18 months old

Now this one is actually kind of shocking to me; it's hard to believe that my itty bitty baby is already a year and a half.  It's even harder to believe that I'll have a two year old in six months!  I feel like it was yesterday that it was his first birthday party and not that too long ago that he was just a tiny baby. As an eighteen month old, we're fully into toddlerhood. 

Andrew and Miss Simone at school on Back to School Night

New Developmental Milestones this Month: Here are the new developmental things that he started doing this month:

• Physical: He is a strong, very physically little boy.  He is a massive dancer and is trying to trying hard to jump.  Working on using utensils, he enjoys stabbing items, but usually gives up and goes back to his fingers.  Pushes and pulls large objects (like  his highchair, the side tables, his small chair, etc) around the living room.
• Teeth: no new teeth this month--sitting happily at 12 teeth.
• Cognitive/Language: very into stacking objects onto other objects (some that are meant to be stacked, some that aren't), indicating wants with words (yes/no) and with head nods, throws temper tantrums whenever he doesn't get what he wants, points to most body parts on himself, mommy, and stuffed Mickey, constantly claims things as "mine" and pulls it away.

Stacking his ducks on top of his barn (and the mess he likes to make).

• Vocabulary/Words: We have 35 words in our vocabulary, adding hat, toes, mine
• Old words are Mama, Dada, Dog, Duck, more, hi, no, byebye, ball, bunny (bun), banana, bird, tree, diaper (die), milk, night-night (ni-ni), Reese (eese), shoes, me, pretty, ears, eyes, kitty, turtle, book, hot, cold, three, Des, Grandma. 
• Psychosocial: wary of strangers (finally), beginning to role play, enjoys "family hugs," gives kisses with a closed mouth, gets very excited when he sees familar people, temper tantrums galore.

Physical Growth this Month/Doctors:  several small trips for ear infections, we've gained and lost weight this month

• Sept. 16: 24 lbs, 14.4 oz and 31 inches (respiratory tract infection)
• Sept. 22: 24 lbs, 3.2 oz and 32 inches (ear infection and stomach flu)  

Becoming quite a thinker

Sleeping: We're a loving sleeping family!  Bedtime is around 7:30 and he's sleeping until we wake him up for school at 7:00 am.
Eating: Loves to eat.  Currently his favorites are fruit (still), sugar free organic fruit snacks, ground turkey, anything with tomato sauce.
Diapers: Size 4s (990 used) during the day and night.
Clothing: 9-12 month still... really, really tired of them... we're going to have to move into 12-18 months when he needs pants in order for him not to have "high waters."  We've had an unreasonably warm September and October so far, so the shorts are still happily on (along with his sandals).
Favorite Toys: moving on to trucks, trains, and airplanes (he has several smaller ones he likes to carry around) and balls.  He likes to play with puzzles and stacking pretty much anything occupies so much of his time.  Books are still pretty much a constant part of his day.  He REALLY loves playing outside at school!