Vincent is 18 months… actually almost 19 months!
[Edited April 6th, 2013 — wow i just found this post and realized i never added the photos to it!! I thought i had finished it up. So, now it is super de-duper late. Ughh…and in the middle of updating this my computer completely crashed AGAIN! Finishing up this post via mobile phone…]
This post is incredibly late – partly because my computer become broken after a series of unfortunate events (will post separately on that matter!) and partly because i am lazy and too tired to make the long post after a hard day at work!
SPEAKING… slowly.
Vinny has been saying “MA-MA-MAMA-MAMAMMA” now when he is mad or upset, or getting up in the morning. He used to do it a few months ago, but now then it changed to “NA-NA-NANA-NANA” and then now it’s back to the “MAMA-MAMAMA”. He definitely knows his Dad’s name. When we were out for a walk around the block on one of the days he was home sick, Vinny saw his Dad in the driveway from a far and he goes “DAH!!! DAH, DAH!” and waved his arm. It was so cute, he was so serious! And completely silent before he saw him.
His most recent “real” word is “UH-OH!” — one day last week, he just started saying it. So cute. He will drop a ball or something and go “uh-oh!” so he knows when to use it. He said it a lot in the beginning but now its tapering off.
So to date, he knows the following words:
– Mamamamama (Mom)
– Dah (Dad)
– Uh-oh
– Bye
We think he says “i did it” but can’t confirm if we are just hearing what we want to hear, because that would be a 3-phrase word and quite bit for a toddler at his the level to really comprehend or say. The other day i thought he said “i like it” after giving him some orange juice. Again, just wishful thinking on our part.
We are STILL trying really hard to get him to say CAT, BALL, HELP and UP. But no go yet on any of those!! He just stares back at us in silence.
WATCHING TV
He still loves watching TV. We call him our couch potato. He LOVES Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. In the mornings, while i am getting my breakfast ready, he watches the ending of Super WHY with Daddy, followed by Sprout’s Birthday wishes (They sing happy birthday to all the kids who have birthdays that day), then watches the intro to Poppy Cat, where the title character waves. Vinny always waves back to him. Its so cute!
He seems to be laughing more at different shows, not only the Gruffalo’s child. Usually they are jumping up and down, or sliding, or something very fast and scary. That makes him smile and laugh!
A lot of these kid shows ask the audience (at home) questions, like, “is this the triangle?”, etc, followed by a long pause. Vinny has learned to “answer back” by just saying some random gibberish during the long pause. Most likely because of the iPad Mickey Mouse episode he watched which won’t continue the story unless you “say” something. Pretty smart guy!
POINTING
We’ve taught him how to “point to his ears” and he can point to his head when we start to sing the song “Head, shoulders, knees and toes”. Now we are working on “point to your nose”…. No go yet!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sourskittled/8452782922
ABUSING
Haha — ok well not really, but he is a toddler. When i am nursing him, he sometimes tends to pinch me with his little fingers. And when you are getting him out of the bathtub, if your arm comes close to his mouth, he will bite you! He also tends to bite you when you are wrestling on the floor with him (which he LOVES to do, btw). It’s not out of control or anything and from what i understand, really quite normal behavior for this age, but we are definitely discouraging it. He has also pulled my hair, but not too often. Usually when i am lying down on the floor wrestling him. He notices it more i guess when it is sprawled on the floor.
So I tell everyone he is ALL BOY because he seriously loves to tackle you, climb into the laundry basket, chase after you, hop on your back, run in circles, and just be physical! Its fun to watch and participate but i do wonder, gee, what is like to have a lazy baby? LOL. Is there such a thing?
BLOWING KISSES
I taught him to blow a kiss shortly after he mastered the “wave bye bye”. He can do it pretty good. We were chatting with my mom and dad and my mom said blow kiss, and he complied! Made the smoochy lips and sounds and everything.
EATING HIS FAVORITE FOODS
As much as i dont want to admit this, i am a full-time working mom, so, I usually just go to Costco and pick up a bunch of pre-made kind of stuff for Vinny’s dinner. He isn’t really to the point where he can eat everything we eat, so he normally eats things like meatballs (veggie, italian, or chicken), chickpea patties, chicken nuggets, mac n’ cheese. Pretty simple stuff. He still LOVES fruit and avocado, and for breakfast, yogurt, oatmeal and breakfast sausage. He does eat regular chicken and steak, rice, and stuff like that, but seems like he likes the other stuff better.
