knee deep in the baby pool: Owen is 20 months! (well, now 20.5)

This post could have also held the title, "It was the best of times and the worst of times." But I'll get into that in a bit. :)

Talking
In general, Owen is an absolute BLAST these days! At about 19 1/2 months, his vocabulary just exploded. It felt like literally overnight, he learned 50 new words. He finally said dada and made William's life complete. :) I tried to write down all the new words he was saying, but I finally gave up. His favorite words are apple, moon, poop, burp, up, help, and naming animal noises. He likes to repeat the names of people in his family and he LOVES to name his colors. He can correctly identify and say blue, yellow, green, purple, green, and red ("ro"). Pink, brown, black, and white he can identify but not say. And now when we're counting to 10, he correctly places and says 2, 6, 8, 9, and 10! Aww, I love bragging on my little guy. This year is going to be super fun getting to do more and more activities with him! Here's 2 short videos on counting and colors.

(Please ignore the yogurt all over his face. I also had some juice and decided the night he was wearing no bib and a white onesie would be an ok time to let him drink from a cup by himself. Oops, ruined that onesie for sure.)

Eating

Owen has definitely become a little pickier when it comes to eating vegetables and meat these days. There are things he definitely doesn't like. What kid doesn't like chicken nuggets?! So I'm just having to get smarter about pureeing them and getting them into other things. But overall, he still eats pretty well. He loves dairy of all kinds: milk, cheese, yogurt, cottage cheese and will scarf down any kind of fruit all day long!

Playing

He currently spends his play time playing with little match box cars. Loves them. I found a little people garage at All Things Kids and he adores sending them down the ramp or pushing them on the tile. He also loves his Thomas Trains that he got for Christmas. He still could spend hours reading (aww) and likes throwing balls. We try to play around on the piano every few days to get him used to sitting up and "playing." He likes to look at the music and then plunk some notes, so he's getting it a little bit! He enjoys coloring and can now draw an O for Owen!!

Sleeping

I still don't have a great sleeper. He did better for a couple months, but is now back to getting up sevearl times at night. We've gotten lazy and William just gets him, puts him in bed with me and then goes to sleep in the guest room. Seeing how much Owen moves around, it's a no wonder he wakes himself up all the time. We're working on some kind of plan here soon since I don't want to sleep with 2 babies in a couple months! A month or 2 ago, Owen also attached himself to a stuffed animal that was in his room. He will not sleep without Leo the Lion now. I actually got it when I was pregnant with him and we were in Texas. I had just spent the day in the ER because I was bleeding and scared I was losing him. We went shopping later that week and I got him the lion because he was just too adorable.

The hard times

I think we've entered toddler land. Owen had figured out he has a will and is very much asserting it. It mostly comes out when getting dressed. He hates getting his diaper changed and getting dressed after bath time is torture. You should see the song and dance William and I have tried. Distraction with books, youtube videos, singing, you name it. Sometimes it works. Most of time, we just avoid the kicking feet and try to get him dressed as quickly as possible. He will also throw a fit now when he doesn't get something he wants, namely a snack when it's too close to dinner, when it's time to leave the park or library, or just gets told no in general. William and I are gearing up for being on the same page about some discipline techniques!

But all in all, he is such a delight! It's been so fun seeing some of the things we've done since day 1 start to actually click with him. He loves saying amen at the end of prayers and enjoys reading his Bible stories and praying before bedtime. He also knows the songs we always sing before bedtime. I love that he is still a cuddler and loves to snuggle with his mama. I'm cherishing these last 9 weeks before I have to give him divided time.

Some pictures: