Barrett - 21 months

Barrett is a heart-stopping 21 months old. He's become such a little monkey and makes me laugh all the time.

He went through a trying phase a few months ago but seems to have gotten better lately.  He still gets that mischievous look in his eyes and little smirk where you know nothing good is about to take place, but he's been a lot more easygoing and less cranky these days. We are working on discipline and how we want to do it and being consistent with him.  I hate hate hate disciplining him, but I know it needs to be done, so I struggle through it. 

He understands what we're saying so often. Even though he may not speak in full conversations, I know he understands a lot.  One night on a walk Tim pointed out the moon.  A few nights later, he kept pointing at the sky and saying "moon."  The way he remembered surprised me and made me smile. And now it means his favorite book is "Goodnight Moon," so he can point out the moon on all the pages to me.  He says a million things, it seems like, and I can't even begin to list all the words he says.  He tells us he loves us,

He loves walks and gets excited to put his shoes on and head out the door.  He sits in his little red wagon and just looks all around.  He likes going to the park and has gotten so daring, I can barely keep up.  This past weekend he made me climb with him up the plastic rock wall over and over again.  That wasn't such a pretty picture, a 7+ month pregnant woman climbing up the playset and going down the slide, but it made him happy, so I'll look like the fool for him.

He has an entourage. It consists of two blankets, his bear Baby and his bear Juneau.  He insists on sitting in his chair to read books with all of his friends and it barely leaves room for me!

He knows body parts including nose, mouth, eyes (he blinks when you ask him where his eyes are), ears, hair, knees, foot, hand, chin, belly and belly button.

His favorite color is still yellow.  His new favorite animals are elephants, which he pronounces "eh-phant."  I guess he's moved on from the little ducks to the great big elephant!  We do a little dance and sing a song about elephants and sway our arms like elephant trunks, which he loves.

He is just hilarious these days and constantly cracks us up.  He will just bust out little dances, sometimes with music he gets going from his toys, sometimes without music at all.  He likes to pretend sleep in his crib when we come to get him.  He likes to put blankets over our heads and hide under there with us in the dark.  He loves being flipped upside down.  If we tickle him or make him laugh, he'll say "funny, mommy!"

He is all boy.  If there's a tiny puddle in a parking lot, you better believe that his little feet are going to find their way there to stomp in it.  He wants to be a big kid and wants to gravitate towards what the bigger kids are doing and imitate them.  He'll just sit and watch all the older kids playing with a smile on his face.

He is still incredibly stubborn and determined.  He gets so frustrated if his toys won't work the way he wants them to or he can't figure out a puzzle or something right away and flings himself on the floor crying or throws the toy.  I try not to laugh, but it's kind of funny!  I try to prompt him to ask for help, but he has yet to say the word.  I think he doesn't want to admit he needs help with anything.  Things around him must be just so.  There are little paper birds that hang from the ceiling of the daycare and one day one of the birds was missing, and he was quite perturbed by this, I was told.

He cracks us up all the time.  I don't know how we got such a fun little boy, but we lucked out.  He's just the best little thing and we have so much fun with him all the time!