Dexter is TWENTY THREE Months Old!

And it didn't even really hit me until tonight that that means it's only a month until his birthday.  Guess we'd better start getting ready for that.

Dexter's 22nd month was exciting.  He is smart and handsome and absolutely hilarous!  One of his latest things is to tell you to "goway" in his mousy little voice.  We have to work very hard not to laugh at that.

He also says "okay" instead of "yes." 
Mom: "Would you like a banana?"
Dexter: "Banana? Okay." 

like, "eh. sure. I could go for a banana."  He's been doing it for a couple of months, actually, and I really just figured out why his usage of the word seemed peculiar.  Awesome.

And, the more things change, the more things stay the same.  Chase is still Dexter's favorite game ever.  In fact, it's about the most reliable distraction if he's upset about something (like having to wake up or not being able to go outside barefoot or something). 

Other goodies:

Teeth: Still 16.  I keep waiting for those 2-year molars, but nothing yet.  Maybe he'll actually be 2 before they come in.  He is doing better at brushing them, though - actually gets the bristles on the teeth now instead of just sucking the toothpaste off and calling it done.  AND he lets us have a turn.  So maybe these teeth will last until first grade after all.

Language:  I mentioned "okay."  The really fun thing? He's talking in huge long sentences, but we can't understand him at all.  "Bah na goo naks gan hah mow-mowah?"  Which means "Bah na goo naks gan hah lawnmower."

Sleep: Ugh!  Poor kid takes FOREVER to fall asleep.  It's now standard practice for one of us to fall asleep in there at night. (How can you NOT fall asleep at 10pm in a dark, quiet room?)  But it's cold in there on the floor, so we'll need to start bringing in a blanket for ourselves when winter comes.  I am not looking forward to that part.

The best, though? Sometimes he shares his (relatively tiny) blanket with you when he's ready to go to sleep.  "Mom, banket?" And he'll put it over my shoulder.  So sweet.  Also sweet? "Mom lie dow? Okay." and "Dad, lie dow? Okay."

Potty: A bit of a regression here.  He'll sit on that @%$^&^ turtle potty for 30 minutes and do NOTHING, then sprout a giant fountain of pee the second he hits the bathtub.  When I say "Pee pee!  Let's pee pee on your turtle potty!"  He says "No! Bathtub!"  and then he screams if you try to take him out of the tub and put him on the potty.  So yeah, regression.  He also doesn't care AT ALL if he is wet or poopy, so there's not a lot of incentive for him to use the potty.  Perhaps it's time to start bribing him.

Likes: Bananas, still.  He had gotten over that for a while - we aren't going through 40 bananas/week anymore.  But he still asks for bananas at least once/day.  He also LOVES going outside.  Loves Bob the Builder and Yo Gabba Gabba (to the point where we are actively trying to limit it now - "How about legos?!" Thankfully, he also likes legos.)  Another like? Scooting (okay, zooming) around the house on his ride-on toys.

Dislikes: Whatever you want him to do next. 
Dad: "Dexter! It's bathtime!"
Dexter:    "NOOOO!!! Yo gah gah! YO GAH GAH!!"
Then you wrestle him out of his clothes and into the bathtub. Bathe him, do your best to shampoo his hair (another thing he majorly hates), then:
Dad: "Towel time!"
Dexter: "NO! No toww tie!"
Dad: "Yes, towel time! And then we can get dressed and read books!"
Dexter: "No books! No toww tie!"
Then you wrestle him out of the bathtub, diaper ("no die-duh!"), let him pick out his pajamas, ("No monkeys!") do his teeth, then YAY books! 
Dad: "One more book, then it's night-night time!"
Dexter: "No nie-nie! Book!" 

gah.  So yeah, it's a constant battle, but kindof cute when he's not fighting you too hard. 


