Daniel at 21 Months

We had our follow up appointment after his ear tube surgery this month. The ENT said that the tubes are in place and look fantastic! Then they took him back to have his hearing tested. That was kind of an unusual experience for both of us actually. The testing room was down an interior hallway of Children's Hospital, and looked like it was in a military bunker, placed right in the middle of said hallway. As we walked into the low ceilinged bunker, it was immediately obvious how QUIET it was in there. Then she had us go into an even more interior space, deeper into the bunker, that was the quietest place I've ever been to in my life. I experienced the unique sensation of silence seeming loud as my brain struggled to comprehend a total and complete lack of sound. The test was done by playing a sound and at the same time, animating these little puppets on either side of the room. After repeating this enough times, the child associates the sound with the puppets moving, and goes to look for them, to watch them move. Then they make the sound softer and softer until its inaudible. In this way they can test the child's hearing capabilities. The entire experience was unique and Daniel was thoroughly entertained by the whole thing! Fortunately the test results came back normal and though we are scheduled for another follow up in 9 months, I have no reason at this time to have any concerns about his hearing. What a blessing!


Daniel is at that age where he LOVES trucks (cuck) of all kinds. Toy trucks of course, plus truck books and for sure real trucks. I introduced him to twentytrucks.com, a youtube channel with catchy songs and videos all about trucks, that Will LOVED at that age as well. Not surprisingly, Daniel is ALL about these and its the only show he will sit and watch for any amount of time. I even got to take a shower the other day while he watched a few. It was a small miracle!

He has just had a word explosion recently and can say all kinds of new words, nearly perfectly. There are also a bunch that are less clearly enunciated, but that I can recognize, maybe twenty or more at this point. I'm guessing that by 2.5 or so he will be clearly and fully talking in complete sentences, at the rate hes going. Its funny to think that at this age, Nora was still mostly a silent little thing (though Will was similar to Daniel).

Of course as age two approaches, its to be expected that they have more tantrums, and Daniel is no slouch in this area. He has many, and often. But they are usually short, and loud (more like screams of protest, then its over), but they can escalate in volume or intensity ESPECIALLY when hes hungry or a little tired (again this seems obvious, but he can reach those points so quickly and out of the blue sometimes!). I feel like he can understand basically everything we tell him at this point though, so I find that taking the time to explain everything to him, as well as commiserate with his point of view, more often than not, cools a lot of his righteous rage down to a low simmer, and he calms right down.

He is making strides with both fine and gross motor skills. He can twist off some tops and caps now, put duplos and puzzles together, and can climb into (but not out of) his crib (as well as just about any big kid climbing structure at the park). Though he is a great climber, hes recently started refusing to go down slides, so annoyingly, he often needs to be rescued at the top of said climbing structures. He used to have no fear, but a few scary incidents proved to be too much I'm afraid. I'll be glad when he overcomes this fear and requires less rescuing though!

A new fun thing that Daniel has started doing, is stripping off his clothes and streaking through the house if hes not wearing a onesie. Apparently Michael did the same exact thing as a kid, only it was outside, through the neighborhood! I'd better make sure all the doors stay locked, and lord help me if/when he figures out how to open them himself! Daniel would be out there, running gleefully, in an instant! In the car he will also often take his socks and shoes off. Its really annoying because then in addition to having to get him out of his seat, I also need to put back on both socks and shoes (while he struggles and complains of course). I will be so glad when this phase is done. The good news is that I remember both of the other kids doing this too and they each stopped eventually, so there is hope!