20 months old!

John turned 20 months old on September 8th! He has changed so much since I wrote his 18-month post, especially in terms of language. At 20 months, John:

- is at least 33 inches tall and weighs between 25 and 26 pounds. I haven't measured him myself, so this is just a guess based on his measurements at his 18-month doctor's appointment on July 13th. At that visit, John was 32.5 inches tall and weighed 24 pounds, 10 ounces. The doctor said John was in the 50-75 percentile for height and the 25-50 percentile for weight, which is pretty much what he has always been.

-wears the 18-24 month, 24-month or 2T size, depending on the clothing item. Amazingly, some of his 12-18 month pants still fit him well! John may have a big belly, but his waist is very narrow.

-fits into size 5 shoes comfortably. He could probably wear a size 6 if he had on thick socks.

-has very light brown hair that often looks blond in the sunlight and solid brown eyes.

-has 14 teeth. His top two incisors just started breaking through in the past month - finally! Before this, John hadn't gotten a new tooth since March! The teething process is obviously still in full swing, since John has his fingers in his mouth all the time.

-has the same daily schedule he had at 18 months (wakes up between 6 and 7, eats lunch between 11 and 11:30, goes down for a nap between 12 and 12:30, eats dinner between 5:30 and 6, and goes to bed between 7 and 7:30).

-eats a lot more "adult" food now. I generally feed him exactly what Grandma and I are having for dinner, which is very convenient. His favorite "adult" food is "pi-pa" (pizza), but he also really likes lasagna and macaroni and cheese.

-is pickier than he was at 18 months about eating cut-up fruits and vegetables on their own. He will eat fruit and vegetables much more readily if they're mixed into or cooked alongside something else, or if I make him a smoothie with a bunch of different fruits and yogurt. A big thank you to Grandma Kay Ellen for suggesting the smoothie idea!

-is a social butterfly. He LOVES being around people, especially men! If given the choice, he will opt to go to the guy in the room before the woman every time. So ladies, don't be offended -- it's not you, it's him.

-scrunches up his face when asked to smile or when he's being photographed or filmed (see photo above). What a ham! He started doing this right after I wrote his 18-month post.

-greatly dislikes being strapped into anything, whether it be his car seat, stroller, high chair or a store shopping cart. I have to fully distract him to get him to get into one of these things without him making a fuss. The very worst is having to put him in a shopping cart. If we're at a store that has special kid carts (in the shape of a car or something), then John's usually excited to get in, but otherwise, he puts up a huge fight.

-is a seasoned traveler! To date, John has been on 8 round-trip flights and 1 one-way flight. He's taken two cross-country car trips (from Alabama to Texas at 3 months old and from Texas to Illinois at 17 months), and has played on the beaches of both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. He's visited, or at least driven through, 13 states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas and Wisconsin.

-has expanded his vocabulary by at least 20 words (or phrases) in the past two months. (I only count words that he will say on his own without prompting.) His new words include: ah-cah-go (avocado), ah-non (all done), baby, bee, beeg (big), boy, bye, Cago (Chicago), cha-cha (choo-choo), cock-oo (cock-a-doodle-doo), chiss (cheese), dee-doh/hee-go (here you go), Eese/Lise (Elise), girl, ish/pish (fish), Naan/Naan Naan (John), na/nack (snack), out, oh no!, pi-pa (pizza), toy, wah-ffle (waffle), wawa (water), whale, wheel, and wow.

-shares Elise's love of the phrase "bye, bye, baby" and says it constantly! The other day I played the Four Seasons song "Bye, Bye Baby" for him in the car, and now he asks for it by name whenever we're driving.

-is now very cooperative when I brush his teeth. He looks forward to it, actually! His favorite part is when I let him hold the toothpaste container, which has Thomas the Tank Engine on it.

-likes to have a stuffed toy or his Daddy doll with him when I put him to bed. After I leave his room, I sometimes hear him say over the monitor: "Daddy........roar!" or "Daddy........quack!" (depending on which animal he has).

-recognizes and names himself and others in pictures (i.e. "Naan," "Mommy," "Daddy") and recognizes and names his and other people's things (i.e. shoes).

-collects items while taking buggy rides outside. His favorite things to collect are sticks, but he also likes to collect hickory nuts and pinecones. Most of the time he just holds them in his hands, but sometimes he'll put everything in the front compartment of the buggy.