As for little brother? Well, sometimes he's fun to laugh with, but other times he's just in Dexter's way.  Dexter has had more than his share of time-outs for pushing, hitting, kicking, hair-pulling, and even biting.  Sometimes he's just playing too rough, but other times there is clearly malicious intent, and he gets a time out.  Hopefully this ends soon, or at least hopefully Desmond soon gets big enough to fight back.

What a difference 16 months makes!

No more moobies!

Dexter is 22 Months Old!

Gah!  I only get to use "months" one more time, then I will have to say he's 2!

He's still such a phenomenal kid.  Age-appropriate toddler tantrums aside, he is so much fun to be around and makes us laugh about 20 times/day. He's crazy smart and is a crazy good climber and runner and ball-kicker.  Lately, he's been checking in with us just to make sure we're OK and sharing his blanket at bedtime. ("Mom, blanket? Mom, blanket?")  And he (almost) always says he's sorry if he's physically hurt you (intentionally or accidentally).

Poor kid's had quite a few time-outs this month, and they will surely continue to increase in frequency. But then you can't help but squeeze him and give him a big ol' kiss. (And he'll give you one back - "mmmmmmmm-aaaah!")

Teeth:  Still 16. :)

Language: Things are getting a tiny bit clearer here.  Bob the Builder is now "Bah-Beeya" instead of just "Beeya," for example.  And we're just getting better at understanding him, since we know that "GAH-ga-gah" is "bicycle" and "Gah-ga-GAH-ga" is "motorcycle."  It's all in the inflection, really. ;)


Sleep: Not horrible, but not great.  He has been waking some during the night lately - night terrors, etc.  One morning last week, he woke up at 4:00 and didn't make it back to sleep until 6:30.  But mostly, the issue is still with getting him to sleep.  That is finally getting a little bit better, with a few dramatic exceptions.  I do keep wondering how long we can continue to devote two hours to Dexter's bedtime routine EVERY night.

Food:  Like many toddlers, Dexter is way too busy running and playing to bother with eating.  But every few days, he makes up for it by downing more than a dozen mini pancakes, or eating 2 bananas before school and then eating his full breakfast there, too.  Fruit is still his favorite thing. If you fill his dinner plate with a nice ratio of fruit, proteins, starches, and vegetables, he'll eat all of the fruit and get 3 or 4 refills on it before he bothers touching the proteins.  He does like rice, though, and will eat vegetables.  But he LOVES fruit.  Not sure what we will do in the winter, when we don't have an abundant supply of blueberries, blackberries, strawberries, peaches, kiwi, and cantaloupe in addition to the standard apple/banana/orange triad. 

Potty:  Some progress here, though we're still a long way from real interest or anything resembling consistency.  He likes the idea of sitting on the potty. For a minute (if that).  But he also isn't bothered at all if he is wet or poopy.  Baby steps.

Tricks: iPhone!  Not sure if this is a trick or a toy or what, but we've downloaded several educational toddler/preschooler games to our iPhones, and Dexter is CONSTANTLY asking to play them.  His favorite is "monkeys" (this was the first thing he said when he woke up this morning).  He's actually really good at the puzzles.  For a while, he would restart the game if the "memory" one came up, but now he (usually) at least tries it.

He's also started playing one where you have to put the letters in order to make a word.  He's pretty good at this, too. If I'm being honest, though, there is an extra visual cue that helps a lot, and the letters snap into place awfully easily.  But he's still seeing letters and hearing their name and seeing words spelled out, so that's good.  I think it might be helping with his vocabulary, too, since it shows a "tractor" and a "plow" and a "lawnmower," where Dexter would like to just call all of those things "lawnmower." 

Dislikes: When his little brother plays with his toys.  We were warned that jealousy would rear its ugly head once Desmond got mobile.  I was hoping it wouldn't happen, but it has.  As previously mentioned, Dexter also dislikes bedtime.  Let's throw diaper changes into the mix, too.  And hair-washing.  Yikes.

Likes: LAWNMOWERS!  He really really really loves lawnmowers. Still.  This one might stick around for a while.  You should have seen how quickly he, heartbroken, got dressed and put his shoes on the last time he saw Dennis outside mowing without him!  He also likes his little brother.  As much as he doesn't want Desmond playing with his toys, he's also eager to give Des his bottle or pacifier or pureed avocados.

