Toddler on the Loose!

When Joey was a toddler, I put him in an in-home daycare with a lady who eventually came to me in concern. She expressed that Joey wasn't talking anywhere near as well or as often as other children his age with whom she had experience. And he seemed, in her not-so-humble opinion, to be hyperactive. Because of these 2 things, she gave up trying to "teach" him. I won't even get into why a 16 month old would need to be educated, but I will say that having someone else recognize these issues was both relieving and scary.
So I immediately drove home to begin making a list of all the words my son used: cup, teddy, shoes, keekee, and about 100 other singular words. For his age, I thought this was pretty good. But the words "mama/mommy" and "dada/daddy" were not part of that list. I began to research language delays, and realized that he was really only using 2-3 words regularly. And he wasn't combining words into any phrases at all. When I brought this up to his pediatrician, she assured me that not all children develop at the same rate, and the words would come eventually. But I just knew she was mistaken.
Joey's energy level remained extremely high, and he was taking (most days) a brief nap in the afternoon. He would sleep through the night occasionally, but still seemed to require less rest than his peers. His favorite things were the vacuum cleaner, Pixar movies, and trying on all of my shoes. The blood-curdling shrieks were still persistent, and I dreaded taking him anywhere because I knew that inevitably a meltdown would occur.
Toys. Toys were pretty much useless, except that it was quite fun (apparently) for Joey to pull them all out to the center of his bedroom floor, and not actually play with them. He liked taking unconventional things and making something else out of them. Sofa cushions. Not real sure what made the sofa cushions so appealing, but he would sometimes arrange and rearrange them for hours. If it didn't look "just right" or stay in place, a tantrum would erupt. And his preoccupation with the vacuum cleaner was unreal. He was mainly mesmerized by the hose, and this created problems when Mommy needed to clean the carpets.
Up until about this point, Joey would eat just about anything: lima beans, squash, all meats, etc...Seemingly overnight I saw him transition from a well-rounded eater to a very picky eater. He even went through a phase where he would choke and gag on certain foods. There were several times when I had to use my finger to fish out whatever was causing him to choke.
I learned the entire scripts to Shrek, Monsters, Inc., and of course Toy Story...1 &2, thank you. He would watch them over and over and over...He knew by 2 yrs old how to play a dvd and rewind a video. Before anyone goes all "why do you let your kid watch so much tv?" on me, let me just state that he has never (except when he had the flu) just SAT in front of the tv. While he's watching, he's also playing, drawing, building, and even dramatizing. Anyway, his Pixar fixation only lasted until about age 3...then the ironic happened. But that's for a later time.
Joey absolutely loved bath time. He would request (pull me to the tub) baths sometimes in the middle of the day. And he didn't mind having his teeth brushed. He actually thought it was quite amusing. This may seem like useless information, but I promise you, you'll see the importance later in this blog.
Joey's day consisted mostly of running, jumping, and climbing....repeatedly. Fortunately, he never hurt himself. We attributed it to luck, but we would eventually figure out that luck had nothing to do with it....