20 Months

I turned 20 months old in October and, in spite of what my mom says, I can't really be called a "baby" anymore! I can climb into my booster chair and clip the seatbelt all by myself now. I can climb up into Mom's bed now too...actually, I can (and do!) climb just about everything. I'm not supposed to stand on the dining room table, so I wait until nobody's watching to climb on that. Mom can usually tell by listening if I'm doing something naughty since I mumble "No! bad baby" while I'm doing it.

I still sleep in my crib for most of the night since I haven't discovered how to climb over the rail yet. Mom and Dad usually let me come snuggle with them in the morning when I wake up early. I love to sleep in the big bed and will let Mom sleep in for a couple extra hours if she shares it with me. I recently switched to one one-hour nap a day. Mom would like me to sleep longer, but I always wake up crying and don't want to lay back down. If I wake up at night, I can usually be talked into going back to sleep as long as my babies all have pacifiers and my light-up music player is on.

I talk a lot at home, but don't always feel like talking around other people until I've warmed up to them a little. Mom says that her favorite words that I've started saying recently are..."aah-bo-CAAA-do" (avocado), "buts" (boots), "muss" (moose), "caaks" (Crocs), "aah-low" (yellow), "grow-ber" (Grover) and "Ow-mo" (Elmo). I love being read to...my current favorite book is "Go Dog, Go!" that Grammie McMahon brought for me. I make a "ssh" noise everytime I see a sleeping character in a story. At bedtime, my favorites are "Goodnight Moon" and an ABC book about bunnies. I really like the alphabet and ask Mom to sing "ah-beh-seyz" all the time.

I'm getting better at communicating what I want, so I don't have to cry and get upset as much as I used to. I like to wear my Crocs everywhere I go, but will settle for my rain boots if Mom says that it's muddy outside. I'm not too picky about what I wear yet, but I make sure that everyone is wearing a coat before they go out. I look forward to going to play with my friend Nadia ("Nah-ee-ah) and like to run in crazy circles when I get really wound up!

I like to pick raspberries to share with my mini-chicken , Takaye. She comes right up and eats them out of my hand. The other chickens like to hang around me too, but nobody wanted to play when I found two cornstalks in the garden the other day...