Hello May. You snuck up on me.

See this kid. He has been the light in our darkness. He is the reason to get out of bed in the morning. And the reason we rush home from work so we can spend every possible minute of daylight together.

He has really blossomed into a charming young boy the past few months. His sense of humor is sprouting. He is an absolute joy to be around (most of the time.)

He loves playing outside. I usually have to drag him in kicking and screaming when its time for dinner or bed. Just like his Papa, he wants to play and get dirty out in the yard.

He's definitely on his own agenda. He insists on choosing which shoes he wears each day. Sometimes he digs out my winter boots and asks if he can wear them or if I'd like to.

Of course he doesn't ask in words. It's more of a grunt and look of question on his face.

We've been working diligently on getting him to speak more. When we eliminated the pacifier from his daily activities, only allowing it at naps and bedtime, he started to express himself more verbally.

If I ask him to use his words, he'll point to his mouth because that is what I did while trying teach him to speak. To him, pointing to his mouth is sign language for "words". Oops!

He's sneaky about when he chooses to talk. When we ask him to repeat after us he just looks blankly at us or ignores us all together. But when we pay close attention he'll blurt out appropriate words. Like the other day when I picked him up from Becky's house, he said "Bye Drew." It was so random. I said to Becky "Did he just say what I think he said?" It was the first time I'd heard him put two words together like that.

He'll wave to passerbys from our yard and say "Hi" or "Hello"

Of course his speech is still very hard to understand, but it's there and it is super cute.

His words to date are:

Mom (usually yelled and drawn out sounding Moooooom)

Dad

Tucker

Sugar

Ball

Hi

Bye

Up

No (Sounds like Ooooooo - Always drawn out with a long Minnesotan accent)

His coordination and dexterity are amazing. He's sturdy and balanced on his two feet, despite his light 27 lb. frame. He continues to love to play soccer and more recently baseball. He's watched enough games that he's got the batting swing and fielding ball stances down pat.

Seriously. My kid is cute. I cannot get enough of his awesomeness.

We have been very lucky that he's avoided many illnesses in his almost 2 short years. Even the doctor this morning said "other than the nut allergy, he's a pretty healthy kid." Unfortunately he has an ear infection right now, but he was not sick the entire winter. We got very lucky.

Speaking of the nut allergy. It has not controlled our lifestyle as much as I originally thought it might. It has been a transition, but it's been easy. We ask a lot of questions when we go out to eat and we definitely read all labels on packaged foods now. It has gone smoothly. Or it had until we sat down to eat a frozen California Pizza Kitchen Margherita pizza last night. He put a small piece of it in his mouth, spit it out and proceeded to scratch a patch of eczema on his wrist that occasionally flares up. He got very upset and kept pointing to his wrist. He showed no other sign of an allergic reaction (Thank God). It probably would have been much worse had he actually eaten it. He usually likes pizza, so I find it very interesting that he refused it last night. I've read that allergic children can sometimes refuse foods that they are allergic to. He did the same with the peanut butter toast that I served him the first time we discovered the allergy.

I'm writing this here in case anyone else Googles CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) and it's allergen information. The box says Contains: Wheat, Milk, Soy. It does not mention anything about being processed in a plant that also processes peanuts. But when Christos checked the website, there it was in bold black writing. "MANUFACTURED ON EQUIPMENT THAT PROCESSES PEANUTS."

That has been the most frustrating part of CT's diagnosis. Cross contamination and poor labeling by manufacturers. The labeling isn't consistent in this instance and it could cause serious harm.

We're taking this small reaction as a reminder to never let our guard down. Read labels. Do research. Eat less processed foods.

Tooth Count: I honestly have no idea. He won't let me check. He's been teething since February. Finally a few molars broke through in March. He is brushing his teeth these days with a fancy Dora spinbrush.

I want to end this post on a positive note, so here is a cute video. He looks so grown up and independent drinking from the water bottle all by himself while enduring Chula's (our friends dog) slobbers.He was so proud that he was able to drink from it and open and close the cap by himself. Yes, that's a chainsaw in the backyard.