Tate's Two Year Portraits

Tate has had a severe case of professional photo phobia for most of his life.  Carigan had to get in on his one year portraits to make him calm down, and he was crying in every single one of his 18-month portraits.  I kept my expectations low for his two year portraits, but they cleared their schedule for the morning and with the help of throwing a ball back and forth and sneaking in snacks (you can see him signing "more" in one pic), we managed quite a few tear-free portraits.  As much as I'm committed to doing the exact same thing with every single child, I really do think this may be our last single child portrait sitting.  Our beloved Miss Toshia is gone, and with four kids now, it's too much work to make that many appointments and that many trips.  Tate does better when he's taking pictures with his siblings anyway.  From now on I think I'll just hire a photographer to take family portraits and have her pull each child aside for individual portraits.  So they will still each get annual portraits, but just not right at their birthday (seeing as I already dropped the ball on that one this year, having Wesley's nine year portraits taken six months late)!  So these pics are most likely the end of an era for me.  Professional photography has taken off and changed a lot since Wesley was born, and it's time for us to move with the times.  Goodbye, white wooden letters that spell out your age!  We'll miss you!  (maybe)

No more monkeys turning two years old!

My last "baby" birthday.  Can't believe it!

I initially had a tough time coming up with a theme for Tate's birthday.  Wesley's 2nd birthday was Elmo.  Anna Kate's was Teletubbies (which was a challenge, seeing as it hadn't aired in a decade!  But she was addicted to the lone VHS tape Mimi got at a yard sale.  Teletubbies in our home died with our last VHS player).  And  Carigan's was Minnie Mouse.  But Tate really has never specifically zoned in on one television show or character.  He likes Shaun the Sheep at the moment, and I explored doing a sheep-themed party but found sheep-themed party resources to be considerably lacking.  Then it occurred to me I was focusing on the wrong thing... his favorite thing is not watching TV, but reading books, and his favorite book by far is 5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed!  It's the perfect Tate-at-Two party! 

Kissing the monkey.  I ordered "Five Little Monkeys, Jumping on the Bed" vinyl wall decals, but I couldn't get them to transfer onto our textured walls (All walls in Florida are textured.  I'm not sure why.  When building a house here you actually have to pay someone around $1 a square foot to come texture your interior walls, or you get kicked out of Florida).  So I just stuck it up there, sticker and all.  So that's my party decor fail in the background.   

Blue-Eyed Birthday Boy!  -BELOW- Aunt Deb with Carigan, who whines the entire way to church every Sunday night that she doesn't want to go to big kid class because she misses hanging with Aunt Deb in the nursery!

My phone dinged with one cancellation text after another, all morning long.  Sick kids, changing ball game schedules, unexpected family in town, kidney stone (youch)... the cancellations rolled in all morning.  Which was fine, because Tate probably really enjoyed a more low-key affair than the mass chaos of ALL our friends all at once.  The only problem was I made enough taco salad to feed 100.  Literally.  I had ten large pans of taco salad.  And all the kids ate was meat, cheese, chips and chicken nuggets anyway.  So everyone took a pan of taco salad home at the end of the party like some bizarre party favor.  

Marianne, Jahna, Isa, Birthday Boy, Anna Kate, Wesley, Carigan, Christian & Matthew.  Saturday, March 21, 2015

No shyness here!  Tate loved being sung to and knew exactly what to do with those candles!  Ready for immediate frosting-licking:

Jahna sitting next to where Tate was supposed to sit, but I never could get that kid inside unless cake or presents were involved!  I failed to get a picture of Tate with Mimi & Grandpa before they snuck out to celebrate their 45th anniversary!  The biggest surprise of the party was that the pinata was Tate's absolute favorite thing.  I got the pinata primarily for the bigger kids, trying to think of ways to make a 2-year-old's party fun for them too.  I wasn't expecting it to be the highlight of turning two for Tate!  Being the youngest, he got first swing.  When Michael pulled the pinata up just out of reach, Tate thought it was hilarious.  When he actually made contact, he thought it was hysterical.  He just doubled over laughing every time Michael sent that monkey flying.

Every time I tried to take the bat from Tate and pass it on to Christian, he would screech in protest.  Therefore, Tate got not only the first swing, but the second, third, fourth and 26th, and then I finally managed to sufficiently distract him with promises of candy.