I am really trying to get him to eat more on his own still — he can do his own yogurt though only gets through maybe half of the container before he starts diggin his hand in it and making a complete mess. He’s not good enough to really fed himself any other kind of food… the yogurt works because the spoon is deep and so it kinda just sticks to the spoon. Hopefully he’ll be gettin better at it.
He did learn how to open the container of puffs…with his mouth!
He loves rice krispy treats — it’s our go-to snack for when we’re at the restaurant, along with those applesauces in pouches.
DRAWING
We have given him markers and crayons a couple times to draw. He is interested in it for a few seconds, but then he rather just eat the crayons/markers.
CLIMBING BETTER
Last month he was just beginning to climb stairs and stuff. Well now he can climb onto a the coffee table…and get into the litter box! Luckily he doesnt do it too much and i yell at him everytime he does do it…
I plopped him in the laundry basket one day just for fun, and straight afterward he began climbing in there himself! I have to watch what i teach him!
LEARNING THE MEANING OF “NO”
I admit that we are pretty lenient parents. We let Vinny do whatever he wants for the most part as long as it is not dangerous to himself or others. And even then, sometimes that is questionable! Anyway, we do want him to know what is right from wrong, so we tell him “NO” when he is getting into things he should not be, like dismantling the shoes/shoe rack, or going behind our computer desk, or fighting us at diaper changes. He is known to just ignore us and continue on, or actually LAUGH at us and think it is funny or a game that we are yelling at him. Eventually he “gets it” and he starts BALLING! I try not to laugh, but its kind of funny. He turns his face all sad and tears come down!! At least he is understanding what it means… HOPEFULLY…. i dont want to have an unruly child later down the line and i know you have to start young.
USING TOOLS / STACKING BLOCKS
His little hammer and ball toy — he now knows he can use the hammer as a “tool” to hammer the ball in. Before, i dont think he really understood that concept — he would just push the ball in with his hand.
He can now stack one block on top of the other. He doesnt have much patience to do it more than maybe once or twice while we are playing. He is more interested in tearing down the towers of blocks that mommy puts up and yelling in glee.
STRANGERS / STRANGE PLACES
I notice when we go out and he sees a strange person, or walks into the entrance of a restaurant or something, if he is walking on his own, he will “stop in his tracks” and refuse to keep walking! He is a little scared at first normally but he warms up after a few minutes.
Same goes for if he doesn’t want to follow where we are going, he will do the “sit down strike” as my sitter calls it.
HIS FEET
When Vinny gets mad, or excited, he stomps his feet back and forth really fast.
When he is in the stroller, he likes taking his shoes off and placing his feet on the bar.
His toenails grow in funny! kind of like mine i guess — they curl under his skin so we have to dig them out to cut them. Already a struggle as it is!
He has been practicing “stepping off” his little chair. Sometimes he falls, sometimes he doesn’t. Either way he laughs.
When we were at Lilia’s house, he LOVED going up and down the stairs they had in their house.
He keeps getting his legs STUCK in the crib… not on purpose, but he purposefully sticks his legs IN the crib slats, not thinking that they CAN get stuck. We’ve had to rescue him a couple times. Not sure what to do about that, i wish the slats were not that big so his leg could fit through them?
FEEDING MOMMY/DADDY
He thinks its funny to feed mommy and daddy food. He fed daddy chex mix and was fascinated with this! I also let him feed me a few bites of his food while he is in his high chair.
BRUSHING HIS TEETH
He can “brush” his own teeth now. We put a little stool by the bathroom sink and he climbs up there by himself, grabs the brush and puts it in his mouth. He likes to get the brush wet and suck the water from it.
My sister bought him some toothpaste with “low flouride” in it specially formulated for kids UNDER six, only sold in Australia. I guess the US doesnt sell low flouride toothpaste!
VIDEO CHATTING with NANA
Vinny got to see his nana for the first time on video chat — along with his cousins in Florida!
CRAZY ENERGY
Loves, loves, loves, running back and forth from two different spots. This time, his little chair, and our bed.