Lachlan - 20 months

Lachlan turned 20 months last week and it has been an eventful month to say the least...

Stats

• Some of his summer clothes are getting a little snug, so just wears a hodgepodge of 18 and 24 month sizes.  
• I think all 4 of his incisors have now came in.
• Just got his feet measured and he is a size 7 now.  His old shoes were 6 and I was concerned they were getting small since he had them for a while.

How smart is Lachlan?

• More improvement with using fork/spoon- He can generally eat a container of yogurt, pudding, etc but needs help towards the end to get the last parts.

• He definitely is picking up on counting.  It's not correct, but he is starting to get the hang of it.  I'll hear him pointing to things and saying what sounds like numbers...like five, six, seven.
• He just LOVES the ABCs- he wants us to sing it all the time.  He can recognize in general what letters/words are and will point to a word and say "ABCs."  He likes to do this on his highchair- he points to Evenflo and says ABCs!  He's been stubborn lately and won't repeat the letters after us and only wants us to sing them.  Sometimes he does seem to chime in as we are singing and do a string of a few letters, so I think the song may be starting to sink in.
• He's a little iTot!  He is getting pretty good with mastering the iphone and ipad.  He knows to hit the home button when he is done with an app.  He can scroll through the pictures/videos and uses his pointer finger to hit the "play" triangle for videos.  He watches some things on youtube and knows when the video finishes to select another video on the side if he wants more.

Favorite Things

• OUTSIDE- He can say "outside" so now he has a definite way to tell us when he wants to go out.  We had an exceptionally cool summer in St Louis so he was able to get some outside time at the end of July....but the weather in Texas has been brutally hot.  He still has spent a lot of time outside here, but we just have to try to limit it.  Grandma Betty taught him to say it is "Texas Hot!" outside.  One day he touched the concrete and said it was hot....so then he bent down and starting blowing on it to cool it off (just like he does his food)....funny guy!
• PICTURES- He now knows how to ask for the iPhone-- he just says "pictures."  I can't imagine another kid just loving to look at pictures the way Lachlan does.  Although he is getting pickier and will tell you "NO" if you try to play a video or pause on a picture he has no interest in.  Once the pictures get really old, then I'm not sure he understands they are still pictures of him and he just says "baby."  

Random Other Bits:

• We moved from St Louis, MO to Dallas, TX this month and I couldn't have asked for Lachlan to be any better....I was just shocked at how well he handled everything and how easy he made it for us.  He had to deal with constant change and it didn't phase him in the least.  My parents came to stay with us and help out the last week of August.  Dustin and I had to fly to Dallas for 1.5 days to close on our new house.  Then a few days later, the movers came to pack up everything and load up the truck.  Lachlan really didn't mind too much that everything was in boxes and looked completely different.  We then went to stay with Dustin's mom, but had to leave Lachlan for 2 days while we went to Chicago for my cousin's wedding.  A couple days later we then left for the drive to TX and split it into 2 days.  I couldn't believe how great Lachlan was in the car-- I barely had to reach back and give him toys to entertain him.  We listened to some kids music, he paged through books, played with his laugh n learn puppy, and then the best thing ever......we revealed a new dvd player with a 2 hour Elmo's World video!!!!!!!!!!  You should have seem the smile and amazement on his face when that happened.  So that video really was key and helped kill almost half the car ride.  We got to the new house and he seemed to have fun-- we taught him to just run in circles screaming in the empty rooms (cause wasn't much to do here)!  He had a blast though!  We'd keep telling him this is Lachlan's house, but anytime we'd ask him if it was he'd say NO.  After about 2 weeks of living here, if we ask him if this is Lachlan's house, he'll now say YES!
• He had his last day of daycare in St Louis on Friday 7/26.  They had just been so wonderful and so good to Lachlan, so it was super difficult for me to feel like I was pulling him away from such a good environment.  Every single day he was excited to go to school and very rarely ever cried or was clingy to us when leaving him there.  The teachers all signed a beach ball for him and the kids in the class had their handprints on it, so that was a cute little going away gift.  I was already really having a hard time and sad his last week there and had been dreading the very last day.  It killed me cause I felt like he must have known/sensed something was up the last day cause I asked him to give hugs to everyone when we left and without hesitation he hugged all his friends in his room and they weren't just like quick hugs- it was some of the most real hugs I've seen him ever give to people.  We still hadn't visited any TX daycares yet, so all I could think about is how I'm going to find him a new place he loves so much and new friends....hopefully that all works out!  The day we came to TX for closing, we visited 2 daycares close to our house and both seem excellent, so was hard to pick between them both.  He'll start 8/14, so just after he turns 20 months.
• I'm scared to jinx myself, but after going through a really bad biting phase, he seems to have stopped.  He was not in daycare for several weeks and there were no bites.  So I'm hoping it maybe was just related to him teething...and he is getting better with using his words, so I think that may be helping that he can talk rather than resort to chomping into someone. 
• He still has little mad tantrums every now and then.  I think its cute cause he'll get frustrated and then just starts stomping his feet in place...most of the time they are over nothing- like he doesn't want to come inside or he wants to go outside.
• Still has a bad habit of throwing his food off his tray if he doesn't like something or is done with this meal.  Same with his cup.  Nothing seems to work with stopping this- so lately I try to just ignore him and give no attention or reaction when he does this.  Then I take away his tray and just tell him he must be all done.
• Has started telling us "poo poo" when he either farts, tries to poop, or actually does poop.  We never really worked him on this, he just started doing it.
• If I tell him daddy is sleeping or he sees someone with their eyes shut, he says "Shhhhhhhh" and he puts his finger to his lips, except every single time he also shoves his finger up his nose.  I keep trying to show him that you just put your finger over your lips, but he doesn't get it and continues to pick his nose each time.

