W is 20 Months old!!

Happy 20 months, W!

That scares me.  Mainly because I feel like I JUST wrote your 19 month update… and your 18 month update.  I don’t know where the time is going.

Unfortunately, 20 months is not off to a good start because you woke up with a cold.  But you seem to be in good spirits nonetheless.

In terms of development, we were a bit concerned about your speech.  We’re keeping a close eye on your progress over the next couple months.  But I’m happy to report you’ve added a few new words this month.  You started saying more and juice.  You’ve also said walk, house, button, Dee Dee (Addie) and a couple others words I don’t recall.  You also say mower, as in lawn mower, which sounds the same as “more”.  You’ve been repeating more words that Da and I say.  We’ve gotten a few suggestions from cousin Lindsey, who is a speech pathologist and we’ll continue to work with you.  I’m concerned about your speech, but not overly concerned.  Here’s why: you do seem a bit behind on verbal expression, BUT you excel in other areas.  Like comprehension.  You know so many words.  I’ll ask you to identify objects in books and around the house and you always point to the correct thing.  I think you even know some colors.  You also follow directions.  You make connections and understand relationships.  For instance, one of us will wear a striped shirt and you’ll point to it, then point to your striped rug.  You have no problem matching up puzzle pieces and completing all of your puzzles.  I also keep in mind that your Da and I aren’t the loudest people.  Ma always had teachers say she was quiet and “needed to come out of her shell” and I suspect Da was also pretty quiet in school (I may be wrong).  So I think part of the reason you’re not talkative is a personality trait.  Anyway, enough about that.

You LOVE trucks and we recently picked up a few more at a consignment sale.  You push them around the house and love to play with them on the daybed.  Not sure why.  Maybe you’re imagining you’re on a hill?  You also continue to love being outside and you and Da have spent many, many hours playing in the yard, going to the park, and taking walks.  You love “riding the horsey” on Ma and Da’s lap.  You love chips (Hands down, your favorite snack.  I give you a couple after dinner as a dessert.).  You’ve been “asking” to go to the pool lately by opening a photo album, finding a picture of Da in the pool, and repeatedly pointing to it.  We’ll try to make that happen before the pool closes.  And speaking of photo albums, you love looking at photos and do so almost every day.  You like to find Ma and Da – the toddler version of Where’s Waldo.  You also seem to love our house and your room.  You have much more space to run and play.  Da and I decided your big boy room would be sports themed.  You often wake up and point out the various baseballs, basketballs, footballs, etc. throughout your room.  I love that you love your room. J

Things that you don’t love lately include new foods.  I encouraged you to try pasta.  You touched it, shivered, then gagged.  You’re also not loving church lately.  I think our church friends jinxed us.  They mentioned how great and well behaved you always are.  Well since then, you’ve been getting restless towards the end of mass.  A couple weeks ago, you yelled “goal” and launched yourself off the pew a short time later.  That resulted in lots of tears.  You still hate diaper changes.  Especially the final one – I think you know bed time follows.  Lately, Da changes you and I read you a book.  That seems to be working for the time being.

All in all, we had a great month.  I was at my wits end previously because you were hitting and throwing things – often at poor Addie.  But you’ve gotten so much better.  It still happens, but not as often as it used to.  You’re such a sweet boy almost all the time and Da and I enjoy taking you out and about with us because you’re usually so well behaved.  You are our everything and more, little man!