21st Month

Rylen is quickly moving towards his two year mark and taking with it a lot of baby moments. Our son has finally moved to one nap. I haven't necessarily encouraged the one nap because I wanted to make sure that he was getting sufficient sleep and it was also giving me more time to work! Well, those moments are now over. Rylen still sleeps from 8:30ish at night until 8:00ish in the morning and takes one 2 hour nap in the afternoon starting around 12:30-1:30p. I have to be rather vague about these times because, one, it depends on the day, and two, we have had some crazy issues that we have been dealing with lately so it is hard to pin down exactly what his schedule has become. Our wonderful little boy has also reared his independence yet dependence even more. He thrives on doing what he WANTS to do, but somehow wants me to be present for it. I don't need to be engaged, but the biggie is that I am NOT on the computer. Yes, I can be doing laundry, folding clothes, cleaning, whatever as long as it is not at the computer. So, work is becoming a nap and bedtime venture. I am trying to wean him from this and be more satisfied with being in the same room with me, but not necessarily up in MY business when I need to be working. HA! Good Luck, I know.

Our mornings are always spent eating breakfast together and then watching his "My Baby Can Read" video. He is always super excited to watch these in the morning and on a few occasions became upset when it was over. I have been mixing up the three that we have viewed since December to make sure he isn't memorizing the videos and I have been surprised at how he has picked them up and will sign or say the word before they do. His speaking his slowly getting better. He truly understand a whole lot, but has only ventured to say a few more words: Ball (along with the sign), Bubble, Car (He has a wonderful New York accent with this one), "Gotta Go", "Ok", "urkle" (Circle with his hand moving in a circle), "sss" (Bus, Trees, Jesus, Zacheus, almost anything that ends in "s"), "danku" (Thank you accompanied with the sign), and of course "Dada" and "Mama" when he feels like it. Those are all I can think of right now. Of course his signing is still in high gear along with pointing. He signs "more" for "want" as well and will sometimes sign "please" if he wants help with something along with pointing. He knows his body parts: head, knees, toes, fingers, chin, eyes, nose, hair, ears, and bellybutton (in which he will lift my shirt to point to mine and then proceed to put my shirt back down for my modesty. HA!) Animals are another favorite of Rylen. He will sign elephant, cat, wiggle his mouth for bunny, "moos" for cow, does his little giggle for a horse, and makes an "o" with his mouth for a pig. We have been told that Rylen has quite the expressions and I am starting to understand why with all of these faces he makes for animals. He also has a daddy that encourages all of this as well. Oh, I am sure i am missing something about his communication.

He plays very successfully with his animal and vehicle puzzles, knowing where each one goes as well as successfully putting the shape blocks in their correct holes. Books are still a big hit and I'm sure we go through a stack of 20 in the evening as well as more throughout the day. Being outside is the highlight of his day if the weather is nice and so I am very glad that spring is here and the weather is worthy of having the windows or doors open and allowing him to run around in the yard. I am looking to get a picnic table for the yard and other outside toys as well.

For discipline, we are successfully using timeout. I really didn't think it would be so easy at his age to get him to sit and stay when i placed him in timeout but, surprisingly, when we sit him there, he stays until we let him get up. So, I am relieved that this has been an affective form of discipline. Sometimes he just needs the timeout to cool off from a toy that was misbehaving and needed a toss across the room. We are not against a paddling, but at this age, a swat FROM us has led him to swat AT us when he is upset and we don't want him to learn to hit when he is upset. The communication is just not fully there yet for us to effectively use corporal punishment.

Rylen is still growing, though I don't have any official stats at this point. I know that he is still weighing under 22lbs and his height is creeping up towards 30 inches. I can tell he should be moved out of his 12 month clothes now and officially take on all 18 month clothes as they are fitting perfectly now. We are also finally making arrangements for his first haircut. We are finally finished dealing with the "Do you have a boy or girl?" comments from strangers. They see him from the back and immediately think girl even though his outfit could be screaming BOY! So, I think it is time to snip the locks. We will probably do it before the new baby is born but definitely after the MS150 is over. So stay tuned for those pics!

Well, I have rambled a lot about our little boy and I know I have forgotten so many things that he does. Previous posts I'm sure have captivated how much he has grown over the past month. We will tackle the potty training another day. Mommy is not ready to handle all of it yet, though I wish I did.

Until next month...