Pictures from this month:

Loves taking Puppy for walks.  Every time puppy topples over he says "Uh oh" and sets him back up.

Lachlan really enjoyed the big moving truck....and getting right in the way of the workers

Last family picture at our Eureka house :(

Had a BLAST laying in the packing paper and just running through it

Lachs found mardi gras beads in one of the boxes we unpacked.  He worked all by himself to untangle each strand and then drape it on him.  The funny part was watching him attempt to stand up after all these beads were on.

One of his favorite things to do at the new house is to stand at the bottom of the stairs like this and peek around the spindles just smiling and playing peekaboo.

Lachlan - 19 months!

Stats

• Mainly wearing 18 month clothes still.  
• He is getting his top left incisor tooth in and maybe some on the bottom, but is so hard to get a look!

How smart is Lachlan?

• More improvement with using fork/spoon- I've let him practice scooping stuff like pudding or applesauce and he sometimes lucks out and gets it on the spoon, but still needs a lot of help.  He enjoys using the fork and is better with that than the spoon- he is fairly good at stabbing things with it.

• He always gets his body parts right when asked to identify them and will now say the word on most items too.  Feet, Belly, Hair, Eyes, Ears, Nose, Mouth, Elbow, Bebo, toes, hands, teeth (new), tongue (new), knees (new), pee-pee (new).
• Can identify a ton of objects in books.  It is just absolutely crazy how we'll quiz him on the objects on a page and he knows nearly everything...just blows my mind!  I'm to the point where it is just impossible to list all the words he knows and such!
• Daycare claims multiple times that Lachlan repeatedly counts to 5 as he plays with things...we are still very doubtful of this!

Favorite Things

• LEARNING- He enjoys us counting and doing the ABCs.  In books, he still loves being quizzed about things...and he'll point to any objects on the page he doesn't know so we can tell him what it is.
• ELMO- the boy is still extremely obsessed over Elmo
• PUZZLES-  It was killing me how freaking expensive puzzles are...or I'm just looking at the wrong stores!  Lachlan has a few, but just absolutely LOVES them and was needing more.  We hit the jackpot cause his generous Uncle Keenan gave him a bunch of old puzzles...Lachlan has spent HOURS this last week mastering them.
• SONGS- He loves when we sing action songs for him to do motions with or when we play a kids station on Pandora.  He really loves he ABCs...and loves a few books we have where I can point at the letters as I sing.  He loves Itsy Bitsy Spider and does the hand motions.  He does If You're Happy and You Know It- claps his hands, stomps his feet, shouts hooray, wiggles his ears, pats his head.  He does Wheels on the Bus- wheels, door, wipers, horn, driver, mommy, baby, and grandma.
• LEGOS- He calls them "blocks."  We got a simple set of the Duplo Legos and he has just been engrossed with trying to build things with them...and also enjoys taking them apart.  He has a little bit of trouble getting them lined up right, so I help out a lot to get it lined up and then tell him "push"....he thinks it is so hilarious when I say push, and he'll sit there and wait for me to say it and/or will yell out "push" too.
• MOMMY- most days lately he shows a definite favoritism towards me, which is so sweet, but annoying at times where I need for him to let Dustin or someone else hold him or play with him.

