20 Months!

Since my last post was 2 months ago...I'm not even sure where to begin to catch up. Will turned 20 months yesterday. He got his top canine teeth right around 19 months. We've just finished winter break and an almost 2 week visit from my parents.

Otherwise, life has been fairly busy but uneventful. Will's vocabulary is rapidly growing. He says many foods, body parts, toys, animals, people's names...as well as important verbs like walk, eat, and jump. He's definitely getting pretty good at making his wishes known. Although we have had some amusing miscommunications.

I made the kids peanut butter & jelly sandwiches for a light dinner one day last week (we had been out to a posh "brunch" at 1:30 and they didn't need much). I told Will I was getting peanut butter & jelly for Leah and asked if he wanted some. He said, "Some. Some. Some." So I made him a sandwich too. When they sat at the table he had a fit - crying, pushing the plate away, batting at my hands when I tried to feed it to him. And he kept yelling "Some. Some. Some." Yesterday the kids had a mix of cut grapes and strawberries after dinner. I asked Will whether he preferred the grapes or strawberries. And he said, "some." I asked him if he could says strawberries..."no." After discussing with him that those were strawberries and some could be some grapes or some clothes or some milk...he finally said "strawberries" (really more "stawbies"). Mystery solved!

And a similar one...he's been asking for cereal in the morning. He really pronounces it quite well. But then he doesn't want cereal when you serve it to him. He'll gladly eat yogurt, oatmeal, eggs, pancakes, etc. Not so interested in cereal. Pretty sure he thinks cereal means breakfast...we'll have to work on that one.

I'm sure his number of words is over 100 now. And I'm often amazed when he blurts out a word that I didn't expect him to know. Although I'm not sure why, as I can tell he understands the majority of what we say to him. And not to be the bragging mom...but I do think he's a bit advanced in a lot of things verbal...not as advanced as Leah was...but pretty darn good for a 20 month old boy. He's been correcting pronunciation on things...now calling me "Mommy" instead of "Mama," "Needa" has replaced "Da" for Nilda, "Puppy" has replaced "Puhpuh." And he is very good at understanding categories of things. If you ask him what fruit he had for dessert, he will list fruits (although not necessarily answering which one he had) - apple, oranges, grapes, kiwi, mango. My Uncle Howard asked him on the phone the other day whether he was going to play soccer that afternoon. Will said, "Yes. Ball." He's also getting very good at answering yes and no - rather than the way he previously would say no but nod yes.

He's also gaining some new skills. He has gotten pretty good at feeding himself with a spoon. And he's looking like he could be my soccer star - loves kicking the ball and is getting pretty good at it. We had our first class of the new term yesterday and he's now one of the older ones - several of the moms of the newbies commented on how good he is - much like I felt watching the older kids back in September.

Leah is making strides in her reading from school. She has 12 sight words now - those are common words that you should know by sight in order to be able to read. She struggles a little bit between of and to, as well as in, is and it. But she gets the others most of the time - said is still a bit of a struggle - but I can't really blame her there. She does know all her letters now - and can write most of them both in upper and lower case. She proudly drew pictures for Grandma and Grandpa and labeled them with their names.

I've been having her help make cards for birthdays and such...but she only writes her name (and sometime's Will's also). But I think now I can start having her write the whole card.

We did some fun sightseeing with my parents. We visited the Chi Lin Nunnery and Nan Lian Gardens, which we all loved. It is beautiful and serene even though it's in the center of Diamond Hill in Kowloon. We also went up to Shatin in the New Territories to the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery and then headed out to Sai Kung for a seafood lunch on the waterfront.

We also had a nice Hanukkah. I bought way too much for the kids...so we have a house full of new toys and books. I admit that it's as much for me as for them. I get tired of the same old toys too. Leah has lots of new Barbies and My Little Ponies - time to start a Barbie / Pony Village. And Will is loving his many new cars and the big garage to play with them on.

Check out my Picasa site for hundreds of pictures of our holiday concerts, performances, toys, sightseeing, etc.