Twenty-Two Months

For the past few weeks I've been meaning to write a "Twenty-Two Months" post about Kai, but the time obviously got away from me because today Kai is twenty-three months old!  So, let me back track a little bit and tell you what our little guy has been up to since my last post at twenty months.  Beware, it may be long, so if you want just skip to the videos at the bottom!

My favourite thing about 22 months is Kai's growing ability to communicate with us.  When he is around people he feels comfortable with, he is constantly talking.  He is beginning to string words together well, and in his own little way tells us many anecdotes and stories.  His ability to remember past events and people also seems to be getting better since he often talks about things we did weeks ago or people we saw weeks ago.  Some days I wish my memory was as good as his!  His verbal skills are also growing in other ways.  He is able to count to 6 (although he always skips "3"), and he is getting better and better at identifying colours and shapes.  When asked how things are, such as "How are you?", "How was your nap?", "How's your supper?", he always responds with a resounding "Gooot!".  When referring to himself, he used to say "you" (I think because we always point to him in the mirror or in pictures and say, "It's you!"), and instead of "my" or "mine", he said "you's".  However, just in the past few weeks he's started referring to himself as "Kai".  Perhaps the best language skill of all though is Kai's growing ability to sing songs.  His favourite is "Old McDonald" but he can also be heard singing "Ask, Seek and Knock" quite often.  And, just the other day when we were picking up his toys, Kai started singing our little clean-up song all by himself.  The words and the tune weren't quite right, but it was precious none-the-less.  I also recently found him sitting on the couch, with a book of poetry open to the page with "Are you Sleeping" on it.  As he looked at the page, he was singing "Are sleeping? Are sleeping?" to himself.  It melts my heart!

Speaking of books, Kai enjoys reading more and more every day.  He knows the titles (or his own personal version of the title) of all his favourite books, and just tonight he informed me that H.A. Rey wrote the Curious George book I was reading him.  We read so often that he has many of the book plots memorized and can "read" the books to us, his animals or himself.

Cars and animals continue to be the other two types of toys he enjoys the most.  He lines them, stacks them, sorts them and mimics all of the sounds they make.  In addition to his toys, he continues to love the outdoors and most days we make a trip to the park or the beach.  He is becoming a really good climber, can hold his own weight and swing on the bars, and can jump with both feet off the ground.

His personality is really growing these days too.  It makes me so happy to see in him a loving and nurturing spirit.  He is usually gentle with others (although I keep hearing from other moms that this will change any day, and I'm not looking forward to that!).  He is quick to give hugs, kisses, "I love you"s and apologies to others.  He constantly talks about his family and friends and loves to see them in person or talk to them on Skype and on the phone.  His conversations usually go, "Hello. Bye-bye.  Love you."  And, cutest of all, he makes sure all of his stuffed animals are "fed", comfortable, warm and provided with entertainment (books, puzzles or toys) before he says "Bye-bye. Love you!" and leaves the room!  He does, however, continue to be feisty, mischievious and energetic as well...all of which keep us on our toes and provide great entertainment at our house :)  Probably the most difficult thing at the moment though is Kai's difficulty with sharing, especially when the toy involved is a car or truck.  Usually if it's somebody else's toy he is better, but when his own toys are involved, he is extremely possessive.  And, if things don't go quite his way, there is usually a big tearful outburst.  He is also getting bossier, and can often be heard saying, "you do it" or "I get it" or "sit here" or "do this" or most commonly "self", meaning "myself" when he's feeling particularly independent.  He also attempts to persuade us into giving him his every wish by putting the word "yes" after every request.  For example, "Park, yes?!", "Sit read story, yes?!", "Snack, yes?!".

Despite these sometimes difficult issues, twenty-two months has been just as good, if not better than any month before it!  May twenty-three months and then two years be even better :)

This video was taken at the beginnig of August and shows our little water baby in fine form.
Translation of the last few seconds:  "Water fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.  Water cold.  Yeah."

Kai has a book with Spanish translations in the back, so Bryon's been teaching him a little bit of Spanish.  Now Kai officially knows more Spanish than his mommy!