22 Months & Things

 1. Dad always jokes that one day soon you will outsmart us. I'm beginning to agree.
2. You learned your colors this month! You can consistently identify blue, red, green, purple, pink, orange, and yellow.
3. You still love to be a helper. The other day I gave you a toddler-safe knife and you went to town on an onion while I chopped veggies for dinner.
4. Second year molars are happening all up in your mouth. The first one was not pretty for about 36 hours.

5. You watched your first full-length movie: Monsters, Inc. (See above re: second year molars. It was the only thing that kept you distracted enough from the pain.)
6. The first blood-shedding injury also happened. Along with first band-aids and  first band-aid-related-freak-out.
7. Four word sentences occur on the regular. (The fact that you can communicate with words still blows my mind.)

8. Your love of all things with wheels continues.

9. Any circular object can now appear to be a wheel to you. The other morning two waffles side by side on a napkin elicited an obvious, "wheels, mama, wheels!"
10. A new favorite is running. Around the house (that part is not so new) being chased, outside on the street, in any store where you are let free.
11. I can tell your memory is increasing as well. I can ask you the morning after an afternoon at daycare what you did and most often you will tell me at least one highlight.
12. You know that there is a baby in mama's belly and not yours or Dada's.
13. One day you kept saying something over and over, asking to read (what sounded to me like) "kitty book." Not knowing which book that was, I walked over and tried to find it. None seemed to satisfy you, so you took a breath and changed your request to "mouse book." I found that one quickly and realized you had been saying "cookie book," aka If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Again, your communication astounds me.
14. You hate getting out of bed most days. This means you wake up at 6 or 7 am and will call to us, but when we dutifully appear crib-side, you lay back down and roll around for at least 5-10 minutes.
15. Things you have requested first thing in the morning (while still standing in your crib): pancakes, "Monsters" (the movie), "elmo game," outside, apple juice, "Huggly" (a book), "fan off."
16. I have read Green Eggs & Ham more nights than not the past month. Not sure why this has become our going-to-sleep book, but I'm just going with it.
17. When you fall down or trip you will, with varying degrees of convincing, say "Teddy ok."

18. You enjoy pointing out the tomatoes and zucchini in Mama's garden, and can be quite the task master when I want to take a break from weeding.
19. Every once in a while you will look at me and say, "Mommy!" For some reason, I correct you that I am "Mama." To me, "Mommy" sounds like such a little boy thing to say, and I just won't have any of that right now.
20. You are not a big eater these days.  Not sure if it is the 2 year molars or just a lack of a crazy growth spurt, but dinner has become a struggle most nights.
21. Speaking of eating, the other day I was chopping up black olives and you tried one. And then kept eating and eating them. And then I knew that you were officially your father's son.
22. You are my daily reminder that unconditional love exists.