Little man - 19 months

Talking 

You are saying so many new words! This week you started using "up" and "yummy" all the time.

You say "dupahdupdup" all the time - we have no idea what this means yet but it sounds so funny.

You also shrug your shoulders and make this funny little "hmm" sound when I ask you "where's daddy? Or where's grandma?"

Play

You are obsessed with your baby and your other stuffed animals this month. We bought you a Shamu when we went to Sea World and you love him.

You LOVE trucks! You get so excited when we see trucks driving on our street and on the freeway. You point to your ear when you hear a truck or motorcycle go by and you ask to see the garbage truck every morning when you hear him out front of our building. You get super excited when you hear sirens too. 

You like playing in the kitchen with pots and pans more than anything. 

This month you've started to really enjoy playing chase and hide and seek. You get it and you love for us to chase you and you like to try to find us when we hide.

Eating - from one day to the next you change your mind about what foods you like and don't like.

Sleep - we are trying to transition to one nap a day. Most of the classes and storytimes for your age are in the mornings and we don't want to miss out! Most days you take one nap - often with a morning catnap in the car - and some days you still take two naps. Nighttime you have been waking up more this month - could be new teeth or just another growth spurt.

You have started to give real kisses when we ask you. Oh my word it is the sweetest thing ever. This month Grammy also taught you how to do "fishy face" so now we do fishy kisses too. 

You are getting good at following directions when we ask you to do something or when we are singing a song. Like in "Happy and you know it" you will clap your hand and stomp your feet. 

You LOVE to help clean. When something spills you ask for a paper towel and you help me to clean it up. You also point out each little spot that I miss when we are cleaning.  You are starting to help clean up your toys when we are done playing. It's often very directed clean up but you are definitely catching on!

We went to the beach with friends this month and you loved it!  You played in the sand for hours and you were brave enough to walk down to the water too. Once the waves got to our feet you immediately wanted to be picked up - but still a huge improvement for last summer!

Travelling with a toddler

And a husband....

Lots of planning and preparations are necessary to keep both of them happy.

We took a family trip to San Diego and took the little man to Sea World and the Wild Animal park (which they now call the Zoo safari Park and it is not at all how I remember it) for the first time. He loved both places - in fact he loves everything about travelling with the exception of eating unknown foods.

One of our hotels had a splash pad and the little man loved it! He was super brave from far away but them when he got close to the water he wanted dad to go with him. So cute.

Overall the trip was a success! We learned a few things to do differently next time but the little man had a blast and that's the most important part. He loves being in a hotel room and also loves exploring new places.  Right now he is obsessed with trucks and one day we were waking in Coronado and it was packed with delivery trucks - literally one after the next driving down the street. He was in heaven!

Talking

You are starting to copy things that we say and you will attempt to say most things that we ask you.

The newest word is your version of "thank you" and "you're welcome". You say what sounds like "cook em" or "coke em" which must be "welcome" but you mostly use it for thank you. It is quite hilarious.

You have also just started signing and saying "please" (peas) pretty much simultaneously. You rub the whole front of your body to say it - and your back too! After a few days of saying please you have now started saying "bee-yum" which comes out "bam" ??? Not sure why or what it means but it is so funny.

You say wow, plane, go, mama, dada, ssh, muh (milk), thank you, welcome, please, Dylan, pee pee and baby. 

You try to say up, car, boat, truck, all gone, and will repeat most other words we say. You are getting good at repeating the first sound in most words.

First trip to urgent care

18 month milestone

You fell and bonked your head on that shelf under our desk and split your forehead. Poor kid! It bled quite a bit but you were such a trooper. We took you to urgent care and they cleaned it out and glued it shut - I guess stitches are no longer the way to go?! So you've got a purple blob of glue on your forehead.

A few minutes after it happened you were already waving and laughing. It was definitely way more traumatic for mommy and daddy.

Little man - 18 months

You are such a friendly little guy! You love to wave at everyone including strangers. 

Talking

Your sign language has taken off this month and the cutest new expression you do is for "I don't know" - you put both arms out and lift your shoulders with the funniest little "hmm" sound. You also motion for us to "sssh" when Dylan is sleeping or anyone is sleeping in a book. When we tell you something is hot you hold your hand to your mouth and blow in it to cool it down. Hilarious.

You are trying to say some new words this month - the best new one is "thank you". It gets clearer every day. Sometimes you even try to say "thank you dada". The number of words that you understand is astonishing to us. We ask you to get things from around the house (your milk, socks, shoes,etc) and you understand all of it. 

You also say "plane" and point to the sky when you and Daddy go outside together.

More words are coming - we often think we hear you saying something once but then you won't repeat it. Stubborn.

