Olive is 22(ish) months

Yikes, not a great month for blogging. But never fear, Olive's 22-month update is here. Finally.

This girl. She knows what she wants, and she's getting very good at putting whole thoughts together in order to express it. "Milo, hold my hand." "NOOOOOOO!!!!"  "This one's mine, Mommy. That one's yours." I can actually have a conversation with her, and it doesn't feel completely one-sided. Just amazing.

She likes dancing. We play Dora's clean-up song every night to clean up, and then the kids always want to play it one more time for a dance party. Olive's moves mostly consist of spinning around until she falls over, but she does it with exuberance.

Olive is the best going-to-bed kid ever. When she's sleepy, you can ask her if she's ready for a nap, and she'll say yes and head on up to her bed. By the time you get there, she'll be laying in the bed, just waiting for someone to tuck her in and then leave her alone. She is coming up on two years old, but when given the chance, she will still take two naps a day. At daycare she takes just one nap.

Olive is very averse to loud noises. This afternoon I was trying to get the kids to help me make Christmas cookies, and Olive was into it for awhile until the hand mixer came out. Then it was "too loud!" and away she went. She also doesn't like when I blow-dry my hair.

She is getting crazy stubborn. She refuses to clean up during clean-up time, she won't help with this or that, she refuses to say sorry when she shoves her brother. If this is any preview of what  her teenage years will be like, we're in big trouble.

She loves playing on Daddy's tablet. "Monkey game?" she asks hopefully. Maybe I'm just old, but sometimes it's hard to believe a girl who isn't even two yet can handle this device. She started an episode of Daniel Tiger without any help. "I did it!" she says proudly.

Every time I comb her hair, she claims it hurts. She does get crazy bedhead though, so it must be combed. She still doesn't like hair ties or clips, though she'll tolerate them briefly. So I still cut bangs for her. I think she  looks cute with bangs.

She likes trains. She likes dolls and the dollhouse. She likes watching Dinosaur Train.

She and Milo get along pretty well. They can make each other giggle and they talk to each other. It's adorable, actually.

Olive's 23-month update is due in just a few days. So I'll stop this one. Can you even believe how close to two years old she is getting? I can't.

He's 22 Months Old, So Don't Even Tell Me He's Almost Two. As If.

Milo is 22 months old. For the first time, I missed taking his picture and posting his stats on the 21st of the month. And here I thought I might actually make it to the two-year mark before missing it by a day or two. Oh well, what can you do?

Milo is so fun. And funny. He makes silly faces and silly noises and sings and dances and beats on his chest like Tarzan. He makes me laugh every single day.

He is learning his letters, numbers, and colors. I'm surprised sometimes how many letters he can identify, especially hard ones like Q and W. He can count some, but he likes to start with 4 and count up to 9. Colors are still tricky, but he knows Daddy's car is black and Mommy's car is blue.

The kid loves fruit. Blueberries, grapes, oranges, bananas, apples, raisins (does that count as a fruit?), pears, kiwi. He also loves eggs, cheese, peas, corn, french fries, pizza, juice, milk, peanut butter, and occasionally cookies or ice cream. Sometimes he refuses dessert, which is fine by me.

Opinions. He has them.

He's speaking in longer sentences. A common one right now is "Oo dat soun, Mommy?" which translates to "What's that sound, Mommy?" He hears things I don't, and is constantly asking what made the sound. Often it's a train or airplane, sometimes it's something like Daddy shutting a door, where I have to rewind my subconscious to see if I even know what the sound was. Milo's vocabulary is huge, or it seems huge to me. I really have no idea how he stacks up to the average 22-month-old, but he sure impresses me.

We've been putting him in time out this month. He is always pushing the limits and seeing how we'll react when he does the opposite of what we ask him to do. So we're trying to set boundaries and be consistent. Time-outs may or may not be working. Sometimes he seems very upset to be going to time out, other times he casually walks over to the time-out spot and just chills until we tell him he can get up, like it's no big thing. Hoping to cut back on bad behavior, like...throwing food. Smacking Mommy and Daddy. Refusing to pick up toys. Dropping his cup or fork on the floor. Banging on the table. Refusing to do X, Y, or Z -- anything we ask him to do, really. None of his behaviors are that bad, the bad part is that he directly doesn't obey when we ask him to do/not do something. And I think we're supposed to be in control, somehow. I think.

He loves books and loves storytime before bed. Lately we've been reading a couple books about a new baby in the house. I still have no idea how much of it is sinking in, the whole new baby thing. We'll find out soon enough, I guess.

Milo's daycare situation is wonderful. He's been at Kristin's for about five months now, and he hasn't really been sick at all. Maybe one cold and a potential ear infection or two that we've fought off with drops before it got started. He knows all the kids there, he enjoys the crafts, and it's just been a good place for him. His teacher says he's pretty quiet there, which kind of surprises me. He's constantly babbling at home. Maybe he's just more of an observer and keeps his thoughts to himself. He seems happy there, though, and that's what matters most.