He also sometimes finds a toy and decides that Desmond MUST have it rightthisminute.  He also says "Baby's turn!" when we are taking turns doing fun things like jumping around. 

Dexter is 21 Months Old!

He got to spend part of the day playing at Tootsie and Pop's.  (naked, in the sprinkler)

Teeth: The fourth canine finally came through, and Dexter officially has sixteen teeth.  I keep waiting for the next set of molars, but no signs yet.  I am grateful for this. 

Words & Signs: He doesn't bother with signs much, except for the occasional "more" and "please."  He's too busy talking.  Most of the time, we can understand what he's saying, usually becasue we have the benefit of context.  "Toothbrush" and "bubbles" sound nearly identical, for example, so it helps to be able to see if he's pointing toward the toothbrush or a bubble.  "Mess" is very clear, though, and he does like to let us know when there is one. It's pretty hilarious.

Sleep:  It still takes Dexter nearly an hour to fall asleep most nights.  I've given up on an early bedtime and just let him stay up until 10:30 or 11 to make sure he's REALLY tired.  I mean come on, why spend an hour fighting him in his room when we can spend an hour playing and then 10 minutes going to sleep?  This works most of the time, especially if he gets to play outside in the heat.  I have no idea what we will do when winter comes. Perhaps it will be the push we need to move to Miami.

Food: After, oh, about 10 months, bananas seem to have lost their amazingness.  He'll still eat them, but he's just as happy without them. I think it helps, too, that it's summer and there's a ton of other fruit around.  Mostly, I think he'd just eat a solid diet of fruit if we let him.  He loves pancakes and "sisup" - one morning he ate twenty two mni pancakes.  That isn't the norm, but still - wow.

Potty:  After our very exciting first-pee-on-the-potty event, we've had zero repeats.We try to get him on there, but who wants to sit on the potty when you could be outside riding a lawnmower?  Really, now.  No, he just doesn't have the patience for it. Nor does he care too much.  He has, on two occasions, told someone, "I pooped."  This is a good sign, but again, there hasn't been very much of this kind of activity.  Mostly, we just tell him "you should pee on the potty" when we catch him peeing in the bathtub or other times he's running around diaperless.

Tricks: He's still crazy good at gross motor. Ball kicking, climbing, running, jumping, all that jazz.  Really, it's crazy.

He's added black, brown, and white to his color-naming repertoire.  And he knows a TON of shapes.  In fact, I think he knew more last month than I gave him credit for. (Turns out that "SHA-shasha" is really "triangle."  Who knew?)  Kid even knows "hexagon" and "crescent."  He can also recognize a few letters.  This is still quite hit or miss, but it's exciting to get started on that kind of thing.

Books:  Definitely some new favorites here.  Dexter has recently become enamored with lawnmowers.  And by "lawnmowers," I mean pretty much any motorized thing with 4 wheels that isn't a car or a truck.  Tractor = lawnmower. Concrete mixer = lawnmower.  Scooter at Target = lawnmower.  Anyway, he has a few books that qualify as "lawnmower" books, including "Tremendous Tractors" and "Dazzling Diggers," which pretty much get read every night.  (Thanks, Nulks!)

Other Fun:  In keeping with the lawnmower theme, a new favorite show is Bob the Builder, known affectionately in our house as "Bee-ya!"  As in, he loves it so much that we actually find ourselves actively limiting his television watching.  At least he's still willing to turn it off to go outside.

Dexter is TWENTY Months Old!

Dexter is twenty months old!  TWENTY! 
Doesn't he look like  a four year old in that picture? Crazy.   Hopefully by the time he's four, he'll have starting and ending consonant sounds on all of his words. :)

Let's go for the vital stats:

Teeth: Apparently, I gave him too much credit last month.  He still only has fifteen teeth - that fourth canine, which I thought was already peeking through, has not shown its pearly white face yet.  Still, the teething doesn't seem to bother him, so that's all good.