Play

You are obsessed with your toy phone and you carry it with you everywhere. Hmm I'm guessing you are mimicking our behavior?! So sad that we always have our iPhones. But adorable that you understand what phones are for - you pretend to push the buttons and you hold the phone up to your ear to talk.

Kisses - you blow kisses all the time. Well you hold your hand to your mouth and say "mmmm" but we haven't quite got the next part yet. 

Books - You love reading books and this month you especially like your First Words books with the pictures and the labels. You will point to each picture in a book to have us tell you what each thing is. You ask us to read the same books over and over. You still love Good Night Gorilla and Brown Bear.

Climbing- You are climbing on everything! You try to balance on books, bins, toys, and your ride on toys constantly. You want to reach up to anything that is higher.

You love to dance! We have a dance party every day. You often ask for me to turn on the music by going in your room and pointing to the iPod. 

Eating - you are getting really good at feeding yourself with a spoon and fork! Amazing. You love chicken hot dogs :) yay! Finally some good meat protein in your diet.

Sleeping - we had a few days this month where you only took one nap during the day! I thought for sure we had turned the corner but you weren't quite ready and after a few days the lack of sleep caught up with you and we are back to two naps per day. You still sleep at night from about 8-6:30. Bedtime has been a bit later since you are still taking your afternoon nap.

Bath time - you like to pour the water from your cup onto your face and pretend to "drink" the water. You often actually drink more than I would like.

We got you a potty this month just to try it out. Sometimes you like to sit on it just for fun and read a book or magazine of course!

Sign language

Your sign language has exploded this month! It's so fun to be able to communicate with you and for you to respond back.

You started signing "more" and "all done" fairly consistently when you are eating and you will do both signs on command.

We also sign for "are you hungry?" and you will sign back "eat".  We have our own sign for washing your hands and you have started doing that one too! 

Even better, you use the sign for "more" in other contexts too - when we're playing a game you like or you want to read a book again. 

We were at Old Navy yesterday and they have this big neon sign with huge lights. Your dad took you over to see it and you were amazed - then you signed "more" and pointed to the sign while we were waiting in line to pay. You make it very clear what you want and when you want it.

This is your new favorite face!

Little man - 17 months

It feels like you do something new every day! You have such a fun and playful personality and you are quite sneaky when you're doing things you know you're not supposed to do!

Talking

You are babbling a LOT with new sounds and you copy sounds and words that we say. Lately you've been doing this "rahrahrah" sound with a deep voice a lot. We're not sure what that's from but it's funny to hear. You will copy mama, dada, ball, gaga, lala, Dylan (you say deelah but it sounds really close), go go, and wow. It's funny how some words you will copy easily and others you won't even try (like up or please).

You have started signing "more" in the right context. You do one hand the right way with all your fingers together and the other one is an open palm - your own sign language - I love it. You also sign "all done" when you're done eating.

You shake your head "no" all the time but sometimes you use no when you really mean it. Like when you're getting in the bathtub you like to pick out your bath toys by shaking your head no for the ones you don't want. You also like for me to turn on the shower when you're in the tub. I bring the shower head down low so we can use it on your body and over your head too. The other night you turned on the shower when it was still up high and you freaked out for a minute - but then you liked it!

We went to Underwood Farms with your class and went on a strawberry picking tour. You loved the tractor ride and you really loved picking strawberries! You ate so many berries while mommy was picking the ones to take home :)

Sleep 

You are such a good little sleeper. You still take two naps each day and you sleep about 11 hours at night. We still put you to bed around 7:30-7:45 and you wake up around 6:30-6:45. You did have one day this month when Grandma took you to school that you only took one nap just like a big kid.

Eating

You are feeding yourself with a spoon and fork and you are getting really good at it! You have also recently liked having bigger pieces of food and taking bites of them yourself instead of me giving you the food cut up. Here I gave you a whole hard boiled egg for the first time :)

You have two more teeth coming in on top next to your molars. I see the little white points poking through so I'm sure they'll be here soon. We had a few days this month of super cranky teething baby and you had a low fever too so it's always nice when the teeth start to show through and the crankiness goes away. You are a trooper, I can only imagine how much it hurts.

Books

You are starting to get better at really pointing at things while we are reading. Your favorite book this month is Good Night Gorilla. You will ask us to read it over and over and over again. It's not one of our favorites but we read it anyway ;)

Climbing

You now use your stepstool in the bathroom to wash your hands and brush your teeth. This is so great except now you think everything is a stepstool! You climb on your toys and use them as steps to try to get things that are out of your reach. We have to watch you even more carefully now!

You now "blow kisses" when someone is leaving or to say goodnight. You put your hand up to your mouth and go "mmm". It's adorable. Sometimes you will give me a real kiss when I ask for it and you lean over with a big open mouth to get your kiss. Too cute.

Love you more every day.

Xoxo