It's February 20, 2002 (or 20/02 2002 for you European palindrome fans) and Stephen is almost 21 months old! Time sure flies!
New milestones in the past few months have included real words, jumping, and NO! He's a cuddly boy still, and will give you a kiss and hug if he knows you and you say "Please." His stuffed animals will, too, though you don't even have to ask for those. He likes: playing with blocks, trucks, and stuffed animals (no particular favorites yet); riding elevators (we go out of our way for those because I can't resist "Go beep?"); watching buses, trucks, and cars out the window or on a walk; potatoes in all forms, along with grapes, apples, cheese, rice, goldfish crackers, Gerber baby treats, carrots, chicken stir-fry, and any junk food that passes his way (bad Mommy...); nursing; playing with his extended family (Aunt Robyn and Uncles Brian and Eryk see him pretty regularly); dogs (but not up close); dancing to *any* music that comes on; PBS kids' television; and bathtime. He dislikes: being offered food he doesn't like; being told not to do something he wants to do; waiting for people to take him places; and generally having his dominance challenged. Yup, he's spoiled :) But we love him anyway.
We had a real toddler moment the other day. We were watching Sesame Street (well, he was watching; I was actually sort of reading), and Elmo came on and did a section on fish. He swam with fish, lots of water on screen, etc. So Stephen digs through his toy box and finds a teether with fish in it, and holds it up to the water-filled TV. "Fiss?" he says. "Yes," I say. "The fish are in the water." I look down at my book and (typical for me) get a bit lost. Then I hear the toilet lid from the other room. Uh oh. Sure enough, the fish were in the water. I was caught between "No, we don't put anything besides waste in the potty," and "Wow, that was pretty clever!" Needless to say, the bathroom doors will stay closed from now on!
Of course, he enjoys the "Where's the [body part]?" game, too. When he's in the proper mood, he'll point to his head, hair, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue ("mlllleeeeh"), feet, toes, penis, belly button, and (this is the best one) patella. I haven't the heart to tell him it's just his kneecap.
Enjoy these pages if you came straight to them, but you may also want to have a look at the rest of the site (maybe) to see what Stephen's mommy has been up to. I recently redesigned some of the graphics, so hopefully navigation is a little more friendly, but the rest of the site is pretty much the same. (Here's a link to the previous Stephen installment.)
Hugs to all of Stephen's family, friends, and admirers!