22 Month Old Link

One more month of being a one year old? Where has the time flown? And yet, I already find myself thinking of Link as a two year old then figuratively slapping myself when I remember he's still one. Still a baby! Yet this baby has been growing by leap and bounds. Not physically mind you. He's kind of a little guy; hence why we all affectionately call him our little guy. This is nice because it means we get to savour these last baby outfits before they are all outgrown and stored or given away. Here are some developmental highlights from this month:

• Link loves to do our "opening circle". Its a way that the boys and I kind of ground ourselves and connect in the morning after the craziness of breakfast and dressing. We light a beeswax candle, say a poem with some movements, sing songs together (all have gestures and movement), say a closing poem, then the boys blow out the candle together. Link has memorized the poems and loves singing the songs and sometimes will just start doing them on his own throughout the day. I've noticed when we make the effort to spend that time together our day goes much more smoothly and they are both have more cheerful demeanours. This opening circle concept was taken from our Oak Meadow Preschool Curriculum.
• Link has been practicing going pee in the potty. He usually goes after his bath fairly consistently. We try sometimes randomly throughout the day but haven't been consistent yet. I haven't felt brave enough just to let him run around naked and sticking him on the potty periodically because he seems to get great joy from peeing on various things in the house...I will eventually have to brave that I suppose. For now I will need to remember to read more potty books.
• He is quite the little reader, and like Meo, has memorized some of his favorite which he walks around reciting throughout the day. His current favorite books are Room on the Broom, Dirty Dirty Dinosaur, Goodnight Moon, Trains by Byron Barton, Trucks by Byron Barton, and Airplanes by Byron Barton. 
• Link loves to sing and both he and Meo are addicted to the 20 Trucks Videos and songs that some person made for you tube. Each video features a truck with its own song and all the songs are of a unique genre. Link just sings these songs to himself all day long, and the funny part is that he sings whatever song is appropriate for the type of truck he is playing.
• Link's favorite toys right now are his Monster Truck (he and Meo fight over the Wolverine one daily...perhaps hourly), his wooden toy train, and the excavator/dump truck/bulldozer out in the sandbox. He enjoys playing pretend with our little farm animals, he likes stacking blocks and he is also keen on swinging.
• Link is very chatty and surprises us everyday with the things he says. He even has started to make up his own jokes to make us laugh. He and Meo both have a favorite joke of pretending that we are going to go in a pickle car.
• Both Link and Meo love to wrestle and play "hulk smash" and "fish to the face" with Daddy at night after bath time.
• Link is a great little hiker and enjoys are almost daily romps through the forest. He loves animals and will eagerly hold salamanders, frogs and worms (I have been teaching him to be very gentle).
• Link's nicknames right now are Linky, Linky-loo, Loo-loo, and "Little heady heady". Meo came up with that last one...it's his own pet name for Link. Yesterday while we were in a restaurant he told some woman "My name is Meo, and this is my brother Linky. But his full name is Little Heady Heady".