20 Months of Tommy

Lots of blogging between yesterday and today. But I had to do a quick one on our Tom Tom who was 20 months as of yesterday.  In the past two weeks he has started doing so so so much. It seems like out of no where this boy is just taking off.

He is cruising wonderfully! He gets faster each day. He is pulling himself up in any place he has the opportunity. He is kind of walking with his walking toy (he only needs help keeping it from going too fast). He is appropriately signing the word "more" he had his own version of the sign before and would only do it occasionally when eating. Now he will do the right sign and he does it when he's playing too. He's dancing and enjoying music. He seems to be out of his shy stage for now, I'm sure it will return. He's been a huge daddy's boy for about a week now. He has mastered giving high fives and even double high fives. He knows where our eyes, nose, and mouth are, and he knows where his thumbs are. His receptive language is so strong and continues to grow. He will say "mama" or "mom" every now and then but usually only when something is wrong or he's whining. He scoots around on his butt or rolls to get where he wants to go, occasionally he'll belly crawl. He only naps once a day now, which can be tricky depending on the day. He's still a wonderful eater and drinker as long as he isn't teething. He holds his cup all by himself now when he drinks and we're working on teaching him to hand it back to us when he's finished (as opposed to throwing it). We're starting to work with using a spoon, where he holds it, while he eats and he thinks it's so fun. But we are no where close to being able to put a bowl or plate on his tray where he can reach it, he just thinks it's there for fun to put his hands in and throw. I think he's getting better at understanding discipline for the most part, he will typically stop if I can him to stop doing something, but he might only stop for a few seconds and then try again; it's a big improvement b/c I can see with his eye contact and facial response that he's intentionally listening and stopping even if it's only for a second. I think I had a little too high of expectations in disciplining before. Tommy is really into books right now, he loves turning pages, closing books, kissing the pages. Tommy is very good at learning transitions in his physical therapy activities (for example he knew how to sit himself down before he knew how to stand up on his own, this is helpful when your child learns to stand b/c they have to know how to get down. And more recently he just turns naturally when he's cruising along our sectional couch. Some kids have trouble figuring these things out but Tommy has been blessed with a natural ability to just do it) He's also really good at falling properly, sounds weird - especially if you aren't a parent, but when he's doing something and starts to fall he just rolls into it. So far, thank the Lord, no big, hurting falls b/c of his stunt man abilities. His attention span is growing when it comes to playing with a specific toy or a specific game and he's also getting way more interested in the TV, he sat with me the other day and watched a whole episode of Curious George (he was also teething so he may have just needed some snuggle time).

Tommy has so many sweet characteristics and quirks to his personality that keep us constantly entertained.  Oh how blessed we are to be his parents. God spoiled us by giving us such a wonderful and for the most part easy boy to take care of.