19 months of Ivor

As of next week, we will have had Ivor for a full 19 months. I write that in complete disbelief at how quickly time passes and with so much thankfulness for the gift of this precious little boy.

Ivor has grown up before our eyes over the past few months. Gone is our skinny baby- replaced by an exuberant sensitive vehicle loving toddler, who talks, feed himself, climbs, vacuums and can identify all the basic parts of a car (that is all the parts that Mommy knows the names of, like door, wheel, windshield wipers, etc...). The biggest changes we've seen in Ivor this past few weeks have been in his communication, coordination and sense of humor.

Put them to work at an early age, I say!

Everyday he comes out with new words. My favorite of his new words is 'naughty', which comes out of Ivor's mouth as 'No-ee'. (I happen to think his pronunciation makes a lot of sense.) My least favorite of his new words is 'Mine', which he used for the first time this morning. Along with sweet baby pronunciations of some words, I also love hearing how he chooses to use his words. For example, Ivor declares any child under the age of around 10 to be a 'baby'. When he wants to see pictures or home videos of himself, he asks for more 'baby'. He knows his name, but will always identify himself first as a 'baby'.

My big boy has grown 3 shoe sizes in the last 5 months and is now mostly into his 18 month to 2T sized clothes. He was still 32 inches tall when I measured him a couple weeks ago, but he is noticeably thicker and stronger lately. The steps up to our flat are pretty big for him, but as long as I hold one of his hands for balance, he can climb the whole way up. He can also walk the whole way from the train station to home (about 1/2 mile). Yesterday when we took him to the park, he climbed up the rock wall ramp to the slide all by himself. (Previously he needed us to push or lift him up.)

It is fun to see how aware Ivor has become with his surroundings. The other day I tried to walk a different way to the grocery store and he became very upset, jabbering and gesticulating, pointing to the way we usually go. He cracks himself up by putting something in the wrong place and then saying 'no'. For example, he will put his hat on his teddy, say 'no', laugh and then put the hat back on his own head. He also found it really funny to put his toys into the cupboard with our dishes, and then take them all back out again.

I can't wait to see what the next months have in store for this sweet growing boy!