21 months

As of the 5th of this month, Will is 21 months old! Closing in on that big 2nd birthday! We've been very busy the past few weeks but things are starting to slow down now.

We've been mostly healthy and feeling well. Will is still having severe eczema problems, especially on his face and hands. We've had two appointments with the pediatrician during the past month and we seem to be slowly making progress. The pediatrician we've been seeing for his skin is a lot more aggressive at treating eczema than any of the doctors we've seen before. I had always been told not to use 1% hydrocortizone on Will's face. Last month this doctor gave us the go ahead to do that because he thought the benefits would outweigh the risk of side effects. As the doctor put it, "he's too handsome to suffer." No arguments here! We started using it twice a week, as instructed. Unfortunately, it just wasn't clearing him up. His face improved but it never completely healed. I then started three times per week. Again, it improved but never completely healed. So we went back to the doctor yesterday and we're going to go to the next level of treatment. Crossing our fingers it helps him more. The poor guy often scratches himself until he bleeds so we're really anxious to get him more help. We are also going to see a dermatologist soon. Most of the time Will is very happy but sometimes he is just so itchy he is miserable. Poor little guy.

We do our part to keep his creams on his skin. He often tries to help. In some of the pictures below, you can see that he decided to use his pudding as lotion and began to rub it all over himself. That was a dinner-straight-to-bath night.

Will has been very playful and happy over the last few weeks. He still loves his cars- still sleeping with at least one car. We get outside when we can but the weather doesn't always cooperate. In fact, San Antonio got snow last Friday! It was very icy in the morning and everything got cancelled, including David's work. We only got a dusting of snow and the ice had melted by noon. It was the un-snowiest snow day I've ever seen but we were happy that David got a surprise day off. My parents we in town too so Will got to spend a lot of time with Grandma and Grandpa Crockett. We went to the Riverwalk downtown and Will actually got to walk around, which he's never done before. We ate at Joe's Crab Shack and Will was very entertained by dancing waiters and the disco lights. Will and I got to watch the Super Bowl with the grandparents but David had to leave for Alabama Sunday morning. My parents left on Monday morning so poor Will went from a houseful of playmates back to just Mommy for a week.

Will is still picking up several new words a day. Some of his new words include jammies, flowers, toys, swing and several others. Will has also started using verbs now, which is very exciting! He often says "play" (as in "play toys) and "brush" (as in "brush teeth"). He has used the word "brush" before but it was always in reference to a hair brush. A couple days ago he used it as a verb when he said "brush teeth." Today at the park he was saying "swing" which I at first though was a verb but I think he was using it as a noun- asking to get on the swing. He never used to enjoy the swings very much. He's always been more of a slide man. But lately he's shown more interest in the swings. But- he refuses to use the toddler swings with the safety seat. He wants to use the regular swings. He thinks he's such a big boy! I put him on the regular swing but I have to stand to the side and hold onto him while I swing him a few feet back and forth. He seems to really enjoy it and he holds on really well. The problem is that when he decides he's done he yells "down" and hurls himself off the swing. I have to stay on my toes to catch him.

One of Will's favorite things to do is watch Sesame Street. We usually watch before lunch. Will has always loved Elmo. There is a segment on Sesame Street called "Elmo's World" which Will enjoys. Each show has a theme, usually showing how to do something. For example, last week Elmo was talking about how to walk your dog. In the middle of it, Will went to his toy box and found his pull-toy puppy and started walking his dog around the living room. Then a few days ago, Elmo was teaching how to get dressed in the morning. Will found one of his sweatshirts and tried to pull it over his head. It's very exciting to see him trying to apply what he's learning. We've also been working on counting to three. He can say each of the numbers but he hasn't put them together yet. Most often he'll point at the objects we're counting and say "two, two, two." He's still a man of few words but there is no question that he understands most of what we say. Despite not talking much he is pretty good at communicating. Lately he has started taking our hands to direct us when he wants us to go. Usually it's to his room to play cars or pulling us down on the floor so he can climb on us. In the kitchen, he usually wants water, milk or berries (he's still on his strawberry and blueberry kick). He's much better at saying "more" when he wants more of something and he's definitely not shy about telling us when he wants "down."

This past week we found out that we will be moving to DC in August instead of July, which was certainly welcome news. It gives us more breathing room after we have the baby before we have to move. Moving in August, we will be able to do all of our pediatrician appointments and my 6-week post partum appointment in Texas before we move, instead of having to worry about making the appointments the second we got to DC. Speaking of the new baby- we find out on Tuesday if it's a boy or a girl. We're very excited to know! I'm about 20 1/2 weeks now so we're over half-way there. I'm still feeling pretty well. Other than some fatigue, heartburn and some occasionally intense round ligament pain, it's been pretty uneventful so far. I am, however, occasionally reminded of how uncomfortable things are about to become as we get closer!