18 months

18 months

Our sweet little baby is turning into an independence finding little man.  He is changing so rapidly it's hard to even keep up.  His language is absolutely exploding.  He is stating full sentences like "bye bye pawpaw, I love you".  He has a ton of picture-word association and many of those come with extra sounds like quacking for ducks and actions like lassoing his arm overhead for helicopters.  It's seriously the cutest thing to watch him figure out so much in his environment.  He is currently obsessed with the moon, pointing it out whenever we are driving, standing on his diaper changing table to look out the window to say "night-night moon" and even spotting it in the middle of the afternoon.  He is absolutely obsessed with books, pulling every book off of the shelf, out of the bucket or off the table.  He does spend time thumbing through every one of them and of course has some favorites right now.  He is really enjoying The Little Blue Truck, Night Night Farm, Blue Hat-Green Hat (and instead of saying oops in this book he says "Oh Shoot"), Thomas the Train (where he says choo-choo and moves his arm like the wheels chugging along).  

He is currently obsessed with balls and just received his first little basketball from mommy that he tries to dribble.  He also enjoys rolling on the basketball and planking on it.  I think he is physically advanced as he manages stairs very well and goes downstairs standing by himself (though I still prefer a fingertip assist).  He loves to climb on everything and attempts to balance in standing on all uneven surfaces including the side of my leg or arm of couch.  He enjoys running and has just started performing a two leg jump completely clearing the ground.  He kicks balls and throws quite well.  

In terms of developing his independence he has become quite a pain in the butt at feeding times.  He now refuses to eat whatever I prepare for him no matter how much he loves that particular food and will often have a full meltdown until we figure out which food he actually wants.  Of course, it turns into a parent-baby battle to get him to eat what he is presented with first, then eat the desired item.  He has now learned that if he drops his food over the edge of the high chair, that Coalie will come along and gobble it up therefore leaving him off the hook.  Unfortunately for him ,Coalie is called off and he is required to get down and clean up all of the food he spills.  It is incredibly annoying because he ends up covered in food and the floor is a sticky disaster and he often eats half of it off the ground as he's cleaning up but the lesson is really important to me so we continue to work through this battle.  

He adores his family.  He calls "come" whenever he misses Coalie.  He knows where all of the pictures of pawpaw are and he always gets very excited.  He knows the sound of daddy's truck and will say "hi daddy" as soon as he hears it in the driveway.  He says "mommy" and "daddy" whenever he sees us in a picture.  He likes to turn on my phone to see pictures of Millie and he will often give her kisses on his night stand.  He will say "nigh-nigh miwey" and when working on a puzzle at the library the other day he picked up the cow, looked at me and said "Millie moo."  I almost started crying right there in the stacks of books!  He is so sweet and always gives Millie a kiss when we visit her at her resting place.  He even visted another loss momma's little babies at the same cemetery at our latest visit on Feb 19.  He has been super snuggly the past few days which is so lovely.  He also loves to play with my hair and will spend 20-30 minutes just running his hands through my hair.  He did receive his first "haircut" Friday that was really just a trimming of his bangs and side curls because I refuse to lose those adorable baby curls.  As part of his budding mealtime independence he loves to rub the food he doesn't want to eat into his hair therefore requiring a bath.  It's super time consuming and annoying but I still can't stand to part with those soft, sandy brown baby curls.  

I really have no reference but I'm pretty sure he's a smart kid.  I am loving this stage, getting to watch him explore his environment, see the awareness just explode by the day and engage in challenging him.  It's so fun learning ways to communicate with him especially when he gets frustrated for not having the words or I get confused for not knowing his babble.  I love watching him process through how things work, learning how to open doors and beginning to understand the order in which things occur.  He is challenging his body constantly and never lets bumps or bruises slow him down.  At his 18 month check-up he actually had an ear infection that required antibiotic that we had no clue he was even suffering with.  

He is just the best part of every day, he brings me so much joy, reminds me what my purpose in life is and keeps me focused on our family.