What our little almost-20-month-old is up to!

I have half an hour before Beck wakes up from his nap, and although there are a bunch of other things to do, I'm sucking it up and making a post finally! We love our little Beckster so dang much. He is learning and growing soooo quickly. Lately I've felt guilty when I haven't made record of every single word he's learned along with the exact day he learned it, or keeping track of every funny little thing he's doing. But I have finally come to the realization that at the rate they are learning at this age, that that is almost impossible. And although I do need to get somewhat decent about keeping current on pictures and such, that just as importantly I need to just enjoy this fun (and challenging!) time! But here is a few months' catch-up on what he's been up to, along with some pictures I took of him a month or so ago.



1 1/2 years!
He turned the big 18 months at the end of July (can you believe it?!). He loved Nursery at church the first few weeks, then hated it the next two weeks, and is now tolerating it. Funny how these little people's emotions work. :) He loves playing with toys and other kids and such, but is quite the attached child at the moment! It also doesn't help that our church is from 1:30-4:30, either. :(



Toddler Lab
He also started Toddler Lab last week, and he absolutely loves it!!! It's for 2 1/2 hours (1 1/4 hours twice a week), which is a perfect amount of time for both of us to get a break from one another. ;) His teachers and the activities they have for the kids are so great. The only thing Beck struggles with is story time. He loves books, but hasn't learned the whole sitting-on-the-floor-and-listening-quietly part of it. Out of the 12 kids in there, Beck is one of two who are under 2 1/2. Since he's big for his age, he fits right in, but probably seems seems under-disciplined. ;) They have a little booth you can watch them from (with one-way windows), and it is so fun to just observe him and how he interacts. Like the first day, he spent like five minutes at the drinking fountain--he was so excited he could actually reach one on his own!




Talking-machine
This kid of ours may not be a great eater or sleeper (although he is getting better at both), but at least he can talk. So I remember (since we counted for our blog post) that he knew 25 words by the time he was 15 1/2 months. And since then, he's just been learning and learning. But I had a friend ask me a few weeks ago how many words he knows now, and I didn't know, so we counted--like 125. He learns new words every day. Want to know his newest word? Butt! We have Lindsay to thank for that one. ;) But he also says "Jesus," "temple," "church," and "amen." So it all evens out, right? :)
Some of his other newer words over the past few months: tickle, garage, Nursery, cloud, piano, burrito, work, elbow, office (as in "The Office"), helicopter, bug, ant, and a bunch of others I'm totally forgetting.




What he's like
Good helper--loves helping put things away
Obedient--even when he steals my phone, he'll give it back when I ask him to (although we're still working on the whole no-hitting and no-throwing thing...)
Sweet--he loves to cuddle (and even asks to--cutest thing ever!) and give kisses and hugs
Crazy--he is so much fun and has so much personality, which also translates into craziness sometimes (like instead of just playing with someone, he'll try to wrestle with them! working on that, too...)
Funny--he does such funny little things, like stacking grapes on top of pizza, or sitting on top of his stuffed dog while watching a movie--where do they come up with these quirky little ideas? :)



His latest developments
18-month stats: 27 pounds (64%), 33 inches (72%) and 19.8-inch head circ. (96%--not 99% anymore!;) )
Climbing--he even insists on climbing up our high dinner chairs onto his booster seat by himself. Thank goodness he's not a jumper-offer yet.
Tickles--he has now started to "tickle" us, I will have to record it sometime. He moves his little fingers and makes this little noise, it is so hilarious.
Teeth--besides like two or so sets of molars, all of his teeth have cut through! Including his four canines that all finally cut through within a week or two of each other. Glad teething will be almost over with for the next little bit!
Undesirable behavior--he's not perfect, don't worry! He throws his fair share of tantrums, and also is too aggressive sometimes; not in a mean way, thankfully, but he's just a very rough-play little dude. So we have a long way to go on that!



What he's obsessed with lately:
Planes
Tractors
Cars
Trucks
"Pups"
Kitties
Stars/moon
Himself
Elmo
Spongebob (whom he calls "Bunky" every time for some reason)
Skyping with his grandparents on the computer--we can't pull out the laptop without him coming over shouting, "Papaw?"
Doorbell and any other type of button
Peaches
Apples
Water
Everything new and exciting (which go hand in hand for him)



Love him!