19 Months

I can't believe 19 months has passed, yet I say that at every age milestone.  I can't believe that we are at the point where I can remember last Christmas with a child, and that I'm looking forward to our next Christmas with two.

I like to say that every age is my favorite.  Yet this month has been an exceptional one.  This is due mainly to the explosion of words our Little Man is experiencing.  It seems that he will try to say anything that we say and new words are literally coming out every day.  I have been most impressed with Daddy teaching him the difference between "blue" and "brown".  My favorite word in his vocabulary is "Ash" which is his way of saying his name.  He will point to a present and ask "Ash?" or he will show you momma's milk and then point to his own, "Ash?".  I just can't believe we are here already. 

He is still in love with any type of car and really in love with trucks.  I brought one of his two hand-me-down plastic cars (normally known as Cozy Coupes) inside a couple of weeks ago to give him something else to do inside.  It doesn't look as big as I thought in our house and he gets a ton of use out of it.  I have been sensing that he is getting bored with his toys but knew Christmas was coming so I was trying to hold off finding him new ones.

Coloring with crayons is also a big activity.  He has seemed to finally "get it" and enjoy it this month.  The cardboard container that crayons come in lasted all of 2 seconds and we found a little open topped box he can access on his own.  I love that you can print out coloring book pages off the internet as the coloring books in major stores seem so expensive to me. 

My MIL showed us his "sticker book" last night and I had to fight back the proud mom tears (pregnancy does NOT help in this matter).  Looking throught the finished book he had placed every sticker on each available page.  He had put the apples in the trees, and on one page an upside down cow was grouped together with other animal friends.  So of course now I will need to buy at least a dozen of these said books and one day I will pull them out to show his not-very-impressed fiance. :) One day when they have kids of their own she will understand.

My favorite part of this season has been preparing for Christmas.  While he didn't enjoy it we got to make handprint ornaments this year.  Something I thought of last year but wasn't brave enough to attempt.  He DID greatly enjoy helping to make bird seed ornaments found here.  I made them in Christmas tree cookie cutters but my favorites are the lumps of birdseed on a string because Asher actually made them himself.  I came behind and smushed them together a bit so they wouldn't fall apart but they are actually his.  I also love our wrapping paper this year.  In an attempt to wrap while he was around I got out old paper shopping bags and wrapped gifts with that.  Then I handed over the gift with his bucket of crayons and let him go to work.  He loved it.

He has gone from not being able to stay in his MOPPETs room at MOPs to almost not crying when I leave and not crying at all when I pick him up.  His favorite toy there? The slide!

I am learning more and more that structure and routine DO go a long way and I am excited to be able to incorporate this more when I start staying home.

I love our non-stop, busy, inquisitive little man!