Words & Signs: Signing has pretty much tapered off, though Dennis and Daycare still try to teach him some.  But, again, why sign when you can TALK?!  I've quit counting his words, because there are too many to count! (3 months ago, I never could have imagined I'd be saying that at this point.)  "Lawnmower" is still his absolute favorite word. He loves lawnmowers, will point out every lawnmower he sees, and will even say "lawnmower" if he hears any mechanical noise outside.  It's great.  He and Dennis ride the lawnmower together every chance they get.  Other things he recognizes and tells us about include "airplane," "bird," "circle," (he told Dennis that his wedding ring was a circle, and he told me that the light on his ceiling fan was a circle), and "downstairs."  He's still stringing lots of words together - "baby sad" (when Desmond cries) and "bye bye ____" (whatever's ending - banana, yo gabba gabba, Dad, etc."


Sleep:  Dexter's been moved from the toddler bed to a mattress on the floor. At first, it was the crib mattress, but we got him a twin so he'd have a little more room to flop around.  He seems completely unfazed by the change, but I'm glad he isn't falling out of bed anymore.  He finally started sleeping through the night again about 7-10 days ago, when he got some antibiotics for a suspected ear infection and started getting claritin every night for his runny nose.  Less coughing = less waking = happier kid in the morning.  Going to sleep is hit or miss (mostly miss).  A couple of nights ago, he got out of bed FIFTY NINE times over the course of an hour before finally staying in there to go to sleep. I don't know why it's so much fun to hop out of bed over and over, but apparently it's the best game ever! Then a couple of nights later, he only got up once and was sound asleep within 7 minutes.  So, very inconsistent, and a lot of work to do there.

Food: He's kindof funny about food. Still asks for bananas the most, though he's OK if we're out of them (as long as he sees the banana-less bowl himself for proof).  He's becoming quite skilled with a fork and spoon, though he chooses not to use them as often as he chooses to use them.  He can also drink quite well from a regular cup (again, if he so chooses - almost always, at some point, he chooses to dump the contents of the cup all over himself and the floor, so we mostly stick with water for that one).  One thing that hasn't changed is that he still eats a LOT.  The other morning, he ate TWENTY-TWO mini pancakes.  I microwaved a big batch for us to share, and he proceeded to take them all from the serving plate and put them on his plate. I laughed and never thought he would actually eat them all, but he did!  Insisted on syrup, though. The boy loves his syrup.  We use "light" or "sugar-free," so I'm OK with this.  Finally, he's having fun eating raspberries from the plants in the back yard.  Messy and fun - right up Dexter's alley.

Tricks: He's got as many intellectual tricks as physical ones these days, I think.  Physically, I think he's skilled well beyond his age at kicking a ball.  He can also hold a ball between his feet, jump, and land without falling.  I do not believe that is something that 20-month-olds can typically do.  So, Dexter continues his track record of being well ahead of the curve on all things gross motor. 

OH! And he can reach the deadbolts on the exterior doors now, so we had to put slider locks at the top of the doors.  Aah, adventures in Dexterland.



Intellectually, he knows a lot of stuff! 
Colors - he knows yellow, blue, red, green, purple, and orange.  Not a lot of love for black, brown, white, or pink.  But for the ones he does know, he'll get them right whenever you ask him and sometimes will just point to something randomly and say "yellow!" And sure enough, that thing will be yellow.



Shapes - Really, he just knows circle and oval.  But he recognizes circles out of context (see above).  Really, he sees circles everywhere - the wedding ring, the light fixture on the fan, tires, pictures in his books, etc.  He's also very good at recognizing balls. "Ball!" is an oft-heard refrain.  We're working on Triangle, Square, and Rectangle, too. We have several books and a puzzle and the like, so hopefully that will help.


