19 months old

Is it time for the monthly update already? The months are going by faster and faster as baby Doodle ages.

Baby Doodle's vocabulary continues to grow and amaze me. He identifies just about everything he sees by name and describes many things in two and three-word sentences. He also has learned that more than one of something means you add an s at the end of the word. Some examples of his speech: blue shoes, orange shirt, big truck (for tractor trailers), stinky truck (for the garbage truck), dirt digger (they're doing construction up the street), dog hat (see post below), all better (when I'm putting diaper cream in his butt), clean poop (when he actually wants me to change him), purple circle (from his shape sorter), triangle (he says it perfectly), hurt head (any time he bangs his head), blue jeans. You get the idea. He repeats EVERYTHING. He says, "train round round track choo choo." That's probably his longest sentence and he repeats it whenever he sees a train.

He can correctly identify a few shapes: circle, triangle, star, egg, square. And some colors: red, orange, blue, green, purple, grey and brown. He doesn't even attempt to say yellow, but his orange is pretty good. He knows a ton of animals and their sounds.

He has an incredible memory. We went to the zoo last weekend to trick-or-treat and one of the treats he received was a spider ring. Yesterday, he found the spider ring in his pumpkin and he said, "spider ring zoo." He has seen my brother six or seven times in his life including when he was born, yet we'll be walking down the street and see someone who looks very much like my brother and he'll say, Uncle Doodle (only he uses his real name). He remembers toys he's played with at other kids' houses and refers to them with the kid's name.

He has a slight cold now and blows his nose into the tissue when I hold it to his face. He doesn't complain about having his nose wiped. He asks to take naps after we finish lunch or if he's feeling especially tired. He asks to see his friends at various points throughout the day. Most days we see at least one of his friends. He says "cheese" when you hold the camera up but then he makes a face that isn't a smile. He scrunches his nose and raises his upper lip to show his teeth. It's not very attractive making the candid shots of him much better.

He continues to be more and more fun.