23 months

This is pretty much the last time I can say Harmon is (fill in the blank) months old. Once he hits two next month, he’ll just be two … until he is three. It seems like just yesterday he wasn’t even one month old – time truly does fly when you’re having fun.

The last few months have been so amazing; mostly because of how Harmon's communications skills have continued to grow. He tells us what he wants (or doesn’t want) and, for the most part, we can understand him. Lately, if you ask him where something is, he will yell out “RIGHT THERE!” Ahh, yes, the yelling. It doesn’t go over so well in church so we’re trying to work through the whole inside-outside voice thing.

We decorated our house for fall a few weeks ago and, since then, he’s been obsessed with our pumpkin lights. We have lawn stake pumpkin lights in the front yard and he loves them. He needs to go count them every time we get home and he loves to tell everyone in the neighborhood all about them (yelling PUNKIN LIGHTS) when we’re out walking at night.

In addition to the pumpkin lights, he’s also obsessed with cars lately. We bought him a set of four small cars a few weeks ago and he can’t get enough. He runs them all over the house and then lines them up perfectly when he’s done. He also pulled some of his older cars from his toy box so now there are cars everywhere!

He still loves his stuffed animals, especially his sea otter (above), and his love of reading is as strong as ever. Instead of getting a lot of toys, we usually get him books. I don’t think we can enter a bookstore without exiting with a book. And, because of this, he can practically read his books to us. His language is amazing – he knows so many words and numbers and can put so much together. I hope this continues!

Although he’s never been much for TV, he has a couple of favorite shows that he’s really into lately. He loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Blue’s Clues and those are shows we actually can stomach. I guess we don’t mind them because they DO have some educational value. He goes crazy for all the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse music (especially the hot dog dance) and he can’t see a paw print without saying “a clue, a clue!” The other two shoes he used to like – Wonder Pets and the Backyardigans – have sort of fallen off his radar and that’s just fine. As Kevin says, we don’t want him turning into a “vidiot!”

Now that the Tigers’ season is over, we’re not watching much baseball so I hope he remembers it come spring. In place of baseball, he’s taken a liking to “Dancing with the Stars.” He’ll yell “dance, dance” and go to a spot in front of Isabel’s cage – a spot that isn’t carpeted – and dance up a storm on the hardwood floor. Although it will embarrass him a ton when he’s older, I must note how he also loves to dance to “I Feel for You” by Chaka Khan!

Other than all this, things are going very well. He’s doing awesome in his new class at day care and is back to using the potty (after taking a break for a week - I have no idea why). I honestly don't have a clue when he'll be fully potty trained but we’re going to spend a lot of time on it over the Christmas break. We don’t have much planned for his second birthday – just a family party – but it will be fun and I'm sure he'll continue to get spoiled. And, here’s hoping his twos won’t be so terrible!