I Can Do it Myself...

As part of Lawson's burgeoning sense of independence, he's learning to dress himself. Sometimes it doesn't go too well - like here, when he put both legs through one opening in his shorts. It made him a little upset...

He's getting really good at putting on my shoes and walking around the house:

Of course, some shoes are sillier than others when Lawson wears them:

Last, but not least... he tried and tried, but he still hasn't quite figured how to wear one of these:

Never a Dull Moment...

Grandma and Grandpa came over this morning and we all went swimming in the apartment pool. They went home and we came back to the apartment to get cleaned up to go to lunch and that's when things got interesting. I jumped in the shower, leaving Lawson to watch tv - something I do every day without catastrophe. Just as I got out, Lawson came running into the bathroom with a look on his face that was half "WOW!" and half "I'm really gonna get it, aren't I?"....


Yeah, I made the mistake of leaving the tub of butter spread out on the counter after breakfast and he found it. Perhaps remembering just getting lubed up with sunscreen a few hours earlier, he reenacted the process... How can you NOT laugh at this? Sigh... He kinda smelled like a bowl of popcorn. I highly recommend clicking on the picture to make it bigger - you'll get a better view of the mess. It was everywhere! Thank goodness he's washable...

**Edit** I forgot to remind y'all that I had just gotten out of the shower. So naked, dripping wet, and expecting my dad to come back at any moment...and I've got a toddler greased up in butter and I don't want him to touch anything! It was an interesting few minutes as I scrambled to get dressed before I put Lawson in a bath!

My Chatterbox

Lawson hit a big milestone today - he put two words together to ask for something. At lunch he said "cheese. more" So, yes, it was backward, but it's something. It was nice not to have to play the guessing game, trying to figure out what he wanted more of.

He had a bit of a slow start to his language development, so I've kept very close tabs on every word he can say. At his 15 month appointment, he could only say 5 words. He hit a language explosion around 17-18 months and now (at 21 months) he can say 61 words and can make 13 animal sounds! The monkey and the elephant are really worth hearing. I think he's officially on par with his peers, so I'm happy.

He can say lots of body parts: eye, ear, nose, mouth, knee, head, and elbow ("bow") and is happy to say "hi" and "bye-bye" to people in the stores. He asks for the "keys" so that after we "knock" on the door, it can open. Some of his words are a little mixed up. Like, a towel is a "dry-dry", a car is a "whee", a bed is a "night-night", and any clock/watch is a "cuckoo", since we (and his grandparents) have cuckoo clocks at home. He says silly words like "wow", "whoa" and "dude", as well as unusal baby words like "knight" and "gogurt" ("go-goo"). And I'm probably the only one who knows that "yo-yo" is actually cheerios. But most of his words are pretty understandable to other people.

Oh, and it's frightening how much this boy understands what I say, even if he can't say the words themselves. I haven't even attempted to keep track of that!

I'm so glad his language skills have improved so rapidly! Yay Lawson!

A Big Day...

So, here's how we started our day:

Lawson actually climbed out of the crib about a month ago, but he hadn't done it since. I bought a toddler bed anyway and figured I'd be ready as soon as he was. Well, today he remembered how to get out. He got out so well that he climbed back in so he could climb out again. He can actually do it without hurting himself, so I decided it was safe enough to take a picture or two.


So, tonight before dinner, my family helped put the toddler bed together since it's no longer safe for Lawson to be left alone with his crib. Lawson "helped"...

When it was all done, he was so happy! It's still a Mickey Mouse bed, but the colors don't quite match the previous decor. It's close enough, though, and Lawson LOVES it.

A whole new stage of sleep training begins tonight, now that I have a child who can get up out of bed with no big deal (oh and he can also open his bedroom door and walk right out!). Yikes!

I know, I know...

I probably should have nipped this in the bud rather than standing around taking pictures, but I just couldn't help it. It was too funny! That, and I'm trying to build an arsenal of blackmail photos for when he's a snotty teenager!


What you're seeing here is the result of Lawson getting his hands on my eyeliner pencil! He watches me put makeup on my face, so he got a hold of the pencil and immediately started applying it to his... (it's all over the inside of his right arm, too, but it's kind of hard to see in these pictures)

I just thought this was a cute shot of the situation:

Miscellaneous Fun

We had some pretty wicked storms roll through on Wednesday night and so Lawson and I took advantage of the opportunity on Thursday morning to go play in the puddles. He has the cutest little wellies (rain boots) and I want him to get as much use out of them as he can!

The stomping-in-the-puddles pictures didn't turn out, but he sure had fun! Splashing his hands was almost as good!

Lawson LOVES flowers and this is a sweet moment I was happy to capture. He's trying to "water" his newly-picked dandelion with the runoff dripping from the covered parking canopy...

This is just some silliness from tonight. I have a label maker that Lawson likes to play with. I typed out one that said "Lawson is awesome!" and printed it for him. I swear, it was his idea to put it over his mouth! Not sure why, but this strip of sticker entertained both of us for about 30 minutes. It was so much fun!

The Highland Games

My friend, Mendy, was in town this weekend and we spent Saturday at the Highland Games in Arlington. It was hotter than Hades, but it was still a fun day. We heard great music from several pipe and drum bands:

We saw traditional sword dancing:

We heard lovely harp music:

We saw manly men in kilts throw heavy objects about:

And of course, we had to get in the full spirit of the day. My mom made Lawson his own little kilt and embroidered shirt. At the last minute, she whipped out a sporran (with the help of my Uncle Jim who was also in town). He was a hit. People told me all day just how cute he looked!

The Airplane

I almost forgot...


On our flight home from Boston, we were lucky enough to sit next to a professional clown named Daisy. She was so nice and she really helped keep Lawson entertained the whole time! It just so happend that she was carrying her balloon kit with her and so when we landed in Dallas, she made Lawson a balloon airplane to take home.


You guys are used to the fact that it's so freakin' hard to get a posed picture of Lawson, so this was the best I could get of him with his airplane on a stick. He just loves it!