My Little Boy

Captain Adorable is 21 months (and a few days) old now. He is really hardly a baby at all any longer (except for when he falls asleep on my lap, perhaps); I have to face the fact that he is now my little boy. Over the last few weeks he has been putting more and more things together. On Wednesday I showed him (which I have done before) how to go down the slide sitting on his butt instead of lying on his belly. Starting on Thursday, sitting is the only way he goes down the slide now! In Hawaii he started saying the word "pasta." Tonight when he saw the ravioli sitting on the counter waiting to go into the water, he identified it correctly! He asks for milk or juice or tea (I make him mint tea, add raw honey, and put it in his sippy cup warm but not hot) or water as his preference dictates. He is able to verbalize more and more about what his likes and dislikes are.

Potty learning is back on track. Almost every pee goes in the potty, he tells me when he has to go to the potty, and he is now going poop on the potty 25-3o% of the time. (Thank goodness!) I have found that he is better about staying dry in public than at home (weid, but I'll take it) and Captain Obvious has been teaching him to pee standing up! Which means he stands on the toilet seat...sigh...I'm not totally on board for this method, especially because it means more parental interaction (you have to hold him leaning over far enough so that it goes into the toilet) and also because I don't think we should teach him to stand until he is tall enough to stand on the floor (or even a step-stool) and make it into the toilet on his own. Plus, it is really a great idea for a boy who is under 2 years old and is not cognizant of the importance of aiming to be peeing in a position where aiming is really important?! But I can also see this coming in handy when out and about means we run into a very dirty toilet...

He is much more interested in the clothes he wears and of course correctly identifies the various garments now. In addition, he is more interested in wearing clothes with something on them that he likes (a train, for instance). He can put his own shoes on (well, only his Crocs and usually on the wrong feet, but whatever!). Just this morning we met my sweet MIL at the mall and shopped for fall/winter clothes for him. He is now definitely the best dressed kid on the playground! Such cute stuff!!!

He had such fun with his Grandma at the mall (lots of playing and giggling!) that I feel comfortable asking her to come to our house to stay with him while Captain Obvious and I go out for a few hours in the evening...a Very Big Development for me. I will update with news about that (if it ever actually happens.) Of course we will always come back before bedtime.

In bed he is now aware of pillows and covers and demands that he has his own pillow and has the covers on, even if it is too warm for covers (so I just put the sheet over him). Silly guy always slips off the pillow, so as soon as he is asleep I take the pillow out of bed before I go downstairs to hang out with Captain Obvious).

He offers me sips of whatever he is drinking and makes cute little fake drinking noises while he puts the cup into my hand to encourage me to take that sip. He is now aware of burps and farts and correctly identifies them. (He used to always identify farts as "poooooop!") He happily tells me the sound that whatever we are talking about makes (bird = "teeet teeeeet!" (which means tweet tweet), dog = wooof woof woof, police car (or ambulance or fire truck) = waaaawaaawaaawaaa). He points out planes in the sky, trucks on the road, cars in the parking lot, squirrels on our walks, birds everywhere...he has just opened his eyes to the world around him and he is excited by it and wants to talk about it all the time!

The cutest new development is he now asks for kisses! If he hurts one of his sweet little fingers (or hand or elbow) he comes to me, holding up the injured limb and asking "tiss, tiss" until I kiss it for him. One of my favorite parenting duties!!