Random Other Bits:

• Issue with biting still at daycare.  Lately he definitely seems to do it purposefully to be mean- e.g. another kid has an object that he wants.  I know it will eventually pass, but is getting very frustrating. 
• He has finally started giving some real kisses rather than just blowing kisses.  I used to be a little scared of his real kisses cause was so afraid of him biting, but I realize now that he knows what kisses are and I don't think he would bite.
• We took him over to a friend's house to watch fireworks for the Fourth.  We weren't sure he was going to be able to stay awake, but he made it!  We thought it was funny because when he heard some random fireworks go off before the show started, EVERY SINGLE TIME he would exclaim "Oh nooooo!"  We thought he was going to do it during the whole show, but once they started, he was just frozen sitting in my lap and had no comments!  Towards the end he finally threw in the towel and snuggled into me and closed his eyes and fell asleep....but the finale awoke him and he of course wanted "more!"
• We've experience a few really mad tantrums lately, so that is no fun....but sometimes does make me chuckle.  His latest is if he gets really angry, he goes to our bedroom and SLAMS the door shut...and then doesn't want anything to do with us.  Most of the time his anger is over an ipad, iphone, or tv because we cut off his usage...so it is to the point that we feel like we just can't ever let him use the ipad/iphone cause of that tantrum that follows!  The problem is then if he sees us with it...so then means that we can not get out anything in front of him.

Typical Day at 19 months:

• Same as 18 months

A few pictures from this last month:

Loves riding on dad's back or making dad do pushups with him on top!

Seeing big "choo-choos" at the Transportation Museum

Where's Lachlan?  Still one of his favorite games

Shouting HOORAY for If You're Happy and You Know It

And Lachlan was excited to discover he'll be having a little SISTER!

Lachlan - 18 months!

It is really amazing to see how each day he really does get smarter and smarter.  I feel like he understands nearly everything we say now!  He is rapidly able to identify new things and learning new words so fast that I can't keep up documenting it all!  He is so fun to play with and just turning into such a sweet little boy!

Stats

• Mainly wearing 18 month clothes still.  Has some 24 month things he'll wear too.
• At Dr. Appt he was 27 lbs 13 oz. (75%) and just over 32 inches (41%).  Still has a giant melon at 50cm and like 95%.
• He is getting his top right incisor tooth in and maybe some more.  It seems like it may be bothering him.

How smart is Lachlan?

• Definite improvement with using fork/spoon, but still have to help him get the food loaded onto it.

• He always gets his body parts right when asked to identify them and will now say the word too.  We thought this was normal, but both daycare and PAT were really impressed and said this was advanced.  Feet, Belly, Hair, Eyes, Ears, Nose, Mouth, Elbow (new), Bebo (new- aka bellybutton), toes (new), hands (new).
• Can identify and say a ton of Sesame Street characters- Big Bird, Snuffy, Grover, Elmo, Zoe, Abby, Oscar, Cookie Monster, Bert, Ernie
• Can identify a ton of animals, but doesn't say most of their names or do many animal sounds.  He'll still roar for a lion, but that is only sound he really makes.  He'll say Ooh-ooh for monkey and definitely says or attempts to say dog, bird, butterfly, giraffe.  I can't think of all he can identify, but these come to mind:  Duck, Penguin, zebra, cow, horse, dog, cat, bear, polar bear, turtle, monkey, giraffe, lion, pig, sheep, elephant, bee
• Other random words he uses or will say frequently that are new:  trees,  baby, juice, no (doesn’t use much), yes (doesn’t use much), outside, Cheese (when taking his picture), Toots (Dustin taught him that after he farted and now he loves repeating it after us cause we crack up laughing at him)
• He is imitating us a lot.  When reading Quiet/Loud book he whispers gibberish and then shouts something on each page.  He will read Hippos Go Bezerk and say “hippo” on each page and then gets to the page where they go bezerk and he shakes the book up and down and says loud gibberish.  When reading books where I count things- he will then use his finger to point to each thing like he is counting.  He tries to comb his hair like he sees me do.
• And he READ his first book (actually has read it multiple times now)!  The book just alternates between “Yes” and “No.”  But he reads it and on each page says “yes…no”, turns page and says “yes…no.”  He has 4 of these books that look very similar, but he picks the correct book up when “reading.”

