Kanan will be two here in couple of weeks. I’ve got the invitations set for a birthday party on March 7th and can’t wait to see him blow out his two candles. And normally I brag about all the cool things Kanan can do on these posts but I just can’t wait two more weeks to share.

Food News !

Broccoli, kidney beans, roasted red pepper, carrots, sauteed onions, asparagus: not the typical foods one might imagine a toddler would eat. And for months now, I’ve been having to sneak pureed veggies into Kanan’s diet because he indeed refused these vegetables. He even refused steamed cauliflower smothered in cheese sauce! It had cheese on it for goodness sakes! But, I am now delighted to say, those days are over. Well, at least for now. Over the course of the last month, Kanan has slowly been eating more and more vegetables and the last week, he has finally crossed over to veggie-lover side. He ate the broccoli on his plate two nights ago and asked for more. He ate some of my salad last night at my parents anniversary dinner at Claim Jumper, and tonight my son did the best of all—-he ate five asparagus spears from tip to stalk! He kept stealing them off my plate too. I actually only got to eat one! I seriously have the biggest smile on my face. And I hope he stays this way. I grew up eating and loving vegetables and want to have Kanan grow up the same way. In another food subject, he has finally developed the teeth and the manual dexterity to eat burritos and sandwiches without needing them cut up. He can just pick up a rolled bean and cheese burrito now and eat it up. And he LOVES turkey and cheese sandwiches with mayonaise and mustard. He’s growing up to be such a little man.

Words!

Well, I can’t even list all the things that Kanan can say now because he just says more and more each day. But some of the words come in phrases now—

• “whats that mean?”
•  “where Papa?”
• “Where Dada?”
• “I want Nana!”
• “where moon?”
•  “I want down”
• “Jumping”
• “Walking”
• “All done”
• “Bunny eat rass!”
• “Kanans”
• “Penis”
• “Oh Man!”
• “I want go livingwoom”
• “Ding Ding Dong!”
• “Bagel”
• “Please”
• “Mama Fall”
• “Is stuck!”

 He also stirngs some novel sentences together and talks all the time about everything. This morning he talked for about five minutes about noses. He talked about my nose, his nose, the kitty cat’s nose, his babys’ nose. He pointed at them, touched them. It was adorable.

Spiritual Intelligence!

Tonight I was cuddling with Kanan and whispered in his ear, “I love you son and Jesus loves you too.” He looked at me with bright eyes and a big smile, so I went further. I asked, “do you know who Jesus is?” And he nodded his head yes and said, “Uhuh” confidently. I laughed and asked, “okay, then where does Jesus live?” He looked to his left and pointed toward the pile of books in his book basket. He said, “In da book.” I couldn’t believe it. Could he be talking about his bible? So I said, “Bring Mommy the Jesus book.” And he walked over and grabbed his bible out of the book basket. Amazing. I didn’t really know if he understood the stories I was reading him, but I guess he is grasping it. Now I’ll have to explain that Jesus lives in his heart and in heaven and not in the books, but its a great start! 🙂

Animal Lover!

Today Kanan and I went to the park. There was a little white rabbit running around the jungle gym and Kanan loved it. He chased the rabbit, pulled out grass and tried to feed the rabbit (it did actually eat some!), and tried petting the rabbit too. No worries everyone, it was someone’s pet rabbit they brought to the park, so it wasn’t rabies infected or wild. Kanan couldn’t stop talking about it after it went home. He asked where it went, talked about how it ate grass, and he talked about its nose. He loves the cats in the neighborhood too and as far as our dog goes, well Kanan always asks about “Wiley.” According to Mike, Kanan calls Smokey and Bandit, “boys” and cuddles with them all the time as well.

Now for the Challenges:

1. Teeth brushing. The kid loathes having his teeth brushed. It is a huge ordeal. I’ve tried different flavors. I’ve tried characters on the toothbrush and tooth paste. I’ve tried letting him brush first. I’ve tried letting him brush my teeth. Its ridiculous. Any advice? Help me please. My dentist says Kanan is due for his first checkup on his second birthday. That’s in two weeks! If he won’t let me touch his teeth with a toothbrush without having a wrestling match on the bathroom floor (which we do have every morning and evening) then how will he let a big strange man prick his teeth with a pick? The dentist told me he could give him nitrous oxide if needed….gah!

2. Temper Tantrums. Need I say more?