James at 19 Months

 

Eating

James continues to eat all the things.  He REALLY likes food and some afternoons it seems like he’s asking for a snack every ten minutes.  I try to limit the snacks and to make sure they’re healthy, but he pretty much always still eats well at dinner so maybe he’s legitimately just really hungry?

Some of his favorite foods right now are strawberries, grapes, cheese, salmon, beans, avocado, steamed carrots, Cheerios, ketchup, and naan (mini naan from Costco, so good).

The biggest change with his eating has been his requests for specific foods.  I’m guessing this correlates with his increased language since he can now ask for whatever he wants.

This is now a daily conversation:

James: “Strawberries.”

Me: “We’re out of strawberries.”

James: “More strawberries.  Grocery store.”

He basically tells me to go to the grocery store at least once a day to get whatever food he happens to be craving.  Obviously  I don’t actually go, but I find his demands kind of funny.

He also now loves to dip!  It’s fun to give him a tiny bowl of hummus or ketchup or guacamole and watch him dip various things into it.

He got out a tiny bowl from his kitchen drawer the other day and requested a bowl of ketchup for his snack.  I had to decline that one.  My mom recently got him a shirt that says “I put ketchup on my ketchup” (similar one here) and it is too perfect for him.

Sleep

As of last weekend, James has fully transitioned to one daily nap.  He’s been taking one nap during the week since he started school in January, but we still usually did two naps on the weekend because he slept so much better with a morning and afternoon nap!  He finally seemed ready to fully transition though and I’m loving the flexibility that one nap gives us.

He goes to bed at 7, wakes up sometime between 6 and 7, and takes one nap at 12:30.  Fingers crossed, but sleep is going pretty well right now.

He also now sleeps with a stuffed penguin named Herbert, whom he loves!

Physical Development

James is constantly running, climbing, and trying to pick up heavy things like large rocks.  He has so much energy and is very driven to move.

We still take him for walks in the stroller sometimes, but now he really enjoys walking beside us too.  He’s getting pretty good at staying on the sidewalk / trail.  The only downside is when he decides he’s done walking halfway through and wants to be carried.  (“Mamo holdya“).  He is getting so heavy!

Language

James has had such an explosion of language the last few months!  It feels like I can have real conversations with him now, which is so much fun.

He said hardly anything until Christmas.  Pretty much his only word was “Dada”.  Then suddenly he started copying words we said and seemed to be learning new words every day.  He now combines two or three words together into little phrases.

He’s also given us nicknames.  He used to call us Mama and Dada, but one day decided to switch to Mamo and Dado instead and has stuck with it. I have no idea what inspired this, but it’s pretty cute!

He also says all the names of basic colors and many shapes.  He likes to find rocks shaped like triangles in particular.

He is very interested in letters and numbers, which really surprised me at this age.  I would never push that, but he has a Lego train set with numbers on it and he started asking about them and pretty quickly learned 0-9.  He loves spotting numbers out in the world, like on speed limit signs!  He also frequently asks me to count things like the number of berries on his plate or the number of stars on a page in a book (Mamo count).

He soon after started asking about letters in his books and knows many of the sounds now (I tell him the phonetic sound of the letter, rather than the letter name, which is what we do in Montessori).  It is honestly amazing to me and I hope his interest in letters and words continues!

He also knows the names of the authors / illustrators of a lot of his book and if I forget to say it, he always chimes in.

Some of my favorite things he says:

“Mamo holdja” (As in, “Do you want me to hold ya? Hold ya.”

“More strawberries.  Grocery store.”

“How are youuuuuu?” (Always high pitched and elongated.)

“More James!” (His request to watch a video of himself)

Personality

James is super social and friendly and is happy most of the time.

He loves meeting new people and offering them things, mostly rocks, to try to make friends.  He often pretends to offer his food to a friend when he’s eating at home.  If I ask who he’s giving it too, he always has someone specific in mind.  He talks often of his friends at school, sometimes saying he wants to hug them.

He is full of energy and loves to be outside. His happy place is anywhere that has rocks, a creek, and snacks.  We spend a lot of time at the Wildflower Center, the Austin Greenbelt, and various parks.

He also loves reading books, looking at photo books with family pictures, and singing songs.  He’s gotten very particular about which songs he wants though.  His current favorite is Old MacDonald (which he calls e-i-o).

I can’t express how much FUN this age is.  It is relatively easy to get out and do all sorts of things now.  It’s really fun to see his unique interests and personality develop more and more.  There are times when I feel like he’s such a big kid, so independent and capable, and other times when it’s clear that he was a baby a few months ago.  When I look at the youngest children in my class, it’s crazy for me to think that he’ll