Twenty Months

The Truman Show is getting more and more interesting every day, folks! I mean, this is the first month that he actually peed AND pooped on the potty (and holding a hairbrush makes it even more authentic, of course)


And had his first and second swimming lesson at the local YMCA.


Also, his Missouri Grandparents came to visit at the beginning of the month and he has officially decided upon their names: "GoGo" for my mom and "PoPo" for my dad. He seriously came up with the nicknames all by himself and talks about them all of the time, now. I just love it.







So he has a 'GoGo' and a 'PoPo', then a 'YaYa' and a 'PawPaw'. Lots of fun names for grandparents around here---who knows if they will stick?

My child comes up with new tricks every day it seems, including his new robot walk where he keeps his knees stiff and spreads his feet apart as he walks, like a 'bot. No idea where he came up with that one but he will do it for us without being asked because he knows we totally dig it. And this goofy grin:


Truman is saying new words each day, too, and my favorite new one has to be 'Bay-bee' for 'baby' of course. He is so odd sometimes---I saw him go into his crib, grab his blankie and pull it out, then say 'Bay-bee' and start crawling around on the ground. I asked him if he was pretending to be a baby and he said, 'Yeah!' and kept crawling on his belly all around the house. I have to wonder if this is a bad thing, maybe regressing away from the 'big boy' mindset but it's so darn cute that I don't worry about it too much now. When I say, 'Truman, you aren't a baby anymore, you are a BIG BOY!', he just says, 'No, baby.' And then he points to himself. Sigh. Maybe I need to stop calling him my baby affectionately then, huh?

One sign that he is a total big kid now is that he prefers to walk everywhere instead of having me carry him. He demands to climb our stairs all the time, but of course going down the stairs is still a little iffy, and he's started walking into Lori's house each day now instead of me passing him off to her in the mornings. Not going to lie, the first day she told him to walk in the main room to see his friends, I really had to fight back tears watching that little body trot away like such a big boy. He doesn't even look back at me now, just walks right into the room and starts playing.



But of course, it's never THAT easy. He's gone back to a phase where he cries at daycare, after a solid 3 months of PERFECT reports from Lori each day. For a few weeks (right after he had the dreaded croup---which is what I'm blaming for this change) he'd cry at actual drop-off and I wanted to die every time, but now he doesn't cry for about the first 30 minutes or so. Then he 'remembers' I am gone, walks back to the kitchen, and sits on the stairs crying for 'Mama'. When Lori tells me this again, I want to die, and we've been trying hard to think of things to help him through this phase. I know he loves it there and must just be stuck on the idea that he wants his mom NOW and cannot wait for me to return, or something. Also, I really think a lot of this is because he's so freaking tired in the mornings that he doesn't know what he wants.



He is tired because he is still waking up anywhere from 4:15 to 5:30 most mornings. I am basically at my wits end with this particular phase, too, because I feel like we've tried it all. The only thing that seems to work is pumping him full of a ton of food at night, pushing his bedtime back from the usual 7:30 to around 8, and then if he STILL gets up at the butt crack, I will give him a bowl of dry cereal and a sippy of water in his crib. This usually works (for now) to help him fall back to sleep for another hour or so, but there are definitely days when he is just ready to start his day at 4:30. Ugh. So early. I know it's a bad habit to start giving him food and drink in his crib when he wakes up but honestly, I don't even care at this point. If he can fall back to sleep until 6 then I consider it a win right now. Because really, when he wakes at 4:30 for the day he is ready for a nap by 9 and then his whole day is just screwy (and mommy wants to shoot herself in the face if it's a work day---if it's a day off, you better believe I'm napping right along with my boy).



Other fun things this 20 monther can do? Stack blocks about 4-5 high, do simple puzzles on his own, point to all of his body parts, and understand seemingly every word that comes out of our mouths. The other day I was telling him that we needed to go and buy Henry more food and he said, 'Yeah!' and ran away, coming back holding Henry's dog food bowl. I didn't even know he understood that the bowl is where Henry eats, let alone that he needed more food in there. We've learned that we cannot mention the word 'swimming' unless we are literally walking out the door to go to his class, because once we mention that word he is done and cannot stop asking for 'wa wa'. Speaking of which, the child loves to play in our kitchen sink more than anything else in the world right now. It's not quite an independent activity yet because he did take one tumble off the chair and scared the bejeezus out of me as I stood a few feet away, but mostly he entertains himself there for at least 30 minutes at a time. Which in toddler time is an eternity, right?

Temporary tattoos still rule, trucks---and specifically garbage trucks---are like the most amazing creation ever, and throwing balls/toys/other inappropriate things is a favorite past time, too. He loves to eat yogurt, Kix cereal, bananas, pizza, and peanut butter toast but other than that, we definitely struggle to get 'real' meals in the kid. He's wearing all 2Ts and some 3T clothes by now and I guess him to weigh about 27 pounds or so? All I know is this child of mine is so freaking adorable and sweet and amazing that it really hurts my heart most days. Even when I'm a zombie from the lack of sleep---I still love the crap out of my babe. When he gives me a hug (including a pat on my back) and a kiss I feel more complete and satisfied than I could have imagined in my pre-Truman days. Toddler-hood isn't easy, and there are times I want to rip out my hair, but I still have to say that life is pretty darn good. Love you, mister man!