As Owen is about to turn 2, I have been thinking a lot about all the amazing things he is doing, only to realize that I have completely forgotten when his milestones were occurring. For this reason, I am going to make a quick list of what he is currently doing...

Communication:

• We decided his first sentence as "more milk please" in combination of approximate vocals and sign while we were in WI.
• He is now speaking in 5-6 word sentences frequently.
• He is using common phrases like "I don't know," "I like it" "I don't like it" Mommy/Daddy do it" "Go get ________"
• He is using name possessives (Owen's miles's, mommy's, etc)
• He is using attributes (lots: big, little, hot, cold, warm, dirty, clean, wet, etc),
• He is using abstract concepts such as later, not, actually, maybe,
• To be fair and not paint too much of a rosy picture, he does do a fair share of whining which is hard on us since we know he can communicate a lot better than he does sometimes.

Academics:

• He knows all his basic colors, confusing red and blue frequently but corrects himself.
• He knows all basic shapes (oval, diamond, heart among the standard ones).
• He knows most of his capital letters ans some of his lowercase.
• He can count to 6 independently, forgets 7 and 8 unless prompted, but eventually makes it to 10.
• He can recognize quantities of 1 and 2 consistently without needing to count them out. His favorite is to say two boys while I am struggling to carry him and his cousin up and down the stairs.
• He is starting to show some recognition of number symbols, but not consistent as of now.

Fine Motor:

• He can do 24 piece jigsaw puzzles by himself after doing it a couple times with assistance.
• He can string large beads.
• He can stack cups and blocks.
• He likes to paint and color and generally uses correct grasp if reminded. He is trying to draw things now, and tells us what he drew.
• He enjoys playdough, generally needing assistance with rolling and making balls. He loves the cookie cutters.

Gross Motor:

• He is walking and running
• He is still not able to jump but tries
• He dances as well as his mother does, which isn't saying much.
• He can throw and kick a ball.
• He he loves to run around Playdate PDX and the park
• He is a very active kid and likes to play outside.

Imagination play/socialization

• He loves characters and toys.
• He has a barn, castle, garage, dollhouse, etc. He love using the dollhouse characters and furniture out of the dollhouse (he uses the vacuum to clean our carpet and kitchen, he has the characters use the real toilet, he holds their hands and pretends to walk to the store)
• His vet kit keeps him busy a lot as well. He gives the cats medicine, checks temperature, basically uses all the tools in the kit.
• His playmobile toys are well used, and used appropriately. However, there is a lot going on in them so too much to write about here.
• He still does not like to dress up much but he does like to pretend things are hats. Go figure on that one.
• He will periodically say thank you to his cousin/friends while playing. It always shocks me as it usually happens when they are playing without me.

Tangent over, I have now documented his development. It is amazing how hard it is to keep track of these things.