Tyler: 20 Months

January 24-February 23, 2012 (19 to 20 months old)

What's new with Tyler?

• He's been jump training.  He squats down while saying "down" and then shoots up while yelling "up!".  

Video:  Down, Up!

• He did his first official jump with both feet off the ground, but has yet to do it again.
• He can get up on the kitchen chairs now.  May it take a long time before he realizes that he can push the chair to other areas and get up on something even higher!
• He can now catch a ball.
• His remaining 3 canines are coming in.  I *think* that completes all of his teeth until his 2 year molars.
• He thinks ring-around-the-rosie is pretty cool.
• He started puckering his lips when he wants a kiss, cutest thing ever!
• He's starting to display an interest in the potty.  He puts his seat on the toilet and asks to sit on it.  He'll sit on it for a few seconds and then want right back down.  Then he tries to flush, puts the lid down and asks to wash his hands.
• This kiddo loves, loves, loves puzzles.  He's quite impressive with jigsaws that are listed as age 3+.
• He waves his hand and says shoooo-weeee when he toots.  OMG it's funny!
• I try to get the boogers out while he's nursing as that's the only time he'll even remotely let me. He now takes my finger and shoves up it my own nose, LOL!

Language:

New words:

• Knock Knock (nah-nah... he loves knocking on doors)
• Night Night (nigh-nigh... he loves to lay on the floor, pretend to go to sleep and say this)
• Purple (poo-pole)
• Pool
• Bowl
• Drink (doot)
• Play (pay)
• Airplane (ah-pane)
• Downstairs
• Vacuum (va-coo)
• Book
• Sticker (stick-a-da, stick-a-der... he developed a love for stickers)
• Clock
• Barn
• Tree
• Ant
• Bee
• Moth
• Butterfly (bu-fy)
• Bird
• Dog
• Ape
• Dinosaur
• Yo Yo
• No
• Avocado (ah-cado)
• Strawberry (sta-bera)
• Ice Cream
• Butter
• Bath
• Boots
• Baby
• Please (peas)
• Mommy
• Grammy (may-me)

New signs:

• Outside
• Wind
• Cat
• Play
• Vacuum

New letters:

• B
• C
• D
• H
• I
• M
• K
• P
• Q (coo)
• T
• W
• Y (Y is yo yo, I can't convince him otherwise)
• Z (zzzzz)

The boy loves letters!  He's always wanting to play with his ABC puzzle, point to letters within words and say the letter, and pull up his letters on his floor mat.  

Video:  Floor mat ABCs

Behavior:

Oh boy, little man has learned how to gives dirty looks!  He furrows his brows and glares at me when he doesn't get his way.

He tests me.  He ignored me multiple times when I asked him to get off the table.  He repeatedly got back on it (while grinning) after I got him down myself.  Another time he refused to take his toy car out of his mouth after I asked him multiple times, he grinned and then I screwed up by laughing.

I've always loved how he asks for help before getting upset.  I taught him early on to ask for help instead of whine.  He now constantly asks for help with things he knows how to do himself.  I'm catching on to him.  It's all a ploy to keep me right by his side giving him my full attention.  It's very apparent in the mornings when the nanny goes to feed him breakfast.  He hands me his fork and asks for help, refuses help from the nanny and insists that I help him.  It's his way keeping me from leaving the room.

He's starting to play me in middle of night.  He wakes up and cries for me.  I go up, he asks for milk, I nurse him.  I try to put him back in bed, he signs eat but doesn't want food when I get it for him.  He runs and gets a book.  He asks for Daddy.  He asks for more milk.  He'll do anything to keep from going to bed.

I guess this softy better learn some tough love because the manipulation has started!   ;-)

Sleep:

For the last few months, Tyler has been wavering between 1 and 2 naps a day. He always goes down easily for his 1st nap, but the 2nd one has become hit or miss. It's been a hard transition as it seems 1 nap isn't enough and 2 naps is too much. So I've been playing it by ear, putting him down for his 2nd nap and if he falls asleep, great, if not, I bring him back down. The biggest issue is that he still wants to take his first nap at the same early time and for the same length of time. This creates a very long stretch before bedtime and results in an overtired cranky boy in the evening. It's crazy what being overtired does to him, he can become completely frantic within seconds and is very hard to soothe.

We are now down to 1 nap a day and are slowly adjusting his nap time later and later trying to get it to a mid-day nap. It's tough because if I wait too long to put him down he's overtired before his nap, and if I put him down too late, he's overtired before bed. I was expecting his two 1.5 hr naps to move to one 2-3 hr nap, but it hasn't happened that way. He's ready to go after 1.5 hrs.  His new nap time is now messing with lunch time, so we've been playing around with the timing of snacks and lunch.  I'll be glad when this transition is complete!

I consulted Supernanny as I needed help! She says that routine and consistency is key and that eating and sleep times are the cornerstones of the routine. So I created a hour by hour schedule, made sure I kept meal and sleep times at the same time everyday and tried really hard to remain consistent. I also gave the schedule to all of his nannies so we were all running the same ship.  Her advice resulted in a much smoother running ship.

Tyler's feet:

One of my commenters asked me if the white shoes he wears in some of his photos are orthopedic or are just old white shoes.  They are orthopedic straight last shoes.  Tyler was born with the tendons in his feet (that go from his heal to his big toe) too short. It's caused by his position in the womb and is called in-toeing.  It basically causes him to walk pigeon-toed.

We've had the pediatrician look at the issue and she said it's very common and will correct itself.  Just to be safe, we had him examined by a podiatrist as well.  He thoroughly examined his hips, legs, ankles, feet and toes.  He said everything is developing perfectly, he just has a tendon that is too tight.  He also said it should self correct.

The left has already corrected itself but the right is still having issues.  We tried the special shoes just to see if it would help him along as he's always tripping himself and falling.  I'm not worried about it as Kerry had the same in-toeing, wore the same corrective shoes and completely grew out of it.  We have plans of taking him back to the podiatrist to have his right checked out again just to see if there is anything else we should be doing.

A visit from Gpa and Gma

Tyler gets a visit from Gpa and Gma about every 3 months. This time was extra special because he's now old enough to remember them. He really bonded with them and they had such a great time together. Tyler goes through the videos on my phone frequently and every time he see's the video of him and Gpa, he starts signing and saying PawPaw.

To Gpa from Tyler:  "PawPaw, please forgive me for pooping in your face!"

Yes, he did!  Gpa was on his hands and knees chasing Tyler while he was in between diaper changes and out popped a turd.  I think all of us must have belly laughed for 20 mins straight.  Who would have ever thought a toddler crapping on the floor could be so funny!

Here's a few photos/videos from their visit:

Celebrating my 39th Birthday

Tyler suckered Gpa into vacuuming!

This one cracks me up... Tyler at the computer and Gma in the ball pit!!!

Video:  This is what my Dad does when I'm not around, lol!

Video:  Tyler jammin' to Gma's phone

This month in photos:

Dancing to Signing Time

Matilda went in for the kiss, he finally kissed her back and the nanny caught it on film!

Tyler now hugs his little friends 

Elvis impersonation

Homegirl and Homeboy (they put these hats on themselves)

Having fun with the fan

Tyler and Addison jammin' (I love it when my nannies send me pics!)

This month in video:

Video:  Matilda loves sitting on her Ty-doe!

Video:  No and Yes (I love how he puckers his lips to say no)

Video:  Tyler dancing to his favorite song (ABC's)

Video:  Dancing to Signing Time

Video:  The boy LOVES Signing Time, he gets so excited when it starts over!

Video:  Tyler and Matilda racing