niju kagetsu

To the day Connor is 20 months old. He is really maturing. He takes care of most of his own mobility now. He can feed himself and brush his teeth. He is semi-potty trained. He is acquiring language rapidly. He enjoys books and children’s songs, especially “Head Shoulders Knees and Toes,” which he does his best to keep up with (lots of knees in his version). He also likes “If You’re Happy and You Know It ” - clapping and stamping and replacing Hooray! with Yata! the Japanese equivalent. Last night I introduced him to “Old MacDonald” and he gave a really cute rendition of Ee-I-Ee-I-O. A favorite game is I-na-i I-na-i Ba! which in our house has become a manic combination of Hide-and-Go-Seek and Peek-a-boo.
This past weekend he experienced his first serious illness. Whether it was a bug or something bad he ate, nothing would stay down on Saturday and he had fever on Sunday. He is fine now, maybe still a little tired.
One facet of Connor not yet mentioned here: he’s slightly obsessive-compulsive. If the bathroom light is left on, he points and screeches until it is turned off. Doors and drawers must be shut. When you’re in a store with him, he loses it if a shopping basket is not properly nested, or one shopping cart is not tucked into the others. Pass a car on the street with its trunk open, and he sounds the alarm. But he’s not completely autistic because you can tell him it’s OK, and he will accept it. Interestingly, a friend with a daughter three weeks younger than Connor is similarly affected. “If she sees a hair or a speck of dirt, she starts saying MAMA, MAMA, incessantly, until one of us picks it up,” he mentioned. Connor hasn’t done it lately, but he used to point and cry “Ick! Ick!” until we acknowledged whatever it was. It’s very curious behavior and I wonder if they will simply outgrow it?