Matt going down the slide at the park today
Matt excited about seeing not one but two snakes (one at home, one at the state park)
Matt is one busy little guy! He tires us out as we try to tire him out.
Matt is very talkative. I've lost count of his new words. This past month he learned a couple of new signs and started using for the first time a sign or two I taught him several months ago. We've stopped teaching him new signs now, however. Matt still uses signs to communicate with us, although he is starting to replace a couple of them with the spoken words (like moon and more). He is, however, speaking a lot of new words. He says at least 1-3 and sometimes even 6-8 new ones daily. This past month he really started repeating after us, and he loves this fun new game of "Can you say _____?" For the most part he's just saying monosyllables, and some of them run together ("cat" can be "cat," "cat food," "cat toy," "caterpillar," or "catnip," depending upon the context). But he has definitely hit the so-called word explosion that kids are supposed to experience around 18 months old.
Matt is getting quite strong and is becoming a better climber, which has its pluses and minuses. He goes up and now down stairs without help, although he prefers assistance so he can walk down like a big person rather than crawl on hands and knees. As he hits 27 pounds I'm grateful he doesn't need me to carry him on the stairs as often!
Matt's interest in cars and planes has calmed down a bit, and he is showing a little more interest in trucks, especially construction vehicles, now that he has seen some up close and in action. He still loves his animals and dinosaurs. We continue to read every day, but lately Matt seems more interested in stacking the books up into giant piles rather than reading through them all in one big binge as he once did. He hasn't seemed as interested in my library selections lately and wants to rotate through the books we have at home instead, which is fine. (I've had great success rotating his toys, so it makes sense that he'd appreciate rotating through his books, too. He gets overwhelmed with too many options, so he actually does more if he has less.)
Matt is definitely a toddler. He can sometimes be very helpful and follow directions well, like when he's helping to unload the dishwasher. And sometimes he can be stubborn and insist on doing his own thing. He has started answering no to questions, especially questions about what he wants to do or what he has done. ("Did you go to the park today?" "No." "Did you go down the slide?" "No." "Did you see any of your friends?" "No.") We've had our first temper tantrum, which was surprising because Matt doesn't have many big meltdowns, and when he does get fussy he is almost always tired and/or hungry. For the most part, though, Matt is still a fairly easy-going guy. He is just fulfilling his toddler obligations of testing limits and asserting himself.
