21 months old

Teodor turned 21 months yesterday. I didn't feel any nostalgic or moved when his first birthday was coming but with the second one, I can't get it out of my mind. He's turning into a little boy and it's so exciting. I'm having so much fun with him (no, I really didn't particularly enjoy the baby period), especially now after he's gone through a pretty tough drill of answering yes-no questions it feels like we're having conversations. His answers cannot be always taken seriously but still, he answers. He doesn't use words much, if at all, but he is very communicative and it's very helpful if he can answer me in the way I do understand instead of just guessing. I sometimes feel like he has no motivation/need to even try talking in words because I'm so good at guessing what he wants.

I really like this picture, it somehow perfectly shows what is Teodor like: a calm, focused, organized, serious toddler. He has his wild moments, but usually he is a "perfect" example of a Montessori child. In some ways it might be interesting to get the second child with a totally different personality because I'm dying to know how much it is his personality and how much it is the upbringing that he's so focused and calm. (Found out that the fish oil is really working for calming the child) Or maybe he's got some autistic traits, he is still a huge fan of routines - we took a trip to visit a friend yesterday and because we came home late, it was impossible to make him sleep...I just had to wait until he was done screaming and fell asleep from exhaustion. 

I'm trying to make him feel important part of the family life, so these are his "chores":

He stuffs the washing machine with laundry, opens and closes the drawer for washing powder and presses the button. (he also chooses the program, which I always change)

He takes the bag with dishwasher tablets from their place, takes one out, puts it in the dishwasher, I help him to close the drawer and then he brings the bag back on its place (without any reminding, it's pretty impressive, want to make a video of it), then he presses the right button and closes the dishwasher. He can use the dishwasher better than his dad :)

He loves wiping, so he's wiping the worktop, table, sometimes even the chair when nobody asks him :)

He would love to help with mopping, cooking and everything but we take it slowly, I'm having only one set of nerves and patience.

If he decides he no longer wants to help, he can leave, I don't push him to finish the task...but I always ask him if he wants to help before starting to do those things mentioned above. 

He's a pretty smart kid with lots of skills and I just can't believe he's turning 2 in 3 months and that we will have another baby in the family around this time. I feel like maybe we should start caring that a new member is coming because we have bought literally close to nothing for her. But as my friend said today, you have the wrap, breast, diapers, old Teodor's clothes, so what else does a newborn need, right?