21 Months Old

21 Months! It just blows my mind that our "babies" are so close to 2 years old! I've had quite a number of people ask me if this age is a lot easier than the baby stage. My answer is no, it's not. Definitely different, but I wouldn't say easier. Maybe it's just because the stage you're in always seems harder than looking back, but this stage is tough in many ways. Loads and loads of fun, but frustrating at times. The baby stage was physically exhausting with all of the bottles, pumping, sterilizing, diapers, lack of sleeping and then usual household stuff on top of that. But this toddler stage is mentally exhausting. The fighting/stealing/pushing, getting into EVERYTHING, testing their limits too many times to count in a day.

There is a section in a book I'm reading that talks about teaching your children acceptable behaviour and limiting disruptive behaviour. It talks about a study that showed parents headed their child off 9 times an hour when she was about to do something they didn't want her to do. They spent another (average) 9 times an hour admiring or demonstrating something she wanted help with. The encounters only lasted a minute or two and occured on average every 3 minutes.

I did the math and in our house that's 27-54 minutes an hour either heading them off, admiring them or demonstrating something for them. But that doesn't also factor in all of the disciplining and consoling for hitting, pulling hair, stealing, pushing, etc. Hmm, maybe that's why I'm wiped at the end of the day.

The words have really been flying in our house lately. They usually still just say one word at a time, but they can put 2 together. Maggie surprised me the other morning after Daniel left for work, she said, "dad...shoes...jacket...glasses...door...go...bye...vrooom, vroom." She said all of these words with about 5 seconds in between each word. She knew that he put his shoes, jacket and sunglasses on, went out the door and drove away. Jacket and glasses weren't totally clear, but she said her version of them. They have definitely gotten to know how to use the word "no". The other day in the stroller Mitchell was reaching forward and grabbed Casey's seat and was pulling on it. Casey turned around and said "No! Hand!". Mitchell has started to say "mommy" as opposed to "mom" or "mama" and it just melts my heart everytime.

There isn't much they say (that's not jibberish) that we don't understand. And vice versa, they can understand anything we say to them, what they choose to do with it though depends on the situation. They're really good at naming of their body parts and animal sounds. They've started calling Maggie "Me" and Casey "See". Mitchell just gets pointed to because his name is pretty hard to say.

Meal time is one of my biggest challenges. Generally they eat pretty well with their plates and forks but man do they love to throw stuff. We are trying to get them to say "done" and hand us their plate or food instead of throwing it. This works probably 20% of the time. The rest of the time they throw their food, plate, fork, bib, sippy cup when they're done or when they just don't want to eat. So picking all of these things up x 3 and then cleanng up the food on the floor and walls gets old pretty quickly. We've been using bowls and spoons a little more lately and they have gotten better with them. They can usually get most of what they're eating onto the spoon (and themselves).

Casey gets goofier everyday. He always seems to be doing something to make you laugh or smile. If he catches you looking at him, he'll make a funny face, run over and give a big smile or a hug, flop on the floor, basically anything he can think of to try and make you laugh. I think Casey will have the wildest imagination. He goes about playing with his things babbling away like crazy just like he's playing out a big plot in his mind. He loves to look at picture books but doesn't have the patience for you to read anything with more than a few words. He's not so much of a bully anymore but when gets upset he can turn the waterworks on in an instant. He has the biggest alligator tears.

Mitchell loves to build things, lately he's been really into building towers with the mega blocks. He knows which blocks should go where to build the best tower and gets very annoyed with Casey when he comes and knocks his tower down (which Casey loves to do). I would say Mitchell has the biggest vocabulary and is the quickest with the animal sounds and body parts. He has taken over as the bully and is the first to steal a toy, push, pull hair, bite you name it. He is a feisty little boy. But on the other hand he's also the one who likes to cuddle the most. He has a favorite corner on his blankie that he sorts through to find and then rubs it just below his nose. He plays really well by himself. There are lots of times where I have to go look for him either downstairs or in the play room and find him playing just fine on his own.


Maggie is my little helper. If I say, "Can you help mommy...." she's right there beside me (whereas the boys are off doing something else). Her latest thing is helping me set the table. She puts their forks and bibs onto the high chair trays one by one. Maggie is so funny. Nothing used to phase her, whether it was having something stolen or getting pushed out of the way. Now she's turning into quite the little drama queen. What she'll do is either stomp her feet and jump up and down throwing her arms in the air or she'll crumble to the floor. When she adds in her fake cry/whimper it's really quite a good performance. I've seen sometimes where the boys haven't even touched her, they're just thinking of doing something to her, but she still dives down to the floor. She is definitely going to be a girlie girl. She is obsessive about putting on her favorite shoes within minutes of getting up in the morning, she likes having her hair done, putting on dresses and being told she's pretty.

The hugs and kisses that we get from our little monkeys (almost always) wipe away all of the frustrations from the day.