Sutton {22 Months}

Happy 22 months baby boy! I feel like your growing (as far as age goes) has slowed a bit, but maybe it's because I've been telling people that you're almost 2, which makes 22 months sound not that old.

Sutton, at 22 months:

*We've been down to one solid nap for awhile now. It's nice to have that routine. You used to have a rough napping schedule, but now it's pretty much the same every day. You go down around noon for sure, and then you usually get up around 3pm.

*Your vocabulary is skyrocketing. Your favorite phrase right now is "Go away!" You say it to Sadie all the time, but also when I'm changing your diaper and you don't want me to be holding you down, you'll say it. A new word - "heavy" (you like to try picking things up and then tell us when they're too heavy), is probably my favorite. You also learned "owie" when you get hurt, and "big" when things are big. You always have to tell us when you see something big. Mostly cars. Every time we drive somewhere, you're on repeat in the back seat: "BIG car! Big car!" You like big rocks and big sticks too.

 This photo shows your newest party trick. We ask you to smile and you give us the cheesiest grin.

*You're always talking now, and some of the babbling is starting to make more sense. You get stuck on words or phrases and say them OVER and OVER. Like when we take KyAnn home on Tuesdays (KyAnn comes to watch you Tuesday mornings so I can get some work done), you say "Ky home? Ky bye bye" the entire ride home.

*You like to say "Bye bye Y" as we leave the YMCA in the mornings, but you really enjoy going there and they say you're finally coming out of your shell and talking there. Erin is your favorite lady there, and you say her name sometimes on the way to the Y.

*You weigh 29 pounds, which is a little bigger than average for your age. You still wear size 4 diapers and size 5 at night. You're wearing 18 month - 2T size clothes. We need to go shopping for you because a lot of your clothes are too small!

*You love being outside and playing with sticks and in water. You point out all the "puppy poo" when you're walking around our yard.

*You're feeding yourself for the most part now. You use your left hand when you eat with a spoon, but you use your right when you color or draw. Weird.

*Your memory is crazy. You had some mosquito bites on your head this week, and you kept telling me "bite" at random times and pointing to your head. And it's not as if you know what that means or saw them in the mirror or something.

*You peed in the potty for the first time yesterday. It was super exciting. I think I'm going to try setting you on the potty each morning before your morning BM to get you used to that. We'll see if anything comes of that. I realize it's still kinda early for intense potty training, so we'll just go with the flow.

*Every morning when you wake up you say "Mommy. Mommy!" I still love that. Except when you wake up at 6am. I don't love that. We're in the process of trying to get you to sleep in a little longer (and it's going alright) because if you wake up that early, you end up needing two naps instead of one.

*You're in the phase of life where if Mommy kisses your ouchie and says "All better," then you're good to go. Love it.

*You like sleeping...you go down so easily for naps. One day this week, we were watching Diego on my bed to get you to wind down for your nap. We'd watched about 10 minutes and then suddenly you said "Bye bye Diego" and you were ready to get in your crib for your nap. So cute.

*You experienced your first tornado warning. I was shooting a wedding, so I didn't get to be with you during it, which was really hard. But Daddy got you up from bed and you huddled together with the puppies underneath the stairs in our basement, watching the radar. Luckily the tornado didn't go through our area.

*You love saying "Cheese!" for the camera.

*You're definitely starting to be more possessive now, and you don't like sharing. At the park the other day, you got upset when another kid got in a swing you'd previously been using. Ah well, we'll work on the sharing.

*You're such a funny little kid. You make up weird sounds and faces all the time...we're always laughing. You have this thing you run around the house yelling - "Dabby-abby!" and we have no idea what it means or where it came from, and you think it's so funny.

*You still like to cuddle. I love cuddling with you. You always have to have your two blankies, and you'll lay on our chest with your head on the blankies. You're so wiggly though, you never lay still.

*For naps, you still use your pacifier and the two blankies. If we go somewhere early in the morning, those three things have to go with us as well. We haven't started phasing out the pacifier yet...not sure when we'll do that.

*You've developed this habit of hitting yourself in the face (hard!) if the sun is in your eyes. It's really frustrating! So we always have to make sure we have your sunglasses or else we're doomed.

*You still love to dance and jump. I love the spontaneous dancing. We have dance parties a lot. And I love that I can still put you in your jumper when I want to take a shower. Works out nicely.

You're such a joy in our lives, and even though we're getting closer and closer to the terrible twos, I love your little personality and I can't imagine life without you!