On a happier note, I am absolutely amazed at what Reid can do and say these days. Kids are amazing little creatures! He hasn't seen Daddy mow the lawn in awhile since our grass doesn't really grow in the winter up here, but Reid was enthralled the last time Jason mowed (and ticked off at me since I wouldn't allow him outside to supervise more closely). Ever since then, he always wants to push around the (real) lawnmower in the garage. So he was delighted to get his own mower at Christmas. I figured it would lose its appeal being indoors, but so far it's still a fave. Eventually, we will really put bubbles in it and move it outside so he can mow the grass instead of the carpet. And yes, I'm sure this obsession won't last once he's in his teens and it's a chore!
Other favorite hobbies of our 20 month old? Re-arranging furniture...
...using utensils...or attempting to... The fork also doubles as a "dinglehopper" after seeing The Little Mermaid for the first time). It took a couple days of him brushing his hair with it (and me wondering what on earth he was doing!) before I realized that yes, he'd actually seen the cartoon characters doing that on the DVD.
...asserting his independence on walks. He now slides out of the stroller and insists on running around by himself or pushing the stroller into odd places. I'm actually pretty lucky when we make it out of the garage in the stroller... He loves his push trike (which is not so easy to push fast on long walks, like I do the stroller) and often climbs in it independently as soon as we exit the car each day.
...sleeping (often hiney up) in odd positions and letting us know if he does or does not want his sleep sack. I shudder to think of what we'll do when he outgrows this one, which is the largest I know of. He is finally taking a liking to a minky baby blanket I got out of the closet, but still doesn't actually like it on him at all.
...letting Daddy know when it's time for a horsey ride. (or Mommy, or his sweet sitter Holli who shared with me a few weeks ago that he comes and climbs on her sometimes if she bends down to do something!)
...or trying out Mommy and Daddy's things. He loves my jewelry (and I have several broken necklaces to prove it), brushing his hair with our brushes, trying to use my blush, and whatever else he sees us doing on a daily basis. But today, he had a new one:
His speech is coming along nicely. I am amazed at what he understands (and, unfortunately, often chooses to not do...even though he understands!) and can say now. The enunciation isn't quite there on a lot of things ("I want to see that" comes out more like "untaseedat") but much of the time we can generally get the drift. Favorite word? Cookie! Anytime the pantry opens, "Cookie? Cookie?"
And he still loves peekaboo. Lately, it's involved hiding in the curtains. Last week, he initiated it all by himself and thought it was absolutely hilarious. I was laughing so hard that I didn't even think about videoing it until he was finished, but later he did it again, so I got a few seconds.
Another fave? Lining up all his rolling things. I'm not sure if he has noticed we tend to put them all in the same general area when it's clean up time, or if he just took it upon himself to do it, but he ran them back and forth several times, carefully lining them up on each trip. He also has done this with his small toy cars at Holli's for awhile.
