I have just one more month of savoring my 1 year old. I'm hoping it goes slowly! For one thing, I have a TON to do! I still have yet to start on planning Austin's birthday party. Yeah, I should get on that! But we've had a crazy week. Maybe next week. Still holding on to hope that if I don't plan it, he'll have to stay young. He's proving that wrong left and right. I honestly felt like he learned something new every single day this month, and even more so this week. I thought the leaps and bounds were supposed to spread out! (So be prepared - this is a long post, cuz there's a ton of new stuff!)
New this month... (Wow, what was not!)
Sentences, sentences, sentences. He is trying so hard to figure out sentences! And he's doing a great job. He's doing a ton of two word ones but he has started practicing all the different variations of a sentence too. For example - the other day we said bye to Aunt Suz from the car. The 1st 5 minutes of the car ride consisted of him practicing "Bye Aunt Suz...Bye Suz...Bye Bye Aunt Suz..Bye Suz..." You can clearly see the effort he's putting forth. He will say many more words that you ask him to repeat, whereas before, if he couldn't say it, he wouldn't try at all.
He's also working on pronouns! Shoes aren't just shoes. They're "Momma shoes", "My shoes", etc. Sunday he practiced "House...my house" the whole way home from church. I love it!
What I don't love as much was him learning "No!" and "Mine!" in the same day Sunday. He didn't want to share his toy cars with me while I was trying to spend some one on one time with him. "Mine" isn't commonly heard but he is sure trying to figure out the boundaries of "No!" He says it so gosh-darn cutely though that I have to struggle to keep a straight face while correcting him!
Have I mentioned this kid is a ham?? He learned two things this month that he knowsis cute - Saying "woohoo!" (for the Happy and You Know It song) and saying "Good Job". I have the "Woohoo" on video but still need to document his "Good Job". Hopefully they'll be posted soon. (Yes, I know I say that a lot!) He knows the way he says them is cute cuz we can't help but laugh every single time, so now he does them with the most sly smile ever. And that makes us giggle even more! Makes my day every time, I swear!
He has a word that I have no idea what it's supposed to be but it means yes. It sorta sounds like "sure" but not quite, plus I don't know where he would have picked that up. But it also kinda sounds like "two", which he loves to say, so I'm leaning towards that explanation. Regardless, its meaning is very clear. It's just funny that he just makes his own style!
The other thing he learned that I am not excited about is climbing out of the Pack-N-Play! Yes, I know (along with his new words) that I'm lucky to have lasted this long, but it's still a bummer! We are staying with my parents for the week due to some plumbing issues at our house, so the PNP is his main bed right now. Thankfully we only had an issue that first night. (I think the rest of the week, the pure excitement of being at Nani & Papa's house plus all the space he has to run has worn him out to the point that he really really wants to sleep. But just in case, we have blockaided their front door. It's the one door he know how to unlock and open and we would hate for him to repeat his dad's childhood sleep walking incident!! (Walking down to your friend's house in your underwear to ask for your blankey is not nearly as safe in this day and age nor when you're 2 and not 7! Not that it was safe then!)
He's slowly but surely making progress on counting and shapes. We're up to 5! I talk so much, it never would have occurred to me to have a fairly nonverbal kid! He can recognize most numbers and shapes and letters, he just doesn't often say them. The letters he's better at. He can recognize about 95% of them most of the time, but only says about 1/2 of them. And what he says is either a variation of the letter (like Na Na for N) or a word that starts with that letter (like House for H) or even a step further, the sound that the animal that starts with that letter makes! (Roar for Lion for L)
Austin is getting really good with a spoon and fork! He's determined to figure them out and will protest often if you try to feed him. He insists on doing it himself. We started with sticky foods (oatmeal and avocado) but now he can do yogurt and applesauce too.
He's finally getting pretty gentle with McKenna! He knows to tap her belly gently. And he brings her what she needs when she's fussy! Super sweet to see! My favorite part is when he wants to help me get her up from her nap on our bed. He excitedly climbs up and tells her "hi!" and gently pats her tummy or head. Melt!
Austin has started pretending. He loves to pretend to talk on the phone. He takes our cell phones or the house phone or really anything that even remotely resembles a phone and have a conversation with someone. You can only understand every 5th word or so, but it's way cute. Intermixed with babble you can catch "Aunt Suz", "Boo", "Nani", "Papa, "Dada", "No", "Choo choo", etc. Up until recently he would only pretend but if you gave him a real phone with a real person on the other end, he'd clam up. But about a week ago, he accidentally called Aunt Suz (a couple times) and had full on "conversations" with her. I got one on video (that yes, I'll hopefully post eventually!) This kid just cracks me the heck up!
He's good at praying! He was in time out a few weeks ago. I have him sit on a stool in the back hallway. He started messing with the cupboard and I told him to fold his hands, so he wouldn't touch it anymore. He immediately bowed his head and started babbling. And then I started hearing him mix in names in there. I realized he was going through his prayers where we thank God for different family members we saw that day! Can't tell you how hard it was for me to not giggle! It was too cute! Glad to know his bedtimes prayers are resonating with him!
Still crazy about puzzles! Getting good at his 24 piece one. Slowly but surely. He's got the 12 piece ones down solid, but the 24 piece one has kind of a busy picture and I think that's slowing him down some. We got some foam ones that he adores and they take him about 30 seconds to finish!
His love for all types of machines is growing! He pushes around his cars saying "vroom vroom" all day long. His "Big Machine" book is his favorite. And since our "incident" with the fire department, he is way excited whenever he sees a fire truck!
He has become such an affectionate little guy. Really, he always has been, but it seems like this last month he has really bumped it up. Nothing makes my day faster than when out of the blue he'll drop his toys and run over to me and give me a hug and a kiss. He has started patting my back during hugs like I apparently do to him. One day while he was sitting on his potty, I was sitting next to him, reading to him. He just sweetly leaned over, put his head on me and gave me the best side hug, pats and all. WUB! We've gotten several unprompted "I Love You's" recently too. Or often he'll say "Two!" after we say it to him. And I think I've mentioned before that he likes Eskimo kisses too (We call them nose kisses). This side of him easily makes up for the challenging almost-2-year-old attitude. Seriously, I have the best job!
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