19 Months & Things

1. Three word phrases that actually communicate things are happening, which blows my mind. "Mama! Juice please!" and my personal fave "Milk, all done" (as in "Mom, take this milk away from me please").
2. You have begun to recognize letters. Totally unprompted, you pointed out and correctly said O, K, I, and T. You can say most of the other letters, but these are your favorites.
3. You said "octagon" the other day (again, totally unprompted while doing a puzzle). I have no idea where you would have learned this.
4. Your love of wheels continues. I'm not sure this will ever end.
5. Now that the weather has really gotten nice, we spend a good portion of our day outside. I love that I can sit on our patio and just watch you play.
6. You have learned the concepts of off/on and open/closed; and hearing you say "open" is hilarious - it sounds more like "ohpee."
7. You can say your own name! You point to yourself and exclaim "Teddy!" I never thought it would bring me such joy to hear you say your own name.
8. With all this increased awareness, comes the requisite fears. You are not so sure about strangers and at times downright frightened. Loud noises (vacuum and kitchen mixer) that you have been hearing your whole life now scare you.

9. You love splashing - in puddles, in the bath, in your water table toy.
10. You have a new love affair with the mailman. I don't know why, but you get excited when he comes (even though he doesn't seem nearly as excited). You can also recognize mail trucks and you will yell "me-man! me-man!"
11. We have officially stopped giving you baby food. You are offered what we eat for dinner. Sometimes you eat a little bit of it. Other times you don't. Most times whatever it is ends up mixed together in a big pile of mush on your plate.
12. Speaking of food, your favorites are eggs, toast (which is actually just un-toasted cinnamon raisin bread), waffles, cereal (especially from Dada's bowl when he eats it), mac and cheese, chicken, sweet potato fries, turkey meatballs, and yogurt. Notice the enormous amounts of fruits and veggies? No?
13. I ran up on the couch the other day, during one of our epic chasing-tag games. You got to laughing so hard that I kept doing it over and over just so I could hear that laugh one. more. time.
14. Have I mentioned how you are teaching me how to play again? 
15. You are beginning to wrestle. Right now this mainly consists of "pushing" me over and laughing at your strength.
16. Whenever the car stops, you exclaim "home! home!" no matter if we are actually at home or some other random locale.
17. You've already learned what it means to get lost in a good book. One night I read Green Eggs and Ham a total of three times, from beginning to end, back to back. (For those that aren't familiar, that's one long book!)
18. For the most part, you seem to be doing well and enjoying the big boy toddler room at daycare. Most days I come home, weary from my commute and work, to find a new art project on our counter.
 19.  You love seeing pictures of yourself, which is the only way I could sort of bribe you to stand somewhat still for half a second to get these pictures.