21 months

Thought I'd provide an actual update, since this blog mainly is for photo/comment purposes.

At 21 months, there's very little baby left about Andrew except that he still doesn't have a head of full hair yet. Not even close, actually. From what I can tell its a strawberry blonde - not as red as it looked a few months ago. Which is strange because there's none of that color on either side of our families. It's a huge contrast in color to his really dark brown eyes. Again, a surprise as Shawn has green hazel and I have blue. Talk about genetic recessiveness (Shawn's mom has the dark brown). Plus he appears to be left handed too (Shawn's dad is lefty).

I don't know his height/weight but he actually seems to be at least average for his age, if not a little bigger when I see him with other kids. He's having a growth spurt now where he's starting to thin out and get taller. Maybe he's 27-28 lbs and getting closer towards 3' tall? Guess I could use a yardstick. He's just now transitioning out of 18m clothes into 24 month. He has been walking for about half his life now so he's very sturdy on his feet. Now he runs at full speed which he loves doing. And jumping. Too bad he hasn't gotten a good hang of slowing down at the end of a run. It usually involves collision with a wall, or piece of furniture. He doesn't even seem to care about the bangs and bruises. His teeth have all been in now for a while, so he eats adult food. And alot of it. He frequently asks for seconds and thirds. Loves fruits and carbos, hates most veggies and meat. I've never met a self professed toddler vegetarian, but I guess there's a first for everything.....

We're done breastfeeding. It was a nice long run, and ended very peacefully, we both were ready. I was confident that he'd eventually know when he didn't need it anymore and wouldn't be a nursing kindergartener. The last feeding to go was the one during our bedtime routine. Instead now we read a few books. And finally I'm able to just put him in his crib to fall asleep by himself. A recent accomplishment, up until now he's always fussed/cried. The kid never much did like sleeping from day 1. But now its fabulous. He sleeps about 10-12 hours a night, then takes a 1-3 hr afternoon nap. He doesn't cry anymore, glad those days are behind us. A difficult baby made for an easy toddler so I can't really complain.

Shawn's back at work now so he's doing a bit less of the childcare than when he was off this summer. I work Mondays and Thursdays, 4-6 hrs/day and Shawn has him then. Otherwise he's with me. Andrew has 2 kids he has become good friends with, and I with their moms.They are a bit older than he is (2.5 & 3) but nobody seems to mind. We see them regularly, maybe once or twice a week. He's also very gentle with Bosley and helps feed and walk him.

My first overnight without him comes in 2 weeks when I go to Charlottesville for a wedding, and Shawn stays behind with Andrew. I'm looking forward to it! We have a babysitter we use on occasion so leaving him is not a big deal.

I think Andrew could probably be toilet trained soon. Today he walked up to me and said "big doodoo"....he was right. Its just a little young for it yet, so I'm not sure if it would be a waste of time as far as his own awareness of when he's going. Our plan is to let him walk around without pants while we're in FL for the winter and train him then.

In brand new news, Andrew read 2 words to me this morning! Of course it's not phonetic. He just recognizes the symbol of the word. Still, pretty impressive for a 21 month old.. Guess all this reading is paying off - he loves books and we probably read an hour a day at least. He now knows about half the alphabet as well, and we're starting to teach him how to count. He speaks in sentences occasionally "i see mama" that kind of thing.. Shawn and I were bright kids but I think Andrew is probably smarter than either of us from what we see so far compared to what we were doing at his age....which should prove challenging and fun as we raise him.