(Actually, he's technically 19 months in a few days, but that's the life of a blogging, pregn mama with inconsistent internet service!)
Smiling for the camera is not a concept he's learned yet.
(Of course the camera lens was dirty
when I attempted to take pictures. . . . You'd think I'd have done that
enough times that I'd check it before the photoshoot!)
Mom, why are you playing peek-a-boo with the camera in your hand?
To get you to smile for a picture, my child.
No, you're not going.
All About Lil'S
Little Mr. S has been on an independent
streak the past month or two. Here are all the things S and I can think of that he likes to do
on his own. Not letting him do these things--or not knowing in advance that he wants to do these things--usually results in a shriek of frustration and a very cute angry face.
- unload utensils from the dishwasher--actually into the drawer!
- get his plate from the dishwasher and
put it on the table
- turn on the bathtub faucet
- put on his shoes and socks (Or at
least randomly shriek at me and try to grab the sock/shoe from my
hand and bang it against his foot. Gratefully this outburst is usually short-lived as this is obviously an area where he's needing much more development before he'll be able to actually put the shoe/sock on himself.)
- drink from a cup that doesn't have a
sippy lid
- get his own bread out of the bread
bag
- put his milk cup back in the fridge
- open and close the microwave door (S
says he stood there letting him do that over and over for like five
minutes.)
- steal fruit from the fruit plate and giggle as Mom chases him down
- climb up into one of the kid chairs
to color at the kid table
- climb into his kid-sized car!
(PHEW! new this past week or so)
- use the baby potty (No! Really!
He's potty training himself! Not that I seriously think he'll go
diaperless before this next baby comes, but if I were a dedicated,
consistent mama, there would be high chances of that!)
- use the baby potty standing up
Yes, this morning my 18-month-old placed his potty where he wanted it, stood back, and let it go. ACK!!!!! After grabbing the potty and trying to catch what was coming, my initial thought was, "I really thought he had better control than that!" But then realization dawned on me. This afternoon I asked S, "Has [Lil'S] seen you use the bathroom standing up?" S gave me this am-I-in-trouble-for-something? look and slowly replied, "Yes." After I told him what happened, S defended himself, "You told me you wanted me to teach our boys how to do it" I just laughed, "Yes! But when they're like three!!! Not 18 months!!!"
I still can't believe that happened, but then again, with how imitative Lil'S has been lately, I really can!
Other things Lil'S likes to do
- anything that has to do with water
(Drinking it, playing in it, washing his hands, splashing in puddles,
etc. Ah, that's probably where the potty training has come in.
Not only do we wash out the baby potty, but he also gets to wash his
hands afterward. Bonus!)
- play outside! (I know I said it already, but he's finally mastered
climbing into the car by himself! I haven't seen if he can go
forward yet, but at least he can scoot himself backward.)
- color! (He is a drawing fanatic. He
loves to sit at the kitchen table across from H and draw while H does
her homework. He will seriously sit there for a whole hour!
Too bad he likes to eat crayons and bite the tips off
markers and colored pencils. . . .)
- play with toy cars and trucks
- push things around (doll strollers,
real strollers, plastic drawer sets, library book carts....)
- read (He probably reads books with us
or by himself for about 20-60 minutes day!)
- go with Daddy in the mornings to see
H off on the bus
|
bye, Daddy |
- watch Daddy leave for work on his scooter in the
mornings
- sit on Mommy's lap and watch the cars
go by while waiting to get H from the bus. (Well, actually, the past
couple weeks he's been wanting to go onto the highway to see the cars
up close; I might have to start strapping him in the stroller again
to get sister from her bus. . . .)
- shriek at Mitzie to see her jet away
(His shrieking phase would have been short-lived had she known not to
react to him!)
- be Mr. Social (I had some friends
come over Monday afternoon, and he immediately led them into the
house and showed their 3-yr-old boy his toy truck. Another time, he
sat at lunch with a 3-yr-old girl, chatting away like a perfect
gentleman taking a woman out to dinner for the first time. As nap
time approached, he started getting a little looser, and by the time
the meal was over, he was as loopy-doopy as any man who drinks a
little too much on a first date with a pretty woman. Hilarious!)
- walk around the house with the hula
hoop (Been a fav since the moment he learned to walk.)
- let us know when we forget to remove
the oven knobs that are within his reach (Hey, Mom, I can reach
this!)
- smile at Mom/Dad sweetly while she/he
tucks him into his crib on good nights (I. LOVE. THIS. I can't even
express how much I love this!)
Things he wants to do that we won't let
him do.
- play outside at 7 in the morning
(Mom's COLD!)
- walk around the house eating (But Mom
and Dad do it!)
- open and close the oven door (new and gratefully short-lived)
- sit in a chair without his booster
(He's been one happy man ever since Saturday when I washed his
booster and didn't get it strapped back onto his chair.)
- get what he wants to eat out of the
fridge
- stand on the kid table (new the past
few days)
- climb onto the kitchen table (Also
new. . . . Can you tell he's not much of a climber? Some kids'll be
on top of the fridge by 18 months.)
First Words
Lil'S has mostly been doing
monosyllables, but every now and then the past couple weeks he'll do the typical "na-na,
ba-ba-ba" thing. So, he's a bit behind. We'll wait until he's two to get him evaluated. (Ha, when I'm busy with a newborn? Maybe we should just make an appointment now for when he's two just so it's on the calendar!)
- Ma (Mommy)
- Da (Daddy, truck, down)
- mao (As in "meow", not the
Chinese dictator. That's the way I taught him to say "meow"
when I noticed he was only using one syllable at a time. He used to
go over to Mitzie and sweetly chat with her while petting her. "Mao
. . . mao . . . mao. . . ." Too cute. They had a great
relationship until he decided to experiment with shrieking.)
- ba (ball, although he only said that for a week or so, if that)
- na-na (Hannah, banana; usually only once every month or so, although I think a couple times the past few days. . . .)
newest word:
yeah! (very hoarse and very exuberant)
newest mode of communication:
A growly yell whenever he doesn't get
what he wants. (Thanks to the Baby Sign video Daddy brought home for
Lil'S during his breathing treatments, we had at least two days were
he decided signing was a better way to get want he wanted. If only
that had lasted. . . .)
newest sound:
Some funny "la-ol-lu" thing he's done with his tongue every now and then the past couple days.
First Signs
|
me! |
ones he made up:
(I love these.)
- tickle
- me! / for me! (I've only seen him
do this three times, but I still lucked out and got a picture of him doing it when I didn't expect him to!)
|
more! (Sometimes I wonder about his eyes, too. Well, we'll find out at H's appt in Jan/Feb. Her dr. offered to check him out then too since it's genetic. She's awesome.) |
ones we taught him:
(not as much fun,
but necessary)
- milk
- eat
- please
- help
- bath (much more exciting here...water's involved!)
ones we're still teaching him
- drink
- water (At first I was surprised he
didn't pick this one up immediately, but it is a more complicated
sign, and he's always been at the latter end of the normal
development range for his motor skills. For example, he just started
pointing at things this past month or two and at things in books this
past week. . . . That's a little behind isn't it? At least I was thinking it was. . . .)
- sit (Although this one is pretty
pointless. I've really just been using it lately to add emphasis when telling him to
sit, not that it necessarily helped much. ;) When
would we want him to use the sign, telling us to sit? Maybe if he
wants us to read him a book?)
And, now in case you haven't heard or seen enough of Lil'S, here's a video of his cuteness.