Update on M (at 21 months)

I just love the age that M is at right now. He’s always been my little buddy, but he is so interactive and has such a cute personality that the time we spend together is especially fun. I mean, of course we’ve always enjoyed each other’s company, but I think it’s kind of a parallel play vs. cooperative play kind of thing. We are to the point where we can enjoy so many activities TOGETHER not just because we’re close in proximity, but because M is able to glean more and more each day from the experiences and adventures we share. 
Like going to the store for example. There are days when it’s definitely more work than when I toted him along in his wrap, but I love that he wants to walk through Target with his hand in mine, pointing out every Elmo that crosses his line of vision. He wants ME to notice the things he finds noteworthy. I love that. Or the times when he helps me bake and gets so excited to pour the ingredients in. He wants to copy just exactly what I am doing as he carefully stirs the batter. Or the other day we were sitting on the floor playing with his Noah’s ark and he was helping me match animals and laughing and laughing when the giraffes fell overboard. I’ve always loved playing with my little boy but it’s so fun for me that he is learning to play back, to understand and make little jokes, and actually communicate with words. I love seeing him turn into a little walking talking human! He amazes me every day with the things he picks up and figures out. We have such fun together. M’s vocabulary is improving so much each day. I love hearing the cute way he says words. He often adds an “ee” sound to the ends of words, which is funny because we don’t really speak that way to “cute-ify” words for him. He just adds it on his own. The exception to this is I do sometimes accidentally call water “watee” because M has called it that for so long that it just kind of pops out. Lately our favorite has been that M calls pajamas, “nammies.” I love that one. He loves to read and we enjoy making trips to the library together. Some of my favorite times of day are when I get to read to him because it is just the best when he will cuddle on my lap. M has been developing a longer attention span for books with more words which is fun for me because I have so many children’s books that I am excited to share with him. It’s so special to share something I love very much with my kiddo. I’m glad he likes reading too. 
(Oh dear, I realize it looks like he’s naked here, but I promise he isn’t)    

M is still a pretty cuddly kid, and will even request multiple times a day to cuddle on my lap. He does this cute thing where he wraps his arms around my neck and pats me gently on the back. He has surprised me in many ways with how gentle and sweet he is for a little boy. When I found out a boy was joining our family I pictured a little rough and tumble kiddo. He does like wrestling with his daddy (and his stuffed animals actually) and he has a good amount of energy for certain. But I never expected that my little boy would be such a cuddle bug. I had no idea he would be so affectionate, but I am soaking it all in before the day comes that he’s too big to want to smooch his mom.
M LOVES football. He has even pointed at the TV and asked, “football?” One time he started cheering in Walmart and it took us a second to realize he could see a football game being played on all of the screens in the electronics department. I think his love for the game mostly springs from his desire to see his daddy hoot and holler. However,he has asked for football on occasions when daddy wasn’t around so I don’t know what it is that appeals to him so much. I would think it would be boring viewing for a toddler, but he likes something about it.   

Big events of note:

Potty Training: We recently started potty training M and he is off to a really good start. It’s a little earlier than I would have expected to start him, but he was so obsessed with potties (and LOVES the Elmo potty song) and wanted to sit on the potty all the time anyway so we decided to just see how he would do. And he’s done great! The first day we started I wondered if we was really ready, but by the second day he had improved so much that I knew he was going to be fine. By the third day he pretty much had it figured out. It is so very, very strange to see him wearing big boy underwear instead of diapers and I kind of miss the way his pants looked all puffy with a diaper bum. But we are proud of him for being such a big boy!

Nursery: M was a little hesitant to start nursery, and we were in there a lot at first while he adjusted. But he loves nursery now! I think this has a lot to do with our family friend being called as a nursery leader. He really liked this friend even before she was his leader, and having her in there made things so much easier and happier for him. Now on the days we have church he is very excited for nursery and even starts asking “nursery?” before sacrament meeting is over. Last Sunday when we dropped him off he even waved to us and said, “bye bye.” Then we came to pick him up, he was running around with some other kids having such a good time that he didn’t want to leave. I’m so glad that he has a fun time in nursery.