A Year & a Half!

I can't believe it, but it's here - Carter is 18 months old! That's a year and a half (which sounds really old if you happen to be me)! For future reference for my mommy brain, this post is simply an update on what all our little man is doing at this age!

CARTER'S 18 MONTH MILESTONES:

- He weighs 31 lbs. 7 oz. (95th) and is 34.25" tall (+97th) - that's only 3/4" away from being 3 feet tall! Where did my baby go?

- He has all of his teeth up to the 1st year molars - his daddy looked in his mouth the other day and said, "Dude, when did you get all those teeth?" (Where was he during teething?!?!?)

- He loves to "Doe" which means "Go." I will say, "Carter, it's time to go." and he squeals and runs to the door. Now, if only he would be that pleasant the whole time we are out and about :-) The other day, I put my fleece on in the house because I was cold; he ran to the door and said "Doe?, Doe?, Doe?"

- He is starting to say "MEEL" (milk).

- He tries to say a lot of random words that we say. After we say a sentence, he will usually pick out one word and try it....sometimes he gets pretty close....sometimes not so much :-)

- He loves to climb/stand/sit on his Daddy's stomach and back - though he doesn't hold on yet, so "horsey rides" aren't possible quite yet. Jumping off is pretty fun though!

- He is napping for about 1-2 hours in the morning, 2-4 hours in the afternoon, and sleeping 11-12 hours a night!

- When he gets really tired at night, (sometimes) he will start cleaning up his toys and go stand at the stairs. His main incentive for doing this is most likely that he loves bubble baths before bed! If you try to give him a bath without bubbles, he will point to them and ask for "bubbls." He has tried to eat the bubbles - they were not good.

- He loves "sorting" things (passing things out & gathering them back). Packaged peppermints, pens/pencils, small bean bags, etc...

- He knows what these animals say: cow (moo), horse (naaaaay), monkey (oh oh ah ah), snake (shhhhh), sheep (ba ba), and elephant (blows his lips together).

- He loves to look in a Picture Dictionary book that we have. He especially loves the farm themed page. I was teaching him a few of the things on those pages. His favorite is the "taater" (tractor), and he also likes to wave (hello) and say "Haaaay" to the picture of the hay - gotta love a good ole' southern boy!!! :-)

- His favorite songs are "Ba, Ba, Black Sheep" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider."

- He can play a complete game of Patty Cake now (all the motions - clapping, rolling, and throwing)

- He "blows" kisses. But sometimes his hand doesn't leave his face...

- He loves to skype with his aunts & uncles! I think it's mostly because he can see himself in the small screen, but he talks/laughs/and acts like a complete "ham" the whole time.

- He can follow fairly complicated directions.

- When we tell him "No" he sometimes points at us and says "No, No!" (and then he gets punished for this).

- He has started testing boundaries a lot more to see what he can get away with. Mommy has gotten out her book "Dare to Discipline" by Dr. Dobson and is reading up because the time has come :-)

- He likes to make direct eye contact. If you are working on something, he will sometimes come stick his face directly in your face. He also will look at you and smack your cheek when you are reading him a book to get you to look at him instead of the book.

- He says and does the sign for "PEES" (please).

- He can do the big kid slide in our neighborhood all by himself now. All I do is walk beside him on the ground to "spot" him on the stairs.

- He LOVES to be outside (we are ready for warm weather already).

