18 Months

Eighteen months feels like such a milestone. Little Dude is halfway between one and two now, and very much a toddler. Although there are days when I wonder "where did my baby go?", I actually enjoy him most of the time. He's very busy and curious; this picture is from a walk we took over at the wetlands trail. He rode in the sling for a little while, but then he wanted to get down and walk by himself. He walked the rest of the way, with interruptions to pick up little rocks and twigs and to touch flowers. He loves people and his latest trick is to cock his head and look right into your eyes. It's his way of saying hello and acknowledging that you know that he's there. Little Dude is still in love with his big sister. One of their favorite new things is to run around the living room trying to scream louder than each other. Mommy loves that one. He loves to read books and will sit for quite a while and listen to stories, especially if they have rhymes or if the book has flaps for him to manipulate. Our biggest frustration right now is his lack of speech. His vocabulary hasn't improved much over the last two months. He still communicates through gestures like pointing or shaking/nodding his head, but there haven't been any new words for a while. Well, he's started saying "ma, ma, ma" while signing "more", but that's about it. His latent vocabulary is quite good. When I ask him to point to things in books he understands all kinds of words. And he follows directions well too (when he feels like it). So for right now I'm not going to worry too much about that. He had a checkup yesterday and everything is healthy. His weight is up to 24 pounds and he is still holding steady in the 25th percentile, which is where he has been his whole life. I realized after we got to the doctor yesterday that we hadn't been in since his one-year checkup, so I'm crossing my fingers that we can get through the next six months with the same track record. As long as I keep the chairs hidden away from him I think we will.