Timmy at 19 months

Timmy is now 19 months old.  He's another month bigger, smarter, and more determined to do everything.  He sometimes thinks he's not a baby anymore, but then he'll grab his lovey, put his thumb in his mouth and want to sit and snuggle on my lap.  I love those moments so much.  His lovey is starting to smell like feet, however, and I really need to wash it.

He's still not a talker, but he uses lots of body language.  He shakes his shoulders "no" when I ask him if he wants something, and he wants me to keep guessing.  He points and says, "Mm?" waiting for me to figure out what he wants.  It's kind of annoying because I know he knows some words -- use them, Timmy!

He now says the following words: "dis," "dat", "yay", "uh-oh," "car," "go," "woof", "rawr", "bo-bot" (robot), "juice," "cuk" (truck), "car",  "pe-boo"(peek-a-boo), "bye-bye", "hello", "poo-poo," "bowl", "tuh-tuh" (turtle), "cheat" (treat), "ball", "cheese", "more", "Elmo" (and that's funny b/c we don't watch Elmo or Sesame Street here, but we have an Elmo couch in the playroom.), "light", "bubble," "duck," "eye."  It's still just a single word here and there mixed in with the gibberish, but I'm definitely seeing progress.

All four of his pointy teeth just poked through this month.  He's got a whole set of teeth now.

He hates being strapped into things.  Running errands is not fun.  I have to wrestle him into his carseat after every stop, and it is really hard.  Timmy has a strong core and an even stronger will.  He arches his back and twists his entire body as soon as I put him in that carseat.  I have broken nails from trying to get him strapped in.  I've had to drastically limit the stops I make on Tuesdays and Thurdays while Annie's at school.  Maybe I just go to Target or Harris Teeter once a week if I really need to.  It's so much easier to just go home until he's out of this phase.  I use more fuel but oh well.  He also hates being dressed and having his diaper changed.  I'd forgotten how hard it is to care for a toddler.  Come to think of it, I'm sure it was never this hard with his sisters.  They would fight me on being buckled in sometimes, but not every. single. time.

He is fascinated with eyes, mouths and noses.  He'll point at his own and at mine and wait for me to say the words.  I'll sit there saying, "Eyes.. mouth.. nose.. mouth.. eyes.. mouth.. ouch, my eye!" for 10 minutes at a time.

I asked Timmy if I could take a picture of his ear, hoping to get a side profile.  He thought I meant for him to show me where his ears are.

As he gets bigger and his personality gets stronger, I am starting to know how tough it can be having three kids so close together in age.  Before it was two little girls and a baby who was just along for the ride.  Now it's three little people whose wills are constantly clashing.  He and Delaney get along almost 100% of the time.  They adore each other here, there, or anywhere.  They hug and kiss a lot.  He and Annie, on the other hand, are a whole different story.  They torment each other.  She takes things she knows he wants and keeps them just out of his reach.  I've had to untangle his little fingers from her hair many times.  One time he yanked out a whole clump of her hair.  There was the time he got mad because I made him go inside the house, and he walked up to her and hit her on the head just because she happened to be standing there.  She hit him back and then they were both crying.  This hitting stuff is new to me.  I don't remember either of the girls getting mad and wanting to swing at each other, although I'm sure it happened once in awhile.  Annie is physical, but I never would have called her a hitter.  Now I see more of her hitting Delaney and vice versa.  I say to them in exasperation, "I don't hit you guys.  You don't hit each other.  We don't hit in this family."  The girls know better.  But Timmy will not understand that for a long time.  He is a toddler who is completely driven by his emotions.  He gets mad, he cries, he starts swinging in a comical up-and-down motion.  He lifts his arm way up and pauses there for a second with his hand right over his head.  Then, woosh! -- he brings it down with all the power he can muster.  Up and down  his arm goes in a storm of baby fury.  He hit me right in the face once.  I said, "No, we do not hit."  Then I put him down and walked away.  He bawled and followed me but I deliberately ignored him for a little while because for him, being deprived of my attention is the worst thing.  It hasn't happened since.

Annie always wants to do things to "help" Timmy because she likes being bigger than him and being in charge.  One day I heard Timmy  crying in the really shrill way that means he's in pain or afraid.  I rushed up to the playroom and found Annie trying to pull a shirt off him, but it was stuck on his head and he was trapped inside.

When they're in public the two of them are the best of friends.  One of my favorite things to do is just take a few seconds to watch them when I come to pick them up from the babysitting room before they know I'm there.  They are like a Fisher Price ad, all smiles and cooperation.  And they build with the blocks -- the very same blocks we have at home -- instead of just dumping them everywhere.  I'm amazed.  I should take a picture.  And then I'm told how nice they were to each other.  Of course they were, I think to myself.  You people have no idea what they're like at home.  I have friends who are either homeschooling or considering it, and I know I could never do it.  I couldn't spend that much time at home with all my kids.  They are at their absolute worst at home with me, and I'm ready to tear my hair out after a rainy Saturday.  Sending the kids to school is my salvation and theirs too, since they're not crazy about being home with me either.  After a few hours apart we're happy to see each other again.  But maybe other people's kids are different.  To each their own, anyway.  I should learn to never say never, as I have changed my mind in so many areas over the last few years.  If Tim and I get orders to a place that has crappy schools, homeschooling may be the only option.  But this is supposed to be a post about Timmy, not homeschooling, so I'll try to get back on track.

You could probably tell that Timmy got another haircut this month.  Tim thinks he looks a little dorky, and it's more of a bowl cut than last time.  I took him to the same barber as last time, and asked for the same thing as last time.  I don't know anything about boy hair.  I thought it looked cute.  But I will agree that it does look better once it's grown out a little.

Delaney brought home a book from the library about orangutans, with real pictures.  I've never seen Timmy react to any book with so much enthusiasm.  He gasped and shrieked and yelled as he looked at the furry primates, as if he were greeting old friends.  I was sorry to see that book go back to school today because it's so much fun watching Timmy look at it.

I couldn't pick my favorite picture of Timmy right after his nap, so I made this nifty collage.  I love the one of him going, "Rawr!" through the bars.  I was like, "Yikes, don't let the beast out!"