William: Eighteen Months!

Kind of hard to believe that next time I do one of these updates (at two years!) we'll have a second kid. Eek!

William has now decided that he absolutely does not like the doctor (or the hairdresser, for that matter). And that table that we're supposed to lay him on to get his height and weight? No way, not happening, no thank you. So to our best guess, William is now weighing in at 22 pounds, 12 ounces, and just over 31 inches. Definitely still a little peanut--although I seriously can't imagine his being any bigger because even now he is hard to carry at times. He's still wearing size four diapers, and pretty much exclusively in 18-month clothing, although I've found quite a few of his 24-month items that have either been shrunk or are just sized small because they fit him pretty perfectly right now (and in some cases, are actually a little too small. Which I find to be crazy). Two of his bottom molars have poked through, giving him a total of ten teeth, and it's been fun to watch him figure out how to eat with them--can't wait until the top ones come in (although hopefully they make much less of a dramatic entrance than the bottom ones; we spiked a 101* fever and picked up some bad sleeping habits before finally popping the molars through).

Speaking of sleep, things are still going really well in the department. We haven't officially begun transitioning him to his big-boy bed yet, but we have started getting ready by introducing a stuffed animal and blanket into his crib with him. And bless his heart, when we put him down for nap or bedtime, he lays right down and doesn't fuss or move around so when we put the blanket over him it actually stays. Definitely nice now that the temperatures have started dropping.

William continues to try to be as independent as he can be, and some of his boldness in maneuvering around things/climbing up and down things has definitely caught us off guard. Probably one of his favorite "accomplishments" is that he knows how to slide the kitchen chairs around the kitchen and climb up on to them to help Mom and Dad with whatever they are doing (his favorite things to "help" with are the dishes and cooking dinner--don't you dare try to do either without him!). He's also developed a love of puzzles, which this mama loves, and he surprised us both by mastering an alphabet puzzle in a matter of days (and he's now gotten to the point where he can recognize the letters by name because he's done it so many times. But don't ask him to mimic any of the alphabet sounds, though...)

Talking and words are still behind, but (thankfully!) our pediatrician agrees that it isn't really a concern because he still has strong non-verbal communication skills and clearly understands many commands (of course, whether or not he follows those commands depends on his mood at the time). He has finally added "Mama" to his vocabulary, though, which is super fun to hear (just not at 6:00 am....). Aside from "Mama" and "Dada", though, the only other "words" he really knows are animal sounds. But he uses the sound in place of the animal name when he's trying to tell us something (he'll go "woof woof" when he wants us to get him his stuffed puppy), so it's kind of like he uses the sound as a word. So it kind of counts. I'm not even sure anymore how many signs he knows; lately he's been creating signs of his own to communicate things to us (his favorite? Putting his hand to his ear whenever he wants a cell phone to play with. Thankfully he only uses this sign when a phone is actually in his line of sight, so for the most part we just keep our phones put away around him).  

These past few months have been So.Much.Fun, and sometimes Darrell and I think we're crazy for bringing another mini-human into this mix. But we also know William will be a great big brother (he's super sweet about giving baby--aka my belly--kisses and cuddles), so we're excited to see that role unfold (okay, let's be honest, we're mostly excited. We're also a little terrified about going back to some of the newborn stages. But it's a little late for us to change our minds!).

A few random shots from the past few months:

Excited to share the big news!

Playing in the dirt at Uncle Mike's baseball game

Ready for college football season! Go Gophers--and Georgia Tech! (just wait until you see his GT outfit; it's to die for)

 

Oh, you know, just playing in a back hoe. No big deal

Feverish little boy working on cutting his molars

Thankfully we haven't had too many of these bitterly cold days yet, but of course one of them was the day of Dad's last parade. And if he looks like he is sitting awkwardly it's because he can't put his arms all the way down on account of all the layers he has on

Cuddling with one of his puppies in the car