Little man - 22 months

Play 

You are obsessed with cooking! You take out all the pots and pans and you pour and stir beans or your Pom poms in them. You also shake your spices into the pot.

You love to sing and dance and you have started doing hand motions when we sing Twinkle Twinkle and Wheels on the Bus.

Behavior

You are such a big kid now. It's amazing to see the changes in your personality as you discover the world. You are becoming more independent every day. You have started throwing tantrums when you don't get what you want - when you want it. However you also understand when we say "first we need to do ----, and then you can have ----." Sometimes this appeases you for a short time.

Eating

You are starting to try more "regular" food - meaning you will eat what mommy and daddy are eating. You love chili beans, and you like my homemade pizza - yay!

You have started trying sweets too. You like vanilla ice cream.

You like bacon too!

Sleeping

You are an amazing sleeper. You sleep with a lightweight cotton blanket now.  You take one nap in the afternoon from about 1-3 and you go to bed around 745/8:00.

Talking

I started a list of words you can say last month - and we got up to about 50. Now the list is so long I can't keep track. You try to copy everything we say! And you've started carrying on these long conversations of jibberish that I'm sure will make sense very soon.

Little man - 21 months

Ohhhhh the changes this month! You are so aware of the world and very sure about what you want and when you want it.

Talking

Your talking and vocabulary have grown in leaps and bounds. At last count you say about 50 words and you understand hundreds! Recently you've been trying to carry on conversations with us by stringing nonsense words together.

Behavior

You are a kissing machine! Oh how I love that kissey face. You will stop in the midst of pretty much anything to give a kiss. You also lean in with the sweet kiss face any time you are in trouble or we reprimand you for doing something naughty. You are incredibly hard to resist! Little stinker :)

You understand what you should and should not do but you test the boundaries all day every day. Sometimes you are a great listener and you can be super helpful! 

Play

You love books and you love to read the same books over and over again. You like to find pictures in one book and then find the same pictures in a different book. You also find the hidden pictures - like the tiny mouse on every page of your zoo book or the balloon in Good Night Gorilla.

You are still obsessed with cars, trucks and planes.

Dylan is still your favorite toy and the two of you play together all the time. You recently started trying to hug and kiss him a lot which is does not like but he tolerates.

You like to watch Play With Me Sesame on tv and you like to play on the iPad. There is a counting game you like and also a matching game.

Eating

Some days you will eat whatever I give you and other days you have a very strong opinion about what you want to eat. You have started eating oatmeal again after a few month break :) you still won't eat eggs or any meat besides chicken hot dogs. You are a fruit and veggie kid!

Sleeping

You have gone back and forth on your naps this month but it seems we have finally settled with one afternoon nap right after lunch. Your night sleep is the same - you sleep from 8ish until 6:30-7ish.

Little man - 20 months

Talking

Your talking has exploded this month!

Noooo... You started saying no this month and not just shaking your head. Right now it is the cutest sweetest no ever and you use it a lot! Sometimes you say no when you mean yes but other times your no can be very helpful when deciding what you want to eat or which shoes to put on.

Bam has now taken the place of please, plane, paci, plant.

You call daddy "daddam" and you started saying "poppa". You called poppa George poppa on our last visit to see him before he passed away. Such a bittersweet memory.

Climbing

You can climb up into the glider in your room and you will sit there to read books. You can also climb up onto the couch by yourself and you bury yourself in the pillows. We had that part of the living room blocked off with our big ottoman but even that doesn't stop you now.

Books

You are obsessed with books this month. You point to the pictures and we say the words or we ask you "where's the ___" and you point to it. Your favorite this month is your new truck book, Where do Diggers Sleep at Night? You are also fascinated by all of your first words books. You like to connect the pictures in the books with real things or with other pictures of the same thing.

Phone

You still love to carry around your phone. This month Grammy bought you your own phone that talks to you and plays music. You carry it with you everywhere.

You have a short attention span for watching TV this month. We started watching Mickey Mouse playhouse and Play with me Sesame.

You have become a great helper around the house! You love to clean and you love to help in the kitchen. 

You like to eat things whole this month or have them cut up in a very precise way. If they're cut wrong you won't eat it. You are deciding things that you do or don't like. You won't eat veggie burgers anymore but you love pickles! Funny kid.

Sleeping

We are almost ready for one nap! When we have class or an outing in the morning you take one nap and on other days when you're home you still take two. It's very hard for you to fall asleep at night on two nap days.

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.