Yep, it has been another
month. Time to spotlight Amos
Jack, Mr. 19 Months Old. A lot
continues to change in a month.
EATING:
This month we have been
slowly transitioning Amos over to eating at the table with us, using the Bumbo
as a booster. I love the
Bumbo. It is so versatile. My biggest concern was just the mess,
but he’s been surprisingly clean.
He thinks he is a big boy when he’s sitting at the table. We have mainly been doing this for
dinner because then Jason’s home and helping in case of the unforeseen.
We also made a break through
with silverware. Since his first
birthday, I’ve given him a fork or a spoon for almost every meal. For about six months, he’s mainly held
it tightly in one hand and dug into his food with his forkless hand. Most everything he eats is easy to pick
up with his hands so that hasn’t been a problem. But we made a breakthrough when I gave him his oatmeal with
a spoon and he realized it was to his advantage to use the spoon. He now keeps it pretty level and gets most
of the food into his mouth! Since,
he’s even eaten soup this way! No
more spoon-feeding! That is until
Silas starts eating. Will it ever
end?
PLAYING:
We have been very consistent
with Independent Playtime this month.
During solo play, the door is closed, but Amos has free reign of his
room. At first, he wasn’t too fond
of it, but by being consistent, he’s come to expect it and happily plays by
himself for up to an hour. With
the video monitor, I can still keep an eye on what’s going on in there. Most of the time he’s reading his
books! The worst he’s done is
emptying a small package of wipes from his backpack and promptly throwing them
away in the trashcan! Ha!
Physical play remains his
favorite this month. He’s jumping
and hiding and playing peek-a-boo with us. Check out the video below. We, of course, only caught the tail end of his act, but he
was busy trying to balance on his bumbo for quite a while. Once he got good at that, he thought he
could move on to jumping off of it.
Reading has picked back up
this month. He’ll bring my book
after book to read and he’ll sit there for at least thirty minutes pointing out
all the words he knows in the book.
To Jason’s excitement, the first time we asked him to point out the
beard in a story, he had no problem!
PERSONALITY:
My parents watched Amos for
us, while Jason and I got away on a short date. When we got back, my dad made sure to inform us that Amos
was quite the spaz! This was no
new news to us! He loves to dance
and gets quite crazy while doing it.
He’s turning into quite the
cheeser and is a sneaky guy. While
Jason’s parents babysat this month, they left the door cracked to his room
after bedtime and not a minute later, he was running out with his arms wide
open saying, “I’m back!” They
realized they probably better shut the door.
COMMUNICATION:
We’re in a new phase of
communication. Last month, we
understood Amos so much more and I really felt like we were starting to
communicate. I’ve realized now
that was because he was mainly using all the words that we knew he knew and
could easily recognize the pronunciation of. Now, he’s realized we can understand him and has started
throwing all kinds of new words our way.
The only problem is we don’t understand his toddler pronunciation of the
word. He’ll just repeat it and
repeat it to both our frustrations.
For instance, spoon has always sounded like bowl, but I knew that. Thing
became much easier when we realized “Aye” was Amos’ pronunciation for “Yes”! These
new words I’m slowly learning and repeating the correct pronunciation for
him. Hopefully next month we’ll
have made some headway.
DISCIPLINE:
We’ve got a bit of a tantrum
thrower on our hands. The blood curdling screams are gone for now, but big
tears and crying follows a lot of “No”s these days. When he throws his tantrum we are trying to just tell him “No
Fits” and then leaving him to it.
I’ll go into the other room until he calms down. Trying to reason with him through it
just prolongs the fit, so instead I’ll come back when he’s done and we’ll talk
then. This has really helped in
shortening his fits. Sometimes
just the threat of isolation will end it all together.
And he doesn’t throw fits
constantly; I just know that if we don’t address it now, he’ll get to a point
where they do happen constantly.
LEARNING:
We’re still working on our
ABCs. I have an ABC book on my
Kindle and when Amos comes up saying, “ADuhSee” I know what he wants to look
at. Now when he’s drawing he tells
me he is drawing an A or a B.
I try to do some sort of
exploration activity with him once a day.
This is my goal, but it doesn’t always happen. Yesterday we explored ice cubes! It was really “COOL”! Pun intended! He’s been tearing up paper and gluing
it together, sorting, and lots of pointing out words he knows in books. It’s amazing how quickly he catches on
to new vocabulary. One exposure to
the word Sun and telling him it was hot means every time we see a Sun; he blows
on it because it is hot!
We’re still working on
pre-potty training. Mainly we ask
him if he’s going to the potty and if he wants to sit on the potty. We are also practicing pulling our
pants up and down. I still think
our real push for potty training will be a ways down the road, but I want to
keep an eye on things and get him as ready as I can.
SLEEP:
He moved to a big boy toddler
bed this month. His crib converts
so it wasn’t any big deal making the switch. He seems to really like his new freedom. At night, he’s been stationary in
it. For naps, he’ll immediately go
to sleep, but if he wakes up early, he’ll get up and play, and then come back
to his bed and then repeat that cycle!
I don’t mind this because I figure he is still resting! My favorite
parts are laying down with him in it and reading books or pretend sleeping! He thinks this is pretty cool too!
It seems the magic nap-time
is 12:30 p.m. If I can get him
down by then he’ll sleep for almost 3 hours. If its much later, I’ll get half that or if he poops! But, we haven’t had a morning nap this
month, so I think they’re officially gone! Thankfully, we have the Independent playtime to break up the
morning a little more and time for me to get a few things done!
SPECIAL EVENTS:
He’s got 8 teeth on the
bottom (2 new canines popped in this month) Almost 7 on the top! We’re done for a little bit with
teething! Yea! All that’s left are
the 2nd year molars!
He also got a very big boy
haircut! Too big! He looks like a kid instead of a
baby.
He was a little congested at
the beginning of the month, which led to lots of coughing. Luckily, I think it was only due to all
the new teeth coming in.
OUR SCHEDULE:
7:30 - Wake up, play with
Silas and eat breakfast
8:15 – Read and Pray with
Mommy
8:45 – Help Mommy Clean
9:15 – Independent Playtime
10:15 – Learning
Activity/Table Time
11:30 – Lunch/Playtime
12:30 - Nap Time
4:30 – Snack/ Daddy Time
6:00 - Dinner
7:30 - Bedtime
