18 Days of Celebrating 18 Months -- Food

Tyler has always been a great eater -- from birth, really!  Much to my dismay, he was constantly hungry when I was nursing.  I was eager for him to switch over to solid food, and so was he!  Our first attempt at solid food (that cereal/oatmeal mush stuff) was a huge success.

Most new foods are met with a moment of hesitation, then are quickly devoured!  Here, an iPhone pic of him eating shrimp and grits and fried okra

Finger-eating good!

He likes to know what he's eating, so I point out the different foods when I give them to him.  He's learned in the past few months that he's more likely to get what he wants if he says "more crackers" rather than vaguely saying "more."  Smart boy.

A few weeks ago, Jason asked Tyler what he had eaten for lunch at school.  Tyler emphatically said "Pizza!"  Jason told me about this, and I checked the menu.  He had not had pizza.  Jason asked him the next day, and Tyler replied "pizza!"  I think he's trying to tell us something.  Yesterday when I was writing this, Jason and Tyler were in the living room yelling "pizza!" back and forth to each other.  Apparently it's hilarious.

Not pizza, but he sure did enjoy spaghetti:

I just bought him his first forks.  He's actually done pretty well with them, only trying to stab himself in the head once so far.  He's also WAY into dipping.  His favorite is ketchup, though he also likes mustard, bbq sauce, garlic butter, and hummus.  If he gets to dip, he's happy.

trying out the fork (that's scrambled eggs and grape jelly "dip" for a biscuit, in case you were wondering)

already a pro

...though sometimes the fork takes too much effort

We're pretty hardcore snackers around here.  A long time ago, I implemented the snack blanket, a blanket solely devoted to snack time (and keeping some of the crumbs from getting ground into our rug).  It works pretty well, especially when combined with Dora or Paw Patrol.  This picture was from back in December.

Yes, I occasionally snack with him

The other day, Tyler was walking around chewing on his hand.  I asked him if he was hungry.  He yelled "snack!" and ran for his snack blanket.  It's so great to have a kid that is learning to communicate!

mesmerized while watching tv

18 Days of Celebrating 18 Months -- Colors

Tyler is really into colors right now.  He knows his 6 basic colors, as well as white and gray.  He can also occasionally identify brown, black, and pink.  When we started talking about colors (which really started when he got his ball pit/tent for Christmas), it was neat to see him realize that those colors were all around him.  Not to get all meta or anything, but it was like watching his eyes open to the wonders of the world for the first time.  Ok, I admit, that was a little meta.

It's a perfect distraction when he's doing something we don't want him to or is starting to get fussy out in public.

T whining
Me: "Tyler, what color is that sign?"
T: "Geen!"
Me: "What color is that shirt?"
T: "Pupple!"
T (pointing to things all around): "Whiy!"  "Yewwow!"  "Reh!"

Aaaand, scene.  Works (nearly) all the time.

He's getting better about pairing colors with nouns ("blue horse," "green ball," etc.).  (In case you're wondering, "blue horse" is a real phrase from Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See?)  He's getting particularly good with his guys he got for Christmas.  These:

picture (and guys) courtesy of IKEA

The other day, he was missing his "yellow guy," so we walked around looking for his "yellow guy."  It's so nice when he can tell me what he's looking for!  He calls them all by their color: yellow guy, red guy, black guy... Hmm, I foresee potentially awkward moments around guests in our future.


Tyler also got paints for Christmas.  He really likes playing with them, but more for the fun of twisting the paint caps off and on rather than actually painting.

   

One more color-related tidbit.  He walks around repeatedly muttering "Yellow, red, blue.  Yellow, red, blue.  Yellow, red, blue."  Not sure what that's about...  Lil weirdo.  :)