17 months

Yesterday, Ryne turned 17 months!  This means we are a month away from the big 1-8!!!  These bigger milestones drive me crazy!  I worry because I want Ryne to be on target for all the 18 month old accomplishments!  They also drive me crazy because he's getting older and bigger and not so much my "baby" anymore (even though he will be my baby for his entire life)!
So what is going on in the world of Ryne?  Everything!

Language:  Ryne is saying new words almost daily!  I'm surprised sometimes by what he learns.  He is now busting out full sentences.  Yesterday he said "I want my dadda." (tear) and "help me."  He still has his baby jabber as well.  It's not like he speaks full sentences or phrases all the time, but before 17 months is pretty darn good!

I started "teaching" Ryne (sorta).  We are going over a new color and a new letter of the alphabet every week, although the ABCs may be 86ed shortly.  I'm  not sure if he's ready for them.  He can pick out an A and he can say "A" but he's still not quite grasping the concept, and I'm not sure he should!  He now uses "A" in phrases.  So "bite bite" has become "a bite", etc.  Who knew a child could learn to use articles so early!  He also picked up the word "apple" which usually sounds like "babble" but he can point one out...and he loves to eat them!

Physical:  Ryne is continuing to climb on EVERYTHING - coffee table, tv console, chairs, sofa, etc.  He has also started sitting in a regular chair when he eats, instead of the high chair.  He will occasionally sit in the high chair, but he wants to be a big boy, I guess!  He's also using a spoon and fork (toddler size and regular size) very well - anything to be like Mommy and Daddy!
Just today, he learned to turn the vacuum on.  He is obsessed!  I had to vacuum the entire house...twice, to keep him from screaming "back back" at me!  I guess I'm glad we are still in a tiny house!

Sleep:  Tonight is night #2 of the "Back to Sleep" campaign.  I'm not sure why Ryne started waking up at night about a month ago, but it's been torture.  I took him to the doctor yesterday to get him checked out to make sure he wasn't crying at night for a legit reason.  The doctor (who we LOVE, by the way, ) crossed his legs and said "you're going to have to suck it up!"  We had been letting him cry with no success and we had been rocking him, with no success, and Adam committed Baby Sleep Sin by letting Ryne watch TV in the middle of the night one night!  Nothing was working.  So we are now back to controlling his bedtime a little better and last night he didn't wake up (YAY!!!).  Pray for us that this works!

Bottle:  I'm cracking down!  I've declared Momma Law!  Dr P. said 18 oz of milk is more than enough right now.  Ryne is having double (sometimes more than double) that in a day!  He won't drink milk out of a sippy cup, but he will drink juice and tea from a sippy, so I've decided to use that to my advantage.  His reflux is 100% gone (Praise the Lord!), so we have been able to give him watered down juice and tea in a sippy cup with no problems.  Today I got him down to 24 oz of milk and honestly, if I can't get him lower, I'm not going to worry.  That basically leaves him using a bottle just in the morning, before a nap and bedtime.  I'm fine with him drinking mostly milk, but he's not eating as much so we have to cut back.

Puzzles:  He's now completing some of the harder puzzles for 3+ years!  He's obsessed and it's something we can do together so I'm happy to let him do it!  Next we are going to work on jigsaw puzzles!

Music and Dancing:  Ryne loves both!  I think we are going to try out Kindermusik after the New Year in lue of The Little Gym.  I think Ryne would get more out of Kindermusik right now.  He participates, to an extent, at TLG.  He's strangely not into the group stuff at TLG, even though he is incredibly social there.  He likes to sit off away from everyone else and do the activities, but some activities he just refuses to do!  If you put on a good beat, though, Ryne will drop it like it's hot!   It's the cutest thing EVER!

I'm excited to see what the next month holds!