About the Kiddo: One post at a time: 23 Month Old

Here we are, our very last month with a 1-year-old.

The lovebug is well on his way into some terrific twos, in my opinion ;)

Nolan’s behavior has been exceptional recently. I mean, it’s like spending a day with him makes me forget he’s a toddler. Of course he isn’t perfect (ha), I still have the occasional fit out of him, or see a behavior I deem unacceptable. But, wow, he’s just awesome you guys! He listens so well to us, he honors our time frames, he knows some limits and respects them. He really is a good boy.

I can’t believe how fast he’s growing. I say that every month and probably will continue to do so for many years to come.

He’s learning new words and phrases at a pretty quick rate. Though, overwhelmingly, he still mostly communicates with one and two word sentences, we’re starting to see a lot more three word sentences pop up.

Some new things we’ve been hearing lately:

There it is

I got it

We did it

Be careful

He’s still hard to understand in my opinion. I mean, Cory and I know what he’s saying, but I’m guessing it’s a deciphering game for everyone else. Not with everything, mostly just with new words. Words he’s had for a while are more clearly spoken these days. I still say he needs a speech evaluation. I’m probably going to push it a bit more at the 2-year check up. If our Pediatrician doesn’t take my concern in this area seriously at this point, we’re probably going to a new Pediatrician.

Obviously, I’m not worried about cognitive or vocabulary.

I know I sound like a broken record with some of this, but 20 years from now when I browse through these, I'll want to know this stuff ;) He does recognize all the letters, and a handful of letter sounds. He recognizes and says the numbers 1-10. He knows the colors: black, white, red, orange, yellow, green, purple, and blue. He knows the shapes: circle, oval, square, triangle, star, heart, hexagon, and octagon.

We started learning sight words this past week. In just one week’s time he is already correctly reading: to, of, it, play, have, you, in, I (freebie), he, that. Seriously. I’m crazy impressed! I mean, it's not technically reading, but... he's reading. ;)

His mumbling sing-alongs have turned into something more this month. He really sticks some of the correct words in the correct places of the songs we sing. It’s so darn cute!

Now that he can easily count to 10, I started expanding it by just one number this week. He really has no interest at all in agreeing that 11 comes after 10, but I’m sure he’ll get there.

I’ve been trying my best to get a video of him whistling. It’s just so random. He’ll start up and whistle really well for a long time, but if you ask him to of course he won’t.

Same thing with the jumping. He’ll get it about once every 10 jumps or something. Never when I have the camera ready though.

Skipping! I introduced him to skipping, and he thought it was hilarious. What's more hilarious is watching him try to skip. I can surely get a video of this one soon.

Speaking of gross motor things, I've mentioned before, but the kid is clumsy. Bless his heart. He trips and falls so much (I did too - all the way through college even. Ha! Less so now, but let’s hope it doesn’t take 27 years for him).

We have a tour coming up with the PreK that Nolan’s on the waiting list for. His opening is just around the corner! Yikes! Am I ready for this? He’s only going to go for half a day like three days a week. We can do this. It’ll be good for him. I want him to get the social/play experience. So… again… we can do this. [This is the part in the movie where it flashes forward to me running out of the school with my baby.]

Unless he starts being sick all the time, in which case we really might drop the program.

Speaking of school, I’ve been looking into homeschooling stuff. Talk about overwhelming. There are so many! But, I was looking into some homeschooling PreK stuff. I feel like I’m doing a fine job on my own in the PreK area, but some guidance might be nice.

Cory’s always preferred that we homeschool. I’ve always been on the fence. Recently, I read some interesting stuff that made me really get on board with homeschooling. That, and the ridiculous education programs of public (and even some private schools), and it was pretty much a done deal. This is a personal choice for each family, and I just feel that homeschooling is the better choice for us. God willing, anyway.

Then again, we went to one of those ridiculous school and turned out pretty good - in my opinion ;)'

Back in the day, I could see where socialization might’ve been a real concern, but not s’much these days. There are a wealth of homeschooling groups to get involved in. Plus, a wealth of people who volunteer their time to these groups for teaching extra curricula’s. Especially here.

Of course, we had some big occasions this month. Nolan had his 2nd Christmas! It was so much fun. His little face lit up, and he explored his new stuff with excitement. It was so much fun. He loves his busy board and really gets on kicks with the play kitchen set. I think more than anything he likes opening and closing the little cabinet doors on it.

I’m sure the week of Christmas had him thinking cookies had become a part of afternoon snacks. He was disappointed when he discovered that was not the case.

He did really excellent on the plane ride to MO. It happen to fall right inline with his nap, which I usually think is a disaster. This time though, we took his carseat with us onto the plane and he slept pretty well. Was a bit restless, I suppose. But did as well as could be expected.

It does suck we don’t have more time with everybody. I feel like just when he was warming up to everyone it was time to come back home. But, so goes life…

His youngest cousin (who is still 4 years older than him) absolutely adores him! They bonded. She really watched over him and took care of him, it was sweet. She couldn’t quite pick him up anymore (ha), but he’d sit on her lap pretty contently.

Of course, we got sick. Cory and Nolan had all kinds of congestion, me and Nolan ran fevers, I had one of the worst sore throats I’ve ever had and I think Nolan probably had it too. Nolan still has an awful cough. Eighteen days into the new year and we’re finally all about recovered from it. It’s just so frustrating that we get sick every time we travel back. A necessary evil, I guess.

Well, enjoy the last grouping of pictures for our 1-year-old ;)