22 Months Old

Ian turned 22 months old this week -- closing in on two! It's hard to believe that he's not two already, he seems like such a big boy. I never realized that children become so person-like while they are still one. At this point Ian understands the vast majority of what's going on around him and talks about it constantly. Recently he's begun using two+ word phrases regularly: "More raisins", "Big chair","Ian's grapes", and "Ian will do it!". He knows tons of words and can communicate his feelings very well. This is often delightful, but also allows him to persist in talking about something to the point of parental exhaustion.

After we read our last book (always Goodnight Moon) and turn out the light each night, Ian likes to hear the story of his day before we leave him for the night. We review all the things that happened that day, and he participates quite a lot now. Tonight I told about how we made oat bars together early this morning and Ian piped in "Bars! Cooking! Mix, mix, mix, oven - hot, hot, hot, hot!".

Ian has many passions at the moment: going to the park to play, fiddling with the electronics and tools in Doug's room (he likes to "fix" his bed, remembering how he helped Daddy convert it from a crib), building train tracks and Lego creations, playing with rocks and water, cobbing and hanging out in the truck with Uncle Greg, helping me cook in the kitchen, going to the pool on Saturdays with Daddy, etc. He has a drive to keep things cleaned up (unfortunately this will probably fade, since his genetics don't support this) -- when he's in bed and I'm telling him the story of his day he'll tell me "Memop here", and point to things in his room that need to be put back in their places. He also often voluntarily cleans up one set of toys before getting out another. In the yard, he insists that we clean up the dog poops on a daily basis (and gets upset if the dogs aren't up to his standards of production) -- he is the world's best poop locator, and runs to get the scoop and a bag from the basement so we can cleanup right then (there is no putting this off, no matter how inconvenient it might be at the time -- he is very insistent).

Although he definitely has periods of unexplained fussiness or temper tantrums of frustration, most of the time Ian is a delightful boy and it's really nice to be able to start interacting with him as a conversational person. Tonight he sat and watched the California bike tour with Doug while I was getting dinner ready, and I came in to see man and boy absorbed in the race ("vroom, vroom, bike, fast!, hats (helmets), vroom, vroom!"). It's fun to see our baby really becoming a little boy : )