Teddy is 21 Months Old!

Teddy is 21 months old and amazes me more every single day. He is so much fun at this age and he is typically a very happy boy. He loves to interact with others and will yell out "Hi, HI" to strangers in hopes of getting a smile from them. He calls any little children we see his "friends" and also immediately says hi to them too. We are still not sure how our little man became so outgoing! I took him to a baby shower last week at the school where I used to work. In a room full of about 30 ladies, he stood in the center of the circle and danced around, lifted his shirt to show his belly, and pretty much did anything he could to get laughs and smiles. He is even friendly to inanimate objects. Yesterday as we were walking out of the library he started yelling, "Bye books. Bye chair!" over and over again! Although it doesn't seem like he has grown much lately in height, his vocabulary continues to grow each day. He can count to 6, recognizes all of his letters, and will "sing" several of his favorite songs. It is really fun to watch him play now as his imagination is developing. But most of all, he makes me laugh every single day and I am so thankful for him.

"Oh yeah!"

After the first Leapfrog video taught Teddy the entire alphabet along with their sounds, I quickly ordered the next video in the series. Not only does Teddy love this one too, but he sings right along with it at the end. You will also notice his new dance moves!

"

"OH YEAH!"

Go Hawkeyes!

Like father, like son...

Catching Up

Fall is already here, Teddy is another month older, and I am behind on this blog! Here are some random pictures of what Teddy has been up to this month. I am also going to post some videos, but they will be in separate posts. It is much easier to upload them through Youtube, but it makes each video a different post. Anyway, Teddy has recently really started enjoying playing with the basketball. He shows very good effort:

Here is a cute picture of Teddy and his friends at the Teddy Bear Picnic:

We celebrated cousin Caroline's 11th birthday on September 12. As always, Teddy loved getting attention from Maggie:

Did I mention Caroline turned 11? She is definitely a pre-teen. We went out to dinner, and she repeatedly said she did not want us to sing to her. Of course we sang anyway....

Above you see the chair where Caroline was sitting until we started singing. I didn't follow her

to the bathroom to continue taking pictures. Luckily, when she returned to the table, she cheered up:

She is starting to look a lot more like her mom these days, isn't she?

Somebody was happy though when he got dessert:

Caroline did really like her bongo drums from Grandma Judy. Everyone had fun playing them:

We had a MOMs club board meeting at our house, but the highlight of the almost 3 hour meeting was when the garbage truck came. All of the kids rushed to watch:

Teddy and his buddy Vanley got to sit in a firetruck when we visited the fire station:

Teddy is still doing really well in his toddler bed (knock on wood) but the other day he would not lay down for his nap until he had both Elmos. So funny:

Teddy helped Shae harvest the rest of the beans from his garden:

We enjoyed one last pool day before the pools closed for the season. The baby pool was a little warmer than the big pool:

At least we can still go out on the lake. Here is Shae on his new inflatable kayak:

We walked down to the lake just to say hi to Shae, but Teddy immediately started saying, "Go in Dadda boat. Go in Dadda boat!" Of course, we couldn't say no that that.

But only on one condition...

... he had to paddle! I think he had fun:

The night before we left for our trip to Canada, Shae's friend Julia came to visit. She got to meet Teddy for the first time, and Teddy found another person to shower him with attention!

He seemed to enjoy it.

Most of the time Teddy will not keep a hat on his head... but occasionally he asks to wear one. When that happens, he keeps it on. Check out his cool Elmo hat:

One of Teddy's favorite things these days are steering wheels. Here he is driving a firetruck at the mall:

When I had a doctor's appointment recently, Aunt "Mir-mo" came to babysit. I know that Teddy had a blast... he keeps saying, "Aunt Mir-mo funny. Ha ha ha." I am pretty sure Aunt Mir-Mo had a blast too! Here they are going down the slide:

Teddy plays the blues

After a fun week traveling and spending time with his cousins, aunts, uncle, and grandpa, Teddy returned home. When he realized he was stuck with just his mom all day, he felt like playing the blues:

Teddy Goes to Canada to celebrate Shae's Birthday!

We were very excited to travel all of the way to Oakville Canada to visit the Weinsteins. Although our flight to Buffalo didn't leave until after 9:00pm, Teddy was a trooper. He enjoyed watching the planes take off while we waited to board our plane:

And he did fabulous on the flight. He was asleep about 45 minutes into the flight.

However, it was after 1am when we finally went to bed in our hotel. The next morning we were a little slow moving. But we were ready to go see Niagara Falls.

OK...so maybe we were still a little tired. Here is Teddy as we parked to see Niagara Falls:

He perked up though when we showed him the big waterfalls:

The giant bear was pretty cool too:

We had fun at Niagara Falls, but we were really happy to get to the Weinstein's house. The dogs were happy to see us too:

Teddy immediately jumped right in to the girls' playroom. He had a blast!

Teddy and Harper enjoyed some reading time:

Meal time was also lots of fun:

But I think his favorite was riding Finley's bike. A princess one, of course:

(And yes, he is in his Elmo PJ's.) All of the children loved playing outside. Harper found a special treat in the garden:

Here we are at Lake Ontario. It was beautiful.

After we walked around the lake, Teddy had his first experience going out for sushi.

He liked using the chopsticks.... but mostly as drum sticks.

(Notice the pretty fairy wings in the next picture).

On Saturday we went to Burlington, Canada for the largest rib fest in Ontario. Teddy gives Harper a hug at the festival:

His favorite part.... the chocolate chip cookie!

Teddy had tons of fun hanging out with his cousins. He worked on his hula hooping...

driving...

and even cornhole.

But one of his favorite things to do is listen to stories. Aunt Sammie read to all the children:

We found out one thing that is NOT Teddy's favorite though....

He was not a fan of the cousin bubble bath!

We also went to a splash park one afternoon. I am not sure who had the most fun:

Finley helped us get ready to celebrate Shae's birthday. She helped plan the party and helped make the yummy cup cakes.

Happy Birthday Shae!

(Finley also helped pick out Uncle Shae's hat).

Everyone helped eat the cupcakes.

Teddy and Finley snuggled under a blanket as they read some books:

More books!

Monday was Shae's birthday, so we started the day off with presents!

Then we all took a train into Toronto.

Teddy LOVED the train ride.

After the train, we took a ferry to an island. Teddy loved that as well.

3 generations of Hoscheks (otherwise known as copy... copy...)

Everyone had fun at the playground:

We went out to lunch to a sports bar that has a HUGE TV. It also has HUGE birthday desserts:

On our way home on the train:

This time Teddy was a little less enthusiastic about the train...

He was little tired:

Good thing he rested up though, because that night we had a DANCE PARTY! And even Grandpa Steve was dancing....

Like father, like daughter:

Happy Birthday Shae!

As always, the Weinsteins were gracious hosts and we had lots of fun hanging out with family. Before we knew it, it was time to go home. We decided to buy a seat for Teddy for the plane ride home, since it was in the middle of the day.

He seemed to enjoy it...

until he fell asleep...

Good thing we bought that seat....

...for Elmo!