Dear William,
A year and a half old already, or sometimes only a year and a half! You babies of mine sure play tricks on my mind. There are many days were I wonder how it is possible that you will be two in 6 months! You still seem like a little baby in so many ways. Then there are other days where I wonder how it is possible you are only 18 months. I can’t even remember what life was like without you in it so to think that was only 18 months ago is unfathomable.
At 18 months old you are full of emotions usually on extreme spectrums. You are happy and rambunctious, giggly and stubborn, comedic and whiney, cuddly and defiant.
Let’s start with your happy silly side. William, you love to laugh and make others laugh! For as serious as a face you have in most of your pictures, you are a very smiley and happy little boy. You love to play with cars, trucks, trains and busses. You love to push them around the house and make noises with them. You love to find everyday household objects (like a rope or blanket) and make games out of these things with your sister. The end result of every game usually involves you chasing Lexi around the house and you two giggling. You love to play ‘bomb you’ where Daddy takes pillow and throws them at you and you fall over (I know, sounds like a ‘fun’ game) but you break out into giggle fest and request more and more. You love to go down the slide, play catch, ride in the cozy coupe car, ride on the lawn mower with daddy (and wave to mama EVERY time you pass the windows), wrestle, stick your head between mama’s legs and say boo!, take baths (splash and kick the water) play in the sand, go swimming, watch daddy’s trains, pull things out of the cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom, mini-bike rides, climb! and be the center of attention. When any of these things are happening it is impossible to find your face without a huge smile plastered across it, displaying your teeth (and the gaps from the lack of eye teeth) and listening to your sweet little giggle.
However, your good times often lead to tears in one form or another. Often times, it is because I’ll say no to something (like you climbing on the counters or trying to scale the oven) and you immediately go into tantrum mode with big crocodile tears and usually a good foot stomping. You’ll whine an whine for us to give in. In the act of playing, Lexi will often take a toy away from you or pick one up that was sitting next to you, which results in tears and running to mama’s side to rescue you and get your toy back, which probably works about half the time. You love to yell no, mine and push me out of the way if you aren’t happy. If you’re doing something naughty (like splashing in the toilet) and you know it is naughty, you will put your hand up to me and start shaking your head and saying no, no, no! Once you make your mind up, good luck changing it. If you want a fruit snack, you’ll run to the counter and point and say snak, snak. I’ll often try and find something else (crackers, vanilla wafers, applesauce, granola bars, marshmallows) and you yell “NO” and push it out of my hand, and you don’t stop until you get what you want. Lord help me when you turn three and turn into temper tantrum central. Other times when you do something naughty like hit or bite or pull hair and I raise my voice and tell you to stop, you do stop, look me in the eyes start giggling and do it again. You are going to give me a run for my money kiddo, I can just feel it.
Sleeping is pretty normal. You go down around 8:30 each night and wake up around 6:30. There have been a couple of times you’ve even pushed 7:30, 8:00–heaven! For naps, you usually go down around 1:00 and sleep for about an hour and half–even though at school, you sleep for 3 hours! Occasionally, you’ll wake up about 30-45 min and I’ll head into your room, close the door read a couple of books and then put you back down and that will get you another hour or two of sleep. This month you even dropped drinking your milk before bed and nap time. I didn’t do a thing either, you just didn’t want it anymore.
Eating is pretty standard as well. You eat pretty much everything we put in front of you. You love anything sweet (especially fruit snacks) rice, raspberries, popcorn, popsicles, cereal, bagels and noodles. You love to use a fork and spoon and do a pretty good job with it too. You’re also getting much better at using a regular cup, but I rarely gamble with this new skill. A couple of months ago, we officially put your highchair away and now you sit in a booster at the table, but prefer to sit in a chair (as you can climb up on them now, which makes this challenging as we’re running out of places to put things out of your reach).
No major developments on the talking front this month. Although you attempt to say more things, almost everything comes out as ‘ba, ma, da, sa. You have gotten pretty good at your animal sounds (or actions) and will do: dog, cat, bird, wolf, owl, cow, frog, lion, bear, shark, monkey, gorilla, alligator, sheep, duck and snake. You did however put your first two words together ‘poop hurt’ as you were a little constipated.
William, as challenging as I fear you will be, I couldn’t be more excited for each new day. You are going to make me a stronger mommy and I love you to pieces.
Love,
Mama
Peanut Smiles 