A YEAR & A HALF

i haven't been very good at giving cedar the lime light on here lately, & since today is cedars half birthday, making him one & a half, i thought it was time to do an update! it truly feels like just yesterday we were celebrating his first birthday, & that last christmas when he was just barley starting to crawl & sitting up on his own just happened. but i guess it didn't. instead of being that little baby he's basically a toddler who is fully capable of deleting the entire blogpost i wrote up earlier today, about him, while i was in the kitchen. thank you cedar! cedar has seriously learned so much in the last 6 months. he's grown up a lot & it really shows. he is constantly learning & applying what he learns to his daily life & i get to watch it all happen.
cedar has a deep love for animals, which started before he turned one, but i'm thinking it's a deeper love now. every day when we're on our way somewhere, he points at every single pigeon & dog he sees in the streets & makes a gasping noise, then looks to me just to make sure that i also saw it. the other day when we were walking by a toy shop he saw all the toy animals in the window & glued his face to the glass. we let him stare for a good couple minutes before having to pull him away & making him have a complete meltdown. all day long he plays with his toy animals, feeds them his lunch & snacks, tries to give them water (he also makes eating/drinking noises for this & it's adorable), he lines them up all over the house, on anything: the couch, the table, the arm of the couch, along drawers, along his stroller.. seriously, animals. everywhere. he makes the noises for them, & carries them all over. he's obsessed! now, he's not the greatest at animal noises yet, but he does have the elephant down & he raises his arm like an elephant trunk everytime & everytime it makes me laugh.
cedar has entered the cuddly stage & let me tell you, it is the besssst thing ever! he wasn't an overly cuddly baby, so for him now to be into cuddling is my favorite. he gives adorable snuggle hugs where he lays his head on your shoulder & pats your back, he'll let you cuddle him on the couch, he will lay & cuddle his stuffed animals or blankets on the floor & not fight it. it's just the best, i really love this & want him to never grow out of it! i especially think it's adorable when he'll let me make him a bed on the floor when he watches a tv show. he normally only stays in it for about 10 minutes, but those 10 minutes are solid gold, especially when i'm trying to get other stuff done.
he loves to eat, almost anything, but right now he is really into cuties & raisins for his snacks, & for meals he loves a good sandwich (as long as he can hold it), & somehow indian food. he devours indian food. he's also really into kebab, which is great because austin & i both love it, it's cheap & it's pretty much the mexican food of europe (meaning it is everywhere, like mexican food in the states. sadly, there is no mexican food here. i don't want to talk about it). along with sharing his food with his animals, cedar likes to make sure i get a bite or two of everything he eats, even if i really do not want it. he insists. & i guess i can't be too upset since he's sharing & all.
since our move, we've had to teach cedar that if he's walking outside he needs to hold our hands, since there is so much going on around us. at first it took a little while for him to do it, but now every time we go outside & he's not in his stroller he stops & reaches up his hand until he gets one of our hands, & a lot of the times he won't go until he's holding both mine & austin's hands. it's really melts my heart holding his tiny hand in mine & knowing that he just sort of gets it. he's really starting to understand so much, it is insane to me. where did the tiny baby go!? 
cedar does a couple of things that a lot of people are shocked by: voluntarily goes to bed & to take a bath. it's the strangest thing, but everyday around 1:45 he'll get up from whatever he's doing, go around the house gathering his blankets that he's strewn about, find a paci & goes to his crib. he's done. he's ready & he wants a nap. it's so funny to me, & extremely conveinent. he'll also do this for bedtime. every night i tell him it's time for bed, he repeats the nap process & gives us hugs & kisses & heads for his room. it is amazing. i kind of wonder how long this will last for, but i hope it's forever. he pretty much does this same thing for baths too. after dinner i always tell him it's bathtime & he runs down the hall sort of yelling & goes straight into the bathroom & waits for me or austin to get there to put him in. how on earth did i get this kid?! oh, & anytime he sees one of us brush our teeth he wants to brush his. seriously, i don't know how this happened. i have no special tricks, he's just really into personal hygiene & sleep.
cedars is really great a playing peek-a-boo. it doesn't have to be with a specific person by any means, he just likes to cover his face & uncover it with an excited look. people on the street love it here. he also really enjoys hiding in his tent & jumping out at whoever is in his room, so that's fun. cedar has also become quite the flirt, especially when we're on the metro. he flirts & giggles, gets shy & waves at all the cute girls. he insists on sitting on my lap if he's ever watching a tv show or movie, which i think is cute of him, especially when he backs up, eyes on the tv, until he hits my ankle & kind of just topples over into my lap.
having a baby is fun, but having an 18 month old is even better.

13 comments

  1. awwww cedar is the cuuuutest and i miss him!!! haha i also really like that he's "really into personal hygiene." :)

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  2. INIDAN FOOD! oh man, score!! I love indian food-- hopefully my kids will as well.

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    1. haha i don't know how it happened, but we just always feed cedar what we eat! i don't make him "baby meals" so, just try that!

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  3. I could eat him up - he is soooo adorable!

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  4. The only thing cuter than toddlers in bow ties may be toddler with sock monkeys. He's a winner.

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    1. that boy tie seriously gets me everytime :) thanks!

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  5. I don't think I've mentioned how much I love the name "Cedar"- it's so cool and unique! And I think it's so cute that he gasps every time he sees an animal. Oh, and that picture of him laying down with all of his animal toys is too precious!

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    1. thanks so much emma! people either love or hate his name, doesn't seem to have any middle ground, but i always like when people like it!

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  6. ah kerry i can really hear your love for motherhood in this post. cedar really is a dreamboat of a kid.

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    1. thanks kayla, you truly leave the nicest comments!

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  7. it's so cute to hear all about cedar...i don't know where he came from either...you certainly weren't that way! maybe its' from austin....miss that baby!

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