23 months update and sticker photo

I'm a bit late with doing your sticker photos but you're still 23 months for at least another 2 weeks :) This morning while you were out mowing the lawn with Daddy, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to capture this stage in your life where you like copying what Daddy does. As soon as you heard Daddy start the mower outside, you wanted to go out and help.

Here's a snapshot at 23 months:
Sleep
We did some sleep training a few weeks ago and thankfully, it worked after only 2 days. Now I can put you down and you'll go to sleep on your own. So, no more needing to hold your hand to sleep, no more sleeping on the floor next to your crib and no more waking up in the middle of the night!  It's done wonders because you're sleeping through the night again.

So this is our bedtime routine now:
After dinner, you'll play with your toys. I'll do a countdown so you're aware of what's going to happen. I'll say: "30 minutes to bath time, and then we go to bed". You'll say, "No! No!" and go back to playing. Then it will be "15 minutes to bath time" and so on. At 5 minutes to bath time, I'll start singing the clean up song and you'll help me pack away your books and toys. After that, you're surprisingly obedient and head into your room to get changed. When you're naked, I'll say "pee pee in the potty" and you'll head over to your potty, lift the lid and sit down. Then you'll ask for a book, "read please". Sometimes you'll pee but most of the time, you just stand up after I finish your book. The potty I got you has a flush too, so I've been teaching you to put the lid down and flushing (never too young to learn!)

You love to play with the squeeze toys in the shape of a bus, plane and boat. You don't like getting your face wet when I pour water to wash the soap out of your hair but you're getting better about it. I brush your teeth while you're in the tub though this is always a bit of a struggle. Funnily enough, sometimes I can entice you to brush your teeth if I offer to clean your ears with the ear wash. You really enjoy being squirted in the ears. What a funny boy!

After your bath, I'll shout out to Daddy "Towel please!" and recently you've been copying me by saying the same thing.

Drying you on the changing table has become so difficult these days. You're constantly wiggling around and trying to squirm off the table. We try to have a book or train around to distract you. Then it's pjs on and a sleep sack. Every time the sleep sack comes out, you'll rub your eyes and yawn, it's a pretty good trigger.

Your 2 favourite bedtime books are: The 12 engines of Christmas (which I have to sing exactly like the Christmas song) and then another Thomas nursery book where you point out the characters, do some counting and point out colours.

After that, you turn on the turtle night light that projects the moon and stars to the ceiling. You always choose the blue light (there are 3 colours to choose from). Then we turn on the lullaby bear which you've been listening to ever since I can remember. I cuddle you for a bit while you snuggle on my shoulders and then after a little while, I'll put you down in the crib. When I leave the room, you'll still put up a protest and cry for a few minutes but after that, you'll lie down and go to sleep. And luckily (touch wood), you'll sleep through the night until 6.30-7.

Eat
You're a very fussy eater these days. You'll eat if it's Asian food, particularly rice or noodles. Though last Thursday, Aunty Mandy and I took you out to Westfield for some food after childcare and you were crazy about chocolate-dipped strawberries! That was surprising because you normally don't like sweet food.

You particularly like Japanese food - miso soup, teriyaki beef or chicken and rice is your favourite meal. You also guzzle down milk, which is good so I know at least you're getting plenty of calcium. You're not very keen on bread or western-style food, so poor Daddy is always out-voted when it comes to lunch or dinner.

You don't like eating your greens or fruit either, so my way around it is to make milkshake and mix fruit inside.

Talk
Your vocabulary is improving every day! You know to use "please" now when you want something, so we get a lot of "read please" and "ipad please" these days. You're learning to put 3 words together as well, ie. "go down please". You are always singing and humming the Thomas song. You also like to copy us when we are talking, you'll copy the intonation and pitch. I've noticed if a group of us are talking and laughing, you'll join in the laughing too.

Toys:
Still crazy about Thomas. These days you also like to build Thomas blocks, string the trains together, stack things on top of Thomas, pull out the Thomas books and put them back in the box. You also push the Thomas ride on around. And of course, when Daddy does the mowing, you'll pull out your lawn mower too.

More photos below: