20 Months and Changes on the Horizon....

William is 20 months old tomorrow! Wow. This little person is exploding. He is letting us know he no longer considers himself a baby. Three nights in a row now he has put himself to bed. He wants no rocking or cuddles, no reciting all the animals on his wall, as was the ritual for all these months. Jason used to rock him and tell him stories until William was very sleepy, but three nights ago, as I was about to hand him over to Daddy, he reached out for his crib and said "night night, sleep" I asked him, "You don't' want to go to Daddy?" He replied, "ByeBye!" So we were shunned. He got in his crib, laid down, we covered him up and he said "Bye!" and so we left. I almost cried. I was certain that in a few minutes he would call to us, but he never did. (Sob!) This was repeated the next night and tonight....We offer the old routine, but he is done. All too soon.
On other fronts, his language is crazy now, he is speaking more and more phrases and simple sentences. He is using his sign language less and less all the time. He probably has around 150-200 words now and probably 6 simple sentences. He is almost jumping which he seems very determined to do, and is pretending more and more all the time. He loves to "feed" his animals and us. He makes a great cup of pretend coffee! He really wants to stop wearing diapers and be naked all the time, but he still seems to have no real way of knowing he has to go potty before he is actually going, so I am still hesitant to start any actual training. He knows most shapes, even in the abstract. For example, he looked at an egg the other day and said "Oval!" I was stunned. I seriously have no idea how he picks up this stuff. I promise I am not sitting here all day with flash cards! He recognizes about 6 letters by sight now, and knows the basic order of the alphabet, he is starting to say "LMNO" as one word like so many children before him. One other thing I have noticed is that he has developed empathy. If he sees a child crying he finds it very upsetting. He will start crying too until the child stops, and looks to me for help. Very sweet! I can see that we are going to have some new challenges coming up very soon, he is getting more and more capable of getting into trouble, and more and more stubborn all the time. I love this new phase though. Now that he can talk, I feel like I am finally getting to know him and what makes him tick!