21 Months!

Wow PJ is 21 months, that is just 3 months away from being 2!  When did we become parents of nearly a 2 year old?!?
We have had an exciting month since 1/12/13.  The month started out with non-parent friends visiting.  The visit went really well, although PJ may have been a good birth control for at least a couple more months.  PJ was a good boy while they visited, but I think the busy-ness surrounded around PJ was a little overwhelming.  Auntie Amanda and Uncle Rizwan handled the lack of baby experience like pros.  Rizwan knew a lot about Thomas the Train and shared his phone to watch YouTube train videos with PJ.  Amanda did a great job of making faces and talking to PJ like he is a toddler and not a baby.  It was nice to have people around that PJ enjoyed but wasn't the center of attention.  A good experience. 
Then we had a meeting with PJ's teacher to learn that once he is 2; he is ready to move up to the new class!  PJ has excellent receptive knowledge.  He can takes more than one direction at a time from the teacher and generally follows through.  Teacher Leah's example was that after lunch she asked PJ to go wash his hands, grab his jacket and wait at the door to go outside.  He successfully did all 3 steps and with a happy face.  They have added tongs to the sensory tub just for PJ so he can practice fine motor skills above the younger kids in the class. He loves reading circle time every day, especially when they are about animals and farms.  The biggest news is that he drinks his milk and water without a lid!  Yes, there have been a few days I picked him up with different pants, but for the most part he does really well.  We also learned that PJ is caring to others in his class.  When friends are crying he brings them toys that they may like.  He got excited when a friend was back from a long vacation and requested that the friend sit next to him at lunch.  Such a sweetie!
At the end of January we finally moved into the Everett house.  Poppy stayed for the first week to help with some handyman projects, which was awesome for all of us, but PJ benefited the most.  They got some great Poppy/grandson time.  Poppy got to show PJ about ladders, screwdrivers, power drill, table saw, playing with Cheyenne, funny faces at dinner, tickle attacks, and even better Poppy got to see all of PJ's latest developments.  A good time for all.  G-Ma visited on either end of the week, which was fun too.  G-Ma sings great songs and reads the same train books over and over, and even shares her ice cream.  PJ is a spoiled boy when the Hammell G-Rents are in town!
For the last week of being 20 months PJ has started a new phase.  As his teacher puts its so sweetly, he is "finding his personality".  Translate that to kicking, slapping, sceaming, and in general testing everything Ry and I say.  Its not all the time, but gosh he is stubborn, and so are we and so we are still trying to figure out how to best approach this new phase.  Stay tuned for lessons learned, we are still in the survival phase, which I guess leads us to looking forward to what the next month will bring us!
Baby #2 is due in just 2 short weeks so this acting out could get worse before it gets better, but we look forward to the adventure none the less!