Leo's been here 22 months

Silly February doesn't have a 30th so I guess technically tomorrow Leo would turn 22 months. Still, it's basically been 22 months. We could not get him to sit in his big chair for very many pictures because, as he said, "I sit Leo chair." So most pics are in this chair, making him look much bigger than he actually is.

The main new thing with Leo is that he's taking all of his words and making sentences. I'm impressed with his proper use of the word "I" in senteces like "I go YMCA" or "I eat!" or "I go potty" (not something he does, just something he likes to talk about). I mean, he could say "My go YMCA" which would be perfectly fine but he skipped right over that and into the appropriate first-person form.

He also figured out the meaning of "too" and correctly adds this to the ends of sentences like, "I like cottage cheese too" and "I go night night too."

Sometimes I swear he even speaks in past tense like, "Rah Rah left" or "I had it!" Oh, he also likes to say, "I made that" when he builds something with blocks or draws something.
He's caught on to "Good job" which we say a lot and he'll say, "Good job, Leo!" before we even get a chance to praise him.

My favorite word he says is "Yes!" He used to avoid all affirmative answers but now he says "Yes!" loudly and emphatically. It makes it easy: "Do you want more Mac N Cheese?" "YES!"
And speaking of Mac N Cheese, that's his new favorite food. He asks for it at every meal--even breakfast and snacks. We try to limit it to once a day but it's hard with the screams of, "MAC AND CHEESE! MAC AND CHEESE!" And frankly, I can't really think of any good reason he can't have Mac N Cheese for breakfast.

His other new love is Thomas the Train. He likes to read about Thomas, watch the Thomas the Train TV show, play with Thomas toys in the bath and discuss Thomas with his buddy John. Seriously, they were just playing together today and they would look at each other and say,"Thomas!" They're like crazed fans. See ya, Elmo.

Leo still loves basketball and will ask to play outside with his "basketball net" no matter what the weather. We can't wait for it to get warm again so we can stop turning him down when he pathetically stands at the door with his basketball saying, "I go outside!"

He also loves his Fisher Price Little People. He puts them on the school bus and the airplane and sometimes makes them play "Duck Duck Goose." The people on the airplane are always, always going to "Baby Ah-yee's house." He can say "Ellie" by the way, just not if he puts "Baby" in front of it.

Another game Leo likes to play is "Stop/Go." He runs around the house saying, "Go-go-go-go-go" and then will suddenly say "STOP!" and get still for about one second. Then he's off again. I'm a big fan of this very tiring game.

His dislikes? Vegetables, getting in his car seat, having clothes put on him, having to leave a toy when it wasn't his idea, inflatables and tents. Oh, and sharing. We hear a lot of "MINE!" around here.


So basically, he's just a regular 22 month old--totally brilliant, adorable and sometimes a little monster.