21 months

I cannot believe that Ryne is 3 months away from being 2!   Ahh!  It's killing me!  It seems like yesterday that we celebrated Ryne's first birthday.

So here are his stats:

Weight:  25lbs 2 oz.  Really this kid eats like a horse and barely gains an ounce.  His level of physical activity is through the roof so I guess he's burning calories like crazy.  We recently started buying summer clothes and we've had a bit of a change in size.  Ryne is wearing 9 month shorts and 12-18 month shirts.  I'm going to assume since Adam wears a size 36 in the waist of his pants that Ryne has my waist!

Language Development:  During this age, it's so hard to keep up.  We know Ryne says over 200 words at this point, which is wonderful.  He is using some interjections like "wow", "whoa", "yay" and conjunctions like "and."  He is getting a little better about naming things when we ask what they are, but he is still quite reserved with his language.  He talks to me and Adam the most, but when he's around other people he uses less words and shorter phrases.  He also likes pretending to be asleep and making the snoring noise...through his mouth!

Comprehension:  At this age, the level of comprehension is quite astounding!  It's hard to believe kids this age even understand half of what we say and do.  He understands complex directions, details and storylines.  He has for quite some time, but his understanding seems to be evolving even more.  He is very good at problem solving, but sometimes solves problems so well that it's actually quite scary.  He wants to be a grown up so bad that he will do almost anything a grown up will do.

Speaking of doing things that grown ups do, he can undo almost any babyproofing device.  He can completely unbuckle himself from his carseat - which is a BAD thing.  He can also put car keys in the ignition and start a car and buckle himself up in the front seat, with no carseat.  We did not teach him this, so obviously we NEVER leave Ryne alone in the car, even if it's turned off with no keys, because that's just a dangerous combination with little Houdini Knies!  He can unplug the HDMI cord from the DVR and put it into the PS3 all by himself because he wants to watch Elmo.  He can put his shoes on the correct feet, do a zipper and button pants.  He can almost completely dress himself and tries to put on his own diaper - which means it's time for training pants!

Potty Time:  or "pee pee time" as Ryne calls it.  Ryne is working hard at potty training.  He is still not consistent enough with potty training over an extended period of time, but there are days when he does quite well!  Some days he will only tell you when he wets or dirties his diaper.  Some days he will tell you that he has to use the potty and he will sit on it patiently, but we wait and wait and nothing comes out!  Either way, he's getting there and I think he could be in mostly training pants by 2, but we aren't pushing it.

Music and songs:  oh my goodness, Ryne loves music!  He loves to dance to it!  About the only time Ryne watches a show on TV is when the music comes on.  He sings songs that he makes up and he will hum other songs that he knows, but he wont really sing a song, like the Wheels on the Bus or the ABCs.

ABCs:  Ryne seems to know quite a bit of his alphabet.  He usually will not tell you what they are if you ask, but he will just bust out the letters when he's not prompted to do so.  While doing one of his jigsaw puzzles the other day, he saw the title "Picture Puzzle" at the top of the puzzle and pointed and said "P" "C" "T" and "E".  Some of the letters were lowercase, which I've never exposed him to.  He still will not say them in order, even though he knows several chunks of the alphabet in order.  Order is not Ryne's way of functioning, apparently!

Puzzles:  Ryne is doing jigsaw puzzles with little to no help.  I finally figured out a way to teach him how to do puzzles by looking at the picture some and not just the shape.  He can do puzzles that have no outlines, guidelines or pictures underneath.  Since he has mastered most of his puzzles, he is putting them together off the cardboard frame thing and learning animals names and the names of the United States in the process.  As long as he masters puzzles and enjoys them, we are going to keep challenging him.  I really recommend puzzles to any parent because Ryne is learning so much in the process.

Reading:  he is learning to read a few words.  My mother taught my brother around 18 months so she suggested seeing if Ryne could as well.  He can read a few words and sometimes we wonder if he's not reading more than we realize or if he has somehow deduced the meaning of words from other things.

Ryne is such a sweet little guy, but he is still so challenging!  It's becoming more and more obvious to us that he learns in a dramatically different way than most.  However, we are also learning that he learns VERY much like Adam!  I am blown away almost daily and challenged daily.  These monthly postings are just a glimpse into Ryne's monthly achievements and some things are leftovers from previous months.  As I'm sure almost every other mother of a toddler can attest to, there's not enough time or space to write down even half of what toddlers accomplish during this time of their life!  It's such an exciting time and again, we can't wait to see what the next month holds!