19 months=Terrible Twos??

This month Kayden has definetely entered into that "terrible 2's" phase a little early. I had heard lots of mommies tell me that the terrible 2's actually starts around 18 months and I was hoping they were wrong. He of course is still my adorable, loving, happy, laughing boy MOST of the time. But now he has these "moments" that I have started calling his "toddler moments" and they don't last long and can easily switch but they are things I didn't have to deal with up until now. Some new things we have encountered this month (or at least I've noticed them alot more in the past month, daddy thinks it was about 3 or so months ago that most of this started:-) - throwing tantrums when he doesn't get his way, he has started hitting or pushing people that he doesn't want to be too close to him or touch him or look at him (fun for mommy when it is a perfect stranger!), he has also taken to biting his friends a couple times for no reason at all. Mommy is working on it, reading some books and trying to figure out what works for him. So far, they say toddlers are like little "cave-kids" and all of this behavior is completely normal and typical......why yes, I realize that but it is super hard when it is your kid, so hopefully I get a chance to continue reading sometime soon and find out the techniques they say work. So this month one thing Kayden is helping mommy know a new meaning for is patience, I have found a new level of patience (I thought a room full of special ed preschoolers was all I'd ever need for teaching me about patience, but those kiddos went home at the end of the day with a note about their biting....now I'm the mommy having to deal with the biting, or hitting or whatever, much more difficult I have found out!).

Of course, with the good always comes a little challenge, and this month has had some goods that are so worth any challenges my little guy might give me.

This month Kayden:
*Finally has the smacking sound for kisses! He has been an open mouth kisser for so long, and he still does kiss us on the lips with his mouth open but if he kisses our hand or cheek or a toy it now has the kissy face and the smacking sound!
*Has a new little laugh that is really high pitched and makes daddy and I laugh everytime we hear it:-)
*Is in love with pizza, if we would let him he would eat it all day, every day. Lots of times if we offer him food he doesn't want he'll say "no, pizza please":-)
*Is getting very good with using his manners, please and thank you!!! Yay!!
*Is a little jabber mouth, he talks all the time and we have fun trying to figure out what he is trying to tell us. For example "no" = no, snow, and nose along with many more I'm sure. He uses 2 and 3 word phrases very well and even if he can't say the exact words he has perfect intonation that helps us figure out what he is saying in his phrases.
*Loves this alphabet video I got for him at Sprouts by small fry productions. I made the mistake of having him watch a video when we went out to his friend Mikayla's house b/c it was a long drive and now he thinks he always needs to watch it when we are in the Tahoe (Christa-you are smart to avoid this:-). It has the letter of the alphabet and then pictures of objects that start with that letter and he thinks it is so great....mommy doesn't get it but I guess if he likes it it must be the age:-)
*Loves the Wiggles "You make me feel like dancing" video. I figured I'd try it b/c he loves music and loves to dance and he LOVES it. He tries to imitate their movements and humms the beat of the songs and thinks it is the greatest. The Boat song is his favorite. (Daddy hates the wiggles and swears they are the biggest nerds ever, but he loves them). Other than the Wiggles and his alphabet video TV and movies are still not his thing yet.
*Loves reading books and having them read to him. He went through a phase for about 2 weeks where he wasn't very into reading which worried me b/c he has always loved reading but he is back to bringing me book after book to read together.
*Has decided cooking is fun. At first he didn't want anything to do with it, but now he loves to sit on the counter while I cook and even has to watch his waffles in the toaster in the morning. The oven light is the coolest thing ever for him, he loves watching bread or whatever bake in the oven.
*Still sleeps with us for part of the night. I thought the toddler bed might help us transition but so far, around 2am or so he still wakes and needs to be close to us for the rest of the night. I do love him snuggled up next to me so I'm just following his cues and hoping he gets to the point where he is comfortable being in his bed all night. He also still nurses about 3 times a day and won't drink cow's milk.
*Finds "owies" on himself that need to be kissed or have a bandaid, also finds owies on mommy and kisses them for me:-)
*Loves to be outside, could be outside allllll day
*Loves his bath, gets so excited and runs happily towards the bath for bathtime
*Runs away from me after bath laughing hysterically while I run to catch him to put his lotion, diaper and Pjs on
*Loves to crawl on the ground and pretend to be an animal while I try and guess what animal he is
*Loves playing in the mud, sand, rocks, water, snow, anything messy is super fun
right now