Kisses, Cups, Books, and life with an 18 month old

(Written during a couple of nap times yesterday)

I can’t believe in just a couple hours we will officially be able to say that our son his been home for an entire month. Since I last posted we crossed over the 4 week home mark and M is now 18 months old. He is changing and growing every day. His 18 month old check-up confirmed what we guessed. He gained a pound, grew 3/4 of an inch, and is head grew one cm! YAHOO! This is in just 2.5 weeks since our last visit. Our son loves to eat and play and apparently GROW!! Praising God A LOT of this. With all of his “super digestion” I was wondering if he was really growing, but it seems he is. His clothes are also getting smaller each day. I am so sad to say good-bye to the 6-9 month clothes, many he never wore, but I guess that is the life of a mom. Speaking of clothes, you might wonder why our son is in PJ’s/all in one’s is so many photos. Well, there are a few reasons. First and most importantly, he has so many eruptions and they are the quickest for changing. They only cause one dirty item and nothing filled with poo has to be slipped over his head. The fact they he is rapidly outgrowing the all in ones is killing me... esp as I am trying not to graze my son’s head with his feces! (Yes, it is official, I can’t post now without potty talk!) Another reason for the all in ones has to do with his body shape, a huge tummy and shorter legs makes most pants so long that he trips as he tries to walk with is walker. Smaller pants are way to tight in the waist... Also, they are just super cute :)

Our son love to give kisses and cuddles. He (until today see another post) gives me so many kisses and likes Brandon and I to both kiss him at night. He leans his head back and forth wanting us to kiss the spot that he is leaning to! It is so sweet. He also loves to cuddle and esp. likes to fall asleep on my chest, which I of course LOVE. Sleep is still hard for him and he will be in our room for a LONG time as he is VERY frightened to wake up without seeing me. Brandon was in bed and I was in the bathroom and he woke us and could not be consoled until I was ready for bed and hold him. Yes, it sort of felt good to be needed, but I want him to be able to receive comfort from Brandon too!

He is still very into his cups and spoons. He is always mixing up something or feeding himself, or us, or even the animals in the books. It is so sweet to watch him pretend. He also likes to play with tissues and pretends to blow his nose making a noise from his mouth, too cute! During the Superbowl we taught him to raise his hands in the air when we say “touchdown” and he did great. After the game he wanted to continue, so being me, I changed the phrase to “Praise the Lord” so now he is raising his hands all the time. Speaking of praising the Lord, M knows to pray before every meal. He reaches out his hands and we all pray together. He says something like “amen” over and over when he thinks the prayer should be wrapping up.

He is a BOOK WORM! At 18 months he could read books more than 2 hours a day. We read EVERY book in the family room several times a day, seriously! We love this, even reading the same book OVER AND OVER again. He is learning so many works, and songs and really seems to be taking it in. Honestly, we have to force him to play with his toys which he willingly enjoys for a while, up to nearly an hour, but then he will get a book craving and cry until we read to him again.
He is eating better than before and enjoys most baby foods. I tried my hands at making some baby food and I think I will defrost some tonight and see how he likes it tomorrow. It wasn’t too hard to make so if he like it I will keep at it! The only “adult” foods he eats are rice cakes and bananas at the end of meals. They are broken up into bite size pieces.


Funny story to end with. Brandon is in FL though is coming home tonight... THANKS BE TO GOD! Anyway, last night we were finishing up dinner and M was pooing away in his chair. When he was done I took him out and realized it went through he clothes. What else is new :) It was an outfit so we had to deal with the whole over the head issue. Then sadly, M decided to let his hands investigate everything and enjoyed his discovery. Everything went downhill fast is poo was suddenly everywhere! I am so thankful for the diaper changing system we developed with a wash bucket at hand to toss the vilest offenders into as we go through them. I was tossing wipes in left and right... YUCK! Of course I couldn’t really wash his hands until he was cleaned off and with just a wipe wash his hands went straight to his mouth... ahh... then after everything was done I was washing his clothes in the sink in the bathroom and M begins to rewash his hands (yes, I had washed them at this point) in the toilet... I asked him if he turned 2 over dinner and he just smiled. The rest of the night was spent with him getting into everything he shouldn’t be. This mommy is going to be begging daddy to get more cupboards baby-proofed soon! M does have a cupboard with all of the plastic stuff in it. His record time spent playing in it is about 2 minutes. I guess the cupboards with glass in them are just more fun!

** today addition***
He said a version of apple, owl, and Babette (a friend's cat) today.
He also stood alone for several seconds which we captured on video of course!

NOTE- to save time I didn't proofread so sorry for things that don't quite seem right... sound it out :)