20th month

It is amazing to think that Rylen is on his way to being 2 years old. His "personality" has been coming out in the past few weeks. Diaper changes have become a quite irritating challenge. I am leaning even more towards potty training for this simple reason. I have a potty in the downstairs bathroom and he likes going in there and sitting on it. Now we just need to make the connection between the two. I am also going to invest in a couple more for upstairs. Hopefully, he will find this better than getting so upset while mommy is changing his diaper. We shall see.

Rylen is almost down to one nap as well. He can definitely survive a day on one nap as long as it is long enough. Some days are just obvious 2 nap days. I am speculating that by 2 years old he will be at one nap and hopefully a good long one. His nights are back to normal and our speculation, which is all we can do, is that that period of time that he was waking up in the middle of the night was due to the ear infections he had. Ever since those cleared up he has been a good sleeper again. In fact, the past couple of days he has been sleeping almost 12 hours at night. He must be growing!

He is trying to say more words and whatever comes out of his mouth we praise to encourage that part of his development. He is still the "lecturer" or "story-teller" in the evening and now in the mornings when he wakes up as well. I love to hear his ramblings and long to know what is going on in that cute little head of his. I am sure one day I will long for the silence again. HA!

Physically, Rylen is just as active as ever. I have had to control a bit of his jumping as he wants to jump on me and the baby. Not such a good idea at this point. He also will not stand still for a second, which is why I am STILL working on his 20 month photos. He is getting almost impossible for me to take pictures of. We will probably have to hit a park where I can let him run and tire out.

I must say that since Hawaii, Rylen has just plain grown up. Many of his skills accelerated while being there for the week and were noticed once we were back in our own environment again. He is finally chewing his food too! I know that sounds odd, but Rylen has always just stuck food in his mouth and swallowed. I'm not sure why, but I have always had to be extra careful with him concerning this. Even with a full set of chompers, he was slow to chew and quick to swallow. Lately, though, he has taken on many foods that would have been off limits because he has decided that chewing is a good thing! I may still be telling him to chew 20 times before swallowing until the day he leaves for college, but at least he is doing much better.

I am so excited to see how he will respond to the new baby. Rylen does so well with his cousin Brooklynn and I hope that he will do just as well with his new baby brother.