All the kids finally got a turn, and Tate got to whack it one last time once it was on the ground.  (Maybe we'll plant some grass in front of the cottage by the time he turns three)  :-/

Tate was super-excited to open his first present, but we had a hard time getting him to open another.  All he wanted to do was OPEN that first toy from Aunt Deb and play with it!  He literally pushed away and even threw the other presents as we attempted to interest him.

So he got his way.  Of course.  And eventually he did move on to the rest of the presents.  Nana Susan always brings presents for all my kids.  She is such a treasure - I love the way she loves my kids!  She knows them well, too... she got Anna Kate a make-your-own pillow kit.  To which we can attribute the fact that Michael and I got to take a nap the next day, because all the kids were so engrossed in her project!  Best gift ever.

I love Tate's "Ooooooohhhh" reaction to things these days!  He was in a huggin' mood!  He ran to hug YaYa after opening her gift, then ran to hug Ms. Melissa after opening hers, and then he just started doling out hugs like a politician.  He paused for a moment when he got to Nana Susan's husband (who he really doesn't know at all), and you could literally see him shrug before he just jumped up in his arms as well.  Hilarious.

Melissa and I sat outside and watched the kids decorate every cobblestone in our couryard with chalk.  I really enjoyed actually being able to sit and visit (and even eat!  I never have time to eat when putting on a party!!) due to the small crowd.  When most of the crew headed home at dusk, Jacquie and I walked our kids to the park.  When the park closed, we let the kids roll down the grassy hill by Lake Mirror.  Perfect ending to a party!

There were even fireworks that night, but my camera battery died so I couldn't get pictures.  We were just getting ready to brush teeth when we heard the first bang.  We ran outside and watched for a bit and then watched the rest from the playroom window upstairs.  Not sure what the fireworks were for (there was a big race around the lake early in the morning though), but it put a festive cherry on the top of Tate's very celebratory day!  Many thanks to our friends & family that help us celebrate these very special days!  It means so very much.

Tate is TWO!!!

I can't believe my baby is two!!!  Birthdays are going to start getting exceedingly sad now that my last baby is officially growing up!

Tate's actual birthday was on a Sunday, so we waited to have our family celebration until Monday (his party is coming up on Saturday).  Grandpa and Mimi took us to Chili's after church where Tate got his very own Ziosk and didn't have to share with his brother and sisters.  That's about as good as it gets as far as restaurant choices for toddlers... while avoiding the dreaded Chuck E. Cheese, anyway.  We thought about trying to have Tate's family celebration after church, but I knew better because he always takes a marathon nap after church.  Michael and I meant to take a little rest and ended up taking our own marathon naps, because Tate slept from when we got home from lunch until it was almost time to go to church again!  I have no idea what the big kids were doing during that time, but I vaguely remember one wandering in requesting permission for something to eat and one asking me a question about a marker.  But it's all rather foggy.  After church I came home and got the kids fed and in bed while Michael ran to the pharmacy to pick up a few things (he's been sick for weeks, one of the reasons we are having the party next weekend), and then I walked the lake with a friend.  I quite enjoyed being so unproductive in honor of Tate's birthday... because goodness knows I labored enough on this day two years ago!  ;-) 

I took the girls to my friend Emily for haircuts Monday on our way to Mimi's for Tate's family celebration.  This is only their second haircut ever!  Their first haircuts were more than a year ago at Disney World.  Anna Kate likes having long hair (and is especially proud that ever since Madison got her hair cut, AK always takes first place at regular "Who has the longest hair?" competitions on the playground).  But her hair is so super thick like mine, and brushing it out has become a real point of contention between us.  I've been telling her that it will be easier to comb out if she'll cut it, and she finally agreed.  

SO much better!

Carigan's hair is the complete opposite... very fine.  But when she found out that Drakey's mom was going to cut Anna Kate's hair, she wanted a haircut too.  I can't believe it was really this long.  It never looked this long when not stretched out!  Feeling so pretty with Ms. Emily.^  -BELOW- The "after" pic.  Love having a gorgeous friend to take care of my gorgeous girls and their curls!

Grandpa grilled steaks for us and then I pulled out a few cupcakes so we could sing to Tate.  He seemed to immediately know what was up!

I was actually so surprised when we finished singing and Tate automatically blew out the candle without having to be prompted.  I guess he's seen enough Sesame Street to know what to do with a birthday candle or it's just an inborn little boy inclination!

Tate started eating his cupcake like a puppy (because he loves pretending to be a puppy these days) and then Daddy jokingly did the same.  And then of course Tate went in for a lick of Daddy's cupcake.  

