Jenson update: 21 months

It rained nearly the entire month, but we made the best of it.  Luckily he does well playing inside and is happy to sort his toys and read books for hours.  It really wasn’t that bad.  He usually plays for an hour or so before he wants breakfast.  By the time he’s finished, we only have about 2 hours to kill before he’s ready for lunch most days.  If we don’t have errands to run, we just play in the house – or if it’s not raining, we’ll go outside for a bit.  On days I wasn’t feeling well, he would watch an episode Sesame Street or Daniel Tiger.  If he didn’t fall asleep during lunch, I’d (eventually) get him to nap afterwards.  After nap depends on if he woke up happy or mad – but either way, it’s usually only another 2-2.5 hours before Lo got home of play or errands.  He such a good kid (so far – ha!) that I don’t have to be by his side the whole time he plays.  If he’s entertaining himself, I can take 15 minutes and read a magazine, check email, or be in a nearby room without him fussing or getting into stuff he shouldn’t.  When Lo gets home, he always plays with Jenson for a bit so I can have a break – whether I just need some time to myself, or want to get something done.

Fun things this month included a visit from Uncle Patrick and Aunt Hailey, and a separate visit from Aunt Misty, Sadie, Luke, and Levi, for a few days.  Whoa – I’m not sure how my SIL manages…twin babies aren’t easy (and with a toddler too).  She’s awesome though…I guess you learn how to handle 2 babies, just like you have learn how to handle one.  Nana and Papaw visited for a bit too.

We go to story time on Wednesdays too.  Jenson is very shy and wants to sit with me most of the time, but will usually get brave enough to sit on the rug towards the end.  If we don’t have plans, we head to story time again on Saturdays.  It’s family story time versus baby/toddler story time, and sometimes the stories and activities are a little above him (he’s usually one of the youngest there), so he gets distracted more easily.

Monthly Jenson update:  June 6 – July 5, 2015

Age:  21 months old

Weight:  Tentatively 24 lbs., depending on whether our scale is accurate

Length:  31-32 inches?  Total guess.

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

Teeth:  He has all of his baby teeth except the 4 that are right in front of the molars.  The top two were starting to come in late in the month.

Sleeping:  He goes to bed around 830 p.m. and wakes between around 730 – 8 a.m.  He was pretty easy to put to sleep for most of the month – often wanted to go in his crib after we sung a few songs, and he’d happily play and sing in there until he fell asleep.  When he wakes in the morning, he’ll hang out in there for a bit, talking and playing, before he cries to get up.  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.  Once those top teeth starting coming in in early July, he started struggling with sleep – both getting to sleep and staying asleep.  One night it took 2 hours to get him to sleep.  The nights it was really bad, we’d trade off so one of us wasn’t stuck up there getting frustrated with him.

Eating:  Not much to update here.  He’s STILL 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 or cheese, and fruit.  We give him other things, but he hands them back to us and says “here ya go”.  He’ll just keep yelling that until we take it.  Sometimes he’ll eat mac and cheese, avocado, or beans.  We give him a veggie/fruit pouch if he really isn’t eating much else – just to get some veggies in him.  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’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 – just me, so I’m constantly trying to guard him from being rough on my stomach.  He can “jump” now, with really means that he stomps one of his feet and is very proud of his jumping abilities.  It’s awesome.

Word Up:  He repeats almost everything that we say, and talks and sings constantly.  He can count to 20 now – and will sometimes go a little higher if we prompt him.  He counts objects – usually to 7-8.  He knows his ABC’s and quite a few songs.  Even if he doesn’t know the whole song, he can usually sing the last word of some of the lines if he’s heard them more than a couple of times.  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” and then he says “I love you, ya”.  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.  He says it to Boof and Lo too.  On occasion, he’ll say to Lo “Here ya go, baby, daddy”. He says 3-4 word sentences regularly now.  It amazes us how much he can communicate with us – and it makes things so much easier.

Milestones:

• First time seeing fireworks (he was fascinated, though very tired by the time they started).  He enjoyed the New Albany parade, but we didn’t because only a couple of the people in the parade even threw candy.  He didn’t know to expect it because he was only 9 months old for last year’s parade in Worthington, but we were disappointed because WE wanted candy.

Favorite Toys/Activities:

• Bathtime – he insists on one after dinner every night.
• Playing outside with dirt, rocks, and sticks, and in the water table or pool

• Reading.  His favorite book is “Little Blue Truck”, which is fine because we both like it.  I’m glad he moved on from the Sesame Street Block Party book that he was obsessed with.  These pics are funny – the first one he is feeding the tiger a goldfish cracker, and the second one, he pointed to Snuffalufagus (I’m not looking up the spelling for that) and said “Boof”.  I can see the resemblance.

• Story time and playing at the library
• Bubbles
• Clapping, dancing, and singing
• Going to the Zoo.  He didn’t want to leave this gorilla – he just wanted to sit in its lap.

• Picking flowers and strawberries
• 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, which he asks for by saying “bus?”.  He can sing the words to wheels on the bus and does motions usually.  It’s really funny.
• Watching Sesame Street (“Elmo”) and Daniel Tiger (“Nana Cado”).  When he first started requesting to watch Daniel Tiger and was calling it Nana Cado, I couldn’t figure out what he was always asking for.  He calls bananas and Lo’s mom “nana” and avocados “cado”, so I was like – “You want a banana (or Nana) and an avocado?  Why are you pointing at the TV?”  I think it took a few days, and Lo, to finally figure it out.  His face when he was watching it (and when he was working in those teeth:

• Mowing with Lo.  He wears these headphones and just rides along.

Dislikes:

• Not getting his way
• Meat and veggies
• Cried when he was getting his haircut this time, but never has before.  Maybe he didn’t like the lady (it’s usually a guy that does it).

Looking forward to:

• My sister’s fam coming to visit in July (which has since happened, of course)