19 months

Neil is now 19 months old. I was just watching some videos I had posted on You Tube and it really puts things into perspective, how quickly he is still changing and growing. I don't see it so much on these month-to-month posts but in particular looking at this past Christmas he has grown and matured leaps and bounds. I don't think I will ever get over this. What an amazing thing to be a part of and be able to watch.

I am starting to think we don't need a gate at the top of our stairs anymore. Neil is pretty tentative but he doesn't go running for the stairs anymore and understands the risk of falling (or kind of seems to). I almost said to Dave let's leave it open now but then Neil was walking down the stairs with sippy cup in hand (I was at the bottom) and fell the last two, smacking his head really hard and screaming for quite awhile. I'm not going to get overly protective but it did remind me the gate is there in case he gets close, isn't paying attention, and just stumbles down. The ceramic tile at the bottom is pretty hard. But he's getting better about going up and down stairs, even if he is a bit tentative and often asks for help when he goes up or down them, especially down. I'm usually more than willing to hold his hand but I let him walk down on his own.

Eating wise Neil still eats a lot. I do keep expecting at some point that he's going to start refusing foods such as vegetables or fruits, and he does vary somewhat day to day, but in general he eats almost everything we put in front of him. It makes it hard to tell what his favorites are but he seems to love berries- blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and I just found out he loves tangerines and will eat more than one at a time. I can't cut them up as quickly as he's eating them. He also of course loves animal crackers, pretzels, and goldfish. I think hot dogs are also becoming a meal favorite for his- which we have at baseball games or just to grill out if I'm running late from work or something.

Daycare hasn't been saying anything about him biting but I think he might still be doing it because every so often they will tell me had a really good day. Does this mean the other days they don't say that, that he did bite or came close to biting?

Speaking of daycare, it turns out that his naps have been shortening there. With new babies joining daycare they are officially moving Neil to the older room. He had been sleeping on a mat just fine but apparently it was in the nursery where it is quieter. Now he is on mats with older kids and he decides he wants to talk/play instead of sleep. I guess he also wakes up a lot easier if the other kids get noisy. He's been more cranky some nights after daycare so I wonder if it's from being tired.

We are still dealing with temper tantrums but now it's just a matter of the way things are. I'm working on trying to get him to understand that when he screams or cries I can't figure out what he wants until he calms down and can show or tell me what's wrong or what he needs. This will likely be a work in progress.

Speaking of telling me what he wants, needs, I'm pretty sure he is way above the chart as far as talking, understanding, etc. He can say his ABC's all by himself. I keep trying to get it on video but every time I try he stops. I will post a video where I got him to say part of it, kind of, along with other things, but I haven't gotten the whole thing yet. And I only got that video because I let him see himself on my phone while it was recording. He's learning a lot at daycare but it's going both ways. There are days at daycare they ask me how he knows something (for example someone brought in a banjo and he called it banjo right away. Thank you to the Dr. Seuss book "Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb."). Neil really loves to say the Ring Around the Rosy Rhyme and he is obsessed with monkeys and the "No more monkeys jumping on the bed" ditty (see the video I referenced already in this paragraph - video at the end of this post).

Potty training we were laid back on anyways but I'm stepping back even further. Daycare says that they have had him go both #1 and #2 on the potty there, but I still haven't seen it at home. And one day he was squatting so I asked if he wanted to go on the potty and he said yes. I put him on the toilet and he just played for awhile. So I gave up, took him off, put the diaper on, and what did he do?! Pooped in the diaper. So I do not think he is ready. With that said, though, I still let him go on the potty if he asks for it. We'll see how things progress as time goes on but I am not even remotely pushing it and won't report on it in the future unless there is progress further than this. I'm not expecting progress either- I have in my mind it's going to be more around age 3 which seems to be more normal for boys.

As far as nursing, we dropped the morning session and I only nurse at night, and only for about 5 minutes. I also no longer pump if I am not home to nurse him at night. It's just a matter of time until we're done but this last nursing session is really really hard to drop. I have tried don't offer, I have tried acting like I don't know what he wants, I've tried saying there is no more milk, I've tried substituting cow's milk... None of that has worked. I really don't want to make him cry in the crib but I'm getting to the point I'm not sure what other option there is. He goes down for naps fine without nursing, milk, and wide awake. Even at night he doesn't always fall asleep nursing and as long as he nurses he will go in his crib fine, wide awake. But he does not want to give up that last nursing session. Oh and he's fine if I'm not home as well, goes to sleep without a huge fuss and no nursing/mom's milk.

Stats:
Clothing - 18 month tops and 12 month bottoms. He's also in 18 month pajamas. (same as last month although I'm about to start putting away some of his 12 month clothes because 18 in general seem to be fitting better)

Diapers – size 4 - We made the leap. He was getting some poopy diapers that were dangerously close to coming up out the back and I said ok it's time.
Shoes - size 5

Weight - He actually likes to get on the scale in our bathroom and it is saying 24.5 pounds.

Height -  I did not measure this myself.