20 Months

Our little man is 20 months old today!  Holy crap!  Four more months and we will have a two-year old.   Cra-zy!

Joey has pretty much just improved on skills he had begun in the previous months this month.   He is so smart and pretty much understands everything you say to him.  I read somewhere that you should give children choices to reduce tantrums.  Not like "do you want to go to bed or not?", more like "Would you like to read 'Curious George' or 'The Little Engine That Could' before bed?".   So, I started doing that today.  It strangely worked!  I'm sure it was probably a fluke, but Joey totally calmed down once I gave him the choice of putting on his shoes to go outside or no shoes and staying inside.  He calmly chilled out and stuck out his feet so I could put on his shoes.

Joey is also the playground bully these days.  We were at a park the other day and he had beaten up all of the little girls at the playground!   He even had his head in a girl's crotch, trying to push her like he was a raging bull!!  Oh my!  (Side note: there were only little girls at the playground that day, but I have to say he beat up all of little girls because it sounds more dramatic!). I apologized to one mother for my child being a bully.  She told me her kid was like that when she turned 18 months old and after a few months and a better vocabulary, she pretty stopped all violence.  So...how long is a few months?!!?   

Joey is still imitating everything we do.  He and I were laying on the couch yesterday and I was biting on my thumbnail (gross, I know).  I saw Joey lift his head up, look down at me, and then place his thumb into his mouth!  Crap!  Michael has been doing a little duck hunting this season and has been practicing with his duck calls in the house.  Well, this is now Joey's favorite game, using the duck call.  He is almost better than Michael at calling a duck!  Ha ha!

 

I'm trying to let Joey help with me almost everything I do around the house, too.  If I let him help me, the tantrums decrease.  He does pretty good with things and is pretty careful with dishes.  Joey's future wife, you can thank me later! 

 However, sometimes, he's not so organized when putting things away...

Joey really seems to have his animal noises and some names down now.  We took him to a local petting zoo recently (NC folks, how funny is that!?!) and Joey really liked to feed the animals.  Although, I think the sheep and goats freaked him out a bit because they were super pushy!

Joey really loves playtime!  I think he would play 24 hours straight if we would let him!   I play with him all day long and as soon as Michael gets home at night, Joey freaks out until Michael goes and sits down in the play room!  It can be very exhausting.   

The tantrums haven't gotten much better since last month's update.  We are now completely ignoring every tantrum and walking away.  Hopefully, Joey will realize these acts of emotional craziness aren't doing a darn thing.  He had so many tantrums the other day that I actually made the statement that "I hate toddlers!".  I mean, yes, they're cute and fun some of the time, but they are so frustrating (and frustrated!)!  I know I will probably regret saying this down the road, but I am so ready for Joey to really be able to talk.  It just blows my mind when Joey flips his lid and I have no clue why.  If I could understand why he's upset, I MAY be able to help.  I'm sure we're still going to have plenty of tantrums even after he can talk, but at least then, when he's freaking out over something silly, I will know it's because he's crazy, not because he's hungry, dirty, tired, or thirsty! 

I'm not sure about this motherhood thing for me.  I really didn't like the newborn stage, don't care for the toddler stage, and I already know that I hate teenagers!  Man!!  Joey has a very small window to be cool.  Yet another reason my kiddo will be in therapy as an adult!