Spear Summary of Month 23

This is a summary of Spear’s 23rd month of life – it covers all of October 2019 and he was 22 months old this month!

Sleeping and Eating

Well. We FINALLY did it.

We dropped the morning nap haha

When we went to Disney Spear skipped the morning nap several days in a row so When Zach took him home he just went ahead and kept going without it.

I have adjusted his afternoon nap to earlier.

Usually when my kids drop the morning nap they sleep longer for the afternoon one but Spear hasn’t been doing that and I realized he’s overstimulated and overtired by 1:00.

I started feeding him lunch earlier and getting him down closer to 12:15ish and it’s helped a lot!

He really has always been a high sleep needs kid so I’ve never had to worry with him not sleeping but since dropping the morning nap it seems like he is struggling more with sleeping solid at the afternoon nap.

If he wakes early he is content in his crib and plays happily…and still chews on it too UGH.

While he struggles to sleep fully at naps…he will straight up fall asleep in the car still.

When I pick him up from school I have to be mindful NOT to hand him his friend or he WILL be asleep when I pull in the driveway!

We’ve def entered into the more picky toddler stage where Spear will not be in the mood for some foods.

He used to just gobble up everything at every meal but now sometimes he’ll LOVE raspberries and then other times he won’t touch them.

He is also now noticing when we have different foods than he does which can be SUPER annoying at meal times.

Like if we’re eating burritos and we cut up his burrito he will whine the whole meal b/c he wants to have the EXACT food we do in the same exact WAY we are eating it!

Spear has always preferred “real food” over treats but as he’s getting older he is liking treats more and will ask for “cookie” which is adorable and he gets SUPER excited when given a treat!

He does this super cute laugh when he’s excited that I just LOVE!

School

Spear continues to just LOVE school.

Now that he’s talking more he will get so excited in the mornings when we’re getting ready to go to school and will say “school school!” and then will get super upset when waiting in the car line because he’s so excited to go inside and doesn’t want to sit and wait!

He gets good reports every day from school and he comes home with such cute crafts!

As I mentioned last month, school has been SO GREAT for Spear.

He not only loves it but I’m seeing HUGE benefits at home as well. I’m just so super glad I made the leap and enrolled him!

At home he now really loves to “color” and “puzzle” and will ASK to sit in his chair to work on those things.

He also continues to love to “cook” and I’m so thankful to have activities he enjoys that allow him to SIT STILL so I can get things done without the house being destroyed!

Speech Update:

Woah. I cannot believe the HUGE gains Spear has made SO quickly!

He really exploded this month to the point where I can’t even keep track of all the words he says.

At the beginning of the month he was at around 30 words and by the end of the month he’s well beyond 50 words and he’s doing multiple word combinations.

Both of these are BIG milestones with speech!

He loves to tell things in his room “bye-bye” at bedtime. He’ll say “Bye bye bear. Bye bye Mickey”

He started being able to say the kids names this month…”Tess” and “Kye” are the ones he says the easiest but has said “Britt” some too!

He also has started saying YES which is AWESOME in that I can ask him something and he will reply “yes” huge help in limiting frustrations for us both!

His speech therapist told me that the goal by two years old is to be saying 50 words and THEN they will start working on 2 word combos and he’s already hit both of those markers before age two.

Such a big relief on my mama heart!

I want to really, really encourage anyone who reads this and has a hunch that your child may benefit from services to PUSH and PUSH.

I have been pushing since MARCH and I’m so thankful I did!!!

I firmly believe he would NOT have had this explosion on his own!

Speech Tips:

Someday I will combine all of the tips we learn into one blog post but for now I’m going to share them monthly.

As your child masters a word try to use a different term with the same meaning. Like Spear said “ugh-oh” and his therapist started saying “Oh-no” instead.
Once your child starts combining words (saying two word phrases) try to always use two word phrases when labeling. Like instead of just saying “shoes” when I put his shoes on I now say “shoes on”
Also once the child is able to say two word phrases, it’s good to start using three word phrases. Basically you always want to be one step ahead in what you say to the child to encourage them to keep expanding their vocabulary.
We are still just keeping books simple at this stage with pointing and labeling and repeating!

Sibling Time

As I mentioned, Spear is using the kids names now and I think it makes a difference. The more his language develops the closer their bonds all seem to get.

He is growing up and starting to play with the kids and interact with them in a more mature way!

Tess was upset one afternoon and Spear ran to her and hugged her. He is learning social situations and reacting to them appropriately.

More About Spear:

Spear is OBSESSED with going outside with Zach.

Zach will walk in the door from work and Spear will immediately go get his shoes and take them to Zach for him to put on and take him outside.

He is equally in love with Zach’s new lawn mower.

I have to strategically get him out of his car seat so he won’t be able to run over to the lawn mower b/c once he gets on it he is REALLY upset when it’s time to get off.

I will say “bye bye lawn mower” and he will look at me dead serious and say “bye bye mama.”

I got down all of Kye’s 2t clothes this month to start switching things out in Spear’s closet.

He is def out of the 12 month stuff finally and is a solid 18 months size but it’s a weird size that I just don’t tend to have a lot of so he’ll be skipping right along to 2t even if it’s a little big for awhile!

Everything is a tool at this stage for Spear. I have to get onto him constantly for “fixing” things as he will take an object, consider it a hammer, and beat on the household items with it.

Even though he is still very much my WILD CHILD he is finally learning to sit still and watch a little screen time now and then!

It’s also cute now that he’s talking more to learn more about things that he likes. He will ask for “Stitch” and will say “outside” in communicating things he wants to do and items he loves!

He is our most common sense child for sure and just catches onto things super quickly.

He will see us do something and copycat us all the time!