22 Months Old

Caleb is 22 months old today!  I can hardly believe that he will be 2 years old in just two short months.  We are seeing so many changes in Caleb lately, especially in his vocabulary and ability to understand every little thing we say.  We are also finding that he has developed the typical two year old independence, and while he doesn't insist on doing everything 'all by himself' he certainly has his own idea of what he wants to do and when he wants to do it.  

Take the picture to the right, for example.  Who wouldn't want to play with a toy bus while naked after bath time??  Seems perfectly reasonable to me. 

We have been fortunate that Caleb has not had any visits to the doctor since his last well child visit around 18 months.  He is a healthy little boy other than one cold in January!  We are not sure about his exact height and weight right now but we think he's around 27 lbs and 35 inches tall.  

Some of Caleb's latest words are rain, wind, copter (for helicopter), boss, pizza (pee-pah), house, and monkey (mmm-key). I have a hard time remembering which words I've already blogged about and which ones are new!  He is talking non-stop and I know it won't be long before we can understand everything he is trying to tell us.  


Caleb likes to sing Old McDonald, the Itsty Bitsy Spider and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  He does his own special version of the hand motions for Itsty Bitsy Spider and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  He thinks it is especially funny to sing Old McDonald and for the farmer to have unusual objects on his farm, like a firetruck or a baby or a helicopter.  We also catch Caleb singing on his own in the car seat or while playing.  He has always loved music!  Caleb even sang a song for me the other day on request when I asked, "can you sing me a song about Jesus?".  It was so sweet to hear his little voice sing along in words I couldn't understand, except for the occasional "See-sus".   


Caleb is obsessed with all kinds of vehicles - buses, trash trucks, firetrucks, construction vehicles, helicopters, trains, planes, cars, trucks.  He calls his firetrucks and ambulances "wah-wahs" which is the siren sound that he makes for those vehicles.  He also refers to his ambulance as his "Jesus car" because it has a cross on the top of it. 

Caleb also has a strong interest in all things bathroom related and loves to announce who is going tee-tee and even stand outside of the bathroom door talking about what is happening in there until they are done.  I have a feeling our first attempt at potty training is right around the corner since he is well aware of what takes place.  I might not be successful, but I figure it can't hurt to try just in case!  


Caleb's new favorite books are "The Very Busy Spider" and "We're Going on a Bear Hunt".  He loves when I sing the song and do the hand motions to go along with the bear hunt book.  Any book about cars or Elmo (or as he calls him, "Melmo") are also a big hit with Caleb.  Caleb can count to 10 with prompting and knows maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of the letters of the alphabet, although not in order.  He just picks and chooses the letters he likes to learn.  The real trick is catching him in the right mood to go over his letters and numbers!  We tried to capture it on video tonight with no luck. 


We've recently started implementing 'time out' with Caleb.  We've seen so much improvement in just a week and a half of doing time out.  Several of the unwanted habits (like catapulting trucks across the tv cabinet) have completely disappeared after time out was implemented, and others are improving.  He stays in time out for between 1-2 minutes and I'm working on getting him to sit there and not leave his place.  I tell him he has to sit on his bottom but often find him scooting along the floor to another location, keeping his bottom on the ground the entire time.  I have to give him credit for keeping his bottom down but it's not exactly what I had in mind!  It is so hard not to laugh sometimes when he is in time out.  Caleb seems to have a good understanding of why he is there and apologizes at the end of time out by saying "Sarrr Mama" or "Sarrr Daddy".  


We are so proud of Caleb and love him without end.  He brings us so much joy and laughter and we couldn't be more thankful that he is our son!  Happy 22 month birthday, sweet boy!