Hunter: 19 months

Hello and happy Thursday!

Hunter is just 5 days away from being 20 months old, time for an update!  Here’s what new with our little man this month.

Hunter loves playing with kids, especially older kids it seems.  He has a blast at the gym’s childcare and is always grinning ear to ear when I pick him up (which was not always the case).  Pretty much daily he’s asking to play with his cousin Caden (above) who is two years older than him. They have soooo much fun together, laughing, chasing, sitting in Caden’s bed ‘talking’ and playing.

We even transitioned him into the big kid’s Sunday school (age 2-5) at church instead of the nursery (newborn – 2).  He used to always cry when we’d put him in the nursery, but with all the older kids around and more structured activities, he’s had a ball and doesn’t miss us one bit.  It makes me so happy that he’s growing and learning and turning into such a big kid.  Still, a bit sad to think about him growing up and not being my little baby anymore, but mostly all happy thoughts. 🙂

He loves waving and saying hi to anything and everything (including himself).  It doesn’t just have to be people or animals, he does it to all object… like his belly button, his cars, a chair, a car going by… it’s his thing right now.  He’s also started trying to take things out of books.  He grabs at objects (normally animals I think) and tries to pull them out of the book while saying ‘out out’.  Sadly, they never join  him outside the book.  It actually makes him sad they he can’t get them out.

He’s been testing his boundaries a lot more lately, especially with the potty.  If he doesn’t want to use the toilet, there is no way to get him on the potty and there will be lots of ‘no no no’ coming from him.  However, he’s still really good at telling us when he needs to go.  I feel like his accidents come in spurts.  He’ll have multiple days in a row being completely accident free, even with tons of errand running in underwear, then he’ll have a bunch of accidents in one day.  Only 3 months into potty training, I think he’s doing an amazing job.  He’s still only in diapers for nap, bed time and at the gym (yeah… I still haven’t taken the leap with that one).

Baking has been one of our favorite activities to do together lately.  I know he loves it because lately he’s started standing in the kitchen near where he sits on the counter, reaching up saying ‘baking baking’.  I’ll let him measure ingredients, taste them (one favorite lately was dipping shredded apple into ground flax seed) and then of course sampling the product.

I try to choose healthier options not only for him, but I know I’ll devour anything we make.  I just can’t keep myself away from sweets lately.  One of our go to treats which doesn’t actually involve baking in the oven are these peanut butter chocolate chip bean balls.  We worked on rolling them out together this week… while he sampled of course. 🙂

Jumping off the bottom stair – fun new game.

Clearly pants are options in our house (and on our counter tops).

Wearing no clothes at all – totally cool too.  Sometimes he just NEEDS to be naked.  Then once he’s naked he runs around in circles screaming at the top of his lungs.

He definitely prefers walking or running instead of being carried or being in the stroller.  The boy loves to explore.  Sticks are still a favorite.

His vocabulary is amazing.  I’m not good at all with keeping track of the words he knows, but I’m sure it’s over 100 by now.  Two and three word phrases are becoming more normal too.  It seems like he’s learning new words every day, just by hearing us say them.  His understanding is even more impressive than what he can say.  I ask him to do things, the same way I would talk to an adult, and he knows what I’m saying and does it.  It’s crazy.

Also, he’s been calling my stomach ‘sissy’ from time to time.  Adorable.  And he’ll give her hugs and kisses.  Double adorable.

I feel so lucky that we have been blessed with such a fun and happy kid.  He makes my days so special.  Hunter, mommy and daddy love you!

What is your kid’s favorite thing to bake or make?

Heather