William at 22 Months

As of this morning, William now weighs 25.5 lbs, has a head circumference of 19.12" and is 35" tall. He is wearing size 7 in shoes. 

There haven't been any significant areas of development this month. It seems like he is working on a bunch of different cognitive skills, as well as physical skills that require greater dexterity. He is intensely focused on learning to stack, learning to open and close small latches, pushing small or hard to push buttons, and using pens and pencils to color. He drew his very first pen and pencil drawing this month, and loves to make a series of lines and dots. I have had to watch him as he is eager to try out his new-found art skills on the walls and floor! Thank god for the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser! He also seems eager to have us point out and name more things, as well as describe what they are/do. He is clearly trying to learn all his can about his world and how it works.

Though it hasn't been a huge month for language development, he has learned are few new words/phrases including: whoa cool!, wow, umm ok, dog, bird, and thank you. Wills first 3 word phrase happened the other morning after he was able to stack 6 stacking cups for the first time. He came and got me, pointing at his creation, and said, "That's so cool!"

We got him a new book about being a big brother and he LOVES it. We probably read it about 6 times a day or more. He is also more into paying attention to books lately. Rather than simply sitting back and listening to the story, he wants to know more about what is on each page and what it means. He will intently focus on a page, pointing out all of the little details, over and over while I tell him what they are or what they do. Sometimes we will spend upwards of 5 minutes on a single page. He is also finally able to do some pointing out of his own. His favorite book these days is a book about all different kinds of trucks. He loves to point out features on different trucks like tires, lights, tractor parts, ladders, etc. He is not saying many words yet (even though he has said a huge variety of words in the past, and learns new words all the time, he doesn't actually use any of them on a day to day basis. Most days you will hear him say one or maybe two real words all day long), but by his ability to communicate non-verbally, I can still see his mental progression these last few weeks and months. The babble he spouts sure is cute but I am eager to hear more actual speech soon.

New skills this month include:

• Blowing bubbles underwater 
• Being able to somewhat eat with a spoon by himself and sometimes with a fork (though he is better with a spoon)
• Blowing air out of his mouth, just in time to blow out his birthday candles in a few months 
• He has successfully put his shoes on by himself one time (rubber boots with no laces)
• Becoming more interested in the potty seat we bought him (yesterday he 'requested' to sit on it!)
• He is learning how to pour one container of water into another without spilling much
• He is learning to stack various items more successfully
• He can crack an egg into a bowl and then scramble it lightly with a fork
• He can spin and walk backwards
• If you hand him a sponge he will clean the nearest surface 
• He is also more interested in helping to pick up his toys with encouragement 

Another new thing is that when he decides that he wants to watch TV, he will go and turn it on himself and start watching. This doesn't bother me too much because he tends to do it when I am busy (like when I am making dinner) and welcome having him distracted, and he never usually watches for more than 5-10 minutes at a time. The funniest part about this is that he can't change the channels himself, so more often than not, he will turn the TV on, and the 6 o'clock news will be on (or something equally non-kid friendly), and he watches it anyway! Today I walked in to find him casually watching Rick Steve's tour of Germany. And he seemed totally unperturbed that it wasn't cartoons. He is such a funny kid! 

Another new thing this month is a sudden love of strawberries. After trying to get him to try one for nearly a year now (he would look at one and refuse to even try it), I finally showed him how they grow on the vines. Suddenly he was interested in trying one and the rest is history. Not only has he discovered that strawberries and blueberries grow in our yard, he has also learned to pick them himself. So the other day, after helping him to strip all of the plants of all of the ripe fruit, I saw him run back to the patch. I ran after him to find him greedily pulling unripe berries off the vines and bushes (stems, leaves and all) and eagerly shoving them into his mouth. He didn't seem the least bit perturbed that they were not as sweet (and leaf free) as the others had been. I have a feeling that teaching him the difference between ripe and unripe, might take awhile!

All of a sudden, Will been extra super clingy to me lately. To the point where I cant even leave him alone with Michael without him freaking out (this is highly unusual). Part of it might be because he didn't see Michael much for the past three months (due to medicare season), and part of it could be either some awareness of the pregnancy, or the fact that he is starting to get his two year molars in. Either way, its fairly tedious as he has always been such an independent child. I am not used to the constant leg clinging, and hope that its a short lived phase! I have noticed that he is starting to become more comfortable around Michael again so I am hoping that progress is being made now that Michael is home more these days. He still seems to prefer me though (and who can blame him, I'm around all day long!), but I hope that won't translate to a rough transition when the new baby comes.

And of course, because this is apparently the year of illness, William got sick again (AGAIN!) and got Michael sick for a week as well (by some miracle I was spared, save for a stiff neck in the evenings). Like every other illness this year, it impacted his sleep both at night and during naps, but thankfully it all returned to normal upon his recovery. Naps have been better lately. He is likely to sleep from 1-4, more often than not these days. I especially appreciate that as I often nap with him! He is still getting up once a night nearly every night and crying for about 5-10 minutes. I have stopped going in there though because he settles on his own in the same amount of time, and when I get up, it usually takes me an hour or more to get back to sleep. Hopefully he just learns to go back to sleep on his own without crying soon! It will not be fun to have to deal with two crying kids in the middle of the night!

At any rate, things have been going well so far. I am definitely reaching the point in my pregnancy where I am extremely uncomfortable most of the time, and that makes it hard to be active with Will. There are so many things I want to do with him, but am not physically able to. I hope once baby comes, I will be able to strap her to my chest and still do some adventuring with Will while the weather is still good. He is finally at that age where he is starting to be more aware of the wider world and be curious about it. Its fun to show him things and finally have him notice them or think they are neat. I have said this constantly since he was born, but I just love this age!