February 17, 2010: 18 months old!!

Liam James is 1 1/2!! I guess he's officially a toddler :) Considering he can recognize all his letters, can fill in the letters as we sing the alphabet song, can count to 6, can recognize numbers 1-10, and speaks in 'sentences'....yeah, he's not a baby anymore. (I will post videos of his alphabet song and him counting soon) His toddler sentences really are the best. Usually just 2 word phrases that very succinctly get his point across. "Up mama...peeeaass?" (Pick me up mama, please?) "Wait tur" (Wait turn) "Brus harr" (brush hair) "Brus teef" (brush teeth) "Ree book" (read book) ."New shoos" (new shoes) "Sock off" "Go fly" (when Nick throws him in the air) "Weeee train/car/plane" (the noise he makes when he zooms around his transportation toys). He says so many cute things, these are just a few. He also has picked up some great sports phrases as well as some slang: "Shot" (when he shoots a basket or makes a goal) "Goool" (goal) "Foo ball" (football) "Bas ball" (basketball) "A'mos" (almost) "Alighty" (alrighty) "Oh man" (self-explanatory!) "Hey you!" (my dad taught him this little gem, which he yells to everyone...when he's not yelling "Hey dude" or "Hey Nick"...okay that last one he def heard from me ;) When the doctor asked me today at his check up if he had 5-10 words, I paused...because I didn't just want to say yes. He is so smart, I wanted him to show her all his wonderful verbal skills...but he just wanted to cry. Oh my big toddler is still a little bit of a baby :)

He.Repeats.Everything. So we've all had to alter our speech...not that I have a bad mouth, but who doesn't mutter crap! occasionally? Anyway, my new curse word is crikey. Yes, it's very uncool and outdated, but sounds a lot cuter when he repeats "Cripey" rather than "Crap" (which he did say...once.)

He still gets put in time out a few times a week. Since we started this about a month ago though, he's already learned from it. He does not hit nearly as much. I mean he is a little boy, so some of that is part of the territory, right? Oh well. Anyway, he usually goes into time out because he's crying/whining. I guess that sounds mean, but he only sits there for a minute and I think it helps him get his emotions in check so he can try to show/verbalize what he needs. Just today, when he was having a meltdown while I made dinner, I crouched down and asked him to please stop whining and use his words (something I say a million times a day I feel like). Well he continued to cry for a minute or two, which I tried to ignore since it was not the behavior I wanted to see. Lo and behold he finally goes and sits down on the naughty spot himself! He cries there for a minute and I go over to him and ask him if he's ready to get up. He stands up, hugs me, and mumbles his "sowee"...then he's off to play again. I don't blame him...there are many times mommy would like a time out during the day :)

Liam has always been so helpful. He loves to sing the clean up song...well at least the first verse "Clee up" while he works. He has mastered picking up his toys, so he was ready for his next chore....


I'm kidding!! This is not his chore, just a favorite new game he has. He loves to sweep, I think mostly because this brush and dust pan are just his size :)

Here are the 18 month stats: Weight: 24.5 lbs (30th%) Height: 33.75in (75th%) Head circumference: 19.5in (95th%)...his head is back on the charts, yay! So he didn't gain much weight, but he grew almost 2 inches! Long and lean, not too bad. He's such good, well-rounded eater that I don't really have any complaints. But Mal was concerned about his weight so she started him on the ice cream diet :)

His iron level is better, so now he is just taking a multivitamin with iron. We'll recheck at 2 years old, but hopefully we're done with all that. Unfortunately, the bad news is that he has another ear infection. It's just the left ear and it's still early because I don't think he really exhibited any symptoms...oh besides waking up every night!! Poor thing, cutting 2 molars and now his ear?? No wonder. So we delayed his vaccines for a few weeks till he's over this cold and his ear is better.

Life is so fun right now. I loved Liam being a baby, but am very happy with my sweet, talkative, emotional, expressive, smart, active, sporty, inquisitive, beautiful (handsome) toddler! Happy half birthday Liam!!