21 Months

Whether or not we want it to, it's happening. Our second year as parents to this sweet, funny boy is nearing an end.

 I have already started a Pinterest Board for Ayden's 2nd {dinosaur} birthday party. I was amazed at how much changes in one year around his first birthday and I'm just as amazed now.

Ayden is talking up a storm ("song" was his new word of the day today) and he jokes with us all the time (pretending he wants to give us a bite of food then taking it for himself at the last minute and giggling, or standing on a leaf and asking where it went, etc). He LOVES to dance and read. His current favorite toys are a spray bottle of water/a rag so he can "help" us clean, puzzles, his iPod, his soccer ball and he's still loving his farm animals/dinosaurs. 

He is still obsessed with horses and any day he gets to feed one a carrot is pretty much the best day of his life. 

Today the horse didn't show up so he made the best of the situation...

He says, "Oh man!" for everything from falling down to being excited about something and still says, "Wasis?" for anything and everything.  He even talks in his sleep. He likes to draw and ink pens are his favorite tool for doing so. He likes to walk around in our "BIG shoes!" and uses the potty everyday (if he is pants-less at home and the potty is close).  He can count objects to 12 if they are in a line (though he tends to skip 7).  We have 12 stairs in the cottage and count them every time we go up or down. As it turns out, that is a very effective way to teach a toddler to count. Here is a little interview with the 21 month old himself:

He is happy and cooperative the majority of his days. Tantrum triggers are when we take something he was excited about exploring, when we can't go outside right when he wants to (usually to play "sotterba" aka, soccer ball) and every now and then when we brush his teeth. When he does tantrum, they are pretty short lived and typically have a reason so we don't complain. We find that if we validate his feelings, he stops cying almost immediately like all he wanted was for us to understand why he was crying, not necessarily to get his way. Diaper changes are still not really his favorite thing. We used to distract him with the "what does a [insert animal name] say?" game but now we have moved on to recalling events from his day or a recent special event. We'll ask him questions about the bugs we found on our walk or animals we saw at the pet store for instance. He'll be fighting the diaper change and as soon as we start asking questions he lays there, still as can be, and answers all of the questions while we get the job done. As far as toothbrushig, we just struggle through it during the day but at night, David brushes his teeth while I read him a book. He gets so into the story that he doesn't fight it a bit and we are able to get a really good brushing in. Teamwork is pretty amazing!

David and Ayden's relationship has really blossomed. They have always been close but here in the past month or so they have bonded on a deeper level and I love it (and so does David)!  They are soccer buddies, reading buddies, dancing buddies, you name it they do it together. Tonight, Ayden was helping David build the base of our chicken coop!!!!

Ayden is a great eater. He eats pretty much everything we do. The only things he might not eat much of are steak (too chewy) and spicy food. He is a great veggie eater and could eat chicken all day long. His current favorite foods are grapes, chili, spaghetti squash with meat sauce, sweet potato egg salad, clementines, kale chips and bacon (to name a few).

We have been toying with the idea of night weaning since Ayden doesn't seem to show signs of doing it himself any time soon. Between Christmas and New Year's perhaps?  We want to do it when David has several days off work so he can be the one to put him back to sleep when he wakes up (My feelings on night weaning deserve their own post so be on the lookout). 

I could go on and on but I shall come to a close here. We grow more smitten with our son every day and love him to the moon and back. Every age and every stage has been my favorite.  As much as I want him to stay little, I know my love for him will continue to grow right along with him and that will be an amazing experience.

Maybe he hasn't changed that much after all...

~Sarah

Flashback!  Here's what we were up to one year ago today: "Taking A Stand"

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