23 Mos contd.

I didn't have time to elaborate on other developmental changes so I'll try to think of some now that Justin is home and I have some free time.

Talking: Henry is super chatty. He never stops talking. He gains new words/phrases on a daily basis so sometimes they take me by surprise. For example, today he said, "I hear a sound." I almost fell over. I've never heard him say any of those words and it's only been a few days since he started using "I" instead of saying "Henry" or "Me/My". So I asked what sound he heard and he said "Barking". Again, I did not even know he knew that word.

He's also begun singing to himself. It's incredibly cute to catch him doing it. He'll be stacking cars or whatever and I'll hear "Three blind mice..see how they run" which of course is not how it sounds, but that's what he is singing. It's weird to me he sings this song because I have hardly ever sung that to him. He also sings the itsy bitsy spider, and "grandpa's farm". Henry can also sing the alphabet song by heart and he can count to 12. This week we introduced 13, 14, and 15. Henry sometimes gets confused on colors if you say, "What color is that?" but if you say, "Can I have the yellow marker(red, green, whatever...etc.) he always gets it right. As for shapes, I've just taught him circle, square and triangle.

"Helping" is by far Henry's favorite thing to do. He wants to help with everything from opening the door to bringing in the groceries. After you thank him for his help he grins so proudly--it's very sweet.

As for interests...right now he's still obsessed with his trains and cars. His grandma got him a sandbox so that's been a big deal too (Make a castle!). We got the movie Milo and Otis because it's animals and he loves anything animals...but I think it's a horribly cruel movie (made in Japan in the 80's) and I suspect they had several spare Milo and Otis's to complete this film. I mean, the cat is shown jumping off a cliff into the ocean, fighting a bear, fighting a snake, going down a waterfall in a box with no lid, etc. It's HORRIBLE. But Henry loves it and we were all forced to watch it for weeks on end till I looked it up on IMDB and decided no more.

Something new that I am very excited about is Henry's ability to play pretend (or "symbolic play"). He's been playing cars and making sounds for a long time now but I caught him a few weeks ago pretending to wash his hands in his toy kitchen. I asked him for a drink of water and he pretended to fill a toy cup and then brought it to me. Now he will make a cup out of his hands if we are not at home. He can play restaurant--which is really fun. Dada and I will "order" food and he will make it and even share it with us. Tonight this expanded to feeding his Elmo and his monkey. I asked what we were feeding them and he said "soup" and "smoothie". He even wiped their mouths with the blanket on the couch. I have to say that this is BY FAR my favorite game. I remember being a little girl and playing pretend for hours so I've been waiting for this time to come.