Barrett - 22 months

I still call Barrett "Baby," but he's far from it these days.  Even his momma can no longer deny the fact that he's a toddler, through and through.  I hold tight to the moments when his baby-ness appears, when he's nuzzles up into my neck, when he lets me cuddle him when he's tired, when he gets a boo-boo and lifts his arm to be comforted.

But most of the time, he's too busy to take a second for any type of cuddles!

He loves to make us laugh.  He puts on our shoes and walks through the house, exclaiming "mommy's shoes!"  He does little dances in his booster seat while he's eating, bouncing and bobbing his head to imagined music.  He makes up little songs and sings away in the backseat of the car.

 He has fallen in absolute love with trains in the last month or two.  It's so funny.  We hear "choo-choo" constantly.  He loves playing with trains, watching trains, holding his toys trains, crossing train tracks, the whole works.   He's definitely all boy.  Not just the train thing, but he loves cars and planes too.  One of the most exciting things in his life is Daddy's car.  He gets very excited when we pull up to the house and he sees Daddy's car in the driveway. "Daddy cahr!"  He also makes sure whenever we're in parking lots that he finds and points out Mommy's car as soon as he sees it.   I can't imagine where he got this love of motor vehicles...  I think he must be like his father and have blood that's half motor oil.  Oh boy.

He's feisty and shy at the same time.  He is saying so many things and it's awesome to have conversations with him and to know what he's thinking.  He's very talkative and says a million words and sentences.  He loves to point out whose item is whose.  Mommy's water, Daddy's coat, etc.  Mealtime hasn't gotten any easier.  We're still battling the throwing of the food vs eating it.  I'm trying to crack down on ending mealtime as soon as food gets thrown.  This past month we've really had to up the discipline, which is the hardest part of parenting for me.  We're working on consistency and time-outs.

One thing that has gotten easier is the teeth brushing!  He never minded brushing his own teeth (meaning biting down on the brush and sucking off the toothpaste) but cried when we took over.  But with the help of an electric train toothbrush and special train toothpaste, teeth brushing is, for this week anyway, a breeze.  We ask if he wants to use his choo-choo brush to brush his teeth and he runs straight for the bathroom.  

Barrett's favorite books right now are Goodnight Moon, a lift-the-flaps book about Elmo and his blanket, and The Monster at the End of this Book.  He's obsessed with Elmo and thinks Grover in the Monster book is Elmo so that's why he's liking that book.

He is funny and wild, sweet and loving and it's so much fun watching him grow up.  I can't imagine a more perfect little boy for our family and we're so lucky that he's ours!