible 2's stage coming up.

-Hanley recently got a couple new pairs of PJ's. This has really helped with getting ready for bed because he gets excited about which PJ's he's going to wear. The first time he wore his new Fox PJ's he went around the house saying "Fox Shirt. Fox Pants." The only problem is that it sounded more like F*ck instead of Fox.  So, I made a mental note to never send him to school in a Fox shirt.

-Most evenings I let Hanley choose which PJ's he wants to wear.  He always seems to have a strong opinion about wearing his "Dump" PJ's one night or his "Fire Truck" PJ's another night. So, one Saturday morning I thought maybe he should have more say in what he wears during the day. We were in his room and when I asked him what he wanted to wear today, he grabbed tropical swim shorts and a Dinosaur PJ shirt.  I let him wear it (after all, it was a Saturday at home) but now I make sure to just pick out two outfits and let him decided between the two rather than have full range of his closet!

-We took Hanley to the pumpkin patch.  Something that I really enjoy doing.  We had a good time picking out pumpkins, eating apple cider donuts, and playing in the nut hut but what he really loved was the hay ride.  He's been telling us for weeks "Mommy, I fun at tractor".

A Big Day for the Olson Family

Friday October 10th, was an exciting day.  It was Hanley's 23rd month Birthday, school picture day, and the day of our ultrasound.

I dropped Hanley off in the morning and met Cody at the hospital for our ultrasound.  The time had come to find out if a Little Lady or another Little Mister was going to complete our family.  Baby was loud and clear when it came time to show off the goods.  Turns out we didn't even need a professional in the room. Cody and I both looked at the screen and at the same time said "Another BOY!".

It was important to me that Hanley be the first one to hear the news, So, after our appointment, Cody went to work and I picked up Hanley from school with a BLUE balloon in hand to tell him he was going to have a little brother! Hanley and I spent the rest of the beautiful October day at the park celebrating the news (and of course his 23rd month birthday).

Handsome Big Brother!

Later, we made calls and sent texts to close friends and family announcing the news of Baby Boy Olson. My favorite response was from a co-worker (who was rooting for another boy from the beginning). A text that read, " Yay!!!! Cody will love it! You already have everything! A financial wind fall!". I was laughing so hard because her and I both knew that would probably be the first thing to run through Cody's head.  And guess what? When he got home from work that evening he said two things: "Well I guess we better start discussing boy names" and "So, this means we already have everything. We don't have to buy anything for the baby, right?" I can't think of better news for such a frugal person...Getting a second use out of everything we already have!

We didn't waste anytime.  We started discussing baby names at dinner that evening. We asked Hanley for his opinion. When the name he came up with was "Seven!!"(with such excitement), we decided for the sake of the Baby we would keep this decision between Mommy and Daddy. So, it was decided. His name will be Henrik Loren Olson but I am sure he will be called "Seven" a time or two :o)