Tot School No, Stop, Not That!

Xander is 21 months old.

As I said in last weeks post I didn't have anything planned for this week, which meant not much got done. Or at least not much in the way of planned activities. We colored, read books, and played a lot. Xander has defeated the locks on our baby gates, Ryan added a new one to the area where my computer is but Xander quickly figured out how that lock works too. So I've been trying to make my "office" area more Xander friendly. I've set up a little corner for him with his chair and a little stool as a table, a book case for his library books. The problem is this is my office area and crafting area, I have all these little plastic drawer units and Xander keeps emptying them. I thought he'd learn to stick to one drawer and the others were off limits (he's done real good with the dvd shelf we moved back into the living room) but that hasn't happened. So it's been a week of constant "no" this and "no" that and I'd really like to move on from this but unfortunately our house didn't miraculously grow more storage so I'm just going to have to wait it out until Xander can learn--- my head might explode before then though. 

I read this great blog post this week about seeing everything that's happening instead of just what you're looking for (in this case Xander's annoying behavior), so I am trying to be aware of the good things Xander does. Which is hard when you're trying to write a blog post and have a killer head ache and he keeps trying to get in the drawer with the paints and you keep saying no and his response is to scream at the top of his lungs. Deep breath! 

Some really cute Xander things:

He now has two Tummy Tickler juice bottles, Toby the Tram and Thomas the Tank Engine. He's been playing with the bottles-- bashing them into each other, making them race, having them "talk" to each other. It's very cute.

One of the words he says now is "clock", unfortunately the L sound is missing and scales at the grocery store are round with numbers all around. Picture a crowded bulk food aisle and a toddler pointing and screeching "cock, cock". (pause while we wait for my sister to pick herself up off the floor where she has fallen overcome with laughter) I kept saying to him (loudly), "it sure does look like a clock but it's a scale!".

He also likes to say "car" now and wants to stop and point at every single one. Which makes walking through parking lots a very slow activity.

The other day he was tired and cranky so I told him to get in his bed and go night-night and HE DID!

He's pretty good about putting things back where they belong-- when he feels like it. Most the time he just leaves a wake of destruction in his path but sometimes he surprises me by putting the books back on the shelf or a toy in it's place.

The other day he put some of his stuffed animals on the shelf and then would walk past them and wave and say bye-bye to them. 

Didn't actually plan for this coming week, sorta on purpose as Ryan has extra days off so depending on the weather we might be going places or doing stuff around the property.  Some upcoming theme ideas are going to be about Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See? and I want to do something with the parts of the face. He used to be really good about pointing to the correct part but now he calls everything "eye" so I'd like to work on that. Any book or activity suggestions? (Other than Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes cause he doesn't seem to like that book right now.)

So that's what we're up to, check what other tots are doing by visiting Tot School.

Oh yeah, another great thing about Xander at this age is you can gift shop for him and he is clueless! He sat on my lap as I purchased train stuff off of ebay and he'd be excited at seeing a train he recognized but it won't spoil his Christmas and Birthday. I also got him the cutest outfit for Christmas day-- corduroy pants with a matching red sweater with a train on it and this adorable super hero pajama set (with cape) for his birthday--- he was right there while I bought them and didn't notice a thing! I'm pretty sure that won't be the case next year!