19 Months Old

19 Months Old

(Best we could get with the squirrely monkey this morning)

His stats (from BabyCenter):

Weight: 30.3 pounds (between 75th and 90th percentile)

Height: 35 inches (95th percentile)

Head Size: 20.5 inches (above 95th percentile)

What he’s doing this month:

• Trying to communicate – He is getting better at answering questions with ‘yea’ but has yet to say ‘no,’ so that is only a marginally effective way of communication. J The pediatrician also suggested we ask questions with two options instead of just yes/no, so I’ve been trying to do more of that this month. This morning at breakfast I heard him say ‘done’ and passed it off as another ‘dah!’ but then I caught it and said, ‘Did you say ‘done’?’ And he looked at me like YES! I DID say DONE! Then he started to unclip the tray from his highchair and lifted up his cup for me so I could take the tray off to wash. We had a moment. J
• Other words are few – He points at things and uses ‘words’ that only we understand. Finally the other night, he very clearly used the word BALL for the first time which was very sweet to hear. He also said Vroom Vroom yesterday when we were playing with his cars. He really likes when we make sound effects/funny noises with his cars, and he tries to mimic them (especially siren noises). His other ‘words’ (that aren’t quite words) are shirt, shorts, socks, shoes, dog, tree, plane, truck, and car.
• Sleep is getting back to normal, still. We were back, then we weren’t, and now we’re getting back. He had a few days this week where he did not nap—one of the days he just kept popping back out of his crib with the greatest of ease. He’d been staying in since the whole crib-bed-back to crib fiasco, but that day, he figured out  that the pillows we’d put down to cushion his fall were actually great landing pads (making climbing out easier/less scary). I tried putting him back in and walking out a few times, but he was out again by the time I got out the door, so I gave up and just let him roam his room (he pulled out all of his books and made a mess of his room) for an hour or so.
• Eating with a fork/spoon – He all of a sudden figured it out! We were out to dinner a few weeks ago, and we had ice cream after our meal (free at Jason’s Deli). We were giving him bites in between our bites, and then he grabbed the spoon and started scooping it out and feeding himself. Apparently we weren’t getting it to him fast enough! Since then, we’ve been consistently giving him a fork at meals, and he’s really getting good at it. He still has trouble stabbing some foods at times (like blueberries yesterday), but they roll, and he’s just learning, so that is to be expected. J He also tries to stab unstabbable foods (crackers, cheerios, etc.) so we’re working on distinguishing the two.
• Dancing on cue – If a song comes on, we can say, “Lewis, can you dance?’ and he’ll start shimmying his arms and twisting and bouncing. I’m going to try to get it on video because it’s awesome.
• Become a slave to marketing – We were perusing sippy cups the other day at Babies R Us, and he saw a Cars cup and flipped out, pointing and ‘Dah!’ing. A few days after that, he pointed out Cars and Thomas the Train items at Target. He’s never seen or read about either, but just the pictures of the cars, trucks, trains, etc. have sucked him in.
• Throwing a ball better – Kevin brought a play ball outside so Lewis could throw and chase around something other than tomatoes. J He’s getting pretty good at it!
• Climbing the stairs more efficiently – If he’s not distracted, he can zip up and down pretty quickly.
• Being a good helper – We try to include him in sorting recycling, putting laundry in the washer/dryer, carrying things, picking up his toys, etc. It takes a little bit longer to get things done, but I want him to learn how to do things for himself.
• Throwing tantrums – This has just started happening the past few weeks or so and have been mostly minor, and I’m pretty sure they’re directly related to him trying to communicate with us. His pointing and ‘Dah!’ing can only take him (or me) so far, so in Target the other day, for instance, he was pointing and ‘Dah!’ing and I didn’t know/didn’t pay attention to what he was trying to get my attention about—it just escalated until he started shrieking and bucking in the cart. I took a deep breath and channeled my deep-inner-calm-voice (it was difficult) and kept walking. He did eventually calm down, but shoo-wee. He did it again in another store on a non-nap day (the Target day might have also been a non-nap day, come to think of it)…I tried to stay calm and gave him my phone to try to distract him, and he promptly flung the phone through the air and under a shelf. Picture me on the dirty store floor on all fours, reaching under to get my phone. I was very happy with life at that moment. (Not at all.) That was the day Kevin got home from work, and I greeted him by breaking into tears. Oh, parenthood. J The past few days were great, though. I’m still trying to relay to him that shrieking is not an acceptable form of communication and that it hurts my ears (and my nerves) and that we need to use our words and use an inside voice. One of these days it will pay off. One of these days…

So that’s Lew at 19 months! Family pictures today and (Carter) family reunion tomorrow! Hope everyone has a good weekend.