December 17, 2009

Our Little Wild Thing: 18 Months Old!

Here is Sawyer wearing his new t-shirt. We went into the Gap looking for a Christmas-y shirt and came out with this. It was on sale, or else I wouldn't have got it. He's never been so excited about a t-shirt! He says "Max" and "grrr". He loves those Wild Things! (and luckily we found the Christmas shirt at Target on sale for $4 - can't beat that!)

*warning: another long post about our boy.

It's pretty amazing that Sawyer is now 18 months old...and even more amazing that in a few short weeks he will be a BIG BROTHER! When I got pregnant, Sawyer was 10 months old. We found out 3 weeks later. It was planned, but at the same time, I kept looking at him and thinking "but he's still a baby..." Now that I've started pulling out his old newborn-sized little onesies and t-shirts, for his sister to wear, I realize he has grown a lot! But he is still my baby, and (like it or not) he always will be. And, he's still little (good thing we kept him rear-facing in the car seat until he was 15 months old!). I think he will be one of those awesome forwards in soccer - the small but quick ones. And cute, to boot!

Stats:
Weight: 21 lbs. 12 oz. (5th percentile)
Height: 31 inches (10th percentile)

According to our pediatrician, Sawyer is extremely verbal for a boy of his age (as if we didn't already know that!) He has just barely started putting a couple of words together and our favorites are: "Oh no!" and "Here you go". She also encouraged us to begin potty training him. I guess he meets the 4 "readiness" criteria that they look for, and most kids around the world are potty trained at this age - or before. I am not quite sure how well it will work since we'll have a big transition coming with the new baby...but we've been talking about it and we got him some "big boy" underwear that he proudly carries to the toilet. He understands much more than I thought he would. We are just waiting for the "big boy" potties to arrive and after Christmas I think we'll give it a go! Who knows? If it works, great, and if not, we can try again later. Apparently (and it makes sense) kids at this age are more likely to get excited about trying something you introduce...but if you wait too long (ie 2-3 years old) they might be more defiant about it. I'll probably have a whole post about this theory in January. (Anyone who has potty trained a child this age...feel free to offer some advice!) I figure it's a good time to try, when we'll be indoors because of the weather and me being hugely pregnant, waiting for the Little Miss to make her grand appearance. Okay...

Some favorites:
Lately, he has been so excited about Santa and Snowmen. I even caved in and let him watch a couple of the classic Christmas shows (I am normally a stickler for NO screen time for kids under 2...but, hey, it's Christmas, right?)
He LOVES reading. Amazingly, he looks through full picture books (not just board books) and is careful with the pages. He will sit with a stack of books on the floor and look through each one (of course he knows all the stories because we read to him a LOT). He says a few words or makes noises about the stories, sitting there totally content sometimes for a good 30 minutes. It's wonderful. Some favorites lately (they change about every 2-3 weeks) are: Where the Wild Things Are (hence his new t-shirt - he was STOKED to put it on), The Polar Express, Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel (yes, the whole book! Thanks Aunt Erin!), oh, and funny enough, he loves to sit and look through the National Geographic Magazines Jacob receives each month. Seriously? (I think it's because there are usually lots of photos of animals...?) He seems to be a pretty visually-oriented kid (understandable with who his parents are). He also seems to favor his left hand.
He continues to LOVE Lego Duplos. It has been really fun to see him start with them at a year (we got them for his birthday) and develop the coordination to put them together and take them apart...and now that he's got that down, it's amazing to see what he "creates" and builds with his own little imagination. He tends to build cars, trains, and tractors.
He also LOVES anything outdoors. He actually doesn't have very many toys (on purpose) so we are always looking for ways to interact and be creative. He likes to dance. He is pretty proud of his somersaults (and he's got them perfected, nonetheless!) He loves outings to the Zoo, the Park - where he especially enjoys riding his little bike. On rainy days, sometimes we pull the car out of our tiny garage and let him ride around to his little heart's content. (Next Birthday or Christmas he'll get one with actual pedals!) He, of course, loves the library (and taking plenty of books off the shelves to dig through - I'm sure the librarians love us :)
He also loves taking showers lately (though he still loves bath time, too!). It used to be, I'd try to set him up with some toys while I took a shower - but he kept playing peek-a-boo with me through the curtains and getting water everywhere...so one day, I asked him if he'd like to join me. He loved it! He sits in the back and plays with his alphabet letters or water toys, and then stands under the water. It enables me to take a longer and more relaxing shower.
He likes to be a "helper" He loves to vacuum, sweep, and swiffer. He likes to watch when we are cooking. It won't be much longer until he can "help" even more.
Every night at bedtime, after we have read books, said prayers, and had a drink of water, we turn off the lights and he requests a song. For a long few weeks it was the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" (he says spider in such a cute way) and "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" among others...but this month, he always says "Anta, Anta" and so we say goodnight with "So...you better watch out, you better not cry..." and he LOVES it. It is SO cute how excited he is about Christmas this year. We just have to keep reminding him that among all the fun activities we do, the real reason we celebrate is the birth of Baby Jesus. He loves our Nativity set. But it's pretty hard to really "get" Christmas when there are so many different messages and different traditions and fun things about it that also have nothing to do with Christ (where'd the snowflakes come in?) All in time.

Well, this is long enough. I just wanted to take a minute to jot a few of these things down. Time is flying by. Sometimes, too quickly.

4 comments:

lizzie said...

I've heard a lot about missing the potty training "window" and also about having kids "un-train" when a new sibling is born. I was hesitant to try to potty train Simon before Oliver was born, but I also didn't want to miss the window, so I have been encouraging potty training, but not being to heavy with it for several months. The past few weeks he has taken the initiative himself and is nearly trained.

I am really curious about how Sawyer does with it and about your methods. I wouldn't have had the slightest idea of how to go about training Simon when he was 18 months.

allegra said...

i love to hear all the about cute sawyer and what he's up to lately. we can't wait to see him tomorrow. as far as the potty training, i have no idea. maybe max would have done it at a year and a half, it's hard to say, b/c i didn't go that route mainly because we were moving here, there and everywhere and i wanted him to be in a stable envrionment before doing the whole potty thing. i think if they're ready and want to do it quick, they'll get it pretty quick. if they're not ready, i say don't force it... it will make them hate the experience. all it took for max to want to go was seeing his cousin go in the potty, then after that he was a master at it in ONE day and had no accidents since. so it has to be "their" idea for it to be successful and not "yours". but alas, i'm no expert!

AO said...

What a cute, what a cutie... and you reminded me I need to get out our Where the Wild Things Are book for Collin....and can't wait to hear about your trying to potty train. Sawyer is such a cutie.... Collin loves reading books as well!

Jennifer said...

I loved reading your posts. You are so great! What a good mommy! David loves itsy bitsy spider and twinkle twinkle little star as well. The two he requests sung at night before bed. I thought that was funny.
Love ya
Jen