Desmond is 19 Months Old!

'sup?
(Photo taken June 25, 2011.)

As I type, it is July 3. So I am only ... something like 9 days late posting this one. Which, comparatively speaking, is pretty awesome. 

The most exciting thing about Desmond's progress this month is just his explosion of personality (and words!) He does his own thing, talks to you (in a fashion), has definite evolving likes and dislikes, plays, and laughs.

Before we get to the good stuff, here are a few more pictures from June 25.  (I was out of town on June 24, so really, that one is not my fault!)  He was playing on the crib mattress on the floor in Dexter's closet. I mean, it was seriously fun.

I'm a sucker for those tiny lips!

Action shot!

FUN!

And now, the details:

Teeth: No new teeth. Sorry to start off with something so boring. We're still waiting on those canines.

Sleep: He still has the pacifier. ("ah-faw-uh") He loves it. He sleeps well. There's enough other sleep drama going on (::cough:: Dexter ::cough::) that we aren't tackling the pacifier issue just yet. It is so strange and amazing and awesome (the theme of today's musings, I suppose) to behold a child who willingly goes to sleep and sleeps well. He even takes naps! Will run down the hall saying "Nap! Nap!" when we say it's naptime. Craziness.

Food: No big changes here, though he seems a little less willing to try new things. He is also playing more games at the dinner table. Stuff along the lines of "Hey watch me while I be sneaky and throw this food on the floor! And my fork! And I'm going to knock my sippy cup over!" Except he's so freaking cute when he does it that it's tough to be angry at him.  But there is indeed a reason that there are TWO bath towels under his "eating chair."

Words: Holy explosion of words, Batman!  There are so many that I think I may stop counting as of today, and I'll put a separate post listing all of them. It's pretty awesome, though. (See? Awesome!)  I do think I figured out today that what we thought was "happy" is really "help me." Clearly, he's never been in real peril - we never looked at him stuck beneath a giant rock or something, saying "happy!" and we just smiled and said, "You're happy?! I'm happy, too! Everybody is happy!"

Mostly, though, he is surprisingly easy to understand, even for people who don't see him very often.

Books: Desmond still LOVES books and will ask you to read a book randomly in the middle of the day sometimes. Of course, bedtime books remain a staple.His favorite at the moment seems to be "Mystery in Bugtown." He mostly just flips through it, tells us who is sad, then talks about all of the bugs listed in the back. (Ant, Bee, Cricket, Grasshopper, Centipede, Spider, Slug, Cockroach, Ladybug, Katydid... maybe some others.)  And then he tells us that the little bug on the last page is "running." (which he is!)  It's really cute. Awesome, even. :)

TV: Desmond does love TV, too. I'm not sure what would win in a book vs. TV contest, but it's sadly probably the TV. If he hears mention of any of their movies ("Monsters," "Fish," "Two Frogs," or "Panda"), he is in his favorite TV-watching spot before you can finish your sentence. It's seriously a case in which we watch what we say, because something like, "After lunch, we can watch TV" will turn lunchtime into a whinefest.

Speaking of TV, his favorite thing lately is Kung-Fu Panda. (The original one.) We realized today that he says "Pee-ba!" ("Panda") when he wants to watch it. There also seems to be an arm motion that goes with it. It's pretty freaking cute. Hilarious. (And yes, AWESOME! - The Panda says "awesome" a lot. Maybe that's why it's in my head.)



Likes & Dislikes: You know how you write a blog post and then realize later half of the stuff that you should have put in it? That's what happened with Desmond's 18 month update. And I was going to fix it, but I did that one so late that by the time I kept NOT getting around to it, it was pretty much time for the 19 month one.  So, anyway. Desmond really really really likes SWIMMING! Since he loves floating around in the bathtub so much, we started doing swimming lessons a while back. (Hopefully there will be a backdated blog post about that sometime. Maybe.) He loves them! And he's getting pretty brave. He doesn't need to hold your hands to jump into the pool. And he really isn't even all that clingy, although he certainly can't swim by himself, even with a bubble belt and pool noodle. But yes, the kid loves swimming. LOVES it!

He also likes the usual stuff - being outside, going downstairs. Those are pretty big.  He likes cars. A lot. He likes playing with cars and driving them around on the furniture, complete with sound effects. He likes watching cars driving through parking lots or down the street. He likes playing inside Mom's and Dad's cars.

And how best to combine cars and outside? A lawnmower, of course! He doesn't have a whole lot of patience for actual mowing. (It is pretty hot, after all.) But he LOVES sitting on the lawnmower when it's parked in the garage. He just climbs up into the driver's seat like it's exactly where he is supposed to be. As I've said before, I hope their love for the lawnmower and all things outside and yardwork-related sticks around for the next 18-20 years or so.

No big dislikes. He doesn't like it when Dexter "dog piles" on top of him. He isn't a fan of diaper changes. But he is mostly smart enough to avoid things he doesn't like. See above about actually napping when he's tired. And if he's too hot outside, he will actually come inside and drink some water instead of soldiering on.

See? Happy AND smart. (And awesome!)