Music Together -- check out their website -- offers CDs and music "lesson plans" which can be very active - lots of dancing, singing, etc.  If you are yourself at all musically inclined, you can do this yourself.  If you do not have confidence in your musical ability (yet), check out whether there are any classes available in your area.  They are not cheap, but after attending one you will probably have the confidence to just purchase the CDs/book and do it by yourself.

Also, daily walks and excursions to the park have offered me a lot of opportunities to teach my son (25 mo) about a wide variety of things.  "Hawk" was added to his vocabulary at 18 months after one day when we were at the park and a red-tailed hawk flew over us.  The next time we went for a walk, all he said was "Hak, hak, hak", looking up in the sky.  I was amazed that he remembered that brief experience from the previous day.

PLEASE do your research on the swine flu vaccine before receiving it.  While the swine flu is real, some of the news reports you hear blow it out of proportion.  The swine flu is actually usually less severe than the typical flu.  The latest that I read is that it is more likely spread by direct contact than airborne exposure (compared to the typical flu); therefore, if you do not have a child who is in daycare (and sharing chewed-on toys, etc), or otherwise have close contact with a lot of people, your chances of getting it are pretty low.  Also, the problem with the swine flu vaccine is that it is being produced in a hurry, and therefore, besides not being tested the way other vaccines usually are, includes ingredients that make the body have a stronger immune reaction than it would otherwise (so that the vaccine can be diluted to produce more doses, and still produce immunity).  These ingredients are foreign to the body, and can have certain adverse effects in certain people.

We are following an alternate vaccination schedule with our son due to concerns over vaccine efficacy and safety, and so have done tons of reading on the subject.

Just a follow-up to my other post, not to be an alarmist, but if you continue to have concern, check with your pediatrician or with your local school district which may offer screening free of charge.  A few of the things you mention, like fascination with the spinning wheels on his toy car and difficulty in social situations, sound like some of the questions that were asked at my son's 2-yr-old well-child check-up on the autism screening questionnaire. 

I only offer this because of my own experience, which involves physical development: when my son was 10.5 months old and not yet crawling or getting to sitting from lying down, even though my Ped said it's probably nothing to worry about, he mentioned the service offered by the school district and I called the local school district which offers free-of-charge early intervention screening and therapy, if the child is diagnosed with a delay.  He was actually diagnosed with low muscle tone and a stiff neck (can't remember the technical term), which constituted enough of a physical developmental delay, and we received 3-4 visits from the physical therapist (free) who gave me exercises to do with him.  Within 2 months he had caught up to his age level (walking at 12 months).  The cognitive therapist also came to to a screening and evaluation 2 times.  I am very thankful that I decided to do this even though many people were telling me it was no big deal and I should not be worried, that he would catch up eventually, lots of kids never crawl, go straight to walking, etc.  I think he would not have progressed like he did without this help.  Mostly it was me being educated and doing the exercises, of course, not the several visits from the therapist, but nonetheless I'm really glad I did this.  I stay home with him and only have one, so of course scheduling the appointments was easier than if I was working, but I offer this as something to consider if you continue to be concerned.

I hope you don't mind my offering this suggestion, and please consider it in the context of you who know your son the best.  He may also very well just have different ways of learning.

Does he like going for walks outside or playing on the playground?  Maybe he needs more time to burn off energy.  Figure out what he loves and use it to teach him things.  It might not be from flash cards but he is learning.  It might be hard during the week but you could try it on the weekend.  Comment on everything you see and hear.  My 25-month-old son loves animals and loves even the idea that we might see a bunny, deer, or hawk on our walks, or even an ant.  We talk about everything we hear and see, from a siren to the doves sitting on top of the house next to the park.  One day at our community pool he spent 30 minutes watching, entranced, as a colony of ants worked to move several large crumbs (from his lunch) into a hole in the bricks.  I watched with him and commented on what they were doing and it was amazing to see his attention span when I let him just follow what he was interested in at the moment.  I was actually quite entranced as well!

