Eighteen Months Old!

Today The Bean is eighteen months old!

It's hard to believe that our baby is already one and a half.  I'm amazed at all the changes in our little guy, especially when looking back at his last "milestone" monthaversary when he turned one. 

Here are some things he's been doing the past month or so:

-He now feeds himself quite adeptly with a spoon.  He also loves forks, but we limit his access to them as I'm afraid he'll stab himself.  His breakfast most days is a bowl of applesauce and some toast, and he'll do most of the bowl of applesauce on his own.  He has trouble scraping out the little bits at the end and also seems to get frustrated when he's really hungry and wants to eat more quickly.  He also regularly feeds himself yogurt out of a bowl and likes to do baby food from a jar, but we don't like him handling the glass containers.  One more reason I should get back to making more of his baby foods.

-I feel like he's started to put a lot of non-food items (most notably stones) into his mouth lately.  We're not sure the reason, maybe teething, but we are trying to discourage it. 

-He's had a lot of practice going up and down stairs at Grandma and Grandpa's for the past ten days or and has gotten very good at it.  (He was quite good at it already, but he's definitley honed his skills.)  He likes to walk up and down the stairs, rather than crawl, but still needs some assistance (a hand or railing) to do so.  He also usually likes to go foot-over-foot rather than step both feet onto the same stair. 
-He still LOVES to dance.  He got a monster truck that plays music from Jen's grandparents and Jen taught him how to air guitar.  It's pretty frickin' adorable.  He also figured out how Grandma's radio works and will point to the remote to request music so he can dance.  Spinning counter-clockwise is still his signature "move".
-Cars continue to be a favourite toy.  Jen's parents have a few matchbox cars and he's been zooming them around all week.  Grandma even bought him a few to take home at the store today.  He's such a spoiled little boy. 
-He's also had a lot of fun the past little bit throwing golfballs around the yard and chasing them.  I think he likes how they bounce.
-Peek-a-boo/ Hide-and-seek and Chase are still favourite games to play. 

-We noticed him doing this before our trip, but since we've been on our own schedule, it's obvious that he is ready to move from two naps a day to one longer nap.  He's typically up around 6:00am, and ready to go back down around 9:30am and will nap for three hours or so.  He often seems more tired/cranky in the afternoon so sometimes we'll put him down for another nap around 4:00pm, but this usually ends up being more of a short "quiet time", which seems to improve him mood.  He's not a kid who knows how to slow down, so a mama/mommy-imposed quiet time is probably not a bad thing for him at this point. 

-His language reallys seems to be exploding lately and it seems like he's picking up new words every day, often repeating a word that has just been said to him.  He started saying "Mo" (our cat's name) and "Go" when he's playing cars.  He's also started saying "eye" and "ear" and is beginnging to identify some body parts when we ask him where they are.  He seems to point to his mouth when we ask him where his nose is, but can find other people's noses and the noses of various characters in books.  He's also using the few signs he knows (like "all done" and "more") in new contexts, which I think shows how clever he is.  His jibber jabber is sounding more and more like actual words and I swear there are times when he's saying a sentence because the sounds sound so much like words and what it sounds like makes sense in context.  Honestly, I'm not quite sure what to make of those instances.  He definitely has said his first two word sentences, pointing to my glasses on the table and saying "Mama's glasses".

-This month also brought a long bought of illness and his first visit to the ER.  He came down with some diarrhea a few weeks ago.  At first we thought it was some squash we gave him to eat, then when it didn't clear up we wondered if he was teething.  About a week into it he got a fever.  At that point we were in PA.  His eating and drinking went off (it had previously been fine) and we started to get concerned, so we took him to the ER.  This was right in the middle of a heat wave and the doctor seemed mildly concerned that he would become dehydrated, but in the end decided against IV fluids (which we were grateful for).  He was diagnosed with a stomach virus and we were told to keep pushing the fluids.  While we were there we also picked up an antibiotic for an infected hangnail that seemed to be getting worse rather than better.   The hangnail is almost cleared up now, as are the stomach issues.  The fever broke the next day and his appetite is back to normal.  Now we have to get his eating back on track because he was getting some pretty junky stuff from Grandma and Grandpa to begin with and then that really went downhill when he got sick and we just wanted him to eat something.

-At the ER visit they took his weight, as of last week he was 21lbs, 5oz.
-We bought a potty and I am considering starting a very relaxed introduction to potty training.  He seems somewhat aware of when he has to go and I've read that 12-18 months is a sensitive period for this, so I thought we would try it out.  It would be pretty awesome if he were able to use the potty, at least during the days, before the baby got here, but I'm not ready to do full-on potty training yet. 
-He is super-interactive, but will also play very nicely on his own for short periods of time.  He has the absolute best laugh, brightest eyes and sweetest smile.  As I mentioned last month, temper-tantrums have begun, but we are usually able to ignore them or distract him and they end fairly quickly.  I'm hoping the language explosion will help him express his needs/wants more and reduce some of the tantrumy behaviour. 

We love this little guy to pieces and are enjoying as more and more of his personality shows.  He is affectionate, and fun-loving, and clever and willful.  We are so lucky to have him as our child.