Rye, 23m

Montessori helper, gunning for an allowance already.

Rye is growing and growing. He is engaging in pretend play more often, cooking pretend macaroni and cheese, and setting up Lego figures (Emergency Worker Jeremy, Bob the Builder, and Winnie-the-Pooh) around a table to eat Lego birthday cake. Lego Jeremy also practices pooping in a Lego potty. Recently the bathtub octopus was reading "Curious George Opposites." He feeds the plastic cow milk and the stuffed jaguar drinks out of Rye's sippy cup.

Some recent phrases: "aircraft carrier," "awesome 'possum," "okie dokie, mokie pokey."

Also overheard: "Daddy makes good omelets," (said while Mommy was making him an omelet), "See you later....alligator," (sending Daddy off to work), "This is Rye's, um, blanket," "Wow! It's (a) waterfall!" (while playing with sponges and water), "Mommy not have sides in pocket." (While babbling as he fell asleep), and "Heeeere's Peter Sagal!" of "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me!" the weekly radio news quiz.

He's also started talking with his hands, absent-mindedly turning his wrists to demonstrate how some wheels go round and round. He is more attentive for narrative stories such as The Lorax, Give a Pig a Pancake, and Smash Crash! Previously he preferred picture-intensive books without plot, but now he likes a balance.

We have heard him count to four and to six unprompted and unassisted. But he does not yet repeat this reliably.

Rye seems to understand the concept of "yesterday," talking about what he did yesterday.

He loves to throw balls around, and anything else that is ball-shaped.

Rye loves painting, drawing, glueing, and sculpting with play dough, as well as threading buttons and beads on pipe cleaners, and moving sparkle puffs around with tongs. He LOVES Lego Duplos, making car transporters, tow trucks, and super cars. He's also enjoying his little Brio train set with extra vehicles.

He likes to clomp around the house in mommy's and daddy's shoes, as well as to put his own shoes on by himself (50/50 on the right feet). He still likes wearing necklaces, but has become more choosy about which ones to wear.

The whining has begun (shudder). He is able to distinguish between his "whiny voice" and his "plain voice," but only at Mommy's prompting. He sometimes is able to say that he is frustrated or disappointed in a situation to let us know what's going on. Curiously, when presented with something new or interesting during the whining, the whining can stop more quickly than the needle coming off a 33 1/3rpm record.

Grocery getter.

Yogurt pops. Our ice pop rocket molds have an unfortunate shape.

Celebrating with Grandma on her birthday.

In other fun news, Mommy stumbled upon a color blind test in a book at the bookstore last week, and asked Rye whether he could put his fingers on the green dots. Color blind people can't see the "8" in the figure, or that there are two different color dots. Mommy was curious, because her brother and grandfather both are color blind—and Rye isn't that consistent with some color names.

Well, he picked the green dots right out. Even Auntie Kris saw it. Yay!