No`s and cars

Dear Joshi,

You continue to talk up a storm and now you have added the clear head shake for "NO". Now that you can use that clearly and with intent you use it for everything. You have been very sick this last week and everything from drinking to eating to going to bed has been a NO from you. When you don't like the taste of something or if you don't want to do an activity like brush your teeth, ride your bobby car - you say immediately DONE in a clear and matter-of-fact tone. It is so cute.

You have also continue to be obessessed with cars, proving yourself to be all boy, you get out of bed in the morning and the first thing you look for your car. You have lots of cars to play with that you have borrowed from your brother Leo. Your favorite is and ML Class Mercedes in silver. You carry this around from room to room and drive it on the window sills. The long window sill in the living room has turned into an Autobahn, with all of your cars. You get quite mad when the cars fall off the Autobahn when driving them.

Love your, Mama

18 months and counting

Joshi is just over 18 months old and he can do just about everything that mama can do except for go to the toilet. Hopefully that will come soon and we can save on diapers and that headache : ) I did cloth diaper him for 6 months (from 6 mos to 12 mos) but he has back in disposables since I have been back to work.
He can say even more words than before including:
Buddha, Oma, grandma, crane, zipper, button, fan, home (pronounced hmmm), JYM (pronounced: Emmm). Fan is often accompanied by the sound vvvvvvvvvv and a hand motion going back and forth. This is his interpretation of the sound the basement fan makes. He is obsessed with the fan. He went to hang up laundry with mama one day about a week ago and discovered the fan and has talking about it ever since. It has been the first thing he talks about when he opens his eyes in the morning and first thing he thinks about when we are coming or going. Joshi always wants to make a stop down in the basement to visit the fan. To turn it on and off and on and off. I think there is a combination of fascination and a bit of fear which is fueling this obsession. The other word Joshi says a lot lately is "other side" (pronounced o'er sigh....) Joshi uses this to communicate when during breast feeding he is done with one side and ready for the other. It has morphed however into a word that means he wants to breast feed. I now have him on a schedule and weaned him off of night feedings and day feedings: Now we have feeding at early morning waking, in the early evening after work and once more as part of the bedtime routine. Since this partial weening Joshi has been cautious to ask at other times, cause he knows what the answer will be - now he has settled for constant fondling which irritates his mama to no end especially when in public. He has added to sign for music to his repertoire.
Joshi is still calling Leo papa....we are waiting for him to be able to say Leo.
In the park, you have your own private island, I like to call it. It is a little grassy area in the sandpit play ground with bushes, a tree stump and some rocks. You love to play here, while all the other kids are on the slides and swings and jungle gym - you are hanging out on your private island, getting close to nature and climbing the rocks. No other kid enters your territory, none of them take the slightest interest!