19 Months Old

Samuel,

You are 19 months old! You continue to be such a joyful, sweet, ornery boy. We laugh with you every single day.

You basically will repeat anything we ask you these days, so it's pointless to record the new words you're saying, but a few of my favorite words that you are consistently saying these days are "Sissy," "pumpkin," "Dumbo," "cupcake" and "Grammy." You are communicating so much better with us these days. I've seen a real transformation this month where you're starting to use your vocabulary more when you are trying to tell us something rather than grunting or whining.

Your favorite "show" right now is Dumbo. You ask for it almost every night, and when you see the baby elephant, you point to him and say, "Dumbo."

You're starting to become more interested in trains and will play at the train table for a long time. You and your brother fight over it like crazy, because you both like to play your way and get in each other's way.

You've also developed an interest in puzzles this month. Nathan lets you help him when he does his harder ones. You hand him pieces and help him "bang" them into place. I've worked with you some on his harder ones too. You definitely get the concept, but still need a lot of help.You're really not interested in the easier ones for your age. I think because you've seen the more difficult ones, the easy ones are just a little boring for you.

You're still a great eater. You will try any food and aren't terribly picky. You sit in your high chair for a long time at meals. You prefer to graze and take your time while you eat. You play with your food a lot too which may be why it takes you awhile to eat. We've struggled some to get you to drink enough milk each day. You don't drink much while you eat your meals, and we don't usually let you have milk outside of your high chair because you make a mess. But you are doing better now and are getting about two full glasses of milk a day. And you love yogurt and cheese (and ice cream), so I'm not too worried.

You take a good afternoon nap every day. Depending on our schedule you go down between 12:30-1:30 and take a 1.5 to 2 hour nap. You scream like crazy when we put you in your crib, but usually calm down after about 10 seconds and lie down and go to sleep. You are sleeping okay at night. You've given us a 4-5 night stretch without us having to get you in the middle of the night. That's been nice!

You seem to enjoy the time away from Nathan while he is at school or AWANA on Wednesday nights. You are louder, more talkative and seem happier being the big kid and only having to share Mommy and Daddy with Little Sis. You do love your brother though and like to play games with him like "Ring around the Rosies" and the pacifier game where Nathan will take your paci out of your mouth and you'll chase him until he gives it back. Then you repeat it over and over. It's fun to see you boys play together more as you get older.

You still love books and are beginning to like your brother's books like the Llama Llama books and his Thomas the Train books. You really love to be read to. "The Big Green Monster" is your favorite book right now.

You still love music and always turn on the CD player when we are playing upstairs. You sing and dance along and are just adorable!

I've noticed lately how much you are changing and developing. You are talking and communicating better, your play is maturing, you're doing better in social situations, and you're basically just understanding so much more and learning all the time. It's so fun to be your mommy and watch you learn and discover new things everyday!