21 months: Devon (June)

Devon continues to amaze me day after day. He is starting to regularly use 2 word sentences and it is really starting to feel like we communicate with a bit of back and forth information and not just me saying a word and he repeats it. That still happens, but less and less every day.

This morning (6.11.10) Devon pointed to a Connect 4 board game lid. Out of NO WHERE he points and says,"M! B!" He has had TONS on exposure to the alphabet through songs and books, but it's not something we actively work on. To my COMPLETE surprise I look at the box and sure enough there was an MB plain as day for Milton Bradley right there in the corner. My eyes teared up I was so impressed! Joe and I were both there, eyes wide, in total disbelief that he recognized 2 letters in a row and actually read them right in the right order. It's not like we were saying,"Devon, what letter is this?" and he said it. It's not a trick we're teaching him. He did it on his own. He's not even 2! It was totally amazing. Joe was reading by the time he was 3 so I'm hoping that Devon will grasp that skill early which he clearly seems to be doing. He can also count to 9!!!! How fun is that?

I am actually getting tired of getting him to do "tricks" and I'd rather him just learn stuff instead of him having to feel like he has to perform. It's fun to see him grow and progress every day and it's amazing to hear his little voice start putting together all these things we have taught him.

I did buy Devon a little training potty and put it in the bathroom upstairs. I don't ever ask him if he has to go since I don't want to make a big deal out of it at this early age, but when he says,"Potty" or "Pee pee" I take him in there, sit him down and give him a chocolate chip. We don't keep candy or chocolate in the house, but for some weird reason I happened to have chocolate chips. Since he's never really had chocolate I thought it would be a good training treat because it is totally new to him. He is getting the hang of getting on and off by himself, but doesn't really use the toilet for anything other than getting chocolate chips. We're in no rush. I really hate it when people say,"Wait til you have to change 2 kids in diapers!", but I honestly don't mind changing diapers so when he gets it he gets it and whenever that is is fine with me ... as long as he's trained by 3 ;)

We did get the wood floors in, but we still need to do baseboard so they're not totally finished which is why I haven't posted about it yet. Since we didn't re-do the floors in Devon's new room I moved all this stuff in and he has been sleeping in there for nearly 3 weeks now. The first day he refused to nap so he sat in his crib playing. It took a lot of coaxing, books and songs to get him to sleep in there the first night, but he finally gave in. I love the furniture and I am slowly accumulating things to go in his room to make it cheerful, fun and to grow-it-up a bit away from baby stuff.

I put glow in the dark stars all over the ceiling, some wall hangings, a sweet sock monkey clock and some of Devon's art that he did at the Children's Museum.

I took the wooden letters out of his old room and repainted them. I am not done with the room yet, but I don't want to over do it and have it look cluttered so I am going to leave it as it is now for a while. How cute it that room?!?!

I have to admit that he is starting to be more challenging to take to stores and run errands with and I can't say that I blame him. It's really hot and uncomfortable and he wants to walk everywhere and isn't too keen to ride in the cart. He used to be my little golden child and just sit happily in the cart or in the baby carrier. People would always comment on how well behaved he was. I am feeling quite pregnant these days and I am just not in the mood to have to wrangle him. We either run one short errand together in the morning when he is well rested and it's not too hot or I end up running errands in the evening after he goes to sleep which I hate to do because by that time I am exhausted. It is nice to go and do these things by myself, but thinking of doing that with 2 makes my head spin.

Devon loves to eat pickles, Cheerios, fruit snacks and pizza. He has been sort of a picky eater lately and hardly eats anything at all other than fruit snacks. I always try to give him healthy meals, but sometimes I worry that he isn't getting anything into his belly so I give him Ramen noodles and he pretty much eats the whole thing. I've tried all the pediatrician's suggestions and basically he eats when he eats and there's nothing I can do about it. Kids go through phases of eating and not eating and that's where he is right now.

He has been saying more sophisticated words on his own lately like scissors, mayonnaise and my favorite ... fierce. He loves to read about fierce dinosaurs, cars going "vroom, vroom" and birds saying "tweet, tweet." He says "awesome" in a high pitched voice and if you say,"Devon you are so ..." he will fill in the blank with funny, smart, big, tall, handsome, awesome or cute. Gotta build that self esteem early ;)

The other day Joe was gone for work from early in the morning until about 7:00 at night. Devon missed him so much when he finally saw Daddy he said,"Daddy. Up. Up. Hug. Hug. Kiss. Love you. Friend. Buddy. Pal." All the while he was patting Joe on the back. I damn near cried it was so cute and he did it all on his own. He missed him so much and was happy to see him. I was feeling left out that he didn't call me his friend, but he said it to me a few days later so I'm OK now ;)

He drinks from a regular cup for meals and I will let him walk around the house with a cup with just water. He is really good about not spilling and if he does he tells me where the mess is and he cleans it up right away. He loves ice and munches on it all the time. He has started to ask to help me cleanup, he loves to swiffer and helps me push around the vacuum. I'm not kidding here. He'll say,"Clean up! Help you!" a million times until I give him a cloth to help me dust. He also hands me dishes out of the dishwasher to put away, even the glass ones, and he hasn't broken anything yet. It is so cute to see him watching what Joe and I do and copying it. It is a bonus that he actually is starting to help.