On flash cards, I have found that my son does not have a lot of patience for cards either. He is totally a hands-on learner and I have read and researched a lot about the Montessori method, which I have tried to implement to some extent in his toys and our daily activities and he loves most of what I have shown him.  On the flashcards, when we do them, it helps if there is a picture on the backside, even though he knows all what all the words mean, he still looks forward to looking at the picture.  A Montessori-type method would be to use an actual object with the flashcard, for example, show him "car" and then give him a toy car.  Or collect a bag full of "c" words that he can explore (i.e. a toy car, a comb, a plastic cow, etc), which will help him learn the beginning sound "c".

This is very much a Montessori philosophy ("Practical Life" skills) and I totally agree with it.  My 2-yr-old loves to wipe, "sweep", "fold" laundry, and "vacuum".  He's getting better at it with more practice!  Hopefully he will not lose this love for cleaning! 

I'm looking for some advice on what direction I should take on potty training with my 25-month-old son.  We got a potty some time ago and did all the readiness stuff (talking about what it's for, practicing sitting on it some) and he started showing real interest about 2 weeks ago.  Since then, he has been enthusiastic about sitting on the potty every night before bed, and every day before naptime.  In the last week he has obviously gotten the hang of controlling it and can urinate right away when he actually tries (sometimes sits and 'reads', talks or plays until I tell him he has to get serious).  Even one morning when he woke up at 5, he insisted on sitting on the potty, and actually did eventually go (although I think again this was a strategy to keep me from putting him back in bed and going back to bed myself right away).

Unfortunately, he only has interest when sitting on the potty means postponing naptime or bedtime!  No interest at all when it will interrupt play time!  Also no interest in pooping on the potty.  We started off giving a "special" sticker whenever he was successful urinating in the potty, but the last week or so I hit upon an even better incentive, which is that the "kissing monster" will come after he puts pee in the potty.  The Kissing Monster is me of course but he gets very excited after he pees, runs in his room and looks around in anticipation for the Kissing Monster to appear (and deliver loud sloppy kisses).  So, I feel like I have a good incentive and don't want to offer some bigger material reward because I don't think it will work.

I'm not necessarily in a big hurry, and am delighted with the progress in the last few weeks, but have heard that especially with boys there can be a window of interest that then closes and if you don't go all the way during that period, it is a lot harder later.  Should I put him in underwear and just deal with the messes for a while?  Get some training underwear?  Everyone says that pull-ups are not the way to go for training, but...any advice?

We use Waleda Children's Tooth Gel.  It does not contain flouride and is safe to swallow.  It has a minty taste and surprisingly our son loved it from the first time we tried it (he was around a year old when I found it at an organic grocery store - before that we were using a fruit-flavored non-flouridated tooth gel sold at the regular grocery store or drug store).  In fact he often begs for a second "helping" of toothpaste (which he doesn't get).

He got his first two teeth at 4 months and I started right away to clean them each night with a wash cloth or the rubber finger brush.  He had all his teeth except molars by 12 months, and by his second birthday had gotten all 8 of his molars, so we have had a lot of practice already.

At some point, maybe around 10 months or so, he started clamping down on my finger so I switched to a toddler brush.  There were a number of periods that he was resistant to it but I tried to keep it positive by tickling him, getting him to laugh and open his mouth and sneaking the brush in for a few seconds.  Sometimes he was better with my husband.  For some time now (he turned two in July) he has been fine with it.  He always wants to do it himself first and then let's Mommy "have a turn".  It is part of our naptime and bedtime routine.  I try to brush his teeth in the morning too but half the time it doesn't happen (which is why I added the naptime routine).

Even now, I try to keep it interesting by talking about his teeth, asking to see his molars, etc.  Try making up stories about the teeth (give them names even?) and say you want to see them or talk to them. 

