Matt chattering away to himself as he plays with his puzzles while I type up this post
Yesterday Matt got his first haircut when Jon trimmed his hair. Matt didn't like the towel covering up his arms and the buzzing sound of the trimmer, but he cooperated decently.
Before
During
After
At 20 months Matt continues to be active, talkative, curious, bright, easy going, cuddly, and goofy. He's perfectly happy with some shovels to play in water and/or sand, some cars or trucks or airplanes, sticks, bubbles, cardboard boxes, and of course books. His new favorite things are big trucks (diggers most of all), and he's thinking about getting into trains. That said, he continues to be a fan of dinosaurs and animals, mainly dogs, cats, frogs (and toads), turtles, and snakes as well as birds, fish, sharks, and bunny rabbits. Matt's crib still has a collection of stuffed animals, but he's not as concerned with them as he was before, and he's recently tried to take his trucks with us on car rides instead. Curious George is currently Matt's most recognized character. Luckily the library let us attend their Curious George event last month, and we read Curious George books a lot.
Matt is saying more and more recognizable words, although he still babbles when he feels he has something to say. He's starting to add second syllables back in, which is helpful as he puts more and more sounds to things he knows. He's now saying many of the words he used to sign, although he's sort of halfway to saying the full word as he halfway does the sign (and sometimes he does both to emphasize his point, like "More!"). And Matt will say, "Me!" when he sees himself in the mirror, although he refers to himself as "Baby."
This past month Matt really started to be able to recognize and identify colors. Right now he identifies most basic colors (pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, and white) correctly most of the time, and he's working on a few more (black, gray, and brown). He especially likes blue, although the jury's still out on whether he likes the color or the sound the word makes more.
Two is currently Matt's favorite number. He is working on counting to five, but most of the time he's happy to stop at two. He loves to count eyes and ears on people and animals. (The cat is not impressed he can count the number of ears she has.)
Matt is starting to get a little more interested in puzzles, which is good because we have a few! He still likes to play with the pieces rather than take the time to place them back. It's hard for him to focus on lining the pieces up with their slots when he's trying to talk about them, thinking about playing with the pieces instead of putting them back, and noticing the next piece to put in - plus whatever else is going on around him.
Matt underwent a pretty good growth spurt within the past couple of weeks. He has basically outgrown his size 6 shoes, even if his size 7s are a bit roomy yet. And some of his 2T shirts are getting rather short on him, while I no longer have to roll up his 24-month pants. Some of his 2T pants are still a bit loose in the waist on him, though. It's a good thing it's shorts weather so he can keep wearing his 24-month shorts since the length doesn't really matter with those!
