Kenneth's Birthday

I have a two year old. :( The last two years went by way way to fast, especially the last year. Kenneth has learned so much.

Within this last year he learned to crawl slowly but surely. He got there and it was the normal typical crawl most babies do.

From there he quickly learned how to pull himself up to a standing position.

It took a few months longer but just before his 19 month mark he finally took those glorious first steps all by himself. I was so happy when he finally learned to walk. My arms have been so thankful as well.

He was enrolled in the Toddler/Infant program just after his 18 month mark and has had a physical therapist Stacy come to us to help him learn and grow. He learned how to walk up and down stairs, but doesn't quite have the courage to not hold an adult's hand. I'm okay with that on certain stairs that even scare me.

Took a little bit to master walking and he wasn't a fan of the uneven surfaces we came across going camping and to the beach but after lots of practice just walking and learning how to go up hills with Stacy, he didn't care about that as much.

August is really when he started saying words consistently and slowly it grew to talking more and more. It has been great to have a child that can communicate for the most part what he wants.  Everybody loves that he can say please and thank you. It's gotten him, his fair share of candy.

Kenneth especially loves candy which he didn't get until after his first birthday. Tim loves giving it too him and we're working on only giving it to him for special occasions and not just because everyday.

Kenneth has turned into a big helper too. He loves to help start the laundry and is really good about putting garbage in the trash when we ask him too.

He has such a fun personality. I just love watching him learn new things everyday. He knows where all his body parts are, but lately has been refusing to point them out.

Lately we've been working on forming sentences with our words, He has said his own, but typically just says please when he wants something. So we're slowly teaching him how to say words. We're also working on color recognition. Just with the everyday objects we see, he's slowly grasping it.

He knows some animal sounds like cows, cats, and ducks. But we're trying to expand that further.

For Kenneth's actual birthday his grandpa Garland took him to go get a box of donuts for Breakfast. Kenneth thought that was pretty cool. We all enjoyed eggs and donuts for breakfast that morning.

After breakfast we got him ready and his Aunt Brittany took some pictures of him, I'm hoping to get copies of the pictures soon because he was adorable in them. Then his Aunt Kendra took him to her work to show him off and bought him a soft pretzel for lunch. Then he came home and went down for a nap.

I was out shopping during that time. When we got back and once he was up from his nap we went down to the Portland Zoo for Zoo lights. It was amazing and we all had fun. On the way home we had to stop by a couple wedding receptions for Brittany's friends. Kenneth was hungry and I asked if he wanted some Chicken Nuggets (figuring there were some at their place) He said yes. Aunt Kendra asked if he wanted french fries with them and he happily agreed. So we stopped at McDonalds and got some food.

When we got back we finished eating and then Kenneth opened his presents. He received a box of books from his Grandma and Grandpa that even has a tool with it that will read him the different stories. He also received some reusable pouches that he knew right away Applesauce went into. (That's his favorite food, we don't say it out loud unless we know we have some) Aunt Brittany gave him a stomp rocket thing, that we'll probably have to wait to use until the snow is all gone. Aunt Kendra got him a puppy that sings songs and teaches him things. He loves it because he still loves puppies. He also got some clothes from both Aunts but didn't care about them, except a Thomas shirt. We gave him some cars that we found at Toys R Us. He was so spoiled even for his birthday but he loved it, we might be doing a half birthday celebration this next year just to help space out presents.

After presents we had cupcakes, Kendra did them in the shape of Thomas. He loved it. But was more obessessed with blowing out the candles he did that about 3 or 4 times. I knew we should have gotten him trick candles. After that we let him stay up a little bit longer and then he went to bed. Overall it was good day and I would say it accomplished my hopes of having a fun filled day.