21 Months

From _Lightroom

There were a bunch of things I wanted to write about his development, but as I sit down to do it they've clean left my head.  I feel confident I will still find something to tell you.

He's 21 months old.  In three months he will be two.  More and more he is not the "baby".  He is a true little boy.  He understands everything.  You can ask him to go get anything and he will go get it.  Give him a task, he can do it.  Will he?  That's up to him and his whims.  This has been true for a while I guess, but his cognition is always impressive.  He talks all the time.  But it's not always understandable?  I worry that he's regressing to babbling and not saying words, but then today I said "mommy needs shoes," and he said, "yes, mawy needs shoooos."  And he went into my closet.  Presumably to get shoes though he got distracted.  So I think he's okay.  He still only has about twenty words that normal people could understand.

He is very confident with his use of the word "bye."  He says it all the time (appropriately).  When he is ready to leave a place (a playdate, a store, the library) he waves at the masses and says "bye."  Emphasis on the E at the end. So it's like ba-Eeee.  And then I guess it's just up to me to follow suit?

From _Lightroom

Meal times are still a disaster.  He eats better, but he will not try anything new.  He won't even pick it up.  And he'll suddenly refuse things he was eating all the time.  He's been anti-banana for about three weeks now and before they were my go to "fill him up" food.  He also loved peaches.  Now he wont touch them. He was eating apples.  Now he's done with them.  I'm sure next week this will all change.  But we're trying to get him to eat beans - fail. Tortillas - moderate success. Gnocci or pasta - fail.  He tried the non-cooked pasta.  But once I cooked it?  Wouldn't even look at it, and wouldn't put it on a fork, wouldn't pick it up.

And please ... spare me the "he'll eat when he's hungry" diatribes.  No, no he really wont.  I'm not sure what the deal is, if it's a mental thing or if it's a taste thing or what his hold up is ... but there's no reasoning with it.  And therefore I endure.  Until I can reason with it.  And then it's on.  I do try.  I really do. I have instituted you "have to eat more before you can get down."  Which he semi-understands.  Causation is still a work in progress.  But we are getting there.

From _Lightroom

He started trying to jump, which in toddler means he's bouncing on the balls of his feet and giggling like he thinks he's going somewhere.  He runs everywhere but he's been doing that.  Climbs everything.  Loves stairs, much to my chagrin, and knows no fear when attempting to go down them.  One of his favorite things to do lately is tour empty houses.  I think he likes that when he squeals it echos.  And there's no furniture to run into.

Bed time, as I've mentioned here, is a pleasant experience lately.  Even nap time.  I ask him, "are you ready for bed?" and he says yeah and down he goes.  I've been laying a small blanket over him when I lay him down, and he giggles and lays all quiet until I close the door.  And then as soon as I'm gone he kicks it off and starts throwing it around the crib.  Does he think he's getting away with something?  I'm not sure.  It's pretty cute.  He takes one nap (has been for months this isn't new) that's somewhere between 12 - 3.  He's been going down at 1 and sleeping till 2:30-3pm.  Then bedtime routine starts about 6:45 and he's in his crib by 7:10.  It takes him a few minutes to settle in.  But he's asleep somewhere around 7:30.  He wakes up at 7:15ish every morning.

I'm jinxing myself on the naptime bit.  But oh well.

From _Lightroom

Oh the dog. How we love the dog.  He started crawling in the kennel with the dog months ago and I've gotten a few pics but today he was posing with her!  It was too cute.

From _Lightroom

Mavvy is a trooper and G is not always kind.  He pulls ears and whiskers and tails and legs and I tell him all the time, "be gentle!"  He pets her and says good girl but his pets are more like whacks and Mavvy winces with each "pet."  But he's gotten a really good arm and he'll throw the ball for her and he loves that she chases after it and brings it back and will dance around him with it, teasing him with the ball.  She's not that great at fetch.

From _Lightroom

He rides the dog now, too.  This one does not go over well.  I save the dog when I can but mostly I tell her to suck it up.  He feeds her every day (eh, every day?) she can endure.  And he's fed her enough table scraps that she should be bowing down to him.  And he ensures she gets a walk more often than not.

From _Lightroom

None of these things are the things I wanted to write down, dash it all.  He has pretend kitchen toys that he adores.  Still loves his cars and balls.  We have learned all of our obvious body parts and we are working on our, achem, less obvious body parts.  I tell him all the time that this is his body, and no one gets to touch him if he doesn't want them to.  Even mommy and daddy.

He loves the trash trucks that come by picking up trash.  We saw them today.  He tries - I stress tries - to sing the ABC's.  And it may not even be that song.  It may be another song.  And he babbles for a few stanza's and then claps and says "yea" for himself.  Too cute.

Yesterday my neighbors daughter was outside playing (about the same age) and they actually played! Together!  Normally they parallel play near each other.  Yesterday they were playing peekaboo around a tree together.  And then they had cars and a ball that they were playing with.  G, bless his sweet heart, is a good sharer.  But I know this will change when he discovers "mine."  But he has not discovered "no" too much, so maybe he will stay my sweet boy.

He loves his daddy.  He plays with his daddy completely differently than he plays with me.  Oh we taught him "ring around the rosies" and he loves it.

He says "help" now too, I think I mentioned in an earlier post.  But it's getting a bit old because he'll ask for help at meal times and he should really do that on his own.  Oh well.  We all get there at some point.

I like to think about G because I'm the one that knows him best.  And he knows this too.  Which is why when he's communicating and he can't get his message across to whomever, he will come to me.  And I will sort it out.  Though last night - ha - we were playing with bubbles in the bathtub.  And he was overtired so when it was time to quit he cried and fussed.  So we get on the changer and I'm getting ready everything ready and he keeps saying "b" something and I thought he was saying bubbles and just fussing about it still.  So I tell him no and to calm down, stop crying and he cries harder and big crocodile tears and he's pointing and saying this b word over and over and finally I stop what I'm doing and pay attention and the poor child is asking for his blanket not bubbles and he thought I told him he couldn't have it.  So I give it to him and apologize and all is right with the world.  Mean mommy in deed to not let him have his blanket.

I can not believe he is going to be two this year.  It seems like just yesterday it all started, and he wasn't sleeping, and I thought I'd never be able to do this well.  And maybe I'm not doing it "well."  But I think I'm doing it good enough.