I have only explored the German section of this site, but it has many other countries/languages.  It incorporates contributions from visitors to the site so it keeps growing all the time.  There are lyrics, sheet music and even audio files of chidren's traditional songs and rhymes, so you don't have to know the tune or even be able to read music to learn the songs.  I'm trying to introduce my 2-year-old to German but am very far from fluent so learning some songs and nursery rhymes have worked well for me to find ways to incorporate the language into our day.

http://www.mamalisa.com/

I hope some others find it helpful!

I would say it is never too late.  I was totally inconsistent with doing signs with my son, but tried to do them at least during mealtime starting when he was about 6 months old.  He signed "more" at about 10 months and around 12 months very consistently would sign "banana" or "apple" as well as a few other signs that I was actually fairly consistent with.  It definitely helped me understand what he was trying to say.  He is pretty verbal so I have to admit I got lazy with the signs around his first birthday because he was saying what he wanted.  I've been thinking I want to start using more signs around him now (he just turned 2) to resurrect what I had started.

From what I have read, there is no reason not to start introducing a second language from birth.  Our neighbors' daughter understood just about everything her father said to her in French at 2 years old -- basically had similar comprehension in English and French (the mother speaks to her in English, the father in French -- he is fluent though not a native speaker).  The mother speaks no French so the child only hears French in the evenings and weekends.  I have read that kids growing up in bilingual households may become verbal a little later on average because they are processing everything, but end up being able to better learn foreign languages in the future because their brains get "wired" to learn multiple languages.

There is a great book series by Therese Slevin Pirz, the Bilingual Kids Series.  The books are entitled "Kids Stuff German", "Kids Stuff French" and so on.  For ESL learners, I see two listed on the Barnes and Noble site -- for Russian speakers and Spanish speakers.  I didn't see you mention your native language so I'm not sure if it will be helpful.  The books are basically phrase books with phrases to use in everyday activities with your children (i.e. playing, eating, manners, bath time, etc).

I read your post and the other replies with great interest since I am very interested in teaching my son (just turned 2) German, have tried a few things (and found a few good resources, below) but have recently run into some puzzling issues which I hope someone has experience with!

 Actually, I don't care what foreign language he is exposed to, but German is what I am most comfortable with.  However, I am far from fluent so I have a hard time just including it in our daily activities.  I try to say phrases here and there in German, or say the German word for things.  I was so excited when "das Auto" was in the first 20 words that he said -- he would say "Auto, Auto' when I would start speaking German, so it seemed he knew when he was hearing German versus English, and would respond with the only German word he could say.   When he was about 9 months old I bought two books to use with him, "Berlitz Kid's German Picture Dictionary" (there are other languages too) and "Kids Stuff German" (also available in other languages).  The picture dictionary is great, I love it, and at first he seemed to like it.    "Kids Stuff German" is great for me although I haven't used it as much as I should.  It is basically a phrase book of phrases to use with babies and kids.  For example, from the time I got the book, I got in the habit of saying "Ich wechsel dir die Windeln" when I was changing his diaper.  My original goal was to learn a few appropriate everyday phrases each day and incorporate them into our daily activities but of course that hasn't happened. 

So here is the puzzling issue I am having now...many times when I start speaking German to him, he says "no, Mommy, no, don't say that!"  If I keep going he will put his hand over my mouth!  He is very verbal, at 25 months he regulary says 6-7 word sentences and uses most pronouns correctly.  Maybe he doesn't want to go back to not being understood after now finally I can understand most of what he says and he can express his needs and wants most of the time?  Now when we read the picture dictionary, he seems to get confused.  For example, I'll open it to the "Tiere" page and start pointing to pictures and saying the German word for the animals.  He'll sit and listen until I get through 5 or 10 and then say, "no, no, Mommy, that's a HORSE!  That's a COW!" like he's pointing out to me that I'm not using the right word.  Does anyone have experience with this?  Any suggestions?  I'm finding I am losing motivation to improve my own fluency when it only seems to upset  him anyway for me to speak German.