18 Months At-A-Glance

LJ's 18 month check up isn't until Monday, but he hit the 18 month mark on Jan. 2nd. So even though I don't have his stats yet (we think he's about 29 lbs!), I wanted to blog about what he's up to (more for my records than anything...so lazy I know. I should just go pull the baby book out!)

L loves to hug on his big brother's lovey bear - shhhh, don't tell J!!!

Talking - even though he is still a man of few words, he is adding to his vocabulary. He is REALLY trying to say his big brother's name; screams "TOOTLES" or actually just gibberish, but we know he means tootles at the tv (as demonstrated in above pic); and said BLUE for the first time this month.

Walking - is turning into speed racer. He isn't quite running yet, but he's almost there. He still has a pretty wide stance, so it's funny - but he has to hold that belly up somehow. lol

Dancing - to anything with a good beat. He has some pretty impressive neck & shoulder motion too!

Playing - he is EXTREMELY into cars, trucks, vehicles or any kinda and jumping them off things. See above with the super cool monster truck from the Flores Family.

Tantrums - yup, we're there. Sigh. We totally lucked out with J in this area - I don't think I ever described him as having "terrible two's" and in fact, he didn't ever throw a huge tantrum out in public. I remember a brief time of him acting out at home, but it was so mild. Here we go...I know I've earned it honestly. ;)

Sickness - well, up until last month, I would have said that L was a lucky, healthy little guy. He is still healthy, but has been hit with a couple of whammies. The latest was croup, that turned into wheezing. I so thought after having to give J breathing treatments his first 3 years of life we might escape this issue with L. We are still praying this is isolated, but as I am weaning him off his inhaler (way better/quicker than the nebulizer btw), I know the chances are much higher it might happen again now that he's been hit with it. Blah.

My favorite "new" - about a week or so ago, L finally grabbed our hands at the dinner table while we were praying. We hold hands and pray together before every meal. We've tried to grab his hands before, but he has always been more interested in just eating. No surprise there. Well, one night we started to pray and I reached out yet again for his hand, and this time, he grabbed my hand, then turned and reached for his brother's hand! As J says, "It filled me up with 100 hearts!" (His way of saying our hugs, or love, fill him up.)

Always and adventure with our little guys, and it's getting more and more fun each day!