At 23 months, Chief is all kinds of dangerous. I have spent nearly two years trying to keep him alive and he is doing everything in his power to negate my efforts. The boy is covered in bruises. He’s constantly running into things, falling off of furniture, or walking around the edge of the pool like it’s a tight rope. The boy lives on the edge, and Mama’s on the edge of a stroke.
Baby Update…
He thinks every plane is piloted by a dog. Thank you, Target. Target just re-did our local store and one of their displays is Bullseye the dog flying a plane over part of the kid’s section. If I say we’re going to the store he says “Dog…Plane.” If we drive by Target he points and says “Dog…Plane.” If he sees a plane overhead he says “Dog…Plane.” He’s going to be really sad when he finds out that dogs aren’t actually pilots.
Every number is two, every color is blue, and every letter is “T.” As long as you ask the right questions, he’s the smartest baby on the block. For example – Chief how many eyes do you have?…”Two” What letter does Tiger start with?…”T.” What color is Dad’s truck?…”Blue.” See? Baby genius.
He found Coco. Coco, the movie about a boy venturing to the land of the dead and playing with his skeleton ancestors. It always sounds terrifying when I explain it. Like “why are you letting your almost two year old watch a Wes Craven movie?!” kind of scary. I promise, it’s cute.
LaLa, Chase’s sister, was watching Coco at our house one day. Chief didn’t seem to be paying any attention to it – he was playing with his toys, running around, not focused on the TV. Until the next day… In the saddest little toddler voice you can imagine he kept saying “Coco. Coco.” He’s been obsessed ever since. He’s even given us all Coco names – Mama Coco, Dada Coco, Chief Coco, Dog Coco – the whole family has one, grandparents to baby sitters. Coco stays in the DVD player in case of emergencies, and the sound track is always playing in the car. Coco saved us a few times on our 12 hour drive to Estes Park.
He’s putting more and more words together, and his phrases are getting sassier. Chief started to realize what happens in the bathroom this month, or at least he started to vocalize it – If you say anything about the bathroom his response is “Peeeeeeee? Poooooop?” Or he’ll put names with it – “Mama pee” “Dada poop.” Funny at home, not funny in public.
Some of my favorites are almond milk, wine cork (weird that he latched onto this one), puzz (for the puzzle he puts together 234 times a day), puh-poe (pillow), cocoon (we read a lot a books about caterpillars over here), “halp!” (help), “again!“, “more tea” (anything that’s not milk or water is tea), “more paste!” (toothpaste; he’s really into dental hygiene) and if he’s really dramatic we get the “Oh My!” or “Oh Geeze!” comments. Those are my favorite.
He’s busy, and dangerous, and on the brink of a baseball-sized goose egg at all times. A few highlights from this month – he dumped our bathroom trashcans into the toilet. Maybe it’s my fault, I did tell him I needed to empty the trashcans. 
He drove his Little Tikes car into our pool. He thought it was hysterical, Mom did not. I immediately jumped in to pull him from the car. Swimming lessons have given me some peace of mind around the pool, however, they didn’t teach him how to escape from a sinking vehicle.
After the extraction
He visited Rocky Mountain National Park. Chief has had a Rocky Mountain National Park poster on his wall since he was born. Everytime he’s had a diaper change he’s looked at the bighorn sheep and we’ve talked about going to visit. Well this year, we made it happen. We pulled our camper 12 hours to Estes Park, CO, (with a few stops along the way) for a week of adventure. Chief hiked through the mountains, trampled through Bear Lake, frolicked in the clouds, explored the tundra on Trail Ridge Rd., saw dinosaur tracks in Clayton, NM, slept through a hail storm, and threw rocks in Pueblo Lake.
Mama Update…
Well, I ran a half marathon in the Rocky Mountains. It was awesome. I wrote all about it here.
The highlight of my month was dinner at Living Kitchen Farm and Dairy. I have been trying to get reservations to this small dinner for nearly two years! Living Kitchen is a farm in Depew, OK, that is operated by a chef from Seattle. She moved to Oklahoma several years ago, began farming her own vegetables and from her crop she began to host dinners. It’s a small, community-style dinner hosted on a covered porch on the property. It’s a tasting menu of 7-9 courses, so you don’t know what you’re going to be eating until you get there. It was incredible! I took my foodie/running friend Laurel and we spent 3 hours eating, drinking, chatting, and trying new things. Food and friends are my favorite.
Leave a Reply