20 months!

Dear Aiden,

This month your attention span expanded and you became interested in repeating things...over and over and over. You spent an entire two hour gymboree session playing "catch" by sitting in a big bucket as you caught and threw a ball back and forth with Rebecca. You will giggle about the same thing over and over once it sets you off. My favorite was on the airplane when you started saying apple and waiting for me to say juice. You would point at me to get me to say it. You'll bring this little game up even weeks later... apple...juice...aaaple, juuuice.
You're in the habit of babbling (dubbed chicken talk by that nice stranger on the airplane) a lot when you get upset. It's usually at the other parent that you aren't upset with, sort of a tattle tale way of getting upset. You will run over to the other parent, and say, "mama/dada, no, no, wanna, some babbles with some real words thrown in... The other parent can usually explain that you need to share, etc, etc and you will usually listen.
If you ask you your name you like to say "Aaaaay" or sometime 'a', you then started with Ay-nin and finally towards the end of the month got Aiden pretty consistently. You now will answer what your name is because you think its funny. The reason that it became funny was that J started saying my name is J in order to get you to say my name is Aiden. He also told you your mama's name is Lauren...which comes out more like La-en. So now you will call for Dada J and sometimes just Jaaaaay.... and it cracks us up. You've moved from saying Ba to Ra-bec-ca, which is so close and better, since Ba was too close to Ma. You already look so much like Rebecca that people get confused. It doesn't help that now you can call me Lauren though ;)
You really liked to jump around the beginning of the month, and you quickly discovered that jumping on a cushion was much more fun...and dangerous. You are pretty fast on your feet, but your big buddy Tyler can still out run you. Some of your summer shorts are a bit long so luckily they protect your little knees if you bite it. They also might be slowing your stride down a bit, but that's ok, you're fast enough for me.
You and your buddy Tyler got to hang out a bunch this month even outside of your normal Gymboree time. Rebecca took you over to hang out and mentioned that you and Tyler were really interested in zooming around in circles on these two little wheely animals. You continued that fun while zooming around in Gran and Pop's kitchen on your turtle which is equipped with super spiral wheels.
You love visiting the pet store next door to our one and only Trader Joes. You will alternate between the wild doggies and the birdies, holding my hand to walk in between them. It's pretty dangerous to visit those adorable puppies, but I think we'll keep our sanity at least until you're old enough to help. Your favorite game is to walk up and down the windows counting the doggies and pointing out any that are sleeping.You love to eat dry cereal. You usually have a mix of different ones in your snack trap. You also still like to feed them to us every once in a while. I am more careful now though because one time you somehow managed to get a kitty gibble in your little pinchers and you fed it to me with a giggle. I think you knew that it was an icky and wanted to see how I'd react. You're a tricky little one...
You got really into pouring water from one cup to another and you would take sips in between. You essentially taught yourself how to consistently drink from a cup on your own from this little game. You now love these drinkable yogurts and I was even brave enough to give you one of those crazy yogurts in a tube the other day - it was successful with a very tiny little hole for you to squeeze it through. You like summer treats including plenty of applesauce popsicles and even baked beans now.Everything was silly this month, silly mama, silly chicken - That Little Pookie book by Sandra Boynton was a favorite and you thought it was so fun to repeat the lines and say "that's silly." Your favorite expression of the month was "oh yes"... You will sometimes babble away and if we repeat it properly you will congratulate us with an "oh yes." At the beginning of the month, you were saying yes like Sean Connery - yesssh - and saying orange like a french man - oranjay.
You really began wholeheartedly asking questions - Where is that PopPop? You will call nicely when you wake up in the morning - Mama, where are youuuu? You also started to really like using the word 'go' for more than just to start swinging or riding in the wagon or any number of fun little go games. I've always loved when you used that word, but now you are using it in sentences like "Where did dada go? and it's even more fun to hear go with that cute little kiddo voice.
Our bed time wind down routine includes these fun WeeSing sing-a-longs. The original was an ABC song with animals that sang each letter, but now you have colors on the farm, numbers under the sea, and your all time favorite opposites. You blow us out of the water with how much you absorb (I can't help but seem like an overly proud, braggy mom and I'm sure other kids can do this stuff too, but you seriously can consistently say sentences, count to ten unprompted, identify letters in any order, shapes check, colors check, animal sounds/names check, and your dad taught you left and right - seriously)
Sometimes you're not into saying much in front of other people, but your shyness doesn't translate to Gymboree, which is like your second home (since you're there at least three times a week). They know you so well they invited you to be in the big kid art class because you are able to not be too messy or eat anything. They always do a class mural and you get really into creating on the wall. I love your individual projects that you bring home to share and you babble away to describe them to me....then I take a photo of the original and I let you continue to color on them or deconstruct it - which is usually ripping it apart...which helps me get to the point where I can throw them out.
You love to sing along to songs, and you usually bop your head side to side. You somehow picked up to say, "that's catchy!" when you favorite songs come on. You love this little Elmo sing a long song that you call the Tyler song because sometimes you want to substitute name. You will sub about any two syllable name, but your favorite part is the...lalala lalala Mama's song lalala lalala... Your cute little sing song voice is my favorite, but a close second is when you find a horsey to imitate and you say neigh neigh with real emphasis.
This summer is getting off to a slow start with all this cloudy rain, but we're looking forward to more months of slip sliding in the pool and eating some grilled yum.
Kisses to my little yum monster, Mama La-en