22 months

This is the month of Mr. Independence. I feel like Logan is not only no longer a baby, but quickly outgrowing the toddler phase & growing into a little boy. He knows what he wants is is able to do for himself. It. Is. Awesome.

Sleeping habits are changing a bit in this here house. Since Bill works earlier, our sleeping in days are over with. Logan is now up with the early birds at 6am. Bill is usually already up by then & I get to sleep in, but still. This is early & a far cry from our 9am wake up times of months past. Logan is still sleeping well in his toddler bed, but we've noticed a few little quirks that have suddenly appeared.

First, is the bedtime meltdown. The minute I tell Logan it's time to brush his teeth & get his pajama's on, he goes from bright & smiley to crying & protesting. "Play! Play! Play!", he'll whine through his sobs. Next is the bedtime revolution. Once he gets in bed, tucked in & kissed good-night, I close the door to immediately hear him cry like he's been imprisoned. I wait for him to calm down, which doesn't happen. I go in to tuck him in again & find him getting ready to pound on his door. The swiftness of my opening of the door gets him scrambling back into bed along with pleas of "stars" (the lights on his mobile), "isic" (music from his mobile) & "cars". At least I only have to go back in once & no more than that. The funniest quirk is when he wakes up & comes stubbing out of his room in a daze. It's hilarious. He doesn't give himself enough time to wake up & just starts the day full force.

Logan is still throwing most of his food on the floor. I have no idea how to get him to stop this other than taking it away from him & starving him until the next meal, hoping that his hunger will overcome his desire to throw everything off the table. If I do this, I end up hearing cries for crackers & "reasons" (raisins) all day long. I feel like this is a no-win situation. He is not eating much of a breakfast anymore (a little milk - not all of it like he used to drink) & fruit. The whole grains are never eaten (toast, Cheerios). He'll eat more at lunch & some at dinner, but food is thrown at every meal. Other than cheese (& raisins & crackers), he' not fond of any particular foods. This makes it increasingly difficult & it drives me nuts.

The good parts about mealtime, is that he continues to get better about using his utensils & knows that he needs to turn off the TV (or "TE" as he calls it) before sitting at the table. He blows on his food when it's hot (so cute!). It's also really cute to have him chime in on dinner conversations, too.

Our mornings are still filled with morning cartoons, or "toons". Logan is certifiably addicted to Yo Gabba Gabba, Classical Baby ("baby") & SpongeBob ("Bob-Bod"). While it's helpful to have him watch TV while I clean up the house or cuddle with him because I'm still trying to wake up, the TV has been on more & more everyday. I go to turn it off & he runs up behind me to turn it back on. Fortunately, he liked to change the channels & doesn't know how to get it back to the cartoon he was watching & it ends up on silent static for a while.

He still likes to read & enjoys reading to himself. He continues to be obsessed with his cars, trucks & buses. He'll race his cars down the banister & across the couch cushions. He likes to put puzzles together, play basketball & football & chase the pets around the house. He's more curious about "fix-it" type stuff, intently watching Bill make household repairs & asking if he can help ("hote?").

We've been working on manners this month & he's getting very good at saying please & thank you ("peas, tato"). There are times where he asks for something he shouldn't have, but asks very nicely, making it so hard to say no. We'll be working on saying "sorry" this month to add to his repertoire. He's been very good about holding my hand in a parking lot or walking through a store & hasn't been revolting like he did in previous months. He's a very well behaved kid, if I do say so myself.

It's been month of learning & growing (now in 3T shirts!), in both size & skill. His language is exploding everyday & I'm so proud of the little boy he's developing into.