Twenty Months

Today Owen turned 20 months old, or 1 2/3 year. The first year it seems like babies develop and change so quickly, and now it seems like Owen isn't much different than he was a few months ago. But really, he can do so much now compared to when he turned a year! This is what he's up to now:

* Last week he had a dr. appointment and weighed in at 23.5 lbs. He's still a skinny bean pole with little chicken legs, but it also makes him quite fast and agile! Plus, it means I can still easily hold him (when he lets me).

* He loves shoes. His shoes, my shoes, Josh's shoes, it doesn't matter. He'll put them on and walk around in them. I try to let him pick out his own shoes to wear, and he always picks matching shoes.

* He can't stand being inside our apartment for very long. Every morning he expects to go somewhere and is of course thrilled when we do. If I don't have any plans to go out in the morning, he still gets his shoes and jacket and tries to get me to go. He'll knock on the door or climb into his stroller. Thank goodness the weather is nicer now!

* He just learned how to open doors with round doorknobs this week. Guess that means no more shutting him in his bedroom to play while I shower. I'll have to get those doorknob guard things.

* He's still a somewhat picky eater and I still have to make him a separate dinner from what Josh and I eat, but he's gotten much better. He still won't eat much fruit (he'll only eat apples, pears, canteloupe, and honeydew). He LOVES gree beans and cucumbers and ate an entire cucumber by himself last week. He now eats peanut butter, and LOVES it! PB on bread, crackers, and fruit are a favorite. And we've learned the power of dipping....if he can dip his food in PB, ranch, ketchup, or salsa, he is 10 times more likely to eat it.

*Another tactic to get him to eat: distraction. We let him watch Micky Mouse Clubhouse and Special Agent Oso during his breakfast, and with the distraction we can usually get 50-100% more food into his belly.

*He's now starting to enjoy watching videos. I'm sure it's because we encouraged tv watching during breakfast. We're bad parents, I know. His favorite video is an Elmo video I got him for Easter. It's 50 minutes long, and one day he sat through about 40 minutes of it! Incredible for Owen to last that long.

*He loves the camera. He'll usually smile big while I get ready to take a picture, but even more he loves being on the picture taking side. He also loves to watch videos of himself. He'll watch the same video over and over and not get bored of it! (does this mean my child is vain?)

*He'll show you his muscles. One day he found one of Josh's muscle magazines, so I told him to show me his muscles and he tightened his fists, flexed his arms, clenched his teeth, and went "rrrrrr!" It was hilarious.

*He loves trucks, buses, trains, and airplanes. There's a fairly busy street that runs right next to our building, so all day long Owen wants to climb onto the windowsill to look down at all the vehicles driving by. Seeing the garbage truck stop out front is the highlight of his day. He'll hear an airplane way before I do and always waves bye bye to it. And he loves to hear sirens driving by and he always makes his own siren sound. I don't know what he'll do when we no longer live in a busy neighborhood!

*He loves singing action songs. His favorites now are the itsy bitsy spider, 5 little monkeys, and head shoulders knees and toes. He gets all the body parts right too.

*He recently started walking down stairs. Not crawling or scooting, but taking actual big steps without falling. It took him a while to muster up the courage to do it, but now he loves it and plays on stairs as often as he can.

*He can wash his hands by himself. The other day I said "we need to wash your hands, go wash your hands" and he proceeded to run to the bathroom, climb onto the toilet, reach over to the sink, turn it on, and wash his hands. He couldn't reach the soap or I'm sure he would have used that too.

He does a lot more fun stuff, but this is all I can think of right now. Owen is so much fun, and it is so fun to be his mother! We've been blessed with a really good and super cute kid. I know he is going to be a great big brother!