Body parts - he's had this down for a while. Hair, head, eyes, ears, nose, cheeks, teeth, chin, shoulder, elbow, arm, hand, fingers, tummy, back, bootie, leg, knee, foot, toes.  (just in case my readers didn't know the body parts. Glad I could help.)


He's also getting better at understanding "first we do this, then we can do this."  As in, "first we put on our shoes, THEN we can go outside."  This is a nice development.

Books:  We still read books every night, of course.  Dexter is fun to read with, because he really participates a lot (saying animal noises, pointing out various things in the books, etc.).  The Elmo "lift a flap" book is still a favorite, as is the train book (you push the train's nose, and it sings a loooooong song. Thanks Tootsie!)

Other Fun:  Dexter still watches almost his fair share of Yo Gabba Gabba, but he mostly wants to play outside.  He has a slide and a climbing toy on the deck now, so he's pretty much free to go out there and slide and play while we watch him from inside.  Of course, since we still don't quite have gates on the deck, we have to watch him pretty constantly, though he hasn't yet tried to venture away from the deck. (You know the first time we turn our backs will be the time he decides to try it.)   But of course we like that he plays outside. It's good for him, he loves it, it's healthy, and it wears him out. :)

And that's about it.  He's still wearing 24m and 2T clothes, mostly, though the occasional 18m or 3T will fit him pretty well, too. 

Excited to see what the next month will bring!

Dexter is 19 Months Old!

 

Ready to face his first day as a 19 month old!

 

Would you look at those eyes?  What a gorgeous man!

Have I mentioned Dexter's hair before?  We call it "Cotton Candy Hair."  That's the only thing I can think of that maybe looks like this. And it looks like this EVERY DAY.  We've tried everything. Combing it after bath. Using conditioner. Using detangler. Not using detangler. Combing dry with detangler in the morning. Combing wet with detangler in the evening.  The kid just insists on rubbing the back of his head all over things.

 It also reminds me of the mad scientist from the intro of Robot Chicken.

Let's get on to the important stuff:

Teeth: We have more teeth!  After six months of rockin' those one-year molars, Dexter is apparently ready to add 4 canines to the bunch.  So we are up to sixteen.  It doesn't seem to be bothering him too much, but really, what slows this kid down?  He certainly doesn't mind when we put some baby orajel on his poor little gums, either.

Words & Signs: He is SO pushing 100 words.  More on that in another post soon.  I don't think he has any new signs since last month, really. Why bother signing when you can TALK, baby?!

Sleep:  Ugh.  No real progress on life in a toddler bed.  He spends the 2nd half of most nights in our bed.  I'm mostly OK with that, as long as he just comes in and sleeps instead of flopping around. (And mostly, he does sleep once he gets there.)  Still, he gets REALLY upset if his Mom is not exactly where he expects her to be when he strolls into the bedroom at night, which is going to present a problem for his Dad when Mom is gone on a couple of work trips this summer. Ugh again.

Food: Nothing new here, though he may be losing his passion for bananas.  Dennis and I still refer to them as "yellow fruit" in his presence, though, especially on the rare occasions when we have none on hand.  Last week, we ended up with TWENTY bananas in the house and still managed to eat them all before they went bad. (For once, there were enough for Dexter's parents to have a few.)  I still think he would live completely off of fruit if we let him. 

Tricks: He's still doing his old favorites, like high fives and gesturing along with his animal noises.  He also likes to blow (unbelievably ineffectively, I might add) on his food or anything else (stove, bathwater, BBQ grill) deemed "ah-tee" (hot).  He can use a straw, zip his coat, play patty cake (ok, not 100%, but better and better all the time), and blow kisses.  He LOVES to play "itsy bitsy spider" in the bathtub, mostly because in "DOWN came the rain," he gets to make a giant splash.  He does a great job with "If you're happy and you know it" and gives great kisses with sound effects.  He also randomly blows raspberries on any exposed skin. He is adorable when he says "SHHHHH!" (complete with finger on the side of his nose - I guess that's close to over his lips) when the baby is sleeping.  Finally, he has all but mastered use of a fork and spoon, but he still does a really weak job of wiping his hands & face.

