Caleb is 20 months old and the Start of the New Year

20 months old! When I think he only has 4 more months til his 2nd birthday, I just don't know where the time went. This 2nd year is going by MUCH faster than the first year. He is astounding us every week with the newest things he is saying and doing. 

So as with other posts, here are some new words or modifications on words that he is saying now:

• Saturn - yeah this one astonished me a couple of weeks ago. One of the books he has includes a photo of Earth and Saturn, and he so matter of factly said "Saturn" when he saw Saturn. I was amazed!
• "Obot" for Robot. There are a few books he has that have robots in them. 
• "May Say" - medicine. I hate that he knows this word, but when you deal with coughs and/or teething, he is going to pick up on the word
• "Bable" for table.
• "milk" for milk
• "book" for book. He never really said book before. He just knew what we were saying when we said book. But he would never say the word until this past month. 
• "MoMo" is Elmo
• "Peegee" for penguin (this is definitely an improvement from when he used to say Pa for penguin.
• "Suh" for sun
• "Sy" for slide
• "vac" for vacuum - (not too bad if you ask me)
• "Spoo" for spoon
• "Hi" for hi. He says this a lot now when he sees us
• "Peas" for please

He can say a few phrases too. He says "Get this" and "Mommy peas" (Mommy please), "I want Daddee", and "What is that?" He is doing better with phrases...and because I am kind of tired as I write this, I can't remember every phrase. But he is doing well! 

And I mentioned he is a helper, but it's fun to say "Caleb, please put this back." And he picks up the toy and puts it right back in its spot! Or if Todd says "bring this to Mommy," he does it! He also likes to tease people. If someone asks him for a cracker or for something he has, he will sometimes act like he is giving it and then take it right back (totally smiling and teasing them)! 

He is quite a pro at puzzles too. He was at my parents over a week ago, and they had a puzzle from when I was little and he had no trouble putting it together! Now these are for kids his age, but it's just impressive that he just knows what to do with these puzzles! 

He takes apart stuff like our remote, buckles, etc. And with our Christmas lights we had up, he wanted to plug them in and tried to (many times). UGH! Scare me to death. But he knows what to do because he has seen us do it. Just don't want him to get electrocuted. I do see an engineer in our future (if he wants to) because he really wants to understand how things work. I love watching his brain work! 

So all in all - he's growing very well and learning a ton! I wish I could say I have learned how to handle tantrums better, but I haven't. Screaming can be soo hard to deal with sometimes, but I am trying. He is soo independent and wants to choose the things he eats and does! 

We had a nice Christmas and New Years and are looking forward to a delayed "Christmas" with my sister, Jen and brother-in-law, Wes in just one week! They couldn't come visit us until the end of January, so we are just celebrating again! Plus - when my sister is in town, I am there! I miss her so much! She is without a doubt my best friend! I think we talk several times a week (via text) so that helps at least. But a text can never replace the time spent in person! So I am anxiously waiting for another week to go by to see her!

In recent news - I had a car accident! I won't go into specifics, but I am quite mad at myself about it. It was mainly because of the poor snowy conditions, but I should have also been more careful. Thankfully, I had already dropped off Caleb to our sitter, so he wasn't involved. Annoyed about the situation honestly, and this car is old. We are still holding onto the car for a while as it is still driveable. I will be quite sad when it is finally done. So far we are going on 13 years with this car! This was the first car I ever owned myself, and it has been through so much. So we aren't ready quite yet to get rid of it, but the time is coming! 

I used to enjoy snow, but after all our family has been through in the past year and a half, I am more or less just ready for spring. I look forward to taking Caleb to the park again and going on walks. Even Caleb isn't sure about the snow thing. He hates being bundled up (until he walks outside and realizes it's so cold). He isn't interested in snow yet, even though I have tried to play with him a little in it. He doesn't even like walking on the snow and freaks out a little about it. I think maybe next year he might like snow a little more. We'll see. I think all in all, we are just ready for pretty birds chirping and flowers blooming again! And temperatures above 30 degrees! 

I think that's about it for now....I look forward to sharing about our time with my sister and brother next month! Until then, stay warm and stay safe and enjoy another picture of this cutie pie!