2 years, 1 month (and 2 days at this point)!
And today my baby said to me, “Mom, up!” He PUT TWO WORDS TOGETHER! Wheeeeeeeeeee! And he did it at school so I wasn’t the only one to see and be proud!
Tristan’s become very interested in the letter “U” and says it gleefully whenever he sees it. He’s also gotten a lot better at recognizing letters in general and naming them correctly, although after some time he will just point to them and say them randomly. James just tested him with letter identification backwards (as to make sure he didn’t just memorize the ABC song) and said he got about 15 of them correct.
His language differences from other children are starting to become more apparent, especially when other children the same age can follow two-step instructions. However, his own language development seems to be chugging right along. What comes to mind is when I drew a heart on his Magnadoodle and asked him, “What is this?” and he said, “HAHT!” He also can identify and say “hat” appropriately, although he’s never worn one for more than seven seconds. His words for “circle” and “square” (sounds like “cuh”) are still very similar, and I think he’s generalizing ovals as circles and rectangles as squares.
He shows greater understanding of the rules now. He knows where he’s not allowed to go in the house – places we’ve kept locked or gated off – and we’ve been experimenting with leaving gates and doors open. He’s been VERY compliant and not even tried to test his limits. Awesome! (Yes, I know limit testing is normal behavior, but he’s already tested the limits enough times that we put locks on the doors and gated off rooms. :))
The sleep process is progressing. He’s used to his toddler bed by now, but he still acts like a cat – that is, if he wants out, you can physically hold him but not much else will convince him. Being in bed is not especially motivating for him, and the only thing I can think of to try next is to withhold a favorite toy until it’s bedtime and let him play with it only in bed. Naps have been hell; they’re still inconsistently taken and only when he passes out in the car.
The teething process is also progressing. The new bottom molars are trying very hard to burst out, and since the middle of last week we’ve been keeping him drugged up on a semi-regular basis. When we see his demeanor go from “can’t deal with life” to “lalalala yay!” in 20 minutes after a dose of Tylenol, we have a reasonable case for him being in pain. He’s still chewing on his shirts, but it seems to be more sucking than destroying lately. It’s been very easy to get him to take an interest in items intended for teething, as well.
He’s doing a very good job with making choices about what he’d like to drink. We place milk and juice in front of him and he’ll either point or touch the one he’d like. Not a big deal to most parents, but we’re talking about a child who doesn’t know how to say “yes” or “no” yet. He tries to say “drink,” “milk,” and “juice” but they are vague approximations that we can’t trust just yet.