18 months

happy 18 months to our sweet little boy! he is such a joy and we can't imagine our lives without him. at 18 months, he weighs 24 lbs 12 oz (35%), is 33 1/4 inches long (78%), and his head is 49 cm (82%).

it is so amazing to see him learn new things every day. last week the pediatrician asked me how many words he says and to be honest, it really is too many to count. some are still sort of in his own language, like "truck" which always sounds like "dutch". new favorite words are baby/babies, truck, car, cat (sounds like "dat"), book, bubble, bug, hot, up (usually comes out as
"uppy" and used as a question, like when he asks to get up after dinner), and bath to name a few. he knows what the word hot means, knows to blow on things that are hot, and remembers that the oven is hot. the other day i was cooking dinner and he walked up to the oven and said, "hot?". i answered, "yes, the oven is hot right now" and he immediately started blowing on the oven door to cool it off. cutie. he is also getting better about saying please and thank you. i was so proud of him last week when we picked him up from the church nursery and his teacher told me how nicely he was asking for more snacks and saying please!

he loves loves loves anything that goes: trucks, trains, airplanes, boats, etc. anytime he hears an airplane, he looks up to the sky, finds it and points to it, and then waves bye-bye as it disappears. he also points out all the trucks and waves bye-bye to them as we are driving. he is learning how to play with his toy cars and trucks (as opposed to throwing them like he used to) and loves to drive them around the house.

he still loves to sit and read his books and has started bringing us books to sit down and read with him. he also likes to do his puzzles and can do most of them by himself (correctly!) now. one of his favorite things is watching his baby sign language dvds. he really isn't too interested in cartoons or other kid movies/tv shows but he LOVES watching other kids or babies on tv. we have to limit the dvds to once a day because he is constantly asking to watch them throughout the day. he will say "babies?" and then hand us the remote, turn on the tv, open the drawer, and pull out one of the dvds. i think he has it figured out! he also is really entertained by watching sports and he loves to go to john's soccer games - he will sit and watch the whole thing!

he likes animals and his 2 animal books are his favorites. he knows dogs, cats, horses, cows, sheep, ducks, and donkeys and can tell you the sound that each one makes. for some reason, when you ask him what a cat says he always tilts his head to the side when he says "meow". you will see that in one of the videos below.

balls are another of his favorite things and he loves to kick or throw them. he is learning to catch but still needs some help. his new trick is to set the ball down in front of him, take a few steps back, and then run and kick it as hard as he can. and always with his left foot.

quinn is still a good eater but definitely has his picky "toddler" moments. he will eat just about any kind of fruit, cheese, and crackers. sometimes he loves meat and sometimes he won't touch it and the same goes for most veggies. for some reason he still doesn't like rice or really any kind of potatoes (including french fries...weirdo!). he loves eating with a fork and spoon and will eat much better if he has utensils. he has lately become obsessed with milk and will often walk to the fridge and say "mik? mik?" while doing the sign for milk. we have had to limit him to 2 cups of milk/day, otherwise he would probably drink a gallon every day! my favorite thing, though, is that he LOVES guacamole so i finally have someone to share it with!

most of all, bella is probably his most favorite thing in the whole world right now. he wakes up calling for her in the morning and from his nap ("beh-yuh! beh-yuh!") and tries to play with her all day. she tries to play it cool, but i think she likes him a lot more than she lets on. :)

here are some pictures of our precious boy at 18 months:



and here are two videos i took last week. i tried to get one of him kicking his soccer ball, but he wasn't interested. in one of the videos you can see him talking and then freaking out about this dumb cat that always runs around and taunts bella. the other video shows him throwing the ball and running. right now his running looks very much like phoebe from friends....we are hoping he grows out of that!