1. He still has a love for music and can sing along with several songs. His favorites are twinkle, twinkle, Elmo's world, shake your sillies, head-shoulders-knees and toes, and has picked up on lady gagas new song-he will sing the paparazzi part! It's crazy how many songs and tunes he remembers and funny to hear him sing them at random points in the day. I love it!
2. He can count to ten. He loves to count and is really good at it; I would have to say Dave and I are very impressed. Sometimes I will hear him counting in his crib in the mornings; it is quite funny. We are working on coordinating it with his fingers. He tries but we are not there yet!
3. He is constantly talking to me and everyone we encounter. I can understand what he is saying probably 50% of the time, but the rest is just babble. I cannot even tell you how many words he knows, but it is alot and he is doing a really good job of putting them together correctly. Our favorite sayings right now are; "peese, peese, peese"and "ank you" ( he says both in the right context), "herya go" (which is usually when he is handing us something that he knows we use alot. For instance, my hair dryer is always being thrown at me when we are in the bathroom), "____ wher a ew" (where are you?)usually filled in with mama, dadda, ankie (blankie) or papi (paci), and finally he has mastered "ga ma" (grandma)!
4. He gets his feelings hurt when you tell him no in a strict voice. He will run away and dramatically throw himself on the stairs and cry. Dave and I were laughing the other day because it almost sounded like he was complaining that mama is so mean during one of his fits.
5. Our grocery trips are the highlight of his day. He's got the routine down and has all the employees wrapped around his little finger. He knows that he gets a "aloon" (balloon) as soon as we enter the the store, "apple" (pineapple) samples in the produce area, "urkey" (turkey) from his girlfriend at the deli, and "icker" (sticker) from whoever is bagging the groceries and they always give in and give him more than one b/c he asks them for it.
6. You know it's bad when the highlight of our month has been the new season of Sesame Street. The kid is obsessed. He knows all the characters names and will yell them out when they come up on the screen, but Elmo still remains to be his favorite. I try to limit TV time to an hour a day and sometimes when we are in the car, but he is getting very demanding about it lately. He will bring me the remote when it is not on and throw a fit when I don't respond the way he wants.
7. When you ask him a question you can see that he is thinking about what you are asking and if he understands he will usually respond "ya" or "k.".
8. I am starting to wonder if I should read a potty training book. I have heard that boys usually take longer, but he understands certain things associated with it such as potty and shows somewhat of an interest. It is usually around bath time and he will run into our closet shouting "potty, potty" (I was hiding the training potty in our closet up until last week). I will typically take his diaper off and he will sit on it, but won't do anything. A few weeks ago we went through this nightly process and after he sat on the potty he got up and went and peed on Dave's shoe, hence why we moved the potty to his bathroom! This may be a little TMI, but he has also started recognizing when he goes poo-poo and it will say the word after he goes; I hear him doing this in his crib. I will ask him after he goes and he will say "ya" and shake his head, sometimes he has and other times it is just gas. So I am clueless and am open for any suggestions on techniques and books if any of our readers have some!
9. Now that I am home with him he is becoming very attached to his mommy. I know this is not the best thing, but I have to say I don't mind it. It's not to the point where he cannot function without me and I don't think we will ever get to that point.
10. That being said....he constantly wants mine or Dave's attention. His alone playtime is very short lived; I almost think he is bored with all of his toys which I cannot explain how happy I am that Santa will be visiting soon! He always wants to be involved with what we are doing. This has made it very difficult to get anything done while he is awake, especially cooking dinner which I am glad Dave is usually home during to help out.
11. He does not like the group activities at little gym. He prefers to wonder around the gym by himself and shows little interest in the structured activities. This scares me a bit so we are contemplating adding another activity in the spring. We did a free trial at the kindermusik class in Katy a few weeks ago. It was very structured and he seemed to like it. I am just scared that he will not want the structure and misbehave, which I don't get because things around our house have always been very structured and strictly scheduled. Maybe it's the group setting thing???
12. We have been spending more time around kids his age to work on socializing skills. He started off doing really well, but we have recently run into a few issues. He is not very aggressive and at first he would allow other kids to take the toys that he was playing with without a fit. I think he got fed up with it and thinks that all little people are going to take his toys! If another child at play group or little gym would come close to him he would get very frustrated and hold his hand out at them and yell, not hit. We have been addressing it and making sure to stay involved during play dates. It is getting better.
13. His bedtime routine cracks me up! He is very particular about who reads books (dada) and who cuddles (mama). He takes his bottle (yes, he is still on a bottle #14) while dada reads a few books and precisely puts it on his table when it is half done so that he can save the rest for cuddle time with mama!
14. His love for his bottle. He will drink juice and water from a sippy cup, but refuses to take milk. Yells at me if I try. Doctor said go cold turkey, but that is easier said than done. How do you take something that they love so much away. Breaks my heart.
15. Loves his kisses...sometimes! "ki-ki" aka kiss-kiss is heard often lately and we love it. It is so funny because when he says it whoever is around at the time gets it! It is often followed by a big "muaaahh." He even takes his plastic Elmo and Ernie bath toys and says "ki-ki" and then makes them kiss.
16. The bond between him and our dog Bailey is still growing stronger. David loves to take her on our walks with us. He is very adamant that he hold on to the leash and walk her, but she ends up walking him! He thinks it's hilarious. She typically will take off pulling him in his car or stroller behind him.
17. He is often mistaken for a 2 1/2 year old based on his size. His last measurements were taken at his 18 month apt and he was in the 97 percentile for height! He weighs a little over 26 lbs, which is only 50-75 percentile but is very heavy to me. I struggle getting him in and out of the car and it is getting harder to hold him for periods of time. I think I probably have lost 6lbs. from carrying him around all the time!
18. We have taken up a new family hobby...biking. We did a lot of research and bought the co-pilot to sit on the back of Dave's bike. It was originally going to be installed on my cruiser so that I could go riding with him during the day, but he is sooo heavy and we thought it might be best for me to practice on Dave's bike first. It is really hard! David seems to love our family rides; he even has his own little helmet. He looks adorable in it!
19. We are in the holiday spirit around here! When asked what a turkey says he responds with "ga gal ga l" (gobble, gobble, gobble) and if you say Santa he responds "ho, ho, ho"
20. Sneak Peak from our holiday/20 month photo session done by our friend and photog Amanda Green. It was definitely our toughest shoot yet, but she did a wonderful job capturing the moment. You'll have to wait until our Christmas cards are mailed out for more!