Favorite Things

• Loves being quizzed on things still and just learning new things.
• WATER!  Loved playing out in the rain.  We were at our relatives and he was just soaked running around on their driveway squealing with delight in the pouring rain.  He also loved water day at school- was the only kid from the toddler room that would play in the sprinkler!  He must have been soaked- the teachers said they played with his hair and gave him a Mohawk then.  
• ELMO- the kid is in love with him!  Will grab remotes, point at tv and say elmo.  The minute elmo goes off the screen he goes crazy…so it is a little frustrating.  He is getting better though and slowly able to watch a bit more.
• Daycare/School-  I love how excited he is to go to school each morning.  As soon as you tell him he is going to school, he is searching for his shoes, his bag, and standing at the door waiting.  He likes to walk from/to the car and his room now and frequently likes to carry his own bag (mainly just drags it on the ground though).
• Songs- For first time ever, he seems to enjoy if I just rock him before bed and sing to him.  He will play with my hair and touch my face and is just so relaxed.  Unlike how he has ever behaved before!!

Random Other Bits:

• Definitely can be ornery, but I think it is only when he wants our attention.  He will look right at Dustin (who is engrossed in a game on his phone) and then climb up on his sesame street chair.  Finally dustin will yell at him and lachs won’t listen.  Dustin takes the chair away.  Lachs does not cry but instead looks right back at dustin and goes to attempt to climb on the table now!  Our PAT lady said to give him choices when he does something like stand on the chair—can say something like do you want to get down by yourself or you want daddy to come help you down?  Both result in him getting down, but they like to be independent so will do it themselves.  Or if he is allowed to climb on the couch or armchair instead, then can tell him no and would he rather come stand on the couch or chair?
• Went to library for the first time, but was more excited with the automatic doors that opened than all the books.  We went to Shaw Nature Reserve just outside of St Louis and it was a great park- cute kids play area and great trails.  Lachlan got out of the stroller and walked some of the trails and loved looking at the trees.  We took him to a park near our house that does a little 30 minute train ride.  He enjoyed it, but wasn't overly impressed- probably a little young still.  He has is last PAT (Parents as Teachers) visit- I am going to really miss that program!
• Did have a nightmare or something one night and would not go back into his crib, so I had to bring him to bed with us.  After an hour we had to put him in his crib and luckily he didn’t throw a fit.  For a kid who NEVER wants to snuggle or touch, the only way he would try to go to sleep is pushing his full body full-force up against me and then would want to feel my face.  Little hard for me to fall back asleep at 4am with this going on!  Then he would toss and turn some- whacked his head against the headboard.  Grinded his teeth…would babble.  How do parents do this that let their kids sleep with them?!  We would get no sleep at all!
• We were getting a tad concerned at daycare because from what we saw he had no interest in the other kids.  They would greet him and say hi and he’d go right past them to get his books and sit down to read.  I’d walk in at the end of the day and he’s just sitting there reading his books. The kid is just obsessed with books!  However this last week I try to steer him towards the kids and he has greeted them with “Hi, waved, and given hi-fives…and I’ve seen him play with some trucks and non-book items.  So I'll quit worrying about that.

