18 Months Old!!

Happy 18 Months my boy!

You have changed so very much in this very quick year and a half. I am sometimes still in amazement that you are mine...You are truly a joy. Your daddy and I are truly blessed to that you have been bestowed upon us. You are a gift and we do our best each day to teach you and train you in the way of the Lord. 

Here are you current stats:

30 lbs. 3oz. (80th percentile)

31" tall (95th percentile)

and I don't remember your head measurement but it's in the 90th percentile!

You are tall that is for sure, everyone is always surprise to learn that you are only 18 months old. Usually after they have been talking to you for a few minutes and you have only replied with smiles and simple words. I think people expect you to start spewing complete sentences...soon...no rush!

You do know so many words. There are too many to list. My favorite things you say are, O-range, mah-mah (for monster truck), mo-mo (for motorcycle), airplane, choo-choo. As you can tell you love things that move and make noise!! You have started calling us Mommy and Daddy, only occasionally, when you are referring to us not actually calling us...funny.

You love to run and are getting the hang of jumping. You absolutely love to be tossed in the air and spun around. 

You have started sitting on the couch with the adults. You can climb up on your own and squeeze into whatever room is left on the couch. You watch minimal TV, Little Einstein's, the Good Night show on Sprout, Penguins of Madagascar, some Clone Wars with Daddy. All of these are occasional, you will watch as you please and then run off and play, come back and watch for a little while and then you are off again! 

You LOVE playing cars. You have a gigantic hot wheels collection, like 300 something cars that have been collected since before you were born. You love playing with them, by yourself or with people. You know the names of some of them too...Raptor, Land Rover, Jeep (of course) and if you don't know the specific name it's 'Car' or 'Truck' and you know the difference. Oh, and if it's a police car, ambulance and fire truck you make a siren sound for it...

You have begun learning to express yourself. Sometimes you get so frustrated, your face turns red and you yell. You are quick to calm down and apologize. Time out's work very well for you, as does talking it out. You are very smart and we treat you as such. We always explain what you did wrong and how you should respond the next time. You are a quick learner, I'm hoping you are getting your toddler stuff out early. You have always developed early no reason this should be an exception. It's tiring but I know that this is just a phase and if I deal with it well now you will grow up knowing how to behave. Which make life more pleasant for everyone. You are by no means horrible now, not even one time out a day. Somedays are worse than others. Your daddy just got back from a week long trip to Mexico and you were not happy that he was gone for so long. You made it quite clear a few times that you wanted him home...now!! But we made it through and now your daddy is back, reading you stories and playing cars...the world is right again!

You are not a picky eater. You eat what we eat usually. You aren't a huge fan of salmon but you like tuna. You like some sushi and love edamame, of course pizza, chicken (nuggets or grilled), mac and cheese is one of your favorites. You like peas, carrots and corn. You will eat anything if it has BBQ sauce on it...especially Grandma's sauce. You drink whole milk and water with the occasional chocolate milk or apple juice. You love oatmeal, yogurt, fruit snack and nutri-grain bars (fut-ba as you call them).

You like coloring and playing with play-doh. After you eat breakfast I keep you in your high chair and we color or squish play-doh. We sing songs and do some flash cards. 

You are learning your colors. You know the names of all the colors but not what they are. You know pink and purple really well. O-range and lellow (in Jakey speak) are some of your favorite colors. We are also working on counting and the alphabet.  You know one and two and can hold fingers up to count and you know if you have two of something. You also know what sounds certain letters make...M,P,S,L, D and B! See I told you, you were smart!

You are shy around complete strangers, you won't talk, just smile and sometimes wave. Sometimes you ignore people when you haven't seen them for a while. They say Hi and you turn your head away. I wonder if you are bitter or punishing someone for not being around more often. 

You are a great sleeper...11.5 to 12 hours every night and then a two hour nap everyday. I'll take it! 

You love to read, we always read before bed. I have to give you a cutoff number of books we will read or we would be reading books all night or through nap time. I have a shelf of cardboard books down at your level that you will pull out and read through out the day. Sometimes by yourself and sometimes you will bring the book to me to read to you! 

You love your family and Ted the dog. You love to laugh and make other people laugh. You are so full of energy and life! You have done summersaults off of low lying pillows and taken a few spills off the couch. You are tough and get right up and keep on going. You have gotten more cuddly in the past few months. It totally when you want it, which is fine, I'll take what I can get. You will walk up and plop your head in my lap or snuggle up to me on the couch...best thing ever! You are learning to blow kisses and give eskimo kisses. Your hugs consist of you falling onto someones shoulder so they can hug you and your kisses are the presentation of your cheek so someone can grace it with a smooch!

These past 18 month have flown by and continue to leave me in awe of the God we serve. He has perfectly designed you. I have had little to do with your actually development. He is orchestrating your life and I am merely the first chair violinist...with daddy as first chair trumpet. Ok this analogy is getting weird. But I am here to help instill in you what the Lord has taught me. The rest is in his hands. I am so glad that we serve a gracious and masterful God and that He is in control. It is was all on me I would feel overwhelmed with responsibility. But I do my best each day knowing that the Lord will fill the gaps. 

Thank you Jake, for making being a mommy so great. Your daddy adores you and can't get enough of you. We are so glad that you are ours!

Happy 1 1/2 years!!