19 Months

My 'lil Bubs is 19 mos old now. It's been such a wonderful experience for me to see his growth, physically and emotionally. He's such a big boy now. A true toddler, though his features are still so baby like. The picture is his first haircut certificate. That was a great experience.

It's been so crazy around here since Dave and I are preparing to move into a much bigger home. So much to do, but so little time it seems. Our son is everywhere now and getting into everything. Baby gates piss him off and when someone goes outside, even for a moment, he throws a fit because his new thing is going "buh bye". He's connecting much more with Dave these days. Everything is dada. The garage door opens, it must be dada and he runs to greet him. It's actually starting to annoy me a little and now I know how Dave felt when everything was mama. I'll get over it though.

Angelo is very good with commands and complies without a problem, unless we're trying to take something away from him that he's not supposed to play with. We're in a great routine and sometimes I wonder if he's a little robot, LOL. Any time we go "buh bye", he knows to get his coat, shoes, let me put them on and then he runs to the door. He loves zippers and likes to unzip. I'm teaching him to zip his coat up before we go. When we come home I say, "coat off" and he proceeds to take it off and throw it on the floor. Now I'm teaching him to take it off, but give it to me so I can hang it up. He's been doing that for a couple of days now.

His nap schedule is jacked these days, but that's because he's transitioning to being an afternoon napper. Sometimes he'll go down in the morning, but that's not often anymore. He only takes about 2 hour naps. Angelo has been in a toddler bed for 4 months now and is doing great. Unfortunately though, he recently figured out how to open his bedroom door and lock it. We tried using those door knob protector things, but he found a way to remove it and break it apart. Now we have to put a baby gate outside his door in case he does open it, he can't go anywhere.

Bubbas can walk up and down the stairs on his own using the rails and he loves it. Every time he does it on his own, his face lights up with so much pride and accomplishment. Now we have to purchase a gate that will work with our stairs and rails to prevent him from going up and down without us being around. He's tried that quite a few times and is very sneaky about it. I placed a mirror on the wall in front of the staircase so I can watch him when he doesn't think I'm paying attention. I'm trying to give him a little freedom to explore.

He's talking A LOT more now. His new words in the last week are, "why, when, where, what, do, you, me, we (weeee) and but (also butt). He answers when you call him with "what". When you tell him to come or do something, he says, "why?". I'm teaching him please and thank you. He kind of breathes the word please and his way of saying thank you is "youuuuu!". I've been trying to get him to link his words into short phrases like, "hi dada" when he sees Dave and he's doing it well. I've also been trying to get him to say the girls' names. He's managed to get out Halle's name, but Trenity's is obviously much more difficult.

This child LOVES his food. When it's time to eat I say, "Angelo, are you hungry?" He then runs to the kitchen and tries to open the refrigerator. When the microwave beeps, he thinks it's for him. When he's thirsty, he shoves the sippy cup in my face and says, "do!" Angelo hates his booster seat now. He wants to sit on a regular chair with the family all the time. He's especially annoying when Trenity is trying to do her homework and he climbs on the chair next to her. Dave caught him climbing on the table too and it's been very difficult to control. The new house will be better since our layout has more rooms and privacy for the girls to do their work without interruption.

Bubs has 8 teeth. 4 on top and 4 on bottom. He's getting more though and his fits are getting worse as he's in so much pain. I have to give him children's Tylenol periodically and that seems to work. He loves the stuff too. I believe he thinks it's candy or something, LOL! He's in the most pain when he wakes up from his naps. I can't wait until this phase is over.

I can't believe we're approaching age 2 already! 5 more months to go. I'm putting Angelo in flag football this Fall as they have a P Squad for kids 2-4 years old. You'll never know how excited I am to be able to enroll him in sports. Dave is excited as well. Basketball and soccer won't start for him until he's 3. I'm bummed he has a summer birthday because we can't enroll him in anything at age 3 until the following Fall season.

That's about it for now! Gotta get back to cleaning and packing, UGH.

