Today, Jack turned 21 months old! I think he has hit another growth spurt too because his feet look bigger, he looks taller, and his pants seem really baggy! I’m guessing he grew up and thinned out a little bit. Thank goodness for adjustable waist pants!
This month, Jack FULLY understands us when we speak to him. He has gotten very sensitive when we talk to others about him when he is with us. We went to look at Christmas lights with my brother and his wife a few weeks ago, and I was talking to them about how frustrating it has been that Jack isn’t talking much yet. And I looked over at him, and he just started bawling! I asked him if I had hurt his feelings and made him sad, and he nodded that I did. Oh my! My heart broke and my stomach sank! I felt awful!!!!!!! I apologized and told him I knew he was probably frustrated too and that I was very proud of him being such a big boy. After a hug and kiss from me, he immediately stopped crying, and Sean and I learned a valuable lesson: Just because he cannot talk, doesn’t mean he doesn’t understand!
Always having a great interest in reading, Jack has been VERY interested in letters and numbers, but mostly letters. He always wants us to name letters, so Santa brought him an ABC puzzle for Christmas that he mastered in just a few hours, and Grandma brought him ABC fridge magnets. I can dump the puzzle on the floor, mix up all the letters, and he knows exactly where they go! It really amazes me. He also will take a letter like “M” and turn it around to make a “W”. He knows which letters he can do this for, and always corrects me if I say the wrong letter. The other day, he had letter “I” and turned it sideways to where it looked like a “H”. When I said “I”, he whined at me and got very upset. When I corrected myself and said “H”, he got very excited and was happy that Mommy knew her letters. HAHA!
Jack also loves to pretend. He loves to feed his animals with his own food and thinks that is just hilarious. He makes “slurpy” sounds with his toy kitchen when he drinks from the cups or off of his forks and spoons. He especially loves to pretend to eat his play food in his kitchen. I just wish he ate that well in real life! HA!
We are really seeing our little boy grow out of babyhood and into becoming a very smart little boy. This past month, he was treated for chronic gastritis and seems to be doing much better. Although, he is a VERY picky eater and still refuses to eat anything new or some things he liked before. I know it’s normal toddler behavior, but it’s insanely frustrating. He has dropped his milk (formula) down to 16 oz. a day now that he is eating solids again. So, that is very good. We also get to wean him off of his reflux medicine this month!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY! He is halfway there and doing VERY well! Sean and I will both be so excited to say goodbye to the expensive medicine and then hopefully the outrageous formula. Once we wean him from the reflux meds, we will be talking to his pediatric GI about how to go about the milk allergy issue. I would really prefer him to be tested, if possible, rather than a trial by error nightmare like we have been through before. Then, we could know upfront, instead of putting him through all of that stomach pain again. We shall see.
Overall, Jack is really doing great! He despises time-out and will sit in the corner now by himself. It’s nice that he understands this, so I don’t have to sit with him and punish myself while I’m punishing him. But it’s rare we even have to do that right now. He really is such a sweet, sweet little boy, and we love him more than anything in this world! Happy 21 months, Jack!