19 Month Recap

Thankfully things slowed down a bit this November, which was much needed after a very very busy September and October. We had some fun with leaves, visited some fall-themes events, got a date night out in Philly for our 6th Wedding anniversary, traveled to NJ for Thanksgiving, and then hosted a 2nd Thanksgiving at home to use my free turkey reward from our grocery store. We snuck in some play dates with Cylar and Bella too! We also upgraded our iPhones, so hopefully these snapshots from our lives will look a little crisper with the new cameras.

Nolan Lucas - 19 Months Old

Beautiful Fall in Pennsylvania

 By far and away, the biggest change this month is Nolan's ever-growing vocabulary. All things I read say that kids should have around 10-15 words at this point, but Nolan has a ton and picks up new words every day! Work with him on almost any word you want him to learn and he will mimic and try to get it. It's so fun to constantly be surprised at what he will say next! Here are some of his recent new skills:

Classmates: Ella, "Elwa" Emma, Jack, Matt, Jules "Dools!"
Calls himself: Na-no, No-nee, Na-nu. He will point to himself in photos now and say his name (the best he can!)
Some new words this month (impossible to list them all): Go Go Go!, Tree "Twee", Lights "Kites", Pasta, Bird "Buuurr", Snack "Nack", Hat, Sock, Nose "Noh", Ice "Hice", Apple, Elmo, Pasta

Nolan understands a ton and does complicated tasks that I ask him often. He can identify most of his body parts when asked, and loves reading books to point and say all his vocabulary words. He also recently picked up on how my voice sounds when I count and does his own version of counting :)

Points to: Belly Button, Nose, Mouth, Teeth, Hair, Ears, Feet, Teeth, Hands
Identifies in books: Trucks, Buses, Cars, Trains, Boats, Dogs, Balls, Sleeping (Night Nights), Shoes, Hat
Counting: One....Doo....Bye...

I've started "leaving blanks" in the books I read over and over again and find that Nolan can often times fill them in! He really is listening and taking it all in when I read his stories a million times!

Finishes sentences in books:
Mommy: Bubbles Bubbles rise up top
Nolan: "Bubbles Bubbles Pop Pop Pop!"

Mommy: "1,2 buckle my..."
Nolan: "DOO!" (shoe)
Mommy: " 3, 4 open the..."
Nolan: "BYE!" (door)

Mommy: "Pease Porridge..."
Nolan: "HOT!"
Mommy: "Pease Porridge cold. Pease Porridge in the pot 9 days old. Some like it..."
Nolan: "HOT!"

Singing:  Nolan definitely has favorite songs that his toys play. He loves "Old MacDonald" and will dance and say D-I-D-I-D even when it's only an instrumental version. He also keeps pressing the button on his play saxophone until his favorite song plays "B-I-N-G-O". He especially loves changing the rhythm until it goes super fast then dances crazily to it :) He's picked up on the Spanish songs CD I play a lot in the car and will fill in some "Do Do's/Bum Bum's" type singing at the appropriate spots (ex: Burbujas Burbujas con agua y jabon, Burbujas, Burbujas BUM BUM BUM) - cracks me up every time. He also loves the Elmo's world theme song and will sing "Elmo" during the "Elmo's world" part!

Turning on the music

Dancing: This boy is a dancing MACHINE! Daycare often writes how much Nolan loves dancing at school and we see it often at home as well - mostly to theme songs of his favorite shows or when we turn on the radio. We were cracking up recently when Joe caught him braking it down to 2 different "New Jack Swing" style songs - this kid loves early 90's music (and who can blame him!)

Nolan dancing to Boyz to Men

Nolan breaking it down to the old standby "Old MacDonald"

Eating: Nolan continues to be a "pasta man" taking after his mom and Aunt Emily :) He loves almost any pasta and will eat it with tomato sauce, pesto, or butter. I often mix veggies in and he'll eat some (after the pasta is gone). He is great at self-feeding with utencils now and can get about 90% of apple sauce (etc) into his mouth on his own!

"Cheese"!

Sleep: Nolan's sleep is a little more hit or miss this month. Changing the clocks definitely messed things up. He used to sleep until 7:30-8am in the morning, which allowed me to get everything ready before he woke up on week days and sleep in on weekends. Now he gets up more like 6-7am. He still goes to bed around 8pm. We've also got the winter colds coming back around - he's constantly got a runny/stuffy nose and he had his first stomach virus of the season as well, sending him home from school for 2 days. Luckily Joe and I escaped catching it, but I seem to also always have a stuff nose as well now. I'm sure these things are contributing to him waking up from time to time at night although we try to keep the humidifier running in his room. I'm hoping this winter will be kinder to us than last in terms of being sick.

Snack time!

 Hair: We've been holding off as long as we can, but I think a hair cut is in Nolan's (near) future. It is pretty wild now in the back! I think we'll wait for the new year. We've had tons of people telling us not to do it because of his curls! For now, we'll enjoy it a little longer :)

Wild hair man!

Why are you staring at my hair, mom?

Funny things:
Putting Daddy's hat on dean's head repeatedly after hearing our laughter
Clapping when he hears an audience on TV (football games, game shows)
WUZABUZZA BALL! "Where's the ball?"

New at this stage: Nolan is now capable of opening latched doors. Daycare has a door with a latch for his classroom and when i come to pick him up he'll run to the door, open it, and run out to the lobby excitedly. Although he can now reach our doorknobs at home, he hasn't figured out how to turn the knobs.... YET.

Social Interactions: Nolan is really starting to play "with" other kids instead of parallel play now. As evidenced by his list of words, he's learned all of his classmates names and regularly asks for them at home. I've also seen a big jump in how he plays with Cylar when she comes over - they feed off each other and have such a great time. I love watching them!

Nolan and Cylar (2 years old)

 

Buddies - Cylar insisted they both have their hoods up :)

Nolan with Bella (10 months old)

Playtime: Nolan's current favorite things to play with include books (he loves using his new vocabulary words to point out things!), anything that plays music (he loves to dance!), duplex legos, shape sorters, and of course "non-toys" such as cell phones, remotes, vacuum, broom, swiffer, pots, etc.

Mall Playground

Favorite activity - throw everything on the floor!

A Glimpse of the Terrible Two's: I can see what is on the horizon as we sneak closer to the big #2 birthday. Nolan has a very strong opinion these days, and quickly gets upset if he doesn't get this way. I've experienced him giving preference on nearly everything now - from what he wears, to type of sippy cup, where he sits at dinner, etc. Luckily his tantrums are usually short lived as he can be distracted to something else to help calm him down. He's started demanding that he "WALK!" himself and doesn't like to be carried everywhere. In general, he's a pretty easy going guy, so I'm hoping the terrible two's won't be too terrible for him. The anger he exhibits is almost always due to his inability to communicate properly, which I can imagine would be frustrating. Hopefully as his vocabulary expands, these tantrums lessen too.

According to Joe, after 18 months you should just refer to your kid as 1 and a half, not by months. I can't believe we are closer to 2 than 1 now. Time really does fly when you have kids!