20 Months

Today hits a big 20 month mark since Dylan entered our lives. As always the amount he changes in just a 4 week time period never ceases to amaze me. Here are the major developments we've seen lately.

While he continues to add to his vocabulary with words, he's also starting to join them together. That's right, we've had some 2 word sentences. Sometimes over dinner, when the boys are telling me about their day, Dylan will put in his two cents about what they did while I was at work. While neither Mike nor I can think of an exact example of this at the moment, Dylan's definitely said something like "guitar, hat" when referring to seeing his music teacher playing her guitar while wearing a hat.

While Dylan's night time sleep schedule is usually so regular you can set your watch to it (which is why I haven't needed to use an alarm clock in over a year), we've had a bit of a disruption to our schedule this month thanks to a cold and cutting 3 teeth. As soon as the third tooth cut through last week and the snot became a little less flowing, we went right back to our getting full nights sleep. Thank goodness! After a few nights of my sleep being interrupted, I was a wreck! I've just gotten so spoiled!

Possibly another side effect of his cold is his sudden dislike for milk. Well, that coupled with our need to get some new sippy cups he wanted nothing to do with. Dylan went from going through a gallon plus every week to not wanting a drop. Weird. However, it hasn't tainted his dislike for any other foods. He must be going through a major growth spurt because we have a hard time keeping up with his food needs. Some days, in addition to good size meals, he'll snack non stop. Today, I took him for a run outside (with temps in the 60s!!!) and neglected to bring any food. I felt so bad when he kept asking for more and I didn't have anything to offer him but water. On the plus side, it motivated me to keep running at a good pace to get to my office. That was our destination for the run...to pick up my car and bring it home. (The boys picked me up from work on Friday so we could head to NH for the weekend and we forgot to pick it up on the drive home.)

With age comes independence and responsibility. Dylan's done a tremendous job of grasping both this month. If a stairway has good railings, he will walk up them all by himself. He's also putting on his own shoes some days! Most doors are not an obstacle to him anymore as he's learned to open some kids of door knobs\levers. As for the responsibility part, he's adopted his own chore to contribute to the household. Last week, Mike caught him in the act and Dylan's been consistent on staying on top of this task since. See the video for evidence\details:

Feeding the Cats

The boy's got pretty good manners and some polite words have been added to his vocabulary as well. Though not said distinctly, in context, Dylan is now using the phrases "thank you" (mostly with prompting) and "excuse me" (mostly when he needs to step on you or push you out of the way when he's playing on his train table).

When Dylan's not minding his manners or listening to his parents, he's also learned the use of "time out." There have been a few occasions where he gets placed in a particular chair outside of the action as a reprimand. Obviously, he's not there for tons of time but it seems to be effective. For example, when he gets upset, he tends to throw things. When he does this, we normally have him pick up the item. Sometimes, he does not listen when we ask him to do this so he goes to the chair for a short amount of time. When he is allowed to get out of the chair and we repeat the request, he does it without hesitation.

Like his Daddy, Dylan enjoys electronic gadgets. He's discovered the joys of You Tube and has some favorite video he will pick up my iPhone and request. One is Elmo singing the ABC's with India Arie (a singer\songwriter). Now, we'll hear him sing "ABC, ABC" to the tune of that You Tube video. Mike uses an iPod loaded with favorite movies to fall asleep to at night. Dylan likes to hold it and look at it on the mornings we're slow to get out of bed. One movie often playing is one of the Harry Potter series. When Dylan called Dumbledore "HoHo" (Santa), we corrected him and taught him how to say Dumbledore. Of course, we had to let him know the movie was all about Harry Potter. So, now he often chants "Harry, Dumbledore" which sounds like this:

Another cute new fascination he has is with a specific book that his cousins, Corwin and Jacob, very sweetly passed down to him. It's called Big Words. And the title doesn't lie. The words are fairly complex for a child and definitely far too advanced for a kid his age. However, Dylan likes to call it the "baby" book (because the illustrations are of a large family and there is a cartoon picture of a baby on every page) and likes me to read it every morning when I sit at my vanity to blow dry my hair. It's gotten to the point that every time I sit down at my vanity to take off jewelry or brush my hair, he'll see me and say "baby." It's tough to tell him that we can't read the book every time. I get a kick out of hearing him try to say words like privacy, appropriate, cooperate and intelligence.

All in all, I'd say it was a pretty big month of developments. Even on the days he didn't allow us to get enough sleep, Mike and I do our best to enjoy every moment with our baby. Most moments, he makes it pretty easy to do.

LOVE that boy!