June 23, 2015

Jenson update: 20 months

We spent much of the month getting settled in the house and exploring the area. We are figuring out our daily routine, and trying to keep things fun. He’s starting to play by himself much better, which is great, because he can’t always have my undivided attention. Now that he’s playing independently, he’s being more creative and will jabber to himself while he’s arranging his toys, and talk to the stuffed animals. If I’m in the kitchen and he gets quiet in the living room, I know he’s into something. When he hears me walking into the room, he comes running towards me saying, “hi, hi, hi, hi” with a big smile on his face. Busted. Usually he’s just messing with the remote or the iPad, and it cracks me up.

We visited my family for a weekend, which was nice because most of them hadn’t seen him since February since we were so busy with moving. I also had a nice Mother’s Day, and Jenson and I went to the Zoo twice during the month. I get nervous every time we drive somewhere for longer than 30 minutes, because he got carsick twice this month…once on Mother’s Day weekend when we were going to Powell to meet some friends (5 minutes before we got there), and the second time was on the way to my parent’s house – literally a 1/2 mile from their house. So now I get nervous – especially since we are at least 30 minutes away from a LOT of stuff. I just make sure I have a change of clothes and towels in the car and hope for the best. We definitely look forward to when Lo gets home each day – I think we both need a little break from each other by then.

Zoo trip:

Visit at my parents:

It’s so fun to see Jenson develop and progress. He always amazes us with how smart he is and he’s such a sweet boy – he’s still big on giving kisses…to us, to his stuffed animals, to his reflection in the stove.

Monthly Jenson update: May 7 – June 6, 2015

Age: 20 month old

Weight: 23 lbs at his 18 month appt – I’d guess at least 25 lbs now.

Length: 31ish inches

Size: He’s in 18 and 18-24 month clothing

Hair and Eyes: His hair seems to be lightening up a little after his last haircut. It definitely has golden streaks in it.

Teeth: He has 4 top front teeth, 4 molars, and 4 bottom front teeth.

Sleeping: He goes to sleep around 830 p.m. and wakes between around 7-730 a.m. He started staying up later…it kind of just happened. He had a rough couple of nights after we stayed at my parents for a few days…he slept with me there because he doesn’t sleep well in the pack in play, and he wanted to continue sleeping with us. So we had to work through that for a couple of nights. When he wakes in the morning, he just lays there and talks and plays. It usually about a half hour before he cries to get out of his crib, which is when I go to get him. We hang out in our bed for a bit – he likes to watch some videos of himself and his cousins, and will play with his books. He naps for 1.5-2 hours after lunch – sometimes he falls asleep in his high chair, sometimes I have to wrestle him to sleep. When I’m trying to get him to sleep, he likes to pull on my eyebrows and it cracks him up.

Eating: He’s so picky and there’s no sign of relief. No veggies, no meat. For breakfast he eats oatmeal with berries (or pancakes or cereal) and yogurt. For lunch he has a 1/2 of peanut butter and jelly usually, plus some fruit, but he’s started falling asleep during lunch so he doesn’t always finish it. Snack is usually crackers, fruit, his leftover lunch, or a smoothie. Dinner is rough…if we are lucky, some sort of bread product, cottage cheese, and fruit. We give him other things, but he hands them back to us and says “here ya go”. If we don’t take them, he’ll throw them on the floor. Sometimes he’ll eat mac and cheese or beans. We give him a veggie and fruit pouch if he really isn’t eating much else. He asks for applesauce at pretty much every meal. We give in every now and then, but try to stick to cooked apples instead.

Movement: He’s on the go all of the time now. He still loves to dance anytime music is playing. He loves to place “chase” with us – when we chase him he starts cracking up until we get to him. He plays “chase” with Boof when he has snacks. He leads her around the house while carrying his snack container and he cracks up when she’s following. I suspect Boof doesn’t think it’s as funny. He’s starting to want to take small steps down without crawling down – like the small step to the porch or other places where it’s just one step. He’ll let us hold his hand now to help him (other than that though, he’s SO not down with holding our hands). He climbs on me like I’m a jungle gym…he doesn’t do it to Lo, but doesn’t to me.

Word Up: He repeats almost everything that we say, and talks and sings constantly. He can count to 20 now – though some numbers get mixed up or hard to decipher on occasion. He’s starting counting things too- usually gets to 4 or 5 and starts over. He knows his ABC’s and quite a few songs. He knows animal sounds and animal names. He knows the names of colors, but usually says everything is blue. He says “I love you” a lot still, and when I buckle him in his carseat he waits for me to kiss him and say “I love you”. He still brings piece of lint and stuff to me and says “here ya go!”. But now he usually says “Here ya go, baby”…because apparently I say that to him a lot. I’m Mommy again – but it’s more like Mommeee, and it’s awesome. He’s very proud of himself to get it right…he’ll just say it randomly to himself walking through the house sometimes. He’s said a few 4 word sentences – “I got a rock” was one of them.

Milestones

4 word sentences
calling me “mommy” again
carsickness 🙁 Let’s hope it was just a short faze.

Favorite Toys/Activities:

Bathtime – he insists on one after dinner every night.
Playing outside
Dirt, rocks, and sticks (both playing with and tasting)

Reading
Playing in water – we finally blew up his pool (and yes, he’s kissing the whale)

Wearing hats
Clapping, dancing, and singing
Picking flowers (especially dandelions) and strawberries (from Papaw’s garden)

Loves kisses. He kisses his stuffed animals and his reflection in the oven door. We get lots of kisses too, though usually when I ask him for one, he says “no!”, but will still give me one.
Looking at pictures and videos of himself on our phones. He’ll say “vidies?” when he wants to watch videos.

Listening to a cd of kids’ songs. The first song on the cd is “Wheels on the Bus”, so he’ll say “bus, bus?” when he wants to listen to it…which is most of the time, so I try to limit it to just during or after lunch for my own sanity
Watching Sesame Street and Daniel Tiger