18 Months

Michael turned 18 months on February 8th. Can you believe it? Our child is a year and a half! It's crazy how quickly time has passed! We took him for his 18 month well visit with his new pediatrician, Dr. Gross. We like Dr. Gross, but we really miss Dr. Dudgeon! Anyway, Michael weighed 29 pounds (85th percentile) and was measured at 35 inches (above the 95th percentile). He's a BIG boy! Dr. Gross said everything looked perfect and to keep doing what we're doing - we were happy for a good report!

Here are Michael and Daddy playing a classic high five game while waiting for Dr. Gross...

It's been quite a while since I've given any updates on the things Michael is doing. So, this could get kind of long.

He is now taking one nap a day after lunch - we're lucky if he sleeps 2 hours. He used to take two 2-hour naps in a day! Within the last week, he's started getting up around 5:45 a.m., so he's been REALLY tired by the time lunch rolls around. He's fallen asleep in his high chair twice in the last week - poor baby. We're not sure what this super early wake-up time is all about, but I'm pretty sure we're over it!

He has learned how to give kisses, and it is precious. He makes the "kissy-kissy" sound and everything.

He is talking up a storm! The words we have been able to identify are: car (cah), truck (tuck), tractor (tack-tuh), cookie (cu-kie), banana(nana), mommy, daddy, cracker (cack-uh), glasses (gah-gah), elmo (melmo), ball (baw), shoes (shooos), kick (keek), baseball (ba-baw), cheese, juice, eye, nose (no), yeah, dog (gog), and night night (nie nie). I know there a few others, but that's all I can come up with now. He says WAY more than this, we just can't decipher it yet. Whenever he "tells" you something, he points his little finger and shakes it at you while he's talking like whatever he is saying is really important.

He is so fast! He is running EVERYWHERE. He is also climbing on all kinds of things. He's such a boy!

He LOVES to be outside. He likes to play with his t-ball set outside - he's actually hitting the ball with the bat now (kind of). He also just likes to roam around the backyard. He gets really mad if we take Murphy out back and leave him inside.

Here is a t-ball video for your viewing pleasure. If you watch closely, you will see that he also likes to golf.

He has started to enter the stage of throwing fits. He knows what he wants, and he gets mad if he doesn't get it. We've started time-out (1-2 minutes by himself in his pack-n-play), which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. For example, this morning, he threw his milk on the floor. He wouldn't pick it up when I asked him, so I said, "Michael, pick up your milk, please, or Mommy is going to put you in time-out." He looked at me, turned around, and walked away. So, I put him in time-out for about a minute and a half. When I got him out, I told him to go pick up his milk, and he did. Success! Then, one night this week, he was messing with Murphy (more on that later), and Kenneth told him to stop, or he'd go to time-out. Michael looked at Kenneth, and then swatted at Murphy again. So, Kenneth asked him if he wanted to go to time-out. Michael said, "yeah!" and he took off towards his pack-n-play and waited for Kenneth to put him in. Fail! Soooo...we're going to keep it up for now. We'll see how much longer it works.

He loves to take caps on and off of things. His favorite is my Bath and Body Works body splash. He's really good at it, too!

It's so funny what he picks up on just by watching us. Kenneth was putting his deodorant on the other morning, and Michael got my deodorant off of my little table, lifted up his shirt, and rubbed it on his belly (the cap was still on). He also has started putting a blanket over himself when he sits on the couch, which is what I always do whether I'm cold or not when I watch TV or work on school work.

He loves reading books. Most evenings when I get home, he'll bring me at least three books, climb up on the couch, and sit next to me while I read them to him. We've also started letting him have a choice of books to read before bed. It's so cute - I'll hold out two books, he'll look at both of them, and then choose the one he wants.

Here he is reading a cookbook with Daddy...

The child also LOVES shoes. At any given time during the day, we will find multiple shoes scattered throughout the house. Funny story - Kenneth couldn't find one of his flip flops for a couple of months. We kept saying it would show up sometime. We figured Michael wore it somewhere, and we just hadn't found it yet. Last week, Kenneth asked me if I put his missing flip flop back in the closet, which I hadn't. He asked my mom and dad the same, and neither of them had either. So, our best guess is, Michael found it and put it back where it belonged. Mystery solved! He doesn't discriminate with what kinds of shoes. If there is a shoe where he can get to it, he's going to put it on, where it around until it falls off, and then leave it there.

We've started working with Michael on putting things away. He's good at putting his bath toys back on the side of the tub, and he knows which toys go in our bedroom and which ones go in Gammi and G-Dad's bedroom.

Sometimes he likes Murphy, and other times, he just likes to mess with Murphy. Most of the time he just likes to mess with him. Murphy has gotten quite ornery in the last 18 months (and we have no idea why!). Michael will swat at Murphy and inch really close to him when he's minding his own business on the couch. I keep telling Murphy that if he wouldn't growl so much whenever Michael gets close to him, Michael would probably leave him alone. Michael thinks it's REALLY funny when Murphy growls at him. I'm guessing this is just a taste of what life will be like when Michael has a little brother or sister (which is no time too soon).

He's started dancing - and it's hilarious! See video below, and please excuse my hoarse voice.

Sorry, Kenneth, for posting yet another picture of you like this. You need to take some lessons from your son on how to keep your eyes open! :o) I feel like if Kenneth's eyes had been open and he'd been looking right at the camera, then he and Michael would have had the same look on their faces. Their smiles look the same in this picture to me. My buddy and me!

He is such an angel. He has brought so much joy into our lives. While he is a lot of work, we can't imagine life without him!