21 Months

Here we are in the home stretch to another birthday and Kellan has never been more fun, interesting, or wonderful. Everything that he does these days impresses the life out of me. This is such an exciting time in his development. I am already worried about my ability to master the art of meaningful praise -- how do you not throw up your arms and shout in delight with every new accomplishment? The fact that Kellan produces the phrase, in exactly my intonation, "Good job!" many times each day is not lending me much credibility. On the other hand, Nic is, if anything, underimpressed by each of these new feats of development [Nic: "So when's he going to learn to drive and go out on a Friday night?"], so perhaps we'll even things out in the end.

Kellan is really mastering his letters at the moment, thanks in large part to the Leap Frog Fridge Phonics magnet set. I can not recommend this product highly enough. It is sweet and simple, fun, and gets the job done. He has always enjoyed playing with the magnet set, but in the past month has really started shouting out the letters and letter sounds, and recently actually naming a letter, then going to get it from the fridge. He has begun to see letters that he recognizes in words and signs, pointing to them and naming the letter. Reading is next!

Kellan has recently become very involved in his music classes as well, having mastered all of the movements to go with their songs. He also enjoys the independent back and forth of selecting instruments, returning the instruments, sitting on the listening mat, and having a bit of responsibility for maintaining the structure of the class. Of any activity that we do in a week (swimming, Fun Shop, play group, and others), I believe that he gains the greatest benefit from music class at this point in his development. It is the one class that really carries over to home, a class that has both given him a background in music and movement, and has fostered some independence and responsibility in his actions.

He remains totally devoted to Dora the Explorer. He loves trains, trucks, and anything that makes a good noise or involves lights. He is crazy for dogs and I wish that we had the time, energy, or inclination to get one, but Nic is not a lover of pets and I honestly am not up for the battle right now. Eventually we'll get there. He talks ceaselessly, to us or to himself, doesn't matter. He says more words than I can even hope to list anymore and all of them are adorably mispronounced. I will really hate it when he starts saying, "grape", instead of, "ahppa". He loves to have his teeth cleaned and asks for "zees" (teeth) every time that we go into the bathroom. When tired he will tell you that he wants to go to bed, give his daddy a kiss, then find Roger and crawl on in, whether or not you are ready! He is still absolutely devoted to nursing and nurses a minimum of four times each day.

Things have changed a lot since our earliest posts when Kellan was 7 months old. And every day, these things just keep getting better!