Cristin

17 Months Old & Crazy!

Christmas Day and Nana & Poppi's house


Christmas Day opening gifts. His face was finally clearing up



Trenity gave Angelo a cold sore and it spread. He had to take antibiotics. I was so bummed since it happened right before Christmas

My baby boy is getting so big. He's 17 mos old and growing so fast. He has 8 teeth now. 4 on top, 4 on the bottom and cutting 2 more. Angelo wants to eat ALL the time! Whenever we have food around, he goes, "Na Na, Na Na!". He associates all food with bananas and that's his way of saying, "Give me some right now, damnit!" He's starting to get picky about his food as well. When given vegetables, he'll take it out of his mouth and throw it on the floor, unless I cleverly disguise them with pasta sauce or something else. I gave him lettuce the other day and the look on his face was priceless.

Bubbas still walks on his toes sometimes. I'm trying to keep him on his flat feet, but he's not ready for that yet. It's odd because he was doing it for a few months and this tippy toe thing is rather new. He's SO active. He attempts to climb up on the couches, ottoman and one of our recliners. Sometimes he makes it, other times he doesn't.

Angelo is obsessed with opening and closing doors, drawers and cabinets. Now he'll open a cabinet just to put his toy inside and later he'll go back for it. He likes to hide our remote controls in the vents too. Somehow he figured out a way to pull the register out of the floor, dump the remote and put it back in, LOL. One day it took us over and hour to figure out where he put our stuff.

I'm trying to get him to dance. He'll throw is arms up and stomp around when he sees people dancing on TV or when I've got music playing and dancing as well. It's really cute to watch. He LOVES his musical toys, especially his Yo Gabba Gabba guitar. When the music stops, he runs back to push the button. Can't have any quiet time with this 'lil booger, LOL!

He's doing well with his words. He's saying Hi, Bye, Bubba, What, Dada, Mama, Boo, Up, tries to say Mine, but it's a hit or miss, More (also hit or miss) and Weeeee! He's been trying to say ending syllables to words. If I say "couch" he can say "ch". If I say "up" he'll either yell the word or make the "p" sound with breath, etc... I caught him trying to say No yesterday. Here we go!

I'm also teaching him the names to his body parts. If I say, "Angelo, show me your teeth", he opens his mouth and pushes on his teeth or he go to my face, open my mouth and point to mine. Too cute! He knows his feet as well. When I say, "Gimme those feet", he raises his legs and kicks his feet. Right now I'm working on having him point to his nose.

His comprehension is incredible, at least I think so. He's really understanding commands quite well. If we say, "Shut the door", he looks for the nearest open door and closes it. Now he can reach the doorknob and can shut the door using it. He has to get up on his toes still, though. He knows where his room is so when I say, "Angelo, go to your room", he runs right to it, waits until we're both inside, then shuts the door. When I say, "Go to bed", he runs to his new toddler bed and gets in. There's much more.

Speaking of the toddler bed, Angelo went and busted his crib a week ago. That's right folks, he was DONE with being caged in, LOL! We can fix it, but at that point, he would throw fits and hit his head on the bars so I was done with that thing too. We put the mattress on the floor for a few days to get Angelo situated and he LOVED the freedom, of course! Dave and I bought him a cherry colored sleigh bed and he was super stoked. He kept climbing in and out of it so it took us a while to get him to sleep the first night. He's been perfect ever since.

Now we're having slight issues with nap time. He will play around in his room for a while, but when he gets tired, he climbs up and sleeps in his bed. Sometimes he'll take 2 naps a day and other times he won't. He's a real cranky Bubs when he doesn't get his rest. Much like his Mama and Dada. Putting him to bed at night has been a real dream though and I'm grateful for that.

Angelo LOVES to be tossed in the air as "Super Bubbas". He also likes to play the Boo game. It's his version of Peek-a-Boo. He'll walk up to you, grab your hands, cover your eyes and yell, Boo! He tries to cover his eyes, but somehow ends up covering his ears instead. His other favorite is the "I'm gonna getcha" game. I yell, "Gonna getcha" then he giggles and runs away.

I know I'm forgetting a ton of stuff, but that's all I have time for today. Every day is a new adventure with my son and still, I can't believe I have one! He's the light and love of my life and I'm so grateful for this little wonder.

Cristin