MR W at 19 mos is still very difficult and exhausting to be around. We are used to his 8 hours of sleep a night and a short nap during the day. Now that he is fixated on cars and all things cars, he does occupy himself for hours now with his toys or books. Now that he can communicate well, the tantrums are less and less. He also helps with a lot of things around the house like unloading the dishwasher, loading the washing machine, and unloading and folding clothes.
We had to put him in day care with other kids for a week and he loved it and told us so, talking about his friends he made. So we are looking at doing daycare at the end of the year with older kids for T-TH and the "nanny" MWF this fall. He really wants to be in with 3-4 year olds so we are looking for that situation. When I look at the "milestones" for local Montessori and other schools, he has most of the ones for 4 year olds down. We've started lying about his age to get him into story time at the libraries. Its easy because he is so much bigger and is very outgoing.
The piano we got him and his stack of books helped a lot - the latter is used more now than the former. He is done with shape sorters. He likes puzzles, but once he does them, he is not interested anymore in that puzzle.
Starfall is a daily favorite and I highly recommend it. We spend an hour or more on the Alphabet and he will want to do it again and again, telling me the letters he wants to see and picking the objects that need to be clicked, ie the match matrices or the letters that do not belong.
The big thing we have found is to put something in front of him and see if he wants to run with it. And showing him how to help us around the house. Asking him to show us what he wants to do or wants.