Books:  I can't say we have any new favorites here.  The cool part about books is how he really participates in book time now.  I mentioned last month how he makes the sounds in "Mr. Brown Can Moo."  Now he also does that for Sandra Boynton's "Moo, Baa, La La La."  SO freakin' cute.  And for just about any book you grab, he is on the lookout for things he recognizes - apples, circles, Elmo, bananas, dogs ("wff wff!"), shoes, butterflies, flowers, bears, the sun, cars - it is pretty cool. 

TV:  Yes, I have just given up. He watches TV.  Not much. Probably a few hours/week total. And it's almost all Yo Gabba Gabba, not war movies or anything.  He's only asked for it a few times, though. Mostly we suggest it.  He knows some of their songs and characters.  There are worse things, right?

I know the time for monthly updates might be coming to a close, but I am going to try to stick with it until 24 months, at least.  He's still doing new stuff all of the time, and I want to make sure I get it all written down.

Dexter is 18 (and a half) months old!

I hope you're all sitting down - I'm behind in my updates.  As I type this, it is April 19, and Dexter is 18.5 months old.  Here's my best stab at remembering how things were 2 weeks ago...


Dexter's half birthday started out with a tasty breakfast of bananas ("na-na"), pancakes, and milk.  Plus a little ham and cheese for the camera.

Are those not the cutest monkey pajamas you've ever seen?!

Later, he helped Dad mow the grass.

Then he had a proper half-birthday dinner of pizza and cake (and more milk).

That's a pretty sweet smile, even if it is a chocolate-covered one.

BIG news to cover this month, mostly in the area of WORDS!

Words:  In short, Dexter had 42 words as of April 4.  (FORTY-TWO!  The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything!)  More details to come.

Signs:  We have a few more signs now.  Still good with:
more
eat
banana
grape
bath
please

and we've added
sleep
milk
apple


Sleep:  Ugh.  Adjustment to the toddler bed is not going so well.  It typically takes a full hour to get him to sleep every night. (And that's AFTER bath, pajamas, teeth, and book, which brings the total closer to two full hours dedicated to Dexter's bedtime routine.)  It's been a month and a half; I thought we'd be further along by now.  In any case, once he's down, he's down for the night (about 70% of the time).  The rest of the time, he'll show up in our room partway through the night and is content to actually sleep in our bed. We're mostly cool with that, although it presents some issues when Desmond decides he's hungry.  Dexter screams bloody murder if I get up to feed Desmond (even if I don't leave the room), which mans Dennis gets more than his fair share of nighttime feedings. 

Still, he's snuggly and cute. And it won't be long before he doesn't want to have anything to do with us at all, so we've kindof decided to ride this train for a while.

Teeth: STILL only 12.  I think I see the tips of his eye teeth just below the surface, but I can't feel anything yet. 

Food: Bananas are still a favorite. Grapes, too.  Strawberries if they're around. I guess he's just a fruit fiend. Which is better than his being, say, an ice cream fiend. (He could take it or leave it.)  He does like m&ms, though.  Sometimes his meals are shockingly large (2 bananas, 6 oz of yogurt, 3 pancakes, grapes, 10 oz of milk), and sometimes not so much (a few bites of a few things before he starts playing and then is ready to get down).  Overall, I think he eats a relatively balanced diet of proteins, starches, fruits, and veggies, plus the occasional treat.  He still gets a multivitamin every night just to ensure he's getting everything he needs.

Tricks: Boy does Dexter have a ton of tricks!  Some of my favorites:

• Saying "cheers!" and wanting to clink glasses at mealtimes
• Doing the hand motions to itsy-bitsy-spider
• Jumping! He even gets off the ground now and everything!
• Making the noises/motions with his "Mr. Brown Can Moo" book

Games: I'm starting to wonder if he'll ever get tired of playing chase.  It's cool, though. Keeps me on my toes, and I LOVE that hearty giggle when I "surprise" him from around a corner.

