Matthew: 21 months

 Matthew is 3 months away from being 2 years old. My first baby is a full blown running, laughing, talking toddler!!

Sleep:

He sleeps 12-13 hours at night from 7pm to 7:30 or 8 am. Although the last couple of weeks he has not woken up until 10 3 times. Matthew naps once off and on for 2-3 hours. He's doing great in his crib. He doesn't show any signs of being discontent or climbing out.

Clothes:

I just changed his shirts and overalls out to 24 month/ 2t clothes a couple weeks ago. The 18 month pants still fit.  Shoe size is 7. and sandals for the summer are sooo much easier to get out of the house than putting on shoes and socks.  He's in size 4 diapers. His 18 month stats were 27 pounds (50th percentile) height 34 1/2 inches (75th percentile). Head circumference 20 inches.

Food:

He is a great fruit and vegetable eater. We are still working on proteins. He eats three meals a day. His appetite is on the down side right now and he wasn't eating dinner, so we've cut out the snack for now.  He uses a spoon at every meal. He has all but 4 teeth in. He enjoys putting the toothbrush in his mouth every morning. He is  still on sippy cups. He really only heat up his night time milk anymore. he does a milk cup in the morning and water during the rest of the day. 

Typical/ favorite meal choices:

Breakfast - cereal and grapes with half a cup of milk

Lunch - steamed veggies (broccoli, carrots, peas)  with pb&j sandwich

Snack - rarely, it's a home made fruit smoothie with mainly bananas and strawberries with a couple of other fruits. Depends on what we picked up at the store that week. Dinner - what ever we eat in smaller portions cut up. -with the exception of most meats, not a fan. We supplement beans for the protein. Dinner is followed by his nighttime milk cup.

Socially/ verbally:

He is shy with new adults or children he doesn't see regularly. It's not a bad trait, we'd prefer he didn't go up to any stranger willingly. He relaxes within about 20 minutes if the person continues gently. Matthew has had a vocabulary explosion and will also 'speak' for an extended period of time as though he's holding his end of a conversation. He can now point out about half the alphabet and the basic 4 shapes. We added a new signing DVD and he's working on more words that way as well. We walk daddy to his car on work morning and wave goodbye and blow kisses.

Developmentally:

Matthew's curiosity is vast. He continues to really likes to see how things work.

He's now half walking up the stairs on his hands and feet - rather than knees. He has held daddy's hand and done a few steps walking upright coming down. Walks and runs well

Rolls a ball. He will clap on his own and high five people. He can stack multiple blocks. He can scribble.

He points at objects he wants. At the proper time with encouragement, he will repeat back what the word is.
Successfully mimics our facial expression, sticking tongue out, tries to wink, it's hilarious!  Repeats all the animal sounds we've taught him.

He only cries about 10% of the time when he falls, trips or bumps in to something.  Mommy will always offer comfort, because that's the kind of mommy I am. 
We are having some challenging days of reaching him during emotionally overwhelming moments for him. His will is definitely increasing. Again, I don't say traits to pigeon whole his personality and it's NEVER a complaint. I just want to remember everything about his childhood.  Opinions are forming and compliance is a work in progress. We are working on some basic structure, time outs for him or the toy being thrown, eye contact. I applaud any parent of a toddler. Keeping cool, calm, firm yet kind requires every bit of the strength the Holy Spirit gives me access to. I have on the side of the fridge four words: Love, Empathy, Choices and Boundaries. I pray to help train Matthew through his emotional challenges with these reminders. Being a parent definitely keeps me close to God and on my knees praying. There is no one size fits all training and discipline. Every child IS different. He enjoys dragging objects over to counters to get higher and touch more things :-) We try to give him a choice between two thing when ever possible, food -which type of cheese, which fruit, toys, clothes to wear, which book to read.

Matthew knows and count point to all of his body parts. That's how we get him to stay away from Daniel's eyes. We redirect to his hands or feet. He can follow 2 step directions.

Personality:

outside.  Matthew enjoys having a wide range of books read to him including ones where we ask him what the animals say, and identifying the shapes and letters.  Matthew's favorite book to have read to him are the growing collection of Veggie Tales books we have. He asks to repeat the same book usually about 3 times back to back before moving to the next.  His favorite toys are his Bob & Larry, books, tunnel, ball pit balls, cars, blocks, trucks, train set, riding and push toys. He likes piggy back rides, being chased, tickled and tackled.

This precious boy is a delight to our hearts. He LOVES his brother! He wants to help rock, bring his pacifier and pick him up. Matthew will fetch burp cloths, blankets, diapers and attempt to sing to Daniel if he's upset.  We don't let him pick him up of course. We do have Matthew sit down and we place Daniel on his lap with a pillow to support the baby. If I happen to be in the other room when Daniel start crying Matthew comes to get me and says 'mommy' to get me to come. Matthew shows great interest in all things of Daniel's as well such as his car seat  pacifier, bassinet, etc. He does like to climb up in to the chair to get to his booster seat and can get down by himself. He's settling in to the new schedule as a family of four. 

  He enjoys knocking down the towers we build with his blocks. He can stack blocks several high by himself. He's calming down for daddy during bath time these days and it's fun for mommy to hear them play and have their bonding time at the end of the day. Outdoor play he really likes the swing. Matthew is great about walking right next to us which is great since he's not a fan of holding our hands.  He's fascinated by pouring objects in and dumping them out of any containers. He really enjoys watching, playing, singing and reading about the Veggie Tales gang. Matthew will say cheese when I take his picture now and will say more if I only take one. I'm not sure what I've done here, but since I enjoy taking pictures of handsome guy I'm rolling with it :-) His will and strong preferences are starting to become more evident. He's learning to share with friends and to talk in a kind voice with them. Matthew enjoys playing parallel play during play dates. He does very well when prepared before we transition or something new. 

Firsts since last update: 

In April first trip to the zoo and carousel ride and awful ant bites, over 75 on one foot

Put 3 words together yesterday. It was 'I not wet'. This was after coming in to his room to get him out of his crib in the morning to find his sheet, bedding, lovie and himself all wet.