Presents from Mimi & Grandpa!

So it's been a long time since Tate outgrew his monthabirthday updates, so we're way overdue for an official Tate update!

Tate at Two:
He still sucks the same two fingers on his left hand, but only when he has his blankey and is really sleepy.  As I mentioned in my previous post, he has two brown blankeys that he uses interchangeably, and I have to hunt the tag on each blankey for him when we sit down to rock.  He also uses the ties on the crib bumpers as loveys.  He doesn't have a favorite stuffed animal, but he loves to take books and toys that make noise into his crib with him at naptime.  He loves to be read to, and has actually developed the patience to sit and listen to the story without just flipping the pages at random.  He absolutely loves snuggling up with someone, and nothing melts my heart more than catching a glimpse of one of the big kids reading to him.  Even Carigan loves to "read" to him.

Diet wise, he majorly stresses me out.  I've had my fair share of picky eaters and food battles before, but this kid simply won't eat most anything.  He won't drink milk, so ever since I weaned him in November it's just been water and watered down apple juice.  He will still feed himself banana baby food from a jar when he's in the mood, but often shakes his head even at that.  Mimi is the only one that can get him to eat other kinds of baby food, but even with her it's hit or miss.  With me he outright refuses.  He will literally throw a jar across the kitchen if it's a "no."  But he won't eat ANY fruits or veggies in any other form, so baby food is the only fruits or veggies he gets.  I can rarely rarely when the mood strikes him, get him to eat an actual banana.  But he won't touch strawberries, melon, grapes, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, corn, etc.  Just won't.  At the 18 month visit the pediatrician said it's not uncommon to have texture aversions and she was not too worried as long as he was eating baby food.  But now he's really not eating that much baby food and still won't touch the real version of things.  The only things he'll really eat voluntarily are chicken nuggets, PBJ, pizza and then all the snackies.  It's a real struggle to get any "real" food in him.  Sometimes he'll be interested in what his sister is eating and end up opening his mouth wide for big bites of Beefaroni, but then if I try the very next day to give him a bowl of his own, he'll reject it.  It's not fun.  He likes string cheese and yogurt (and ice cream of course) so that's where he gets his dairy.  He used to eat black beans but has refused them for a long time now.  His lack of communication makes it difficult to negotiate with him on food or to enforce stated rules regarding meals.

Speaking of communication, he definitely understands everything, but still only says a few things and is far from talking in sentences.  He shakes his head yes (cutest thing) instead of answering yes to things.  He answers "right there" for just about every question you ask him.  If you try to get him to say Wesley or Anna Kate, he will just point to them instead and say "right there."  He definitely says Mama and Daddy and Grandpa.  Mimi sounds a lot like Mama.  His word for Granddaddy is pretty close.  Other than that he can say please, thank you, ball, book, bye, up, and a few other things.  He babbles all the time and I'm sure is saying a lot more "real" words than we realize.  Just like Wesley, I'm sure Tate "learning to talk" is going to be more of a process of us learning to understand.  He's definitely never quiet, so I'm sure it will start to make more and more sense over time.  I'm not concerned about it at all, because he's clearly very smart (I really don't dwell on fears regarding developmental delays due to pregnancy issues anymore, even though doctors always said it was a possibility).  He's really not "slow" at all.  He just doesn't say a whole lot that makes sense to us yet.  He may end up in speech therapy at some point to help things along, or he could just up and start speaking more clearly in the next year.  But he's definitely completely following everything that's going on and is very communicative.  I guess I should have taught him more signs, but that's never really been my thing.  I could see it helping now though.

As for personality, he likes to be in control!!  He definitely rules the roost and is accustomed to all three big kids giving him whatever he wants.  I'm partially at fault for that because it seems silly for a 9 year old to hold a baby toy and not give it to a baby, but I've definitely conditioned the kids to just give Tate what he wants.  But a lot of it is just that they all love to pamper him.  It's been my observation that the honeymoon ends at three as far as sibling pampering goes, so Tate should have another year before he's fair game for all the petty squabbles the other kids engage in daily.  He truly loves his siblings and runs joyfully in pursuit of them all day.  He is also the feistiest of my kids at this age... he hits his siblings when he's mad.  Luckily he's smart enough not to hit me or Michael.  He can be a real stinker... when he's pretty sure he's in trouble, he will cover his ears.  He wells up into big broken-hearted cries when disciplined, but lets us love on him and gets over it quickly.  He often runs to Anna Kate for comfort when I discipline him.  Anna Kate is definitely his second mom.  Carigan is his playmate and Wesley is his helper.  He will grab Wes by the hand and lead him to what he wants him to get.  He does the same thing to me, often while I'm on the computer.  I think he just doesn't like me working on the computer!    