As far as toys go, anything that makes the living room look like a tornado has struck seems to be a favorite. 

Books:  He doesn't exactly have a single favorite right now. More like a few top choices.  In addition to "Mr. Brown Can Moo," he also enjoys a Sesame Street "open the flap" type of book and his "touch the art" board books - a gift from the Nulks for his first Christmas.

Hair: Oh, Dexter's hair.  I can only describe the back as "cotton candy."  It's just sortof fluffy and sticks up in a big poof in the back. (You can kindof see it in his breakfast photos above.)  I don't know why. We comb it every night. I think he just pulls and rubs at it in his sleep and/or rubs his head on his mattress a lot to make a tangled mess.  We've tried a few different things, but nothing seems to work.  Good thing bed head looks so cute on a toddler. :)

Dexter is 17 months old!

Signs: Not a whole lot of development in the signage department this month. Which isn't such a bad thing, because...

Words: Dexter is talking more!  Still not a lot of real words, but he is definitely getting chattier and is clearly trying to tell us stuff all the time.  I never thought I'd be so glad to hear my kid say "Shah-baaah!  Shah-baaah!"

Teeth: Still 12.  His molars are all broken through and progressing very nicely.  They make it very easy for him to chew his new favorite food (see below.)

Sleep: This has gotten extra interesting since the conversion to a toddler bed.  Mot of that drama is chronicled elsewhere in this space, so I'll spare you a recap here.  Let's just say that our current goal is pretty much just for everyone in the house to get as much sleep as possible.  I guess that was always our goal, but it was much easier to accomplish when we had a little baby jail to help us out.

Food: I think we can say that bananas have been demoted a bit in Dexter's food repertoire.  He still really really likes them, and I still buy a dozen at a time if I can get the appropriate variety of ripeness.  But now Dennis and I actually get to eat a banana ourselves on occasion.  And Dexter is just as likely to ask for grapes or milk as he is to ask for a banana. 

Really, though, his favorite thing to put in his mouth these days is crayons.  Yep. Crayons.  And most of the ones we have are "washable," which means they are at least a little bit spit-soluble, which means he gets a whole face/mouth full of color. Yes, we try to stop him.  Yes, we usually fail.  Yes, I'm about to give up, because the things are nontoxic anyway, and there's not a whole heck of a lot we seem to be able to do about it.

Things he knows:  I'm soon not going to be able to put anything in this section, because he is learning too much too fast!  He's now helping us dress/undress him. (Zips up his own jacket and everything, once we get it started.  He can take it off all by himself!)  He's more hit than miss on colors - won't say the word, of course, but if asked "which is green?" he will point to the correct one.  (Ditto for red and yellow and blue. Sometimes orange.)  We're working on "patty cake," too.  He doesn't quite get the clapping/high-five part yet, but he LOOOOVES to "roll it" and "pat it."  It's really quite adorable.

Games: Let's see. I don't think he will ever tire of playing chase. :)  He also still loves peek-a-boo. Now he will put his hands over his face (peeking out through his fingers, though he thinks we can't see his little eyeball) and then pull his hands away and squeal with delight. The last few nights, he's thought that going to bed was a fun game.  

Toys: For some reason, Dexter ALWAYS goes for these stacking blocks.  (Thanks Mary & Stephen!)  I mean, it's great, I'm glad he likes the stacking blocks more than some of the electronic toys - leaves more room for imagination and all that. It's a great toy. But it's also one of the messier ones.  He has two sets.  So digging out these two, usually nice and compactly stored toys, results in 15 boxes of various sizes being strung all over the living room. 

