developmental update

This post is more of a record-keeping tool for myself, perhaps not so interesting to others. Consider yourself warned: lots of toddler detail ahead.

Language is the big thing these days. As of today (one week shy of 23 months) Sam speaks over 110 words, including nouns, names, verbs, onomatopoeias, expressions, a few adjectives, and at least one pronoun (this). He also has just started putting 3 words together, such as "open garage door" or "mommy daddy phone." He was 20 months when he first put 2 words together, and 21 months when word duos were happening regularly. For the past couple of months he has acquired approximately one new word each day, and I am relatively conservative about counting them...meaning that if he only says it for part of one day and not again the next day, I don't count it.

Physically, I am totally curious what his stats are. Folks tell me all the time how tall he is, though at his last checkup (18 months) he was only around 75% for height (much less for weight). It will be interesting to see if he's moved up in percentage. He loves to say "RUN!" when we are holding hands and taking a walk together, and then we run together and he giggles the whole time. He still enjoys stroller walks, though he will often ask to "walk walk walk" for a portion of our outing. We rarely do ergo walks anymore. And now that I think of it, since our regional parks pass expired (and house-hunting ramped up), we haven't done as many hikes.

As for food, he is much more picky now. I have taken to hiding vegetables, something I had hoped never to do. He still loves his breakfast of oatmeal that he's had every morning for over a year now, and fruit is a big hit. He also enjoys brown rice, tofu, whole wheat pasta, sunbutter and jam sandwiches, yogurt (his after dinner staple), eggs, crackers. Sam still sits in his highchair, though those days are numbered...we really need to move him to a booster, if we only had a third chair. Waiting to see where we're living before investing in new furniture; that's the story there. He uses a spoon pretty adeptly by now and still uses his hands for some things. With a new or potentially hot food, he will test it with the little point of his tongue before committing. And when his hands get dirty with food, he sticks them out to be wiped. Sometimes he even asks for his own napkin too (and puts it in his lap!).

Emotionally, we are seeing more meltdowns lately, in proportion to his growing awareness of his own strong desires. Our previous technique of simply explaining what we are doing before we do it (for example, "It's time for a diaper change now Sam. Mommy's going to pick you up now and change your diaper.") is no longer enough to prevent protest. These days, I often give 1-minute or 5-minute warnings, which helps sometimes, but not always. He certainly has a mind of his own!

Sleepwise, Sam has been getting up on the early side lately, before 6 sometimes. Nap is creeping later, starting sometime between 12:30 and 1:00 and lasting 2 hours usually. Bedtime was 8:00pm but we've been making it earlier, 7:30, to see if that helps with his early wake-up (counter-intuitive yes, but the concept has been right on in Sam's sleep life since birth). Overall he sleeps really well. We have the same routine we've had for quite awhile, and although I am a bit concerned with his pacifier attachment (I was told it intensifies at 18 mos and that is exactly what happened! should have weaned him of it earlier), I really have no complaints about his ability to fall asleep on his own.

Sam's play is still very focused on doors and keys. We finally gave him his own ring of real keys, which he carries around, loses regularly, and (recently) successfully slides into locks around the house (though they don't turn, being the wrong keys for the locks). When we were staying in an inn in New Hampshire, Sam locked us out of the bathroom twice! We had to call the front desk and it was a little embarrassing.

I would say that he is slightly less interested in books than he used to be, though he still "reads" every morning for a half hour or so, and loves storytime before nap and bedtime.

There's more to say, but this will have to do for now.