But he's also a real joy and so sweet and fun.  He is not reserved, laughs easily and runs to hug any stranger that visits our home.  I have to yell "Incoming!" when he spots YaYa outside because he will run and take her legs out from under her if I don't warn her!  He waves at strangers walking down the street and says "Hi!"  Friends visiting me that have never met Tate are always amazed how we will go straight to them and hug them and climb in their laps.  No Rogers kids has ever been lacking for personality.  :-)  Mrs. Palm comments on how she's never seen a baby get so excited to see his siblings every day at carline.  Tate pumps his little legs, waves his arms, and exclaims joyfully as Wesley and Anna Kate climb into the car.  Every. Single Day.  He gives hugs and kisses on demand (complete with preliminary "mmmmmmmmm" sound effects).  He loves to use his imagination and often drops on all fours pretending to be an animal or engages in pretend play with Carigan during Baby School.

His favorite books are 5 Little Monkeys, Goodnight Moon, and Brown Bear Brown Bear.  His favorite shows are Shaun the Sheep, Oswald (unfortunately) and Curious George.  He loves Lego's and instruments and coloring and painting.  He LOVES to be outside.  He goes to cradle roll happily and loves on Nana Susan and smiles at the bag of treats she always keeps nearby.  He runs into the auditorium in search of Mr. Paul and his lollipops, but I try to head him off and hide from Mr. Paul when possible!

He's most definitely left-handed.  He has used nothing but his left hand since infancy.  So I finally got a lefty like me!  If you put a crayon or paintbrush or spoon directly in his right hand, he will immediately transfer it to his left hand.  He has amazing coordination for a toddler, and has been able to do things like stick a straw in and out of a lid since sine he was 9 months old.  He is a little embarrassingly adept at playing games on my phone and on the iPad.  He makes a grunting sound when he's concentrating or just when he's happy... it's his happy sound.  But it doesn't sound that happy.  People often look around at restaurants to see who is growling, and laugh when they realize it's just a baby with a really concentrated look on his face.  He always makes that grunting noise when coloring, playing a game, etc.

He has slept through the night since I weaned him.  His typical bedtime is around 8:30-9:00 and he generally wakes up around 8:00 a.m.  But he rolls with the punches pretty well and can stay up until 10:00 or late when we're out and about and do okay.  He only takes one nap now, going down a few hours after he wakes up in the morning.  He's a pretty good sleeper and doesn't fight it.  He likes to be rocked and read to before I put him to bed.  He does NOT like to be sung to.  He will wag his finder "no, no, no" and then put his finder to his lips and say, "Shhhhh."  And my singing's really not that bad, people!  He shushes everyone when they sing!  Except for Itsy-bitsy Spider and stuff like that... he'll let you do that all day long.  He just doesn't appreciate lullabies. 

He loves all of his grandparents to death and goes running for Mimi & Grandpa every time we go to church.  He starts pumping his little legs and squealing the moment we go through the gate at their neighborhood and he giggles as he runs up their drive to their front door.  One of those priceless images I'll always cherish.  He loves to climb all over Granddaddy and totally gets that he's the one person he can rough house with... he runs up, hits Granddaddy, laughs and runs away.  Granddaddy is all roughness and Tate eats it up.  Grandma is a 24 hour sugar factory, and Tate appreciates it greatly.  I'm pretty much chopped liver when Grandma is around and he's never far from her lap.

Tate loves to take a bath and will sing our little "Let's take a bath" song when he wants to take one.  He sings, "ugh! ugh!" to the right tune and does his special dance... his signature dance involves hopping from foot to foot while alternating arms in the air, like he's holding a large picture frame and tilting it side to side.  Pure joy spreads across his face when he sings the song, and when he sings is mistakenly (sometimes he thinks a bath is coming before bed and it's not), he goes from joyful to totally broken-hearted in slow motion realization.  It's so sad!!!  I usually have to give in, even when Michael is out of town and I really don't have the time.  He usually takes a bath with the girls in the big tub, but he also likes baths in the kitchen sink and even showers with big brother when we're in a hurry.

He is still everyone's favorite thing.  Thank you for all the joy you bring us, Tate!  We love you!!!!