This was a really fun month! Each day is a surprise as I discover Amos' growing personality. I get to be there right beside him as he experiences and makes sense of his world. He now has certain looks that I can decipher as well as his ever-growing vocabulary. In some ways he's very predictable, but still full of surprises!
EATING:
He's expanded his eating and has decided that he now likes some sweets. He'll eat the occasionally cookie or sucker and just recently dipped his waffles in syrup. He still spits out drinks that are sweet, especially pop. His drink of choice is still milk, but he does ask for water sometimes. He's been practicing drinking from a cup on his own. Parents As Teachers visited this month and suggested having him practice in the bath at first. He loved this.
Even though he's getting more and more picky, he understands the concept, "eat this, then you can eat this." A lot more vegetables have been eaten thanks to this. My mom was actually the one that first realized he grasped the concept. It's worked like a charm since.
Food has morphed from just food into cars and play things. It's not uncommon for him to drive around his carrots before putting them into his mouth. I'm pretty sure I have never done this for him, so his imagination figured it all out on its own.
PLAYING:
Pretend play has really taken off this month. I brought out some more puppets and he always want to talk to them. Anytime the puppet is on his hand, it's normally singing E-I-E-I-O! He also has a puppy that has become a favorite to go grab and give to Dad to chase him with. Amos then pretends he's also a puppy - with panting and barking for effect. He also knows how to rock out on his guitar like Daddy. He'll go around strumming it and head banging. Below is his serious face. This comes out a lot during pretend talking on the phone or reading a book.
Real play has taken a step forward as well. He can now get on and off of his bike and make it go. He can also make his car go forward (instead of just backwards) but would rather have someone push him. Surprise, surprise.
The other new interest this month brought was squirrel watching. One morning he spotted a squirrel on our fence. He's seen them before, but this time really struck a chord. After it was long gone, he was still saying "Squirrel, squirrel." Jason then decided to pull up a 2:30 minute youtube video of a squirrel. He watched it 7 times during breakfast. Since then, we've watched dogs, cats, and cows on youtube. What did our parents do without youtube.
DISCIPLINE:
Not much new in the discipline category. Still keeping at it and tweaking as we go. Although this is probably the first month that we actually get to talk about what he did after disciplining. We're teaching him to respond with "Yes, Mommy/Daddy," after our little talks.
As you can see from that face, he's an ornery little fella. He likes to push the limits and make sure "No," means "No." He'll continue to keep us on our toes I'm sure.
PERSONALITY:
I talked about it a little bit at the beginning, but he's got quite the personality. He'll endear people to him with his cheesy smile and then try to lure them into his room. Once there, he zoom around it trying to show off each thing before they decide to go. He may even whip out a few song and dance numbers. If any grandparents come over, he's sure to soon have a phone in his hand. He knows where they keep them and doesn't forget.
He's got a new pretend pout that he whips out now-and-again when something "rips" aka he tore it on purpose, or he has a minor ouchy. He's got all kinds of expressions to go with everything these days. I never know which one I'll see next.
He's become a bit of a "Prince & a Pea." In fact, this morning there was a pea in his high chair leftover from lasts night dinner and he squirmed and squirmed around saying, "Ouch" trying to find that pea. His shoes, pajamas and clothes have to be on just perfectly, or I get a sour face and an "Ouch." He's becoming much more particular these days, but I guess I shouldn't be too surprised as I was like this myself as a child. Only my dad could put on my socks because he knew the importance of getting the toes lined up just right ;)
SLEEPING
Night time sleeps continues on as normal - 7:30 pm to 7:30 am. We have been more intentional with following a bedtime routine this month. I think he needs that time to really wind down. We normally read 1 or 2 books, sing his hymn (Be Thou My Vision) and just added by me, give butterfly kisses. We turn the humidifier on and all lights off. I LOVE THIS TIME! I love crawling in his bed. I love holding the book up for us to see and I LOVE HIS KISSES! Sometimes he'll even pat our face or arms. It's pretty wonderful.
Naps haven't been the greatest this month. It's hit or miss if he'll take a good, LONG nap. I think that the perfect beginning nap time is just after 1 pm. If we hit it, he'll take a 2 1/2 - 3 hour nap. If not, we're looking at 1 1/2. We have spent some time practicing sleeping in his portable tent this month. I want him to get use to sleeping in this for when we are out for naps or past bedtime so that I can give Silas the pack and play. He acted like it was no big thang to sleep in it. We'll see what he's like when he actually has to use it.
He's become quite attached to an elephant blanket. I was really hoping he wouldn't form that kind of attachment. We'll see how strong it grows. Sometimes, if he's (the elephant) out of sight, he's out of Amos' mind.
LEARNING:
Words, words and more words. Once he started, there's no stopping him. He's starting to name everything around him. He's also practicing his numbers and counting. I've been counting things for a long time, but now he does it. One, two and three sound pretty good, but the rest...! It's especially fun to hear him counting things in his room on his own.
We've had a few successful potty attempts. We are in no way potty training yet. Just trying to muster up some curiosity on be on the look out for the right time. There's still several things I'm looking for before beginning that phase.
We invited Parents As Teachers to come over this month. I have a couple of friends that have done this and talked very highly of it. And since its free, we gave it a go. It was great! Our new friend came over with a bunch of new toys for Amos to try out and offered information about what stage Amos should be at developmentally and age appropriate games. It was very laid back. She said to work on the "shape sorter" game with him because that's a pre-puzzle skill. He never seemed too interested in it before, but once we got it out a couple times together, its now one of his favorite toys. His puzzling has improved too. It doesn't just involve dumping everything out on the floor. Ha ha!
COMMUNICATION:
So he's got a lot of vocabulary under his belt, but he's even thrown out a few short sentences that are important to him: "This is a ball," "I don't know," "Where's it at?" etc. He's a sponge these days.
On top of new words, he's adding gestures to his speech which makes things a lot clearer for the both of us. When he says ouchie, he'll point to what hurts! When he sees that I don't understand his word that he thinks I should understand, he'll gesture or point. When, "Mom, I should be wearing a hat," doesn't sound like that, he'll start touching his head! Ah ha!
LITTLE BROTHER:
Amos continues to get better and better with Silas being around. He's very helpful at times, and not so much at other. He kind of treats Silas like he would a favorite toy. If something funny happens, or he's wearing something funny, we always go show Silas. He tries to feed Silas his milk or snacks and sometimes forgets Silas is on the floor and tries to walk right over him. For the most part, he's pretty use to the little guy being around all the time and loves when Silas smiles at him or tries to talk back.
SPECIAL EVENTS:
Amos had the BEST DAY EVER last Saturday as he got to spend all day with both sets of Grandparents. He was exhausted by that night, but it was sure a fun day!
Fun in the Mud
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