17 month update

Matthew is doing great - growing like a weed, running, talking, and getting into lots of trouble ;) Actually he's a good boy, but he's definitely pushing boundaries lately :)

Some of the new things Matthew is doing lately:

• Saying "no". A lot. About everything. It's his favourite word!


• He won't lie down in the tub anymore, but he does tilt his head back for rinsing if we ask him to "look up at the lights!" - depending on his mood of course.


• He can crawl up the stairs on his own, and he counts them as he goes. "twoo-ah... feee... ife... icksss... effen... ate... ine..... twoo-ah..." - For some reason he always skips one and four!


• He can eat a whole meal by himself with a spoon (ie oatmeal)


• He can help get undressed by taking off his socks and can pull his shirt over his head


• He can crawl through our legs


• He can kick a ball forward - with surprising accuracy!


• He has a funny habit of tilting his head to the side when we ask him a question that he doesn't know the answer to (or he has to think about). He looks like a little puppy!


• He's learned that if he points to something and then says "Mama!" and points to it again, I will get it for him.


• He really doesn't like to get out of his bed in the morning!


• He can point to pretty well any body part you name. Recently he learned neck, knees, and thanks to Nonna, "tail". Yes, he knows where his tail is.

Also here are all the words he is saying now (the ones I can think of anyway!)
- Mama, Dada
- Opa, Nonna, Amouu
- apple, banana ("nana"), milk ("mil mil")
- up, down, open ("upa"), closed ("cuss"), on, off
- yes, no, NO!, noooooooo, no-no
- bye, bah-bye, hi
- ball ("bahh")
- blue ("boo"), purple ("puh-poo")
- M ("ehmmm"... as in the letter)
- Baba - his blankie
- diaper ("duh-puh"), poo-poo, pee
- baby
- light
- shoes ("shuss")
- eyes
- more
- done
- beep beep! (a la microwave, car alarm, or house alarm)
- treat ("teet!")
- zip ("lup") - when he sees a zipper
- hat
- possibly bisou ("bee boo") - kiss in French

He also knows countless signs now, which is great because even when he's throwing a fit or doesn't have the word yet he can still tell us what he wants. Like when he's upset and wants another banana after just finishing off a huge banana. Hmmmm. ;)

Happy Fall

This was taken on our recent trip to the pumpkin patch. Matthew loved it!

First time-out (and so it begins...)

Well, Matthew had his first time-out this evening. I wasn't necessarily going to start them this soon :) But, in a moment of frustration I said "You're going to get a time-out!"... and once I said it, I had to do it. Here's how it played out.

So Matthew was eating his dinner and suddenly began flinging food off his tray. Now, he KNOWS he's not supposed to do that... but he IS only 16 months old, so I said, "No, Matthew, we don't throw food."

He looked at me, smiled, and then scooped up some food and tossed it off his tray. And then looked at me. Hmmmm.

So I said, "Matthew, NO - do NOT throw your food!" and grabbed his hands to try to contain the flying food. What does he do? Wrestles his hands free, looks at me, smiles... and tosses more food to the floor.

Oh, man. So, into time-out he went. I set the microwave timer for one minute, sat him on the step and said, "You're in time-out for throwing food. Now, sit there, until the timer goes off." Of course I had to keep sitting him down on the step... but when the timer went off, I said, "Okay, now come give Mama a hug." And he did. And then he looked at me like I was nuts, and toddled away. Haha.

First time for everything I guess! :)

16.5 months

I love this age... 16.5 months. Matthew is doing new things every day... he amazes me with what he learns, how he plays, the things he comes up with, what he knows all of a sudden. He definitely has his moments, and he is starting to resist and isn't as go-along-with-everything agreeable as he used to be (As evidenced by his new favourite saying, "No not!" or "No not that!")... but as long as he has SOME say in what we do, he seems happy enough. I know a lot of people talk about the "hell" that comes around 18 months - the screaming, frustration, acting out, disagreeableness... so for right now, I am enjoying this time :)

This morning I put Matthew in his high chair, and he pointed to his bib and said "bib" and then patted his tummy. I put it on, and he then signed "milk" and pointed to his milk. So I gave it to him, and he was happy. I put the tray on and he put his milk down, and signed "banana" and then said "NANA" (a first!). I said, "Do you want a banana?" and he said "Yes!" all smiles. I love it!

Then when he got down, he wanted his milk again, and when he was done with it he came over to me, patted my leg, and handed me the cup. LOL. I was making his lunch so I said, "Are you all done? Can you go put it in your high chair please?" And he toodles over to his high chair, puts the cup in, and then proceeds to run around in a big circle (the loop: dining room - living room - hallway - kitchen) saying "hichaaaaa... hichaaaaa... hichaaaaa!" lol!