Typical Day at 18 months:

• Wake 6:30- give or take.  During the week this works out perfect since we leave around 7pm.  We have started giving him juice and some fruit or something healthy to eat before leaving.  The breakfast that daycare provides is officially a snack, so many days it is not very healthy and I don't like him only eating that until lunch time.
• 8:00- Snack at daycare
• 10:00- Play outside at daycare if not too hot.  They do water day once a week over the summer.
• 11:30- Lunch with milk.  Frequently will eat double portions of things at daycare.
• 12-2 nap
• 3:00 Play outside again at daycare.
• 5:30- Pickup from daycare.  Come home and quickly eat something for dinner so we can have some playtime.
• 7:15- Bath- been doing this more frequently because of him playing outside so much and having sunscreen on.  Probably 5-6 out of 7 nights he gets a bath.
• 7:45- I usually read him books.  Elmo at the zoo is probably his favorite, but he loves to try to fly through at least 5 books.  Lately I will also rotate in just rocking and singing to him.
• 8:00- Bed!  It is so adorable cause he is really excited to sleep with his Elmo.  As I go to leave the room and am shutting the door I can hear him blowing me tons of kisses and then just when the door is about to shut I'll hear a little voice "BYE!"
• We are usually in bed by 9:30 most nights then.

A few pictures from this last month:

Lachlan - 17 months!

We are just loving this age he is currently at-- he is FULL of energy, but he is so much fun that it is worth the exhaustion!  He continues to make huge strides with entertaining himself for small periods of time.  It is crazy how I feel like each day he is learning so much and constantly amazing us!

Fine/Gross Motor Skills

• He is definitely starting to RUN places...especially if he is pushing a toy.
• Not much improvement with the fork/spoon, but we haven't been consistent with practicing.  He's very interested in it though-- if he is not eating a food, all we have to do is put it on a spoon and then he's all about it! 

Verbal/Communication Skills

• List of words he says or repeats after us (sometimes more often or clearly than others): Uh-oh, Up, More, Hello, Dada, Duck, Mama, Dog, Elmo, Big Bird (new), Shoes (new), Owl (new), Eat (new)
• He has finally figured out 100% that I am MOMMY!  He will correctly point to me when asked where is mommy

Cognitive/Brain Development

• He can work his plastic puzzles extremely well...still struggles with getting wooden puzzle pieces rotated to fit the right way.  Also is getting the hang better of his shape sorter, but still struggles-- he can't identify the right hole based on the shape, so we always point to the spot, but then he sometimes gets frustrated trying to rotate it to fit.
• He always gets his body parts right.  Feet, Belly, Hair, Eyes, Ears, Nose, Mouth.
• He continues to follow simple directions.  If I tell him we need to change his diaper, he'll drop what he is doing and head for the stairs to go to to his room!

Favorite Things

• Loves being quizzed.  He has favorite pages in several books that he loves for us to ask him "where is xxxx?" and then he points to it.  His favorite books to do this with are a Winnie-the-pooh book, Elmo goes to the zoo, and Noisy Peekaboo Roar Roar.  He does very good with identifying nearly all Sesame Street characters and pretty good with animals...however, he seems to really struggle with the Winnie characters. He also loves a ABC book that grandma made with pictures from our camera-- he loves to be quizzed on the family members in there.  Aunt Missy he gets right 100% of the time.  He probably gets Keenan, Liam, and Lily right about 80% of the time.  Katie and Daniel are 50/50 chance.  The grandmas and grandpas are complete confusion.
• LOVES just walking around outside- needs minimal toys to enjoy the outdoors.  Loves to ride in the Cozy Coupe.  Will climb in it in the garage and just wait for someone to start pushing him.

Typical Day at 17 months:

• Same as last month! 

Pictures:

One of his favorite toys is this puppy who sings songs.  He claps along and just has a blast!

One of his favorite things is stealing the paper blind clips

Someone has stinky feet!

Lachlan showing us his tongue

Was VERY interested in learning about Dad's tongue and mouth

Just loves being outside or watching outside

I brought him home from walmart and he was so sleepy I couldn't even get his coat off before he just fell over asleep on the couch!

Got to try some Chick-Fil-A lemonade at the mall!

Surprisingly, was not too scared of Minnie Mouse

And the carseat tantrums have started.  He frequently REFUSES to get in the carseat and thrashes about and crawls out while screaming.

Very proud of his crown he made at school