Books:  Dexter's favorite book lately has been Dizzy Dragon. It's a really cute book that Tootsie gave him. (I don't remember the occasion - probably just because she likes to spoil him.)  Each page has a different dragon with googly eyes and some other touchy-feely part (bumpy, scratchy, soft, etc.).  Of course, Dexter just flies through those pages, so we don't get to read the little rhyme about each dragon. (Fiery Frank loves sausages/Pan-fried, grilled, or roasted/Flame-grilled are his favorite/He likes them nicely toasted!)  We're lucky if we can get out "Pink Dragon!"  "Blue Dragon!"  "Green Dragon!" etc. before he jumps to the last page, where the KING dragon lives, and the book plays a little song.  He loves it.

Tantrums:  Yep. Tantrums.  We seem to be in full-on tantrum mode these days. Certainly not every day, but there's at least one meltdown most days, sometimes a major serious meltdown with lots of hysterics and drama.   Hey, it's tough to be 17 months old, right?  Dexter often knows what he wants but can't tell us (frustrating) or just can't have it (playing in raw ground beef is just not allowed).  So he flails around and screams.  There's not a whole lot we can do about it except try to make sure he doesn't hurt himself.  I hope and hope and hope that he'll get some actual words soon to at least eliminate part of these major fustrations.

Eyes:  Finally, it looks like Dexter's eyes are maybe losing a little bit of their blueness.  They're still quite gorgeous, in my humble opinion, and light, but starting to go a little more green/gray/hazel.  We're watching closely to see if it's really true.

Dexter is 16 months old!

And he's chugging right along!

Signs: His newest sign is "grape."  We're trying to move from signs to WORDS, but of course Dexter just thinks you're playing some goofy game when you try to teach him words. Which brings us to...

Words: Not much progress on words.  "Duck" has been upgraded from "maybe," though - he does sometimes say "duck." (Or, more accurately, "Du."  Similarly, "mop" is really "mah." We're working on the ending consonants.)

Teeth: We're up to 12!  Numbers 9 and 10 (top molars) have broken through all the way and are still coming down.  Tooth #11 (bottom right molar) was first spotted on January 18 (15m, 2w), and #12 (bottom left molar) was just a few days behind.  He is handling it pretty well but does chew on his fingers quite a bit. (We've offered more appropriate teethers, but I think it's hard to get some of those back to the molars.)

Sleep: Dexter has started fighting bedtime.  He'll stall and stall and stall, pretend like he wants to read more books, or play in the bathroom, or ask you to sing the ABCs to him again and again and again.  I'd be willing to shift bedtime a little later, but he's still SO exhausted in the morning that I don't think we can do that.  He is still a horrible napper. He still pretty much sleeps through the night, though (with the occasional brief and self-resolved wake-up), so overall I don't think we can complain.

Food: Dexter is still a big eater.  (A few nights ago for dinner he had a banana, about 1/2 cup of grapes, another 1-1.5 cups of rice, a veggie burger pattie, and 6 ounces of yogurt.  Really, that's more than I eat for most meals.)  We've recently institued a "one banana per meal" rule; otherwise, I think he would be happy eating only bananas all the time.  Grapes are still a favorite. And yogurt (which we feed to him unless we're really prepared for a big mess). He likes rice, too (also messy, but not as bad as yogurt). 

Things he knows:  He's getting better and better at following commands and has pretty much mastered compound commands ("get the toy AND give it to Dad").  When asked, he can point to his tummy, feet, nose, ears, eyes, mouth, and head.  He can also point to your tummy, nose, ears, eyes, and head, too.  He knows where the trash can is, too, and will slide things in there (whether he's supposed to or not).  The other night, Dennis asked him to put a small piece of cardboard in the trash, but Dexter couldn't get it in because the tupperware lids he put in there earlier were in the way. Doh!


Games: Chase is still right up there. Peek-a-boo is still a favorite, often manifested as hiding in the pantry and opening and closing the door.  Another one I've neglected to mention before is "Dexter Pinball," in which he will come up to you wherever you stand and put his head between your knees.  You are then supposed to sortof bounce his head back and forth like a pinball.  He giggles and runs off. It's great.

Big Brotherhood: Dexter is an AWESOME big brother!  More on that later, but he really likes Desmond, is curious about him, wants to help when he cries - it's great.