Ryne has spent the majority of this past month OUTSIDE! We've had very warm weather here lately and Ryne just can't stand to be inside. A lot of the usual day-time play-time/teaching activities have gone by the wayside. Ryne doesn't seem to have changed much to the extent he has in the past months.
Weight: rougly the same - 25ish lbs! It's amazing because he eats a lot and eats almost anything we give him. The nickname of "the goat" seems to be quite fitting!
Language Development: Ryne still knows over 200 words at this point, but he's not learning a new word on a daily basis - that we can tell. Ryne is still VERY reserved with language and seems to use it mainly when the occasion specifically calls for it. Adam and I feel his enunciation is getting worse to some extent, but the rest of the family says it seems to be getting better because they can understand him more. The reason Adam and I are a little concerned is because Ryne is dropping the end of a lot of words that he has been able to say fully in the past months. Apple has become "app", etc.
However, I did come across some research recently that discussed use of pronouns in toddlers around the age of 2. Ryne has been using pronouns correctly for several months now - since roughly 16/17 months old. He uses "I", and "me" correctly. He also seems to understand possession quite well, but then again he seemed to understand that at 13 months when he started saying "my baba", "my dadda", etc. He likes assigning seats now or telling us which items belong to whom. All in all, Ryne is still doing quite well, but I'm eager to see if he has another language spurt before in the next few months.
Comprehension: I think I say this every month, but it is truly amazing what children this age understand. You can explain complex things, mumble, talk to casually to yourself, talk to someone else and he understands every bit of it. He just soaks it right up! He also seems to understand time to some extent. He knows "tomorrow" is not today and "later" is not right now. We are going to start working with an actual clock and days of the week soon to see if he can understand it better. He also knows that when I say "Mom" or "Dad" it means my mother or father. So if I ask him, "who is my momma?" or "who is Momma's momma?" he will say "Boo Boo," which is his name for my mother! He does the same when I ask him who is my daddy. He's a huge PaPa fan, so any chance he gets to say "PaPa, " he's a happy boy!
Puzzles: Still rocking the jigsaw puzzles! We are trying to move him more into puzzles with no board underneath and he will assemble some off their board. It is getting harder to find puzzles/toys that are age-appropriate since he is still so young, but seems to fly through them.
Potty: Ryne pooped in his potty all on his own the other day! It scared him a little, but he got several Elmo stamps for his accomplishment! He actually covered himself in Elmo stamps! In the next few weeks we are going to make the move to real underwear. Last week (before he did the aforementioned accomplishment in the potty) Ryne was playing games with us when it came to potty time. He would say he had to go and then he'd run into the bathroom, lift the lid to his potty, take his diaper off and then he would say he wanted to get in the bath...but he wouldn't. Then he'd try to make a break for it and run through the house naked! If we mentioned a diaper, he'd say he had to pee pee again and go back to the bathroom, only to pull the same trick on us. What we've found with other activities that Ryne does, he gets bored of an activity before he even masters it. He gets bored very easily! He pulled tricks on us when he was doing puzzles, ABCs - anything. It's as if he has to make a game of it to make it interesting, even though we read, sing, etc to him when he's on the potty to keep him occupied.
Several mothers have told me to stop potty training because he's too young, but if that's the case and if that is what we had decided to do, what do you tell a child when they tell you they need to use the potty and then actually go use it? I don't feel like it's the best thing to tell him "No" when he can actually use the potty on his own. I feel like if we up the ante with underwear, and Ryne meets the challenge then he's obviously ready. If he doesn't...then he's obviously not and we can stop for awhile. Either way, I don't feel like he's too young. Our pediatrician, the nursing staff and a specialist all recommended we start trying months ago. I know some think we are probably pushing him but we really aren't. This has been in the works for 5 months now, so we are taking it rather slow and we don't really have a deadline set for when we'd like for him to be potty-trained.
Arts and Crafts: Ryne is really enjoying coloring, drawing, making things, etc. He almost holds a pen correctly, which is great. I'm hoping to make a felt board soon so we can teach him some Bible stories and do other fun felt activities on there.
Pretend Play: This has really taken off this month. Everything becomes a car these days - a shoe, a block, anything that he can move and say "vroom vroom" to! He likes pretending to talk on the phone by holding his hand up to his ear. He will also pretend play with his stuffed animals, which is the cutest thing ever!
Outside play: Do you need your yard mowed (with a toy mower that only blows bubbles) or mulch
Sports: Ryne is really getting into sports now too. He has an arm on him for sure and his aim is getting MUCH better. However, what's most impressive is his ability to kick a ball! He's been able to kick well since 15/16 months, but he's getting better! Ryne still stumbles and falls some when he's running, but if you give him a ball to kick, his balance seems much better! He looks like a little soccer player when he runs and kicks a ball - so fluid, so effortless, so efficient. I wish I could get some video of him, but every time we pull out a camera or video camera, he just wants to play with it! I also plan to teach Ryne some swimming skills this summer too. He kicks very well, but we need to work on some other skills. Adam and I are adamant about Ryne learning to swim at a young age and not relying on arm floaties or life jackets to swim in a pool. There is a time and a place for life jackets. But from what we've seen and experienced, especially as lifeguards, the moment your lifejacket-wearing child is around a pool without a lifejacket on, they forget they aren't wearing the lifejacket, jump in as usual and almost drown.
Well that's all I have time for this month. Seems like a lot considering it seemed like a rather slow-learning month! I think Ryne is learning A LOT from being outside - physics, technical skills, etc. He seems to understand time to an extent. He's also having a lot of FUN outside, which is probably the most important thing!
Until next month...!
