18 months old!

Child's name: Ethan Richard

Age: 18 months

Weight: about 28lbs

Height: around 34in

Physical abilities: Walking, running, jumping, climbing, oh my! He's constantly on the go!

Speech/language: Still lots of babbling, some 'mamas,' and lots of baby signs (eat, more, please, milk, thank you, cracker, banana). He uses his signs to communicate his needs like going to the fridge and signing eat, signing milk in the morning, but his lack of verbal words is concerning me. We'll see what the doctor has to say at their 18 month visit.

Reading/pre-reading: Our little reader! His favorite books this month are the Thomas the Train books. He's a snuggler when we read and has to be curled up next to us. Funny story for the month- we always read Good Night Moon as the last story before bed. Ethan made the connection that Good Night Moon means bed and decided to hide both copies that we had. It took me almost a month to find them hiding behind the pack and play in our bedroom!

Other cognitive stuff: Starting to pick up on patterns- he'll stack blocks/shapes of the same color together. Getting really good with his shape sorters and finding the right hole for each shape. Can identify his nose, eyes, mouth, ears, and toes. Love the song- Head, shoulders, knees, and toes.

Eating: Starting to get picky- sigh! And along with the picky phase, he wants to eat all.day.long. But what he wants to eat changes constantly LOL! We discovered that he loves rice! We went to a hibashi place and he took one bite of the rice and suddenly Adam couldn't feed him fast enough!

Sleeping: One three hour nap from about 1-4pm. Some days, we have to wake him up after 4 to make sure he's tired enough to go to bed at 7:30. Such a good little sleeper!

Social: Still very shy around strangers, but once he warms up to you, he's very playful! Loves when you start asking him to point to his eyes, mouth, etc. Once you ask him to point to his mouth, he starts sticking his tongue out at you and making funny faces. He loves it!

Character/personality: Very laid back and easy going kiddo, but has to be on the move! He loves to able to run and explore.

Child's name: Chase Adam

Age: 18 months

Weight: 27lbs! Had a huge growth spurt!

Height: around 34.5in

Physical abilities: I think we officially have a walker! He's walking 90% of the time now and only crawls to get himself to something that he can then pull himself up on so that he can continue walking. He hasn't figured out how to push himself up in the middle of the floor yet.

Speech/language: Language explosion in the last month! Has 17+ verbal words and 5 signs. He even has a few 2 words phrases like 'thank you' and 'get down.' Can you tell what we have to say frequently? LOL

Reading/pre-reading: Slowly getting more and more into books. He'll sit and look at them for a few minutes.

Other cognitive stuff: Loves playing with puzzles and trying to match the shapes.

Eating: Still a very picky eater. Refusing most foods that we offer him :-( How did he gain 3lbs in a month?? We did discover that he loves the food puree pouches, so we've been offering them to him. Thankfully, we've been able to get him to eat vegetables this way!

Sleeping: Officially sleeping through the night! He must have his snuggly puppy dog in order to go to sleep and cuddles him almost all night long. I guess it was just a matter of finding the right lovey!

Social: The social butterfly! Very friendly with others, always willing to flash a smile or wave 'hi' or 'bye.'

Character/personality: Very affectionate and a people person. When I get home from work, he likes to be held for a long time before I can put him back down. He's also my snuggle bug and loves to cuddle with us on the couch, especially if he's still tired.

Picking out our Christmas tree!


What a difference a year makes!