He’s 18 months!

Happy 18 month birthday to our little one! (He’s not so little!)

Language Skills

• Curious boy – yesterday he asked his first question: He walked into the bathroom where I was drying my hair. I turned the blow dryer off to make sure he wasn’t scared of the noise. He looked at me and asked, “Mama doing?”
• He is putting together 2-3 word sentences like “Hep me” (help me), “Dada tunnel through” (Daddy go through the tunnel), and “Pay Wi- it” (Play with it).
• He’s started informing me of what’s happening. Like when I went to get him from his nap, he threw his lovey onto the floor. He pointed and said “Wuvey fall!”
• He LOVES to repeat words. We can pretty much get him to try repeating anything – hard words like karate, church, and hummus! Here’s a video of him asking for hummus at dinner:

Mobility

• He’s a runner! Just like his mama! He loves to run around and around the downstairs, up and down hallways, around the aisles at church. He just loves to GO!
• He crawls up and down stairs. Just has trouble with that last step – he seems to forget it’s there, so we have to watch him!
• He does not climb. Yet. I am so thankful for the delay of the climbing instinct!
• He’s starting to hold crayons better. Sometimes he’ll even grab them from the bottom just like a pencil.
• LOVES the slide!

Personality

• Sometimes serious, sometimes a flirt, our little guy loves to show a range of emotions.
• Developed a bit of separation anxiety when I leave him in the nursery that ends abruptly 5 seconds after I am out of sight. This is new for him as of about 3 weeks ago.
• Plays well with others, mostly by following them around and copying what they are doing or just observing them.

Other

• He’s not so little anymore at 25+ lbs and 33+ inches!
• 12 teeth so far… possible signs that more are arriving!
• We’re still working on getting him to play independently. He is more into askign us to play with his toys than sitting there and playing by himself.
• He loves tunnels! Ever since we went to Knoebles amusement park in Pennsylvania, he thinks everything is a tunnel. He loves to say “Tunnel!” and tries to go under everything, even between our legs to make tunnels for himself. Even an open food wrapper, he will ask if it’s a tunnel and try to put his fingers in!
• If you say, “Daddy’s sleeping” he’ll put a finger to his lips and say SHHH! (this is often followed by him shouting “DADDY!” …he’s not really getting what “Shhh!” means yet!).