Aiden is 23 Months and Almost 2

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I can’t believe that my baby boy is going to be 2 YEARS OLD in less than a month!! Perhaps that’s why it’s taken me a few days to write up this 23 month post, summarizing just how much Aiden has changed in such a short month. It feels like Aiden changed a lot in this past month, really moving towards playing with kids and in expanding both his vocabulary and his understanding of concepts such as numbers, letters, colours and more. He is so proud of his achievements, particularly in counting – he’ll take any opportunity to count to 10, just because he can.

Sometimes it’s amazing just to sit and listen to him talk. While playing with his trains, a favourite activity, he narrated “up ramp, down ramp, around the circle, through tunnel, over bridge” like it was nothing. Amazing concepts in there.

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We went through a few weeks of bad bedtimes this month, lasting as much as an hour and a half. It seemed like separation anxiety, but the solution was as simple as simply pre-arranging his bedtime books to only 3, rather than reading a ‘few’ with a ‘last book’. His cries for “one more book” were escalating into cries for Mommy that wound him up too much – such a simple solution!

  • Favourite foods include pizza, hot dogs, sausages, granola bars, cheerios, butter chicken, green beans, broccoli
  • Starting to try new foods again, especially if included in the cooking process. Finally eats rice and mashed potatoes!
  • Can recognize and say all colours, including some fun variations on shades such as “dark red”
  • Can say many colours in Spanish, though only willingly volunteers azul (blue). Loves to say “Our car. Blue. Azul.”
  • Can count as high as 13 in English, with the ability to say numbers up to 20. Loves any opportunity to count to 10
  • Is starting to use his finger to count objects, stopping when he has counted them all. Mostly incorrect, but the concept is building
  • Can count to 5 in Spanish unassisted
  • Is starting to ask for books by their titles, rather than just handing them to us
  • Loves to differentiate things: types of boats, types of trucks, types of machines, types of plants, etc
  • Loves shapes and can spontaneously point out many including oval (has had this one for many months), star, circle, crescent
  • Aiden’s fave words or phrases: fire truck / fire engine / fire fighters, (neighbourhood kids’ names) knock door, one more ____, come here, Guinness run away, okay, ohpeesee (oopsie), ona bar (granola bar)
  • My fave of Aiden’s words or phrases: Mommy cuddles, munchkin, cutie pie, help you (instead of help me), tickle (sounds like tittle), sail boat (said like saaail bOAT), azul, okie dokie, walkaroni (macaroni)

Learning to Catch

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Aiden is obsessed with playing catch. He will roll a ball or throw it with glee, shouting “good throw” as his own praise. The catching though… it’s a work in progress. Although he can catch a soft toss with his arms out, his ‘grab’ reflex is slow, and the ball may tumble out. He doesn’t yet move to catch a ball that isn’t aimed perfectly.

Still, it’s a fun game and he loves it, even laughing “ball, nose” if he gets hit in the face.

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Aiden Gets a Ladybug

1 Comment By arieanna

We went to Parkgate Family Days last weekend to listen to music and enjoy the beautiful weather. We were there a little early, so missed many of the festivities, but enjoyed listening to the children’s music performer, playing at the dried beans table and getting a balloon. Aiden also had his first ‘painting’ experience.

I wasn’t sure how he’d react to having something on his face, so I asked the artist to paint a ladybug on Aiden’s hand. Quick and fun and he loved it.

Pretend Play Develops

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As early as 10 months, babies begin to imitate activities in their pretend play. They may feed their stuffed animals or brush hair on dolls or pretend to eat toy food.

For Aiden, in the last month or two, his pretend play has stepped up a bit. Instead of his animals doing a restricted set of actions like eating or drinking, they now have feelings. Aiden will say his ‘car ducky’ is tired when he is tired, and will gladly act out games with him. Ducky can do many songs such as If You’re Happy And You Know It and has celebrated many birthdays.

I know this is all the development of what will be much more complex pretend play as Aiden gets older, but it’s fascinating to watch it develop! First came actions, next was feelings, and at some point Aiden will begin acting out much more complex social situations. Very interesting!

In the photo: Aiden requested that his Teddy Bear have a bib and bowl at breakfast