Eighteen Months!

Sleep., originally uploaded by bburbank.

We’re both getting more of it. I am so happy about your recent ability to make yourself fall asleep. And I really like this extra sleep. Hopefully this falling asleep on your own and sleeping through the night with one 2-4 hour afternoon nap is not a short-lived phase, but something that’s here to stay for awhile. You’re doing pretty well without milk and froggy and blanky seem to be pretty comforting nighttime companions. You’ve been getting up between 7 and 8:30am, going down for a nap between 11:30 and 2:30 and then going to bed around 9:30 or 10:00 each night. That is working out great for us and it’s nice to be on a bit of a regular schedule.

You are eighteen months old now and I am really enjoying this age. You are communicating so much more with me and understand so many new things. You are such a big boy. We had to get you size 7.5 Wide shoes today at Stride Rite and you are almost 36 inches tall and 30.8 pounds! We still battle your eczema  a bit and you wake up with the occasional high fever which I think may be a result of the new molars coming in (you have three of the four back molars now). You are wearing between a size 2 and 3T and love to examine what is on your shirts each day…especially when you get to wear your Buzz Lightyear or Sesame Street shirts. I realized recently that it is often those stupid details that I want to remember and that I forget. I need to keep better track of what sizes you wore when and what ailments you have at what age…that sort of thing. I also want to keep better track of some other things:

Things you love: Buzz, Woody, and Mr. Incredible, soft pillows…especially the new “big boy pillow” we let you sleep on now, running around the house chasing (and sometimes hitting and pulling on Leela), sitting in various chairs, playing outside picking little flowers, picking up acorns, examining small objects, playgrounds, especially going up the stairs and down the slide again and again and again, reading books like My Name is Dug and your frog pop-up book, doing your “barnyard dance”, pat-a-cake, twinkle twinkle, and itsy bitsy spider, climbing up on the bed and jumping on your Dad, playing a modified hide and seek, being surprised, wiggling, stomping, being tickled, communicating effectively and then getting praised, saying animal sounds, playing a variation on Simon Says, felt boards, playing with toy phones, blowing kisses, feeding me from your dinner plate, sitting in my lap and letting me read to you, holding small things, riding in your backpack and in the car carts at the grocery store, magnets on the fridge, putting on your shoes (probably because it signals that we’re going somewhere), helping me with house chores (emptying or filling the dishwasher and opening or closing drawers being among your favorite chores). When I give you something you want and asked me for you clench your fists with excitement and grin and sometimes laugh. It’s awesome. When you don’t get what you want or something is frustrating you like something not fitting into a container or some container not opening for you the way you want you get very Hulk-like and grunt real loud and bang the object down. You are a lot like me! (Something I’m noticing about parenting…you parrot my actions and bring attention to mannerisms I didn’t know I had like when you started saying “okay” and I realized how many times a day I say that word!)

Things you don’t like: When your nesting cups don’t nest properly, when I don’t provide a toy you’ve asked for promptly enough, when it’s been too long since your last snack, when you wake up in the backpack after having fallen asleep in there (same goes for carseat), when we turn off Yo Gabba Gabba before it’s over, when we won’t let you get down and run through a store, sweet potatoes and broccoli, when other people pick you up besides me, when I won’t let you chase the dog any more

Favorite foods: Bananas still win. You take the hugest possible bites. Grapes are probably next favorite, although crackers are up there. I mean, honestly, ice cream would win above all but you don’t get to have ice cream very often. You love oatmeal in the morning, strawberries, and pretty much any fruit. You like tomatoes and cheese and you’ll tolerate avocado. You don’t eat many vegetables willingly (unless hidden) but you will eat just about any vegetable if it came out of soup. Weird. Broccoli is still really iffy, but I discovered tonight that cauliflower is acceptable. You like spicy foods and you do not appreciate potatoes unless they come in french fry form.

Favorite places to go: Any playground, the library (some days at the library are better than others), anywhere outdoors, especially if you are allowed to run wherever you want. Theme parks are fun but exhausting. You like going over to other people’s houses, but you don’t want the other people to pick you up and you don’t want to be left alone with them until you are good and ready,

Words you often say on your own: uh-oh, okay, ou-T, Daddy, dog, look, up, moo, quack, baa, Buzz, yes, no, ouchie

Words you reliably sign: cat, dog, more, please, thank you, I love you (blows kisses), hello, goodbye, banana, cracker, frog, sleep (you sign and say sssss…it’s adorable), bath, eat, drink

Words you have said when prompted: please, car, off, down, Leela, Mom, Jack, ….pretty much most words I try to get you to say you try to say now, even if you don’t actually use them or necessarily know what they mean. You also know many, many more words than you ever try to say. I can ask you to point to a bird, an octopus, a zebra, an elephant, all the Yo Gabba Gabba characters, some colors, almost all your main body parts, some shapes, etc. and you point at them.

It’s fun to watch you starting to interact and play with other kids and interact and communicate more directly with me. You are really exploring what your body can do, randomly trying to turn in circles or walk backwards or jump, randomly trying to rhyme words or make up syllabic rhythmic patterns, mimic the way we talk on the phone or sit in a chair or sing a song. (We’ve been putting a song to everything we do so you can get used to our schedule. You sing “away” when we put the toys away. Tonight in the bathtub you sang “away…okay…be-bay.”

I also feel like we’re getting to know you and your quirky mannerisms and your likes and dislikes more and more each day. You like to be praised, but you don’t necessarily need us to notice what you do. You are very independent and often seem to question why you have to do something that is asked of you. You can be very focused and almost have tunnel vision if something interests you. After library class you are not interested in socializing with the other kids…you run for the door so you can explore the rest of the library. Books are pretty much your favorite things next to holding Woody and Buzz. You have a very expressive face that gives away all your emotions…your latest face being very quizzical where your scrunch up your nose and your eyebrows and look very concerned and confused. You are very caring and thoughtful and like to help me do things. I broke something the other day and you came over and stood over the shattered remains nervously, sort of seeming concerned that I was upset. You kept saying with your scrunched up face, “oohhhh….okaaaaiee….okaaaaiee” as if you were trying to make sure it was okay and that I knew it was okay. You also have a mischievous streak. You run and run and don’t look back. You test your boundaries and often seem to love the attention you get when you cross a known boundary. You do not scare easily and seem to be adventurous. And you are so sweet and loving and awfully adorable and people seem to just really like you! I know I do!