19 Month Summary

I touched on it in his guest post, but I truly feel like Forest has changed more in the past 4 weeks than in any other month of his life. I guess I didn’t expect that since they grow and change so quickly in the first year. But between 18 and 19 months he truly has shed most of his babyness and is all toddler/little boy. That’s true in the good and bad ways. 

In the good ways he is becoming much more independent. He will usually play by himself for 45 minutes to 1.5 hours in the mornings which allows me to get laundry or cleaning done while also enjoying a cuppa. 

He is verbalizing so much and every day makes strides in his ability to communicate his wants and frustrations with us. 

I feel like this has lessened the amount of tantrums he has, but at the same time, his new tantrums are much more passionate. When he starts to lose his temper, it is really hard to distract him or take his mind off what is upsetting him. And it’s no longer just crying but rather full body-thrashing episodes. 

When this happens, I try to ensure that he’s in a safe place and just let him have a fit. The most worrisome part is that he starts to throw anything in his vicinity which I can't allow to happen, especially if there are other babies present.  Once he’s calmed down I try to talk him through it and reassure him.

For the most part I try to avoid his triggers (tiredness, hunger, looking at my iPhone, keeping him confined for long periods, or the toy aisle at Target) but sometimes it just can’t be avoided. I was so afraid of experiencing his first full-on public temper tantrum, but now that it’s happened (cracker aisle in Safeway) I don’t get very fussed about it and try my darndest to just keep going about my business. So if you see a momma in the grocery store who seems blissfully unaware that her 19 month old is having a knock-down drag-out screaming fit right in front of her, pat her on the back and tell her she’s doing a good job.   

So the tantrums are about the worst of what we’re dealing with these days. Another issue is his possessiveness over toys (also a tantrum trigger). I know this is a phase and is totally normal, but he is sort of a brat right now. He has no concept of sharing or taking turns and will snipe any interesting toy out of the hands of a smaller babe. I try to correct him immediately but it’s taking awhile for him to get the message. I think this is something we definitely need to practice at home more. 

I tried the other day to use the words we use when he interacts with Sam:  ‘be soft, be gentle’ and he ended up petting his friend on the head. I guess that’s better than stealing his toy!   

Other than those two issues, he is listening much better and interacting a lot more. We have started implementing 'time out' by placing him in his pack n play in the guest room for 1.5 minutes (a minute per year old he is). At first I was positive it wasn't doing jack diddley but then after a week whenever I warn him that he will get a time out if he doesn't stop a certain behavior, 90% of the time he will stop. Breakthrough! 

The tricky part is that our little introvert doesn't actually mind time out too much. This morning when he was breaking a rule and I asked 'do you want a time out?', he went and walked himself over to his time out spot. This is a kid who has never climbed out of his crib but yet has climbed into it twice. Fine by me!

His social development has really gone into overdrive and his shyness is slowly getting better. He will give high 5s and fist bumps freely and says hi and bye right on cue. When we FaceTime though he clams up completely. I think my parents don’t believe me that he actually talks but when it’s just us at home he is a total chatterbox! 

Let’s get this summary going! 

Stats: I’m not sure how tall he is but I’m guessing just over 34.5 inches. He is weighing 28 lbs which means he gained 1.5 lbs in less than a month. He has officially outgrown all of his 12-18 Month clothes, is borderline too big for his 24 M clothes and is fitting perfectly into his 2T stuff.   

Favorite Toy: My parents sent him some pull back B. You cars and they are definitely his new favorites. 

He loves to put his stuffed animals on them for a ride. His friend Ryan also loaned him some Tonka cars and his Old Macdonald tractor as part of a toy swap and they are big hits!

Favorite Book: Potty by Leslie Patricelli. We are trying to get him interested in going potty. So far he loves the book but still shows no signs that he is ready for potty training. Sigh.

Favorite Food: I think yogurt has dethroned cheese as his favorite food. Boy is all about his dairy food group, just like his momma.   

Words: I feel like vocabulary and language is Forest’s biggest development right now. He has recently begun his vocabulary ‘explosion’ when toddlers are acquiring 2-3 new words a day. Its extremely hard to keep track of all his words now because he’s become a parrot and repeats most everything I say. 

I have tried keeping a list and in the past 4 weeks he has acquired more than 60 new words. So in a month he has almost *doubled* his vocabulary (I’m estimating 110-120 total). He is saying simple 2-3 word sentences so this is what we are working with him on the most. He mostly says ‘Bye-bye ____’. Bye Bye Daddy. Bye Bye Nana. Bye Bye Bryce. Bye Bye Sam, etc. Occasionally he will say little phrases like ‘sit down’, 'all day', 'good job', 'stop it', ‘milk cup’, ‘more cheese’ or 'go home' but most often he will say single words to communicate. 

He is starting to enunciate longer or more difficult words like ‘walrus’, ‘breakfast’ or ‘blackberries’. He is a little chatterbox when he’s with me and Jonathan but can still be a little shy around other people. I try to video as much of his verbal development as I can but he’s even a bit camera-shy so this doesn’t always work. 

