The Richardsons: September Roundup

Paul is now 18 months old! I can't believe we are on that downhill slide to 2. He is becoming such a great big boy. I love seeing how he really takes in the world now. He understands so much and is becoming a bibliophile like his mama. (Ok, Dad likes to read, too.) His absolute favorite stories are from our two Curious George treasuries. They each have eight stories of decent lengths, and he will sit through several stories (we usually get tired of reading them before he gets tired of listening!). I personally LOVE this. Even more so because I let him watch Curious George almost daily and I worried he would like watching TV more than reading/listening. But nope! He brings us books all the time, usually CG, and often flips through them on his own.

His vocabulary is expanding rapidly -- he knows different types of balls/sports: soccer, football, golf, basketball (usually the first thing he does in the morning is grab his golf clubs, saying "golf" and handing me one -- I think Papa will be proud to hear this). He has so many words, but for some reason has a tough time with "m" words. He says "mama" and is starting to say "more", but usually says "maht maht" for everything else -- monster, marshmallow, muffin, mustard (which he loves), and pumpkin (I guess he associates this with monsters?). He has gotten very good at saying "Phoebe" (although he will not say "Sophie") and will run around the house yelling for her -- she never comes.

He seriously loves shoes (I may have inadvertently created this love by always saying we have to wear shoes to go outside). He also likes to try on mine and Dad's shoes. He is a fantastic hugger and gives the best kisses and loves to "give peace" or shake hands (in church we shake hands and say "peace be with you" as a greeting to fellow parishioners). One of our favorite books is "Nobunny's Perfect". There is a page that says something like "A good bunny hugs his friend when he's sad" and every time Paul turns and gives me a great big hug! Sometimes he does it as soon as we turn to that page or after hearing the lines from the page before it. I think it is so cute how he really is listening and understanding what we are reading to him. Every night after bath, Paul says goodnight to Dad by giving him a hug and a kiss. We have been doing this for a few months and it has only gotten better.

We also got him his own chair this month and he loves to sit in it and watch George get into trouble.

He adores Phoebe. I don't think it's mutual.

He was showing her something (probably a piece of food he saved for her).

Never too young to love the Gators.

Cheese!

Now for meals I will ask him to get in his chair. He pushed it into the dining room (from the kitchen) himself and then climbed in facing the window. We thought it was hilarious.

We realized on our Labor Day trip just how much Paul loves basketball.

Baby hugs are the best.

Ooops! Paul is a little overeager with his hugs.

The cats were so happy to see us after being gone 10 days. Although this happens daily with Michael.

Paul had learned that discs are movies. He found a bunch of CDs and when I told him they wouldn't work in the DVD player, he tried to get the cats to put it in for him. That didn't work either.

Looked up to see someone sharing his breakfast one morning.

Paul got his first basketball hoop. It was a hit from the start!

Sleeping Paul. Can't resist that sweet face!

Riding in the car at the grocery store for the first time!

He says "Cheese" all the time now, usually when he's doing something funny or holding my phone.

Playing at the park with our buddy Brock.

Sophie loves this chair as much as Paul (maybe more). She takes over once he goes to bed. (Don't mind the books, we went through them all one night to start downsizing for our move next August.)