If I had to describe an 18 month old in one word it would be "busy." This kid never stops moving! (You'll see-- I took these pictures in about two minutes time.)
He is investigator número uno, y'all. Seriously, if it's closed it must be opened, if it's contained it must be dumped out, and if it's water...
He loves water. He likes splashing in the buckets when I'm watering my very near-to-death flowers, he climbs on the toilet to lean onto the sink and turn the faucet on so he can stick his fingers in the stream, he will break his neck to push up a chair to stand on to "help" wash dishes. And I'm seriously regretting that we did not turn our bathroom into a wet room with a floor drain when we remodeled the house a few years ago due to the copious amounts of water splashed outside the tub during bath time.
But, I can't help myself. He's just so darn cute. And funny. I am so in love with this kid it ain't even funny.
I try to think of ways to keep him entertained throughout the day so he's not constantly getting into mischief. Sometimes it works, sometimes not. He follows me around everywhere watching me and wanting to do whatever it is I'm doing so I try to let him participate and "help" me if it's not too dangerous (knives in the kitchen) or too time sensitive.
He helps me carry the laundry baskets down the hall to the kitchen and then back so that job goes from about 12 seconds to 3 minutes. He likes wiping up spills with a rag, and he loves hanging hangers on the rods in the closet. This one is pretty intense on the arm muscles: imagine lifting this chunk over and over so he can pick up the hangers and then hang them all one. at. a. time.
When he's not doing "grown up" things he has a few toys he likes to play with like the jack-in-the-box and laptop he got for Christmas. Occasionally we play blocks, but they tend to bring out destructive aggression that results in them being hurled around the room and lots of angry babbles.
The laptop has ABC 123 buttons and I'll hear A A A A A pressed repeatedly ad nauseum, but he has learned say it! He will say A and sometimes B, sometimes he gets a little screechy, "abee, abee, ABEEEEE!"
One day we were leaving the house to go somewhere and he actually selected a toy (helicopter) to bring with him in the car rather than just play with something I pack for him. I thought that was pretty neat.
He says "shooozzzz" and "toezzzz!", "bee bee" (not sure what that one means yet), "moh" for more, bowl and ball are both pretty clear, "bubba" for bubbles, but the cutest one is when he sees Boots-- "Daddee!" He gets so excited and happy. I just love it!
It would be silly of me to think that he might be ready for potty training anytime soon, but there is definitely some "awareness" going on. He started poking the front of his diaper one night so I asked him if he needed a new diaper and he ran to the changing table in his room. I try to ask him more now so that he's thinking about the cause and effect of all this bathroom business stuff. His interest in the toilet amounts to raising the lid to look at the "wahh" and then slamming it back down.
We're trying to teach him to cover his mouth when he coughs, but that is usually interpreted as "cover my mouth and fake cough after they say to." He'll even cover your mouth and want you to cough if he thinks about it and has a blanket handy to use as a tissue!
He cries when we tell him it's time for bed as we walk to his room even though we go through the same process every night. Sometimes after he's in bed and the door is shut Boots and I can hear him talking and laughing to himself and his animals before he goes to sleep.
For a few days he would lean over to the floor and gently bump his head, then rub his head somewhere that made absolutely no contact with the floor, and whine that it hurt. Thankfully that didn't last long.
There is lots of head shaking and sometimes he says "no" but I'm not sure he gets what he's saying.
After a particularly stern talking to in the doctor's office about not taking the emergency flashlight off the wall he repeatedly pointed at it and told me "don't" over and over again.
He says Mama a little more, but still not as much as Daddy. FYI: "Mama" is a great word to use for making spit bubbles between your lips if you want to try it.
He gets silly sometimes and spins around and around until he's drunk and falls down. We have to make him stop or he'll just keep spinning until he can't walk at all and crashes into the piano and tv stand.
One day I was in the kitchen cooking and he pulled the crock pot over to him (not hot, I'd just switched it on), lifted the lid, and took a deep inhale of a bunch of RAW CHICKEN in water and declared, "Mmmm!"
Never a dull moment around here. Never.
1 comment:
He's so darn cute.
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