20 months Old

(Erik glaring at the camera!)

My sweet baby boy is 20 months old today! I am having issues with this because it makes him sound old -- so close to being 2 years old. I am not ready for my baby to turn two yet but I guess there is nothing I can do to stop that.

Erik is growing so fast. During the past 4 months he has gone from saying 20 - 30 words to speaking in small sentences. Amazing!! He consistently puts two words together and is starting to say 3-4 word phrases. It is so exciting to watch him learn. Another fun thing that he can do is remember events. When we do things during the day he can sometimes remember it 10 hours later and tell Victor about it when he gets home.

He seems to be going through a stranger anxiety phase now. He gets nervous around anyone he is not extremely familiar with. At the park the other day 17 month twin boys were there. Erik sat on my lap and glared at them the whole time. When they left he immediately got off of my lap and went to play. If any stranger pays attention to him he clings and clings to my legs. He spends quite a bit of time in the church nursery and cried for 3-4 minutes after I left him there this week. He has not done that before. I know this is normal and I will just enjoy this phase. Before I know it he will want me to drop him off a block away from school so I better enjoy it when he thinks there is nothing better in the world than his mommy.

Erik is generally a sweet, gentle boy. He loves to help me cook and clean. He does have a sparkle in his eyes though and does plenty of michevous things. He loves to climb. If I leave a chair pulled out at the table he is on top of the table in about 5 seconds. He uses his rocking horse as a ladder to climb over the back side of the couch. He recently has tried climbing his toy shelf. Yikes! We do have the heavy furniture bolted to the wall to prevent it from tipping over on him. Victor has a ladder in baby girl's room because he is going to paint it soon. Erik LOVES the ladder and would spend all day climbing it if allowed. He loves it so much that he was able to open a door on his own for the first time while breaking into baby girl's room.

Erik also loves to be outside. He really loves rocks, dirt, puddles, and bugs. He isn't afraid to touch bugs -- he held a catapiller in his hand the other day. He "pets" them and says, "Gentle."

He is starting to make friends and asks all day long about Cullen, Sean, and Ellie (Elliana). When Victor got home from work the other night I asked Erik who just came home. His response was, "Cullen?" No -- guess again. "Sean?" Nope -- who do you think came home from work? "Daddy!" It is too bad Elliana doesn't live closer because Erik really seems to love her.

I love my baby boy more and more each day and am so grateful to be his mommy!