20 months

why yes, that is the best laying down picture i got.
talan turned 20 months old today. and i wondered, how much longer am i going to do this every month post?! probably until he's two and then maybe every 6 months...or something like that. or maybe i'll continue....123 months...that could be fun.
talan is continuing to improve upon the art of the tornado. he loves to make a mess. leave him in a room for about 2 minutes and every toy, and non toy, will be spread across the entire floor. i have cleaned out the basement at least two times now getting rid of things that don't seem to get played with but still make a huge mess. there is still plenty for him to find to tear apart though.
i was scared to death to put up the christmas tree this year. but surprisingly he hasn't really bothered with it....too much. mom gave him a drum set ornament this year and he always looks up at it and says "bang bang" because once we let him drum on it with a pen. i came home the other nite to find that he did break one ornament and was playing with several others. but it's nothing like i thought it would be. thankfully!
i started wrapping presents the other evening and last nite wrapped some toys for my bff's children. since we will be celebrating christmas with them next friday, i decided to leave those presents under the tree. while putting them under there i thought about talan. then decided he really hasn't opened too many presents in his lifetime and at thanksgiving he couldn't have cared less to open up his ornament so i figured i'd be safe. well....about 15 minutes ago i went upstairs to find he had completely unwrapped one of the gifts. i mean completely. all of the paper was off. i thought he tried opening the others, but he didn't. just the one.
talan had a fever a couple of weeks ago but no other real symptoms with it. after a couple of days the fever was gone but he remained incredibly whiny and clingy. i decided to bring him in to the dr. to make sure it wasn't an ear infection since thanksgiving was just 2 days away. they looked in his ears and said they were all clear (to the shock of me and the dr.) and then they started to look in his mouth. right then i remembered that three weeks earlier i had strep so i mentioned it to the dr. at that point she just decided to take a strep culture just to be safe but she really didn't think he had it. 5 minutes later the test came back positive. the dr. said he shouldn't have gotten it so long after i had it...it should have been about 3 days later. but the test showed a weak positive meaning he was JUST getting it. leave it to talan. but thankfully i did bring him in so he wasn't contagious on thanksgiving! and nobody else in the family has gotten it.
talan has seemed to lose his appetite lately and isn't eating very well at all. he rarely eats a real breakfast. he usually just chooses to drink his milk and walk around eating fruit loop cereal straws. although i have gotten him to sit and eat some oatmeal a few times. for a couple of days he was on a grilled cheese kick for lunch. but just a couple of days. most of the time he'll eat some cheese, maybe some crackers and some turkey. occasionally he'll eat some apple, but many times he chews it and then spits it out. that's fun. he used to have no problem eating chicken with us at dinner but he doesn't seem to eat very much of that anymore either. he will usually eat chicken nuggets though. and he LOVES tomatoes. loves them.
he still wakes up around 7am, although the past week or so he's been getting up later. one morning i walked hayden to the bus stop at 8:45 and he still wasn't up. or if he was, he wasn't yelling to get out yet. he still takes a good nap from about 1-3 or 3:30 and then goes to bed between 7 and 8. some nites you think he should be tired and we'll put him in his crib and he'll just cry. and he won't stop crying. many of those evenings i'll take him out, let him play for awhile and then put him back in and he goes right down. so he's pretty good about letting us know when he really does want to sleep.
talan is quite the independent toddler, most of the time. he knows what he wants and he does it, no matter what. if he doesn't get to do it, he screams. and screams loud. he has perfected the tantrum. this calm, happy baby has turned into a raging tantrum toddler. he fits in perfectly in this house now.
dave told me a story the other week about talan harassing hayden. apparently they were all in the basement and talan had a ball in his hand (which he can hold with one hand because his hands are so freakin' big) which he would act like he was going to throw but just hold it right in hayden's face. hayden would yell "don't throw that at me!!!" and talan would do it again. and again. and again. dave finally let hayden in on the fact that talan was not going to throw the ball, he was just messing with him. and the thing is, i don't even know that talan learned that from hayden.
talan loves to go bye bye. at least for a little while. many times while we're out he lets it be known that he is ready to go...but the act of getting ready to go bye bye is usually a breeze with him cuz he's excited to go somewhere. so he'll happily sit and let us put on his socks and shoes and coat and hat. the other evening we were getting ready to go to dinner for dave's birthday. i went and picked out a pair of shoes for talan (the wide sized ones as they are the easiest to get on those logs of his) but he picked up a different brown shoe and handed it to me. i thanked him and told him i already had shoes so i put the brown one away. he then threw one of his fits, pulled the basket back out, found both brown shoes and handed them to me still yelling. i decided not to fight it so i put the shoes i already had away and said ok, let's go put them on. he then looked in the basket and at the shoes in my hand to make sure i didn't pull the 'ol switch-a-roo on him and that he would, in fact, be going to dinner in the brown corduroy shoes he had picked out. 20 months old and he's telling me what he wants to wear. hayden still doesn't do that...usually.
he continues to try talking more and more. most of which most outsiders wouldn't understand...most of which we can understand most of the time. he says "star" and was so funny after the tree was up and he came into the living room the first time and saw it. he just kept looking up saying "ooooo..dahhhr!" over and over. he now also LOVES elmo and says elmo perfectly. he also says dante, although he could be saying kitty, but i think it's dante. and he says something for shoe, but it pretty much sounds like what he says for train...it's not really even a word, he just makes this sound from his throat. he finally has started saying mama again. when he sees a picture of dave he'll say "there's dada" but it doesn't come out quite as clearly as that. and of course he always says "bang" as his favorite toy is still drumsticks. he says "all done" pretty clearly now as well and still makes tons of "oooo" "ahhhh" noises at all of the appropriate times which is hilarious. he says "pip" for chip which is probably my favorite. he also says "bibee" for binky. and he will say "cheese" when you take his picture or at lunchtime when he actually wants cheese.
his newest thing is skateboarding. last year hayden got one for his birthday. they typically used to just roll around on it, but recently hayden has been trying to stand on it. not sure if talan saw that or if he just decided to try it on his own, but he now will stand on the skateboard and walk off of it as it's moving under him. and he almost never falls. he has perfect balance. it's ridiculous how good he actually is on that skateboard.
he continues to love to dance. he loves watching thomas, yo gabba gabba and the imagination movers. he still loves his baths but hates having his hair washed. he loves playing in the basement. he loves playing on his pretend computer, especially when someone else is playing on theirs...but he'd rather the real deal. he loves music. he loves messes. he loves going outside and wants to get "down" no matter what the weather is. he loves going to target and seeing the "balls" outside and saying "ball" over and over again. he loves his binky and blanket although i know it's about time we start only allowing the binky in the crib only....but it's just so convenient to shut him up! he loves taking all of the movies out upstairs which i believe i hear him doing right this second. he loves taking the cushions off of the couch. he loves picking up the phone and pretending his talking and laughing with someone...but he won't say a word if someone is actually on the other end. he loves jumping on our bed. he loves playing on hayden's leapster video game. he loves trying to walk up the stairs instead of crawl up them. he loves brushing his teeth. he LOVES to give five's and to dap up. he loves to give kisses with a real kissing sound effect. he loves justin. he loves to jump into people's arms. he loves my dad. he loves to take the batteries out of the dvd controller. he loves cell phones and recently called dennis varty where apparently hayden took the phone and started talking to him.
he hates sitting for anything, even a meal. he hates being told no. he still isn't a fan of cold wipes. he hates being put in his carseat when he's not ready...and he'll stiffen up so that you can't buckle him in. he refuses to talk on demand. or do any of his trick on demand for that matter. he hates root beer. on the few occasions that jessica has given him some he makes a horrible face and sticks out his tongue. he acts shy around people when he first sees them by turning his head away and rolling his eyes so he can't see them. there just aren't a ton of things that he hates. although there are plenty of times during the day that he throws a fit because he hates something...but that's mostly the hates being told no thing.
even with all of the screaming and tantrums, talan is still a very good and happy baby with a hilarious personality. he says things, walks a certain way, or makes certain faces at the exact moment he should in a situation. he really is a funny kid. he keeps us moving all day long and he makes our house nosier than it was before....and it was plenty noisy before.
i'm so excited for this christmas and to watch him take it all in. i have a feeling we won't get a very good santa picture this year, but it will be a memorable one! speaking of pictures...i'll have to take on talan and the bear pictures after nap.
happy 20 months, baby talan! we love you!