21 months of Wells

During this quarantine period, Wells turned 21 months, so these are my thoughts on how that's going and where he's at in his development right now.

Wells needs a long, long nap each day. He usually goes 2-3 hours. Once in awhile, something will wake him up at 90 minutes or so, but during that first hour of sleep, he's deep in a REM cycle or something. I've tried cut naps short, because I really would like him to sleep past 6am at some point, but it turns into an absolute crying fit. It's been really easy, being stuck at home with nowhere to go, so I just let him sleep as long as he wants. He goes to bed between 6:30-7:30pm., depending on his mood. He seems to be the *most* energetic around 6:30pm.

He can still be temperamental with toddler tantrums, but he's so smart and inquisitive and FUN that I don't mind a little of that here or there. He's learning, after all.

He has so many feelings. The noises, that he's trying to form into words, never stop coming out of his mouth. He's a constant talking machine.

He makes animal noises, he hops like a bunny or a frog, he says "up" with every step he climbs or every chair he attempts to hoist himself onto. "up, up, up, up..." until he makes it to the top.

Loves tractors.

His favorite "nummy" is an apple. He loves to walk around, munching on an apple and he likes to spit out the peel and leave it everywhere. We're working on it.

He also loves help unload the dishwasher. It takes forever, but he enjoys it and I'm looking forward to the day when he can do it alone :) He also has the job of giving the dogs their bones each night. 

Says "bye" any time I give him a snack and he walks away with it. Says bye to bathwater as it goes down the drain. Says bye anytime I end a phone call. Says bye to daddy. Says bye at the end of an episode of Daniel Tiger or when they wave at the end fo a LBB video. He says "bye" in any possible situation that could warrant that response.

Loves being outside. We took him on his first actual walk around the neighborhood, not using the stroller. It took 4 times as long and the dogs were starting to lose their patience. Wells did take the time to "ruff" at a dog barking in a window and say "bye" to it before walking away.
There was also a lot of intermittent carrying involved during this walk and we haven't done it since.

Likes his coloring book a lot, but only to look at the pictures. He doesn't love books. I don't see other toddlers around books, so I don't know what's usual behavior. Occasionally I'll see him sitting in his room flipping through books but he's not super enthralled.

We make him a drink we call "tea" but it's not...he can say it and ask for it, so that's what we call it. It's water in a sippy cup with a splash of Pedialyte. We started calling it tea because we realized he loved sharing chamomile or peppermint tea with us. So when we give him water in a sippy cup, we add maybe a teaspoon of Pedialyte and it makes him so happy. My goal is to get him drinking less milk (he would drink milk all. day. long.), so I'll keep this ruse up for as long as I can.

We've started employing time-out and this really has just resulted from playing in the dogs' water or throwing food on purpose, especially after I tell him not to. So obviously he's given a warning or two but he knows. I do have a method for it, so it's age-appropriate. He usually turns on the scrunched up face and fake tears as soon as he realizes he's in time-out.

The enjoyment I get out of him turning into a little person is real.
I adored newborn Wells, but toddler Wells is even better.

(The bunny was a gift from Scott's mom last Easter. He is missing a paw...ahem, Jett. I always meant to fix it/sew it, but Wells doesn't mind.)