my world, my true

Little man is so much fun to be around these days. He loves to talk, loves to engage us and he loves to love. Of course, he is a toddler, too…he gets frustrated when he can’t tell us exactly what he needs or wants (even, and especially, when he’s trying his hardest I get just as frustrated trying to understand), but his meltdowns are usually short-lived and easily solved with the change of subject to of one of his favorite things. 

He’s just like his father in how much he loves the things he loves. His fascination with the moon is so much fun to witness. He loves looking out the bathroom window before bath time to see if it’s there looking back at him. He tries to find it outside during the day, and his excitement is unmeasured when he does. 

These days most of our conversations revolve around animals of any kind, or dinosaurs (“roars,” as he affectionately calls them). Every activity we do turns into something about animals. It is definitely his number one motivator. I can pretty much get the kid to do anything if I incorporate animals in some way or another. Daddy calls his food “dinosaur food” to get him to taste a bite, or if we first give a bite to an animal friend (toy), it’s almost always followed by a willingness to try whatever is presented.

His eating is inconsistent, but I would say pretty great for his age. He’s definitely a “grazer” most days, so when dinner falls a little later than he would like, his appetite is raging and he’s too impatient to wait for it so he often times ends up snacking right before it’s ready and not eating any of it. But, if we can get the timing right, and he’s hungry when dinner is ready, he’ll eat everything on his plate. It’s awesome. His favorite right now is “pasta,” and he requests it for any meal (pretty much any kind - of course spaghetti, but he also loves mushroom ravioli and cheese tortellini). 

He loves to color and draw with his crayons and has learned that they are only for coloring on paper and he also loves to draw with chalk on his chalkboard. Hours (and lots of paper) are spent at our house drawing, and his favorite is when Mommy or Daddy draw with him and, of course, he demands lots of animal drawings (cows are really hard to draw, by the way). He also loves play-doh and his favorite thing to do with it is mold it into animals and then play with the sculptures. I love how he gives all of the animals little voices and has them give each other kisses and hugs. Right now, he’s also really into having a Mommy, a Daddy & a Baby of every animal - I have been making 2 babies to show there’s room for one more. :) His other favorite indoor activity is matching games - with animals, of course. We received a bunch of these hand-me-down German-made wooden matching games/puzzles recently and they are all animal-based. He’s gotten really into them, it’s really fun to watch how smart he’s getting!

Lately we’ve been spending lots of time outside, as spring came early here. He’s loving the park a TON - looking for bugs, watching the ducks and geese (we don’t feed them because I’m too scared they will come too close to us and bite us…I’m a psycho when it comes to birds, and my poor child is paying for it! He’s just as content to watch them, though, I promise.), climbing on the equipment (but not really crazy about slides or swings), watching older children, pretending he’s a dinosaur and “eating” the leaves off of bushes, walks in the stroller (finally, he likes the stroller again!), looking for squirrels and dogs, blowing bubbles and playing in the sand. 

We’ve also recently made it a Saturday tradition to go get bagels (and “treats,” which is what he calls muffins or whatever baked good he picks out) for breakfast and then we go to the pet store to look at the mice, fish, birds, cats and lizards. This is definitely his favorite part of the week. The mice are his favorite (unfortunately for him, because there’s no chance I would ever bring one home!). 

So, there you have it. The love life of a 21 month old. Pretty intense if you ask me. He’s a wonder to watch and a joy to know. Every day I learn something new from him and I look forward to spending every chance I get from here on out learning more and hopefully teaching him a few things along the way.