20 months

wrote on the 13th but somehow never posted it:(

I am not sure what has me posting Cap's last 3 month updates, but there just seems to be stuff I want to remember about these days. I think the biggest part of his growing this month has been his speech and language. I started "officially" homeschooling Cap a month ago. For now we have just started with reading, but that whole subject is for a post of its own. His vocabulary grew abundantly over just the first weekend of starting our reading. A lot of his words that he was already saying, he was really only saying them partially. Examples: Papa was Pa, Grammi was Mi, Nonna was Na, and so on.

He also started using two words at a time such as "goat cheese or pine needle". Now he is using two words all the time and sometimes more though very broken of course. Example: Pizza. Please. Papa's. House. It is pretty cute. Here are some other things to note about the month.

- loves to read books, but doesn't like to look at books by himself
- started to be very interested in puzzles. we only have two, but he like them a lot.
- will lay his head back in water on his own which is huge. since we started putting him in water at 2 months he has resisted  and fought on having to lay back to get his head wet.
- funny/ frustrating eater. one day loves spaghetti, then next day won't touch it.
- loves to rock climb, which isn't necessarily what you might think rock climbing might be:) but on occasion it is
- still loves balls and now is learning what all the names are to the different balls. his favorite right now seems to be basketball.
- starting to have more dry naps, but hasn't been good about telling us he needs to go potty, we just have been taking him
- goes pee less times a day than i do i think. he will hold it for 2-3 hours. we have entered a new stage of not wanting to stop what we are doing to go pee.
- doesn't want to go in public restrooms anymore:( we pee outside a lot!
- knows his colors, purple, blue, green, black, brown, yellow, orange, pink, and white
- getting the idea of numbers and counting, but just the "idea" of it
- still wants to help with whatever it is we are doing. cooking, sewing, shaving, putting deodorant on, etc.
- says "get you" when he wants you to chase him which is because we say i'm going to get you:)
- says "help me" when he want to help you
- same size but we don't have to roll all his pants up anymore
- still sleeps 7-7 with sometimes sleeping in a little longer and takes a 1.5 to 3 hour nap in the afternoon.
- we had a couple of weeks where he wasn't taking a nap about every other day. i was kind of starting to freak out, but we are over that phase thank goodness! that was rough!
- really into mandarins right now. will eat 2-3 in a row
- said thank you with words!!!! he always signs it, but he finally said it!

I think that about sums it up. There is always so much more, but you can't document everything!

Nonna and Cap blowing the leaves

He was seriously reading on the toilet:)

First bike ride

Really into his hammering

Riding toy wooden giraffe:)

Heart My Family

Lets be honest, when dad is home for a whole day with no work, after a great hard work week, well,  it is just going to be a good day! Lots of fun to be had. Not to mention, a day of adult conversation. I love days like this.

We woke up and had breakfast. Then we all cleaned house. We were done by 9:30 I think, so then we went out to get some groceries and run around town. Came home Cap napped. I sewed. Bryce woodworked. The boy woke up. Then the baking began. Cap was really wanting to help bake this morning. He was walking around with the wisp saying chocolate chips:) So I asked if he wanted to help me bake some Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread. All he heard was chocolate so he said yes!

Cap like to taste every ingredient we put in the bowl. Flour. Salt. Baking Soda. Sugar. Yep. Everything. Then he says MmmmMmmm. Very cute. About 5% of the ingredients always make it back out of the bowl somehow.

But he loves to be involved in everything we do and wants to help the best way he knows how. Now is it helpful most of the time. Not at all. Quite counter productive most of the time. But this is what it is all about. Using everyday life to make teachable moments and being intentional teachers to our son. Does Cap 'really' clean the dishes with us, ha, no, but you better believe that he is going to find someone to bring his chair over to the sink so he can help us do whatever the heck he thinks we are doing with the sink full of water and bubbles.

Cooking and baking is just another great way to teach kids how to count, add, crack eggs, measure dry and wet ingredients, all the kinds of spices there are, etc. There are a lot of things Cap cannot do yet, but I think we underestimate what a 1 year old can do and also what he would love to be doing along side his parents contributing with the community. Instead of fighting his need for independence, which everyone has, we are helping him learn the skills towards independence which makes him feel like a champ, gives him confidence in himself, and makes him feel needed and part of what we are doing.

Anyways, all that to say, we had fun and got dirty!!! Oh then to wrap up our day, Bryce picked up pizza (you have no idea how many times I have had pizza this week! and it was my suggestion!!!), we ate some pumpkin bread (Cap wasn't a fan, may be he had too much of the dough), jumped off the couch 54 times and did 21 front rolls off of it, and got ready for bed. Good day.

Enjoy,

The Captain

If I had the time and the energy I could write about 10 different post pretty easily. Instead, I am going to cheat and just post a few pics of the boy. He will be 20 months in a week!!!! I can hardly believe it in some ways. It just seems so close to 2 years old! Wow! He has grown verbally tons in the last month. I have lots of things I want to post about soon, but like I said, this will have to do today. I really think he looks like me and my brother Bryce in these pics. Mostly the bottom one for some reason. What a cutie.

Enjoy