Life of the Pod-y: Corey Update

Corey - January 2012 - 21 months old

Our baby boy, Corey Michael is growing so so fast! He turned 21 months on January 1st. The last time I did an official Corey Development post he was 15 months old - 6 months ago! And WOW has he changed.

Before I dive into his current development, I thought I would do this post in parts since it has been so long since I posted about how he is growing.(Plus I don't want to forget all these little things and this blog is the place to do it!) :)

Back in July/August/September (some 15 months, but mostly 16-17 months)......

Corey learned the word book (gook). We think this was his "first" official word (July 18th). When you'd point to a duck in a book, he said "Quack". He also started repeating animal sounds like "baa!" for a sheep, but it sounded more like "aa-haa-haa-haa" He said "Yay!" all the time and claps after everything (he mostly did it at night after I would sing to him or when a song on the radio ended). He also started communicating more through sign language with words like "more", "all done", and "please". He also "learned" how to throw temper tantrums whenever he didn't get his way. (still continues to this day) He throws himself back, HARD! Apparently Paul did this as well when he was a toddler. Let's just say that with a tile and hard floor it's been interesting to try and ignore the behavior but also not have him crack open his head! I have had several sore eyes from him throwing himself back while he's in my arms! While we are on the topic of bad behavior, around this time he also started showing signs of biting! (Good times...) He would mostly do it for teething, but he'd also do it out of aggression. I thought it was more on me because we weened from nursing in early June and he would bite me, but I was way wrong! (more on this topic in a later post...)

Who me? I could never throw a fit! (yeah, right!) :)

Got his first "professional" haircut at 16 months. He was VERY good!

Around this time is when started to really love for me to sing to him before bed (still does now). Our usual line up is

"You Are My Sunshine"
"Jesus Loves Me"
"This Little Light of Mine"
"Jesus Loves the Little Children".

Chilling out - August 2011 (16 months)

At bedtime he can't sleep without his Bunnie as well as this little Glow Worm that was Ashley's when she was a baby. When you press on the worm's tummy, it lights up and plays a series of songs. At 16 months he figured out how to press the belly himself and jam to the songs by rocking his head back and forth in the crib. He liked for me to jam with him and oh my the giggles that would come out of him!!! :) This is one of my favorite parts before putting him to sleep. :) (he still does the head jam now)

After bathtime (August 2011)

Around this time he started screaming "Mom!" or "Maaaaa Maaaaa!" really abruptly to get my attention and when I'd say "What?" he would babble like he was telling me something really important. Unfortunately, I couldn't understand a word! When my Mom came out to visit and she got him talking and playing games like for instance when you ask him "Where's Corey?" he hides his eyes, and then we say "Peek a boo!" Or he'd sing "Eeyi Eeyi Yo" for Old McDonald.

Listening to music on Ashley's iTouch. That little cherub face.

Later in September, when he was 17 (almost 18) months, he really started trying to communicate and repeating more and more. When you'd take his photo, he would say "cheese"! Some other fun things he started doing was cuddle up to the dogs and start panting like them. It is so cute! He also started saying shoes (hoosh), juice (doose), "Hi there!", Bye Bye, Daddy (Da-yee), and Kitty (kiyee). He also started understanding what we were telling him, like for instance, when I would tell him you want some "num nums"?, he would walk over to his high chair. Or I would tell him "it's time to get out of the bath, do you want to go brush your teeth?" Sometimes he would listen and try to get out of the tub to go brush his teeth, and then other times, he would splash back down and try and avoid me getting him out of the tub! Boy, is that fun - trying to get a slippery baby out of the tub. Also at 17 months the Elmo Craze began. He loved to watch Elmo and Sesame Street. He LOVED to dance to the "Play with me Sesame!" theme song and whenever he saw my iPhone, he said "Eh-mo!" (he still does that now) because he knows that I can play Elmo YouTube videos.