Friday, March 28, 2014

Greyden - 20 months!

20 months! Time for an update!

Greyden Roy,

Oh how we love you, little boy! You are keeping us on our toes, but you bring so much joy to our home.


You are a very perky little boy, eager to look around and meet people and learn. You seem to be getting over your stranger anxiety, and now instead of crying you’ll somewhat cautiously but completely willingly walk into your Sunday school room at church. You frequently chat with strangers when we’re out and about (you’ll say “hi!” and then respond to any questions they ask, and even sometimes jabber at them), and you talk, talk, talk, all the time now at home. You blow my mind with your vocabulary and how well you communicate...you just seem too young in my eyes to be able to say the things you do. Sometimes I wonder if you walked so late because you were focusing so hard on learning other things (such as speaking). Who knows. You are now putting three words together, such as “Mommy up please.” My favorite of your three-word phrases are “I got it!”, “I did it!”, “there you go,” and “I love you.”


You are going through a phase where you respond to everything with a very bratty-sounding “NO!”. When we ask if this is your favorite word, you reply “Uh huh.” We’re working on reeling in your behaviors. In the last month you have tried to run from me in several public places, you’ve yelled “No!” at me and hit me with both hands at the same time, you’ve taken things from your brother quite a few times and yelled “No!” at him when he asks for them back, along with many other similar situations. You also love to whine to get out of the store carts, run in and out of the clothing racks, and rearrange store shelves. So far, a tight squeeze on your arm or hand and a stern, “NO, we do NOT do that,” has worked for the most part for most behaviors. I’ll also say things such as, “If you do not come here, you have to ride in the stroller,” threaten to put you in your crib if we’re at home, etc. I try to stay firm with discipline until I see your face drop a bit, showing that you understand that your behavior is not acceptable. I also make you apologize if your behavior was directed toward another person. I have to use such different tactics with you than I did (and do) with your older brother, because you are a lot more outwardly defiant than he was. Oh, he threw his fits and still does, but they’ve always tended to occur at home where he feels secure. You, on the other hand, have no issues with showing your true colors in public, and so I’m working to build my box of tricks for public discipline.


Your motor skills are coming right along considering how late you started walking, and you’re even starting to run (which is super cute!). You still love to climb, and so we have to watch you carefully whenever there’s something climbable nearby.

You love to do everything your big brother does and tend to follow him around the house. Just in the last week or so, he has finally started to see you as somewhat of a peer and is beginning to let you join in on his activities, or at least watch. I cannot tell you how excited this makes my mommy heart. I want so badly for you two to play together and at least be acquaintances if not friends.



Your favorite time to wake up over the last couple of weeks is whenever I wake up. Apparently you prefer to supervise my morning quiet time. I pile food on your high chair tray and hope you’ll give me a few moments of silence, but most days you just jabber, jabber, jabber.



You are still a ridiculously picky eater. It is a daily battle to decide whether to let you starve or to just feed you what you want (bread, cheese, mac n cheese, fruit packs, and bananas are your preferences). You still won’t eat many veggies, but you will inhale a can of green beans. You’ve seen your older brother eat a lot of raw broccoli (he loves it raw, not cooked, so weird), and so now you’ll request some too. I’ll put it on your tray and you’ll exclaim, “BOCKIE!!” and you’ll put the little florets in your mouth. Then you’ll scrunch up your nose and spit them out. Then you’ll see Krew eating them and once again exclaim, “BOCKIE!!” and you’ll put the florets in your mouth again. Followed by nose scrunch and spit. You’re trying, you really are, but you just don’t like them. I really feel it’s this way with many other foods, too.


Your daddy and I were getting slightly worried about your obsession with electronics, so we’ve pretty much eliminated them from your life for the time-being. This includes iPad, iPhone, and TV. You get maybe five minutes per day, if that. I am relieved to say that within a couple days you stopped requesting them 24/7. You still find them and request them, but you no longer fall apart when the answer is “no” (which it usually is), and you’re now doing much better at playing by yourself with your toys. Thank goodness.


Along those lines, you have always enjoyed books, but since we took away the electronics, books are your new big thing. You bring us books all day long. And expect us to read them to you. If we set you down with one and tell you we need to do something, please read to yourself, you fall to pieces. You’ve decided that you must have us read them to you or it’s just no good. All day we hear, “Mommy READ!” “Daddy READ!” “BOOK!” “AGAIN!” (And yes, most words are said very loudly with extreme enthusiasm. That’s your way of speaking about most things.)


You still want to be held when we want you to walk, and you want to walk when we want to carry you. You make the cutest facial expressions that crack us both up. And you love the dogs, telling them what to do, and giving them treats. We often find you sneaking into the dog cabinet, trying to pull out some food for them.

You go to bed very easily most nights. We do pajamas, brush teeth, turn on the sound maker and the night light, turn off the overhead light, sing a song, pray, and you go down. Maybe a ten minute ordeal if that. It’s wonderful.


Your hair is still stick straight and fine, very difficult to cut but I’m doing my best. It’s a darker blonde now due to wintertime and lack of sun, and some days I’d question if I could call it light brown. We’ll see what happens this spring and summer when the sun rays hit it again.

Your little birth mark on the ridge of your nose continues to fade, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s close to gone by the time you turn 2. Your top incisors have broken through, but we’re still waiting on the bottom ones, so you now have 14 teeth. You are wearing size 18-24 month shirts, 18 month bottoms, we’re squeezing you into size 3 diapers but you should probably be in size 4, and you wear larger size 4 and smaller size 5 shoes. You seem to have a longer torso than Krew did and so we’ve had to go up in shirt sizes just to keep your little belly hidden, even though everything but the length in 12-18 month shirts fits you great.


Alright well you’re hanging by my side, begging me to read you books right now, so I better end this. Happy 20 months little man. :)

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