21 Months (and a week)

Alex is getting scarily close to turning 2! Everyone lately has been commenting on how big he looks - he is so tall!

Besides the growth spurt, the biggest changes this past month have been with his language development. He is using new words daily and putting together more and more 2-3 word phrases. Here is a little sampling....

"Ea ouwside" - he requests this basically every meal now that we have done it a few times. The boy wants to "eat outside" and pretty much spend every second if his day outside. And he recently expanded it to "Daddy ea ouwside".

"bite" and "nother bite" - Alex does not care what we are eating - he doesn't care if he likes it or not - he must always have a bite of it! And even if he doesn't like it - he will often ask for another bite.

"Momma See" or "Daddy See" is his new favorite "game". It is basically "I Spy" and we play it in the car, at the dinner table and at many points through out the day. We have to say something that we see and then Alex has to find and point at the object.
Hours of fun for all ; ). The phrase is also used if he wants to see something. Like if he hears the girls behind us playing he will ask to see and that means we have to lift him up to see them.

"Hi" - Alex has turned into Mr. Social. Anywhere we go, especially if there are other kids, Alex is saying Hi and giving a little wave.

Alex's other big favorite lately is to count. (Josh this one is for you) Anytime we walk up or down our stairs we have to count them out loud together. (video coming soon!)

Alex continues to be the world's greatest helper and the "Help Me" phrase is used a million times a day, from having to help get his own cereal in the morning, putting the top on the milk, turning on the dryer, to his new favorite chore - refilling Buddy's dog food.

Alex is always imitating us - here he is putting tools in his pocket, because he saw Eric carrying a tool around in his pocket.


We continue to spend all of our awake time outside. Alex is currently obsessed with lawn mowers and spots them everywhere we go and he loves to push Eric's around the yard. We got him an early birthday present of a sand box.


Alex is still pretty easy going, but definitely has his "testing" toddler moments. Alex does not entertain himself very well by himself inside - something we need to work on. But outside he does well. He is definitely good at finding trouble though - going out the doggy door, bothering Buddy, finding pens and glue in the junk drawer, etc.