18 Months

Breakfast at Waffleholic Cafe

A year and a half already... cue tears! My little man is so grown up.

Milestones...

• He is SO helpful! He wants to help Daddy and I do everything, and we encourage him to. He takes his diaper trash down the stairs and out to the garbage can on his own. He throws trash away by himself. He puts his toys away when we are done playing. He hands Nick tools when he is working on things. I can tell that keeping him involved with things we are doing makes him very happy.
• Everything in his world is assigned to someone. He points at Nick's car and says Dada. He grabs my shoes, hands them to me and says Mama. He points to Apollo's dog food and makes his dog noise "arf arf". And so on. 

Playing with his sticker books at his table

• He sure loves his Mom and Dad. When Dad is gone, he asks for him constantly. Same thing when I'm gone. He has been extra affectionate lately, wanting to sit in my lap and cuddle, and giving us hugs and kisses all the time. I hope this lasts forever! I just love how sweet my little man is. 
• I rarely use a stroller anymore. I really only bring it when we go to Disneyland or somewhere for the whole day and he needs a place to nap. Otherwise, he is walking wherever we go. He moves non-stop!

A very rare nap on Mom

• He feeds himself with a fork and spoon really well now. He is still a pretty good eater, but he definitely has his favorites. He hums when he eats, which everyone comments on. I think he just thoroughly enjoys his food. His favorites right now are: broccoli, bananas, BBQ chicken, pasta, salmon, and raspberries. He drinks whole milk and water.
• He loves: dancing! {my favorite of his loves}, putting bowls or blankets over his head and walking around, bumping into everything, his etch-a-sketch, his cozy coupe, going on walks on his trike, his sticker books, building blocks, coloring with his crayons, dogs and cats, and really any animal at all, anything outside with dirt, sticks, and rocks, and oh-my-gosh water!!!! Any form, anywhere, he wants to be in it, touch it, put his face in it... so much like his Mama :) 

A quick break on our bike ride

• He can throw a good tantrum now. We definitely pick our battles and that seems to minimize the meltdowns. Just like us, he can have a great day one day and a bad day another. When he is having a bad day, I have found that it helps immensely if I get down to his level. It seems to make all the difference for him. When Nick is out of town for work, I spend all my time with him on the floor. It can make dinner tricky, but we make it work.
• He sleeps really well. He goes to bed at 8pm and we wake him up at 7:15am for school. On the weekends, he will sleep in until 8 or 8:30. He takes one nap from noon to 2pm. We got very lucky with a good sleeper.
• He says: Mama, Dada, Nana, bye, hi, duck, more, ball, bat, banana, milk, light, Norman, Beeg {both the kitty's names}, Matt {our friend's name... he is always at our house}. He uses his sign language too. He signs "more", "all done", "food", "milk", "tired", "thank you", "please", "help me". His language seems to be picking up lately. We watched the State of the Union on Tuesday and I told him we were watching our president Obama. He repeated "Obama" a few times.

Shopping at Home Depot

• He has twelve teeth, and four more molars peeking through. He now brushes his own teeth at the sink with his little toothbrush. It was time to retire the little rubber finger one I was using... those chompers bit down on my finger too many times. Ouch.
• He still loves "school" and is moving to the next classroom {18 months - 30 months} on February 3rd. He has been transitioning over the past three weeks and he loves it! It is definitely bittersweet for me. I will miss his wonderful teacher and his classmates. However, we love his new teacher and he will be with older kids, doing more structured learning, sleeping on a cot, playing outside more... all good things! 

Breakfast time

His stats:

• He is wearing 2T. 
• He is wearing size 5 diapers.
• He weighed in at 27 lbs {85% percentile}, measured 32.5 inches tall {55% percentile} and his head circumference was 48.5cm {75% percentile}
• His doctor was so happy with how he is developing. He had a perfect appointment and we were very proud parents :) He had just one last vaccine and won't need any others until he is 4 years old! Woot!

18 month appointment

Nick and I are just smitten with our little man. We couldn't be happier. He is our everything.

xoxo,

Megan