20 months old

Emmett and his necklace (it's yarn!)

At 20 months old Emmett:

• repeats words and demonstrates meaning. I truly can't believe the explosion of language that happened in the past 2 months.  I remember being somewhat worried that he was not developing language skills, and then he just started saying all kinds of things like he'd been keeping his skills under wraps until he was ready to make a big debut. Now he will walk into our hallway in the morning and say, "dark!" and go into the living room and ask for "eye-you!" and get on the "couch," then come over to me and say "eat" when he's hungry and ask for "oat-muhl" and "mowch" (milk) for breakfast.  And that's just the a.m. hours!  He's making great strides!

• recognizes letters. We have an alphabet puzzle and he can say the names of letters as he picks them up to put them in their spot.  He knows about half of the alphabet.

• says "thank you" almost every time you give him something.  He says it more like, "Tee doo" and it's definitely adorable.  We are working on please ("geez") but we have to remind him a lot.  He also says "no" and "yes" now when we ask him questions.  It's bizarre to ask him a question and get a real answer!

• wears size 2T in most everything now, just barely making the jump up in pajamas - we checked on him one night and his belly was hanging out because his arms were over his head!

• concentrates on specific tasks.  Em has always been a focused guy, even as a baby he'd get caught up playing with certain toys for so long.  Now, he's focusing on puzzles and books and coloring.

• has a new favorite character: Curious George!  He asks for "maah-tee" (monkey) and even says George (well, sorta) and has even requested him instead of Caillou on occasion!

• likes to eat rice (almost any way we serve it), beans, corn, fruit squeeze packets, cheese, chili, peanut butter, graham crackers and drink milk ("mowch").  He's still picky with fruit and veggies, although he did try broccoli this month!!  HUGE step.  He actually ate some of the top part, but mostly sucked at it to get the olive oil and salt and pepper off.

• still goes to daycare twice a week and the YMCA.  The ladies there say he keeps to himself mostly, playing with toys on his own or with adults.  I can attest to this because whenever I take him out to a playdate or play spot for kids he does the same thing.  He doesn't mind being away from me, but he doesn't seek out companions, either.  Mr. Independent.

• is as sweet as he can be...except when he wakes up cranky after a nap.  Then, watch out.