22 months

today talan turned 22 months old. that means only 2 more months until he is 2. and that seems crazy to me. it also seems like a lot of 2's.
it seems like talan had a pretty big month this time around. he is starting to at least try to repeat almost everything he hears. and he is almost always trying to communicate with us using words. some of the words in his vocabulary are: cracker (cwaca), stuck (duck but without a huge d sound), dog (sounds a lot like duck), duck, please (at the beginning of the month it sound like peace or peas, now he dropped the s sound so it's pretty much pee), he says hot when given some food or when he is around the space heater, he now usually says chip instead of pip which is sad, drum (dum), tick (stick...usually drum stick), pickle sounds like people, and a whole slew of other words.
one of my favorite new words he says is rock. he will bring a hockey stick or some other toy that seems like a guitar and just start saying "rock! rock!" until you turn on some music for him to rock out to.
one nite at dinner he started saying something that sounded like "knock knock" so dave asked "who's there?" he then said "pooh." when asked "pooh who?" he just went back to "knock knock" and would continue to say it was pooh or poof or something similar to that. he thought he was way funny (which he was) so he continued for quite awhile.
each morning when he wakes up and i go in to get him he will point to just about everything in his crib to have me name them all. "blanket. other blanket. pooh bear. binky." it's just something it seems he feels he has to do before asking for some milk and letting me get him out.
and every nite before bed we are now in the routine of reading several books to him. he is finally in a spot in his life where he will sit still, and actually wants to sit still, to read book after book. i feel like hayden started around the same time as well. before now he was just too busy to have to just sit. he's still busy, but he has found that books are pretty cool. he pretty much has the same books he wants read to him every nite but they have been slowly changing. it was "chugga chugga choo choo (he calls choo choo), dog, 10 little ladybugs, and i see a monster. sometimes he'd throw in swing or gallop. now he is SUPER into chicka chicka boom boom and chicka chicka 123. he calls them both "boom boom" and starts calling for them the minute he wakes up and will bring them to me throughout the day as well.
he hasn't been very interested in learning his letters or numbers like hayden was into, but hopefully with his new love of chicka chicka boom boom he'll start to learn them. his favorite letters are m and w and he can pretty much pick them out now. he also will occasionally repeat almost the whole alphabet with us with many of his letters sounding just about perfect. as far as numbers, he loves the number 8.
talan is so happy to have justin and jessica back home again this month and he still has his crazy love for justin. in fact, if jessica walks into the house without him, he won't even look at her for awhile. but as soon as justin walks in he runs over to him and when he picks talan up, he lays his head on his shoulder and stays there for an obscene amount of time. he still calls justin something that is impossible to type out. it's basically a noise he makes in his throat. and he now almost always calls jessica "ca ca". i love it.
he is still has a huge temper and has a fit when he is told no. but....if you do something he wants you to do he'll run over to you all excited and give you a hug....well, he lays his head on you. when he does something he's not supposed to do we many times tell him "bad" and slap his hand. the other day and then again today, i told him "BAD!" about something he had done. he then yelled "bad!" and then slapped his own hand. well, i guess that's one less thing i have to do.
he is loving most of the baby einstein movies now and watches the same one over and over. but he has been changing it up and has slowly been making his way through the entire collection. right now he is very into "baby's first signs" and will try to repeat everything they say and will many times try repeating the sign for the word as well.
whenever someone burps....which, let's be honest, is A LOT in this house...he will let out a burp of his own. he used to say "excuse me" after it but has recently dropped that.
talan loves babies. every time we go to the store and walk past a baby doll he wants me to give it to him. but he's pretty picky. just any baby won't do. he has to have one of the creepy ones that will cry or talks and crawls and stuff. i'm not too worried since he seems to still prefer footballs, trains and guns over the babies.
talan continues to go to bed somewhere between 7 and 8 in the evening but has recently started waking up earlier. around 7am....many mornings well before 7. and because he keeps throwing things out of his crib, he has a hard time going back to sleep without his binky's and blanket. so he'll just sit in his crib yelling "uh oh" over and over. he goes down for his nap at 1 and gets up around 3:30 or 4. he usually takes a really good nap, although there have been several days he refuses to sleep. those are the days he is in bed by 7!!!
he seems to really be growing as he can reach things he couldn't before and his clothes are getting smaller. he typically wears an 18-24 month top, but some of those have been looking a bit shorter so i have started putting him in some 2t's. he can also still mostly fit in 18-24 month pants but they have been looking a bit short as well so recently i put him in some 24 month/2t pants. lengthwise they are decent but he is able to crawl right out of them at times.
he's a good eater when he wants to be, but still would rather to eat on the go. many times he'll tell you he's "all done" just two bites into a meal. but if you tell him to eat more, he'll continue to shove food in his mouth and say "all done" at the same time.
on february 27th talan will be having two surgeries...finally. he will be having the cyst by his eye removed and he will be having tubes put in his ears. both dr.'s were able to coordinate their schedules so that we will only have to go in and have him put under once. for awhile i could hardly even see the cyst. the dr. said it was because his face was filling out. it seems that he is thinning out a bit now and i can see the cyst much more now. as far as the tubes go, he shockingly hasn't had a single ear infection this entire winter. but i'm guessing it's still the best thing to do for him since he has had so many.
he loves running around with hayden and most recently playing shoot 'em up. he'll just run around pointing the guns (yes, i said guns, he has to have 2) backwards, pointing them at people and making a shooting noise. he loves going into rooms that have childproof locks on them and taking everything out of all of the cabinets that are also childproof locked. he still loves making a mess. he loves holding a football in the car. he loves watching movies and shows. he loves taking baths. he loves playing with trains. he loves dancing to music and pretending to play the guitar and drums. he is very selective about his music and will scream when something is playing that he doesn't want to listen to. he's learned to love the nursery at northridge church and now i can just say "do you want to go to church and play on the slide?" and he'll shout "yup!" and usually become much more cooperative. he loves suckers and tomatoes and pickles, he loves sitting in hayden's lap and pretending to play the drums to music after he's done eating dinner. he loves watching the slide show of pictures on the computer.
he continues to hate being told no and sitting still, unless he's being read to. he still hates having to sit around while someone changes him. some days we literally need to lay on him to get him to stay still long enough. he hates when hayden has a toy that he wants and he will start shouting "mine!"...he's not a very good sharer. he hates getting in and out of his car seat when we have to run to several stores and by the last store he will start arching his back so you can't get him buckled in anymore. he hates sitting for a meal. he hates getting his hair cut.
talan is definitely becoming more and more grown up with every day. it's sometimes hard to even remember what a calm, chill, happy baby he was for so many months. he's still plenty happy, but the whole calm and chill thing definitely doesn't describe him anymore. he is active, impatient and independent. he is also truly one of the funniest kids i have ever seen. we honestly believe he could have his own reality show and would make millions off of it. the faces he makes, the way his walks at times....things that i am unable to describe in writing. he just has perfect timing and reacts perfectly funny in every situation. at times i miss that calm, chill baby, but i wouldn't trade this hyper, hilarious toddler for the world.
we love you so much, baby talan! happy 22 months!