I can't believe I'm saying this...my son is 18 months old. That's a year & a half old, friends! What...the...heck! We're halfway to TWO already! As hard as it is to believe this at times, it's also so easy to see what a big boy we've got these days. In the months since I've last really updated on his latest "tricks", he has grown leaps and bounds. As in - he's almost 30 pounds, wearing 2T clothes, talking, running, signing, and even reading!
Sign language has continued to help us with his ever-growing frustration not fully being able to communicate what he wants. His favorite sign is "more" which has also turned into his sign for "I want". Most of the time, with a quick "more" sign and a point in a general direction we're able to figure out what he wants/needs. Here's Mason in action:
However, I think our biggest saving grace sign-wise has been "help". Any time we sense him getting frustrated with a toy or activity, all we have to do is ask him if he needs help while signing the word, and he immediately calms down and reciprocates the sign. This has alleviated many sitautions that may have otherwise turned into tantrums...and have actually resulted in us never actually experiencing a tantrum (yet)!
He is also saying a ton of words, his favorites being family members and his favorite objects. He can now say Mama, Dada, Gigi, Pop, Grace (Gace), Addi (Ay-ya), Laura (A-wa), Todd, Opa (Pa), hi, ball, bubble, truck, duck, banana (nana), Cheerios (ey-os), cheese (for the food and when he see a camera), up, down, TV (one I don't particularly like).
However, my two very favorite words he says are "yeah" and "uh-oh". Anytime we ask him a question of any sort, his immediate response is, "yeah!" And anytime something breaks/falls/stops working/etc, his arms go out and he says "uh-oh!" in a very concerned tone. This includes things he actually throws himself (ex: sippy cup overboard from high chair), and we're trying to explain to him that it isn't an "uh-oh" if you do it intentionally. Not working so far :)
Not sure if it gets much cuter than a Puma tracksuit & Nikes!
Mason loves playing a game I call "can you say..." We play it daily, and we go through the list of all the above words - I say "Can you say mama?", and Mason says "mama!", and so on. The funny part is when we get to body parts and animals. He knows almost every single body part, including: hair, head, eyes, nose, ears, mouth, teeth, tongue, cheeks, chin, shoulders, belly, bellybutton, arms, hands, fingers, legs, feet, toes. He also knows the following animals: sheep, horse, cow, dog, cat, pig, duck, rooster, spider, snake, bee, bird, frog, elephant, lion, monkey. However, when we get to the body parts during "can you say", he immediately stops repeating, and starts pointing to all the body parts as I ask him to say them. Then when we get to the animals, instead of repeating the animal name after me, he tells me what noise they make. It's so funny how quickly he switches gears when we play that game - he's so smart too - he barely hesitates at each word.
(My favorite picture of these two, ever! Describes their relationship to a T!)
He definitely takes after both of his parents in his quiet and almost shy demeanor, and is happiest when he's reading books in our laps. His second favorite at-home activity is toddler puzzles. We are amazed at how good he is at them - Tristan recently bought him 4 big wooden puzzles, two of which are pretty complicated, and he can do them all on his own. He can figure out which shapes & colors go together, and fits them perfectly into the correct spots. One has the entire alphabet with animals that correspond, and he meticulously finds the correct places for each piece one at a time.
He also loves playing with his extensive car/truck collection. If it has 4 wheels and can zoom across our wood floors, he'll sit across the room from us for an hour, pushing them back & forth.
He looks up to his cousin Grace so much! She's his favorite :)
I started a new job 6 weeks ago, which means Mason started daycare for the first time. He only goes 3x/week because we're so blessed that Tristan's parents help us the other 2 days. He had a VERY rough first few weeks, but I'm so happy to report that both of us have fallen into our new routines beautifully. I absolutely LOVE his daycare. It's a very small school, with only about 15 children total. In Mason's class (under 2 year olds) there are only 4 kids and they don't all go every day. They're accredited through the Poway Unified School District, which means they're doing the same curriculum as the local preschools, so he'll be learning as much if not more at a younger age than the kids who start preschool at 3 or 4.
With new baby cousin, Ava. He's very curious about her, think he'll be an excellent big brother some day!
The first few weeks of daycare were very rough and included me dropping Mason off sobbing, and I know he spent most of the days in a fairly sad state. However, it's the one place we allow him to have monkey all day (at home he stays IN the crib at all times), and with that added assurance he now walks in next to me, asks for his monkey (which he calls his "ah-ah", his sound for what a monkey makes), and runs back to his classroom with his teacher. She has given me glowing reports that he's been happy, napping & eating great. She also asked me the other day exactly how old he was - when I told her she said she thought he was closer to 2, and said he's ahead of some of the 2 year olds at the school. Yay for my little smarty-pants!
He sleeps 12 hours every night, and takes a full 3 hour nap every day. He wakes up happy and usually doesn't even want to get out of his crib for up to 15 minutes after we've opened his door. Along with his "ah-ah", he sleeps with a blanket, another big monkey, an alligator and the newest addition, a little dog who I have no idea where he came from! I think Gace or Ay-ya left it here the other day, and since it's a plush toy Mason assumed it was for cuddling in bed with! Every night he gathers them all up at the head of his bed and lays on top of them all, saying "aaawwww" as he snuggles.
He's running everywhere and doesn't fall or trip nearly as much as he used to. He's actually doing a great job at kicking balls around, and we see soccer in his near future for sure. He also loves to play catch with balls, and has been known to actually catch one or two! He loves to jump, which still looks like the video I posted a few months ago, and his BG recently taught him how to march.
And lastly...THIS is the reason why you may not see a video from us in a while. I'm dying to get a video of him doing the puzzles or marching, but every time a camera turns on, here's what happens. He actually can hear the Flip video from across the house, and immediately stops what he's doing because he wants to watch videos :)
He's the love of our lives, and although each new stage brings new challenges, he is such an easy little man. We're almost afraid to have another...there's no way we'll have two easy kids!!! All joking aside, maybe sometime before he turns 3 he'll have a little brother or sister to play with :)