His new words this month are too many to list but a few are: Yay, Kick, Elmo, Baa, Neigh, This, Home, Honk, Chalk, You, Me, Street, Heart, Oval, Moose, Crackers, Teeth, Bump (as in fist bump), Sit (which sounds like another word that I promise we have NOT taught him…), More, Haircut, Ok, Stomp, Shake, Hat, Colors, Banana, Walrus, Oops, Dino, Nana, Bus, Truck, Owl, Ice, Freeze, Bryce, Ride, Blocks, Five, Eight, Water, Bubbles, Books, Hop, Awesome, Walk, Alright etc etc. 

We are working with him on counting, and he’s doing pretty well though I’m sure it’s just rote memorization. He can say ‘one, two.’ And if you say ‘one’ he will answer with ‘two’, and if you say’1,2,3,4’ he will say ‘5’. However, if you ask him how many there are of something he will automatically say ‘2’ but if you correct him and say, ‘no, there are 3’ he will then say ‘two, two, two’ in a rhythm that makes it sound like he’s counting it out. So maybe he does have some numerical concept. Y’all know I think he’s a flippin genius so in my mind anything is possible!  

New skills: Hmmmm…I can’t think of much. I think because his language skills are overshadowing everything else. He climbed a rope ladder at the park so that was new.  

He is also beginning to ‘tidy up’ without prompting sometimes. We’ve started him with little chores like bringing his tray and plates/utensils to the sink after meal time and he really likes to help out. 

Other Observations: He loves to snuggle and adores his stuffed animals. 

He is also becoming much more affectionate towards us and will voluntarily offer kisses and hugs at bedtime and just because. He also will ask for fist ‘bumps’ from his friends. 

Forest loves to take things apart and put them back together. You can practically see the wheels in his head turning as he figures out how something works. He’s already very into mechanical things and loves building towers and playing with puzzles. I’m hoping this means he got some of those engineering genes from both sides of the family. 

Schedule: Of course, his schedule is still pretty wack-a-doo but after 19 months I’ve finally (mostly)accepted that. I try really hard not to compare his sleep patterns to other babies and just accept that we’ve done all we can in terms of sleep training and offering him plenty of opportunities for shut eye. Most days go something like this: 

Wakes up between 6:15-6:45, has breakfast at 7, lunch #1 at 11, nap at 12 (which lasts anywhere from 1-3 hours but normally around 1.5 hours), lunch #2 at 2/2:30, dinner at 5:30/6, bath at 6:45 and in bed by 7/7:15. 

My struggles: I feel like the month before last was really hard in almost a ‘darkest right before the sunrise’ kind of way. Everything with Forest felt like a struggle and I just felt like everything I tried to implement was ineffectual. Dressing him was a fight. Getting him to eat was a fight. Getting him to take a halfway decent nap was a fight. Taking him to the park was a nightmare because he just kept running off. 

Then suddenly it was as if the sun came up and slowly he has started responding to commands and holding our hands without a protest and eating and sleeping (a little) better. Plus he is just turning on the charm these days. 

His sweetness and cuteness make up for any frustration we might feel. We have started time out but haven’t had to use it much. He throws temper tantrums when we leave the park which is annoying and he’s also started stalling for bedtime and naptime (one more book…wait I need to hug daddy again…hold on let me ride Thomas for another minute, etc.). We are trying to be firm with this as I  know he’s only gonna get more adept at avoiding bedtime in the future. 

A really hard thing over the past few weeks has been Forest's health. He has been totally fine when he's awake but then has a chronic and constant cough at night/naptime which prevents anyone in the house from getting much rest. This has been going on for months so he is currently being treated for something known as 'cough-variant asthma'. 

Often in young kids and toddlers, asthma can present as a cough rather than wheezing and it's typically worst during the night. Forest has a rescue inhaler to use in the midst of an episode and an anti-inflammatory inhaler that he uses twice daily to help prevent the episodes from occuring in the first place. The assumption is that allergies are the culprit and cause his flare ups, though even a minor cold can make him hack all night long for weeks.  

About 3 weeks ago he had a random flare up so we started with his preventative inhaler. It worked magic and all was clear for 2 weeks. Then suddenly it came back with a vengence and Forest is up coughing all through the night (as are we) and his longest nap this week has been 40 minutes (though even that was disjointed) because he is just coughing too much to fall deeply asleep. 

We've kicked up the breathing treatments and are giving him a toddler dose of allergy medication which is making his nights much quieter though he still has at least 2 episodes per night- and the naps are just impossible. I hate having to load his body up with so much medicine but I don't know what the alternative is. I'm hopeful that we can start peeling back soon now that he seems to be stabilizing a bit. We meet with his doctor this week so hopefully we will have some answers and a plan for the next time this flares up again. 

So anyway, 2 asthma flare ups in 1 month is why I haven't been blogging nearly as much as I'd like. Hopefully I will have my quiet naptimes and well-rested baby back soon.

But besides health issues, this month has been a big improvement over last month and I’m feeling so confident that I’m actually even planning to fly by myself with him in 2 months. Eeeeeeek! Alright, this blog post is plenty long enough so I will end it here. Have a great day!