22 Months Old

As we creep up on being just 2 short months away from turning 2…I should begin thinking about the boys’ birthday party. Summer is always so busy and I know the beginning of July will be here before I know it and if I want to order some cool personalized stuff from etsy.com (love.love.love this site!) again this year, I need to think ahead! I’m debating whether to have one “big” party with both family & friends, like we did last year, or break it up into two smaller parties – a little less overwhelming with the number of people to have over & feed at one time. We’ll see. I also have to discuss theme ideas with my hubby. Last year, since they were so little & their birthday is close to the 4th of July, I just picked a generic “firecracker” theme, which turned out really cute! This year they are starting to get more interested in different things (Mickey Mouse, trains, tools, etc.) so I want to choose one of their current interests as the theme. (I’m leaning towards Mickey Mouse right now, but we’ll have to see…)

The boys & I have been spending a lot of time together the past month of weekends, as Cory’s had a busy schedule with work, turkey hunting and having a guys’ weekend (camping/fishing). They have been pretty well behaved for me but definitely miss their daddy & are so excited when he comes home (especially yesterday afternoon, since he had been gone since Thursday night).

The past few weekends the boys have amped up their “brotherly love” towards each other, especially the past few mornings. They are just so sassy & independent right now and if anyone gets in the way of what they were doing, which most of the time is their brother, they immediately get defensive with a hit or a push or a hair pull (yes, I walked into the playroom with Colton in tears & Wyatt with a fist-full of Colton’s hair on Saturday morning). It’s such a challenge as a mommy to work through each situation with them when it happens time-after-time-after-time within a 30 minute time span. Sometimes I just have to walk away to cool down before I deal with them for the 1000th time. I want them to know what they are doing is not OK but it also feels like my words don’t mean anything when it continues to happen. I know they are typical toddlers who are independent & testing everything…it’s just harder some days. If you’re a mom of toddlers or older, you know what I mean!

Sleep has still been pretty good lately, but a little bit less with the continuation of earlier wake-up times. They are sleeping around 10-11 hours each night. They go down in their cribs around 7:15 PM. (Our bedtime routine is: bath (on bath night), lotion & jammies, blanket & book.) They have been waking up a little early around 5:30-5:45 AM quite a few days but now have been upset and want to come out of their cribs immediately, instead of hanging out for a little bit. I’m hoping this phase passes quickly because I’d like to have a day or so where I could sleep in past 6 AM!

At 22 months, the boys:
- have tons of words and add more & more every day – it’s crazy; they are also putting together 2-3 word sentences like “sit down mama”, “more milk”, “bye-bye papa”
- LOVE Mickey Mouse – we have a few episodes DVR’d and although they don’t have enough interest to sit down & watch the entire show, we have a crazy, dance party in our living room doing the “Hot Dog Dance” two times every night before bed (Colton can’t hardly get through dinner without reminding us that we have to do the “Hot Dog” – as he calls it)
- Love ALL fruit, yogurt, macaroni & cheese, turkey hot dogs, turkey meatballs, bread, grilled cheese, multi-grain crackers, Mickey Mouse cheese
- Don’t really care for sweets (are these my children??!!) for the most-part; they do like brownies (OK, they only had brownies once at a friends’ grill out but enjoyed them) & ice cream, depending on the day…not that I push or offer sweets to them that often, it’s just funny to see other kids go crazy over sweets when my kids couldn’t care less
- LOVE mommy & daddy reading them books at night before bed – they each pick out their own for the night and definitely have their favorites (Llama Llama Red Pajama, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Very Busy Spider, Brown Bear, anything with trains…they have LOTS of favorites!)
- Attempt to put their own clothes on – mostly just their socks, shoes, jackets & hats – but don’t quite have the hang of it yet
- Attempt to eat with a fork/spoon. They do well with the spoons but don’t quite have the fork down that well & will resort to eating with their hands if they get too frustrated…just the process of learning!
- Wear size 18 months pants & 18 months/2T shirts
- Wear size 4 diapers (although I think we need to move up to size 5 for the overnight)

Wyatt
- loves tools & fixing things; I think the screwdriver & hammer are his favorite toys – such a boy!
- loves to jump & actually gets both feet off the ground most of the time
- still continues to throw food (& plate) from time-to-time, especially when he’s at the end of his meal (which immediately puts an end to meal time but so far, it’s just not sinking in)
- loves watching for “memi” (semi), bus & truck, especially while riding in the car – attempts to say all three words fairly well
- looks/sounds so cute when he says the word “turtle” (first heard him say it at bath time a couple weeks ago when he was showing me the turtle squirter)

Colton
- loves trains & trucks
- points out & says “lawnmower” (his longest word, besides “applesauce”, yet!) when any of our neighbors are out mowing their lawn
- loves watching for “memi” (semi), bus & truck, especially while riding in the car – says all three words very well!
- says quite a few of his daycare friends’ names very well
- is a picky, picky eater! He eats almost no veggies. Some nights he does eat well (but usually only if it’s something he really, really likes) and other nights he eats absolutely nothing at all – it also depends on the day…one day he’ll eat a certain food & the next day he’ll totally reject it – crazy kid!