18-22 Months

Goodness, I guess late spring and summer were not great for blogging!  It makes me kind of sad that I haven't managed to write down any of the million little ways that you have changed in the last 5 months.  I know that I've already forgotten cute little gestures that you made or "words" that you had for a short time and I hate that.  But, I guess it is what it is and I'll just have to get on to documenting what I can remember...

* You love to play outside!  Playing at the playground, swinging your golf clubs, riding your little bike, helping with the gardens, spraying Daddy with the hose - you are a big fan of all of it! 

* Sometimes in the course of your business, you bump your head or fall down and you immediately make this really exaggerated hurt/sad face, do a little fake cry, and then run to one of us to have a snuggle and a smoochie.  It totally cracks us up, because as soon as the snuggle and/or smoochie has been delivered you are immediately demanding to get back down and go back to whatever it was that "injured" you in the first place.

* You are still a pretty great eater.  You'll eat darn near everything and definitely approve of the ice cream and popsicles that come along with summertime.  You like to pick and bite into cherry tomatoes, but then always spit them back out.  I don't think you really care for the seeds and the texture of the insides.

* Our mini vacation in July seems to have put your excellent sleeping on the fritz and we are doing our best to repair it.  Lately you have been going to bed around 8:00, but you seem to think that waking up between 6:00-7:00 is a good thing.  Unfortunately, Mama is not such a morning person, so we're trying to reset you back to a 8:00-9:00 wake up time...  You're still doing one 1-3 hour afternoon nap.

* You are talking like crazy now!  You usually make an effort to copy at least 1-2 words in most sentences that we say, as well as regularly coming out with all sorts of new words on your own.  A small selection of your words: mama, dada, Greta, moon, home, drink, milk, more, NO!, yes, all done, Graycie, book, ball, eye, nose, neck, shoe, sock, shirt, snack, bye, help, bed, night night, arm, knee, plus lots more that I can't remember right now.  We have to be really careful what comes out of our mouths now, because you WILL repeat it.  When we were on vacation, we were driving in the car and Daddy slammed on the brakes while I wasn't paying attention, so I said, "Jesus!".  Pretty soon you piped up from the back seat with, "Jeez!!"  It was pretty funny, but a good lesson for us, too.  :)

* You now try to sign "I Love You" when you're going to bed or somebody's going bye bye.  You can't quite get your pinky to stay up, but you get the index finger and thumb.  :)

* Sometimes, when I least expect it, you will grab the sides of my face/head, pull my head down, and kiss me on the forehead or the top of my head.  It is so, so sweet and pretty much makes me all mushy inside.

* You are obsessed with brushing your teeth and washing your hands.  I bought you a small stepstool for the bathroom so now you can reach the sink, and I swear you would spend the whole day in there brushing and washing and generally making a giant mess with the water if we would let you! 

* You still love to read and will frequently present books to us with a forceful (but adorable!) demand to read them!

* You have just upgraded us in the last week from Mama and Dada to Mommy and Daddy, with lots of emphasis on the 2nd syllable.  Dad-deeeeeeee!  :)

You have been so much fun this summer, Miles-y.  You make us laugh daily and definitely keep us on our toes!  We love you so much...

16 and 17 Months

Gosh, I really don't know how these months keep slipping by so quickly!

Here's what you've been up to in the last 2 months:

*You are running and climbing all over the place now.  You think it is great fun to climb up in Momma's chair and "work" on the computer or flip the lights on and off.  You also love to climb up on the couch and run back and forth, try to grab the kitties, or just sit and read a book.  Unfortunately, your sense of balance and spatial reasoning aren't always the greatest yet, and you sometimes take a tumble.  It never slows you down too much, though, nothing a little snuggle can't take care of.  :)

*After you started signing "more", we decided to add in a few more signs to see if you would pick them up.  Well, it didn't take you long at all!  Right away you started signing "please", "all done", and "help".  Then a little later, you added "thank you" and "bath".  We're always looking up new ones that we think might be useful to you.

*Just in the last week you started saying some actual words!  Out of the blue came "dada", "mama", "uh-oh", and "buhbye".  I have a feeling we're in for a bit of a word explosion in the coming weeks, but time will tell... You had been saying "kitty" for a couple of weeks, but then stopped.  It will be interesting to see if that word comes back soon.

*You are blowing kisses now and it's SO cute!  As Daddy carries you in to bed, you throw kisses to me over his shoulder the whole way.  :)

*You love studying things and trying to figure out how they work.  You spend lots of time trying to copy what you've seen Momma and Daddy doing.  You are very "helpful" and want to be a part of everything we're doing.  You are especially fond of vacuuming and anything happening in the kitchen.

*You still sleep wonderfully.  We got rid of the Nuk in the last month.  It was surprisingly easy, you just didn't really seem to care much at all.  Bedtime routine is same old, same old.  Nurse, Daddy lays you down between 7:30 and 8:00, sleep until 5:00 or 6:00, nurse, up between 8:00 and 9:00.  You usually take one 1.5-3 hour nap in the afternoon.

*You finally decided you didn't *completely* hate the snow and had fun going out with Daddy and stomping the little piles of melty snow and throwing little snowballs and watching them smash on the concrete.  Hopefully next year when you're a little more stable on your feet you'll enjoy being outdoors in the winter a bit more.

*You love to see Daddy after he comes home from work.  As soon as you hear the garage door open, you run to the door and bang on it and sign "help" until I come over and open the door so you can see Daddy.  You watch him and wait for him to come to the door, then you promptly try to shut it in his face.  :)  Almost every night you and Daddy either do some dancing (which means you kicking one leg out to the side) or play some basketball in the living room.  It has been fun to see you go from having to "slam dunk" the ball every time to get it in the hoop to being able to "shoot" it from a few inches away and still make it.

*You eat anything and everything that crosses your path and most things that cross Momma or Daddy's path, too.  :)  You're getting pretty adept at using silverware, but have no qualms about resorting to your hands if the silverware is too slow.

*Other things you're liking this month: "peanuts" in the sensory table, playing with whatever small appliances you can get your hands on, running over and giving random snuggles in the middle of whatever you're doing (I LOVE this little habit...), going downstairs for any reason, playing Swiffer stick "golf", throwing random toys under/over the baby gate to see how they bounce down the stairs and then frantically signing "help" for us to go and get them, "yelling" at Greta (complete with arm waving and pointing!), and "cheese-ing" for the camera.

"Who me?  Nope, I'm not getting into the cereal..."

Miles-a, you are such a happy, easy baby with such a sweet and funny personality.  We just love watching you learn and change and grow.  We're so lucky to be your Momma and Daddy.  We love you so, so much, sweetness boy.

15 Months (and some change...)

15 Month Stats

Height: 32.5 inches (~85%ile)

Weight: 22 lb. 10 oz. (~49%ile)

*You are walking and running now, though the running still trips you up (literally!) sometimes.

*You have 16 teeth now (the last 2 of your one year molars are finally poking through, so they totally count!) and they're sharp!  You love to have me brush your teeth and find it especially funny when I touch your teeth and then exclaim, "Oooooh, ouch!  Those teeth are so sharp!"  

*Your only word so far is "kitty".  You do make another sound consistently when you are pointing at something that you want, but we haven't quite figured out the actual word that you're going for.  You do say "mama" and "dada" in context once in awhile, but I wouldn't call them "words" for you just yet.

*You just started to do the sign for "more"!  We had been really slacking on the signing because it didn't seem that you were really paying much attention, but then all of the sudden you started doing this one.  Looks like we'll be adding in a few more!  

*You understand LOTS, even though you're not saying things back yet.  You can follow directions to put things in the garbage, take things to mommy or daddy, find various objects, etc.  It's so much fun!  You're also getting really good at pointing to things you know in books.

*You started waving "bye-bye" this month.  Now anytime you hear the word you start waving like a madman and walking toward the door.  :)

*We have seen your surprised face a lot this month!  Every time you hear the train go through town, the timer beep on the oven, the garage door open, throw something off your tray, or any other number of things, you look at us with your eyebrows raised and your little circle mouth.  So funny!  

*You are really getting good with using your silverware and usually get quite annoyed if we try to help you.  The fork is a little easier for you, but the spoon is really coming along.

*You've started eating a few things this month that you didn't use to touch - green beans and fresh raspberries!  Otherwise, you're still a great eater and will try just about anything.  This month you have especially enjoyed roasted brussels sprouts, cheese cubes, quesadillas, and chili.

*You're continuing in your love for books.  Most evenings you will bring a book over to Daddy for him to read, then as soon as he's done you bring the same book over to me to read.  We think you're doing read-offs to see who reads it better.  The other day you were sitting behind the couch and I heard you giggling. When I peeked over to see what you were doing, I saw you just flipping the pages of one of your books and laughing to yourself as you looked at each page.  Adorable!  :)

*You're still a fantastic sleeper.  Pretty much the same routine - nurse, bed between 7:00 and 8:00, sleep 'til 5:00 or 6:00, nurse, then back to bed until 8:00 or 9:00.  Sometimes you sleep until almost 10:00!  I joke that we usually have brunch instead of breakfast because you sleep so late.  We're really trying to be strict about only having the Nuk for sleeping.  I think we'll probably try to get rid of it completely pretty soon, but I didn't want to take it from you when you were getting teeth.

Cooking up a bedtime snack

*You're a happy, pretty easy-going little guy.  Obviously, you get upset if we take something away from you, but you usually only cry for a few seconds (if that) and then move on to something new.  No tantrums here, yet.

*Other things you like this month: giving GREAT smoochies (wide open mouth with lots of drool and sometimes tongue!) and snuggles, your new shopping cart, your new chair (you love to flop down in it with the remote and look like a big guy), the stick stacking beads, anything in the kitchen (especially small appliances - you love to watch the mixer, food processor, bread machine, salad spinner, etc!), going downstairs with Daddy to feed kitties, finding Momma's blush brush in the drawer and doing "pretties" on everyone, dismantling Momma's purse, and helping with anything Momma and Daddy happen to be doing at the moment.  :)

We're so lucky to have such a sweet, sweet boy and we love every day with you.  We love you, Miles Wiles!