22 Month Old

Something about saying “twenty-two month old” just sounds long-winded. I promise to stop counting his age in months when he hits the 2-year mark. The thing is, when we’re out playing at the park and somehow asks, “How old is he?” 

And I answer, “He’s one.” 

They always then follow-up with, “How many months?” 

This doesn’t bother me, but I’m adding it to the reasons why I still age him in months. 

We haven’t weighed or measured Nolan in a bit (and as I’m writing this, I’m thinking we should), but I think he for real (this time) has had a growth spurt. Cory and I are suddenly like, “Man, look how tall he is!” 

Apparently not that tall. The 14-month-old we played with last week was the same size as Nolan. Sigh. 

But, tall to us. Nonetheless. 

His foot is finally growing, too! Ha! This kid has been in a size 4 forever. Just a few mornings ago, I was putting some shoes on him and noticed they seemed a bit snug. A day after that, I noticed a few different pairs of jeans looking short on him. 

It was one of those days, where I’m sure anyone who took note of it was like, “Oh. They’re those parents.” 

Ya know, the ones whose kids have too short pants and shoes that are falling apart and too small.

We bought some new shoes, but they were too big. Of course. So, apparently he’s stuck between a size 4 and 5. Hopefully this doesn’t last as long as that gap between a size 3 and 4 did.

I love the conversing we have these days. Sometimes he talks in those little two and sometimes even three word sentences, and it’s so sweet. And, his little voice. Ah, I giggle at most things he says, just because it sounds so cute no matter what. 

He’ll ask where things are now in  two-word sentences: “Where daddy?”  “Where banky?” “Where Aiko?” etc. 

My favorite part about those questions are that his hands are usually up in questions, and his little face is so serious, while his eyes look around carefully. 

When we laugh at him for being silly he’ll say, “I silly!” It just makes me laugh more.

Our little circle time/mat time has been productive this month. He’s started singing along with some of our songs and doing the actions to them. Itsy Bitsy Spider is hilarious, he does all the little hand motions for it and hums (more or less) along with the song.  

He finally started learning animal names and sounds. For whatever reason he had no interest at all in this particular set of things. We’ve used books, flash cards, pictures, apps, even a sing-song show. Nothing. I get these little wooden magnets with the animals on them, and he has them all down in like a day. Not sure what it was about it, but now he’ll say the names of nearly all that we’ve showed him and their sounds.

Now that he can recognize all the letters, we’ve moved on to the sounds. He’s picked up on B, D, T easily. All have similar sounds, so easy enough to learn.

He can count to 10 now! And he does it all by himself spontaneously sometimes. Sometimes, he needs a bit of help (like what comes after 7), and sometimes he needs a prompt (like if he gets to 5 and stops, we can say “six” and he’ll continue on). But he does know them through 10. He also recognizes the numbers 1-10, too. Pretty cool.

I haven’t noticed any substantial tantruming this month at all! Yay!

His aunt recently asked me, “Does he ever keep throwing a fit after you count it down?” lol

She then asked what I would do if he did. He really doesn’t, but the few times that has happened, I put him in a time out until he’s calm. 

His fine motor skills really need some improving. I’ve been trying to think of creative ways to work on it. But, the kid just is not that into art stuff that would help (painting, coloring, etc). So, I’ve tried a few things. I punched some holes in a canister lid and we practiced sticking paper straws in them. We used pipe cleaners to shove through the holes on our strainer. We work on stacking blocks. But, all of these things only hold his attention for like one or two times. So, I don’t know… we’ll keep on keepin’ on though. 

A new gross motor skill has developed. He can jump! From a standing position! It’s adorable. I keep trying to catch a video, but it’s like he can only get one solid jump in at a time and the rest is really just dramatic bouncing. Ha! So, by the time I’m ready to record, I’m never catching the actual jumping. I’ll keep trying though. Uncle Casey practices with him on this one every time he’s over. 

He also started over hand throwing a ball pretty good. A couple of times he’s pinged me with this little plastic ball he has, and it had a bit of sting to it. It seemed coincidental more than anything, at first. But he throws it like that rather consistently, so maybe I should move past the coincidence theory.

I happen to know he’s getting a few different types of bikes/trikes for Christmas, and I’m excited to get him out going on those!

He helps do a lot of things and it’s cute. He’ll hand me things out of the dishwasher to put away. Or, when we had the rice tub out, at the end of playing I’d always sweep up the mess. So, eventually toward the end of the play time with it, he’d get to where he’d go get the dustpan and hand broom and bring it to me! He’d even “help” hold the dustpan sometimes. 

He picks up his toys again more easily than before. He’ll bring us his shoes to put on (and he tries very hard to do it himself). He loves “helping” me fold the blankets in our living room.

He knows the name of a lot of things on his body: head, hair, eyes, eye brows, nose, mouth, cheek, chin, ears, shoulders, belly, belly button, butt, knees, feet, toes, and his pee-pee - of course. lol 

Every time I ask him, “Where’s your elbow?” He goes to his letter toys and says, “Where L go?” bahaha

He was whiny last week. I kept thinking a sickness was going to show up. He was all out of sorts. Now, my theory is teething, he’s been messing with his gums quite a bit lately. Oof. Teething is no fun. He has about all the top teeth finally through, but still just has the four bottom teeth.

I’m so excited for Christmas this year! We got him a little play kitchen, with all the little pots and pans and utensils that look like real ones, just smaller. He’s obsessed with kitchen stuff, so I’m hoping he’ll like it. He’ll probably just remain most interested in the real kitchen stuff, but one can hope.

My two handsomes ❤︎

I jump through flaming hoops to get a smile and nothing. Daddy whistles and he's all giggles.

Lots of puddle playing this month. Lots of rain.

He likes cuddling on the couch.

Such a ham, this one.

Bubbles!

He is a super hero. 

Flashlight fun before bedtime. Then he bonked daddy in the head. 

"Steek! Wah-wah!" 

When I told him it was time to go and started walking away, he said, "Okay, bye, Sweetie." Then just kept playing with his rock. He clearly cares a lot. 

Brought Aunt Ashley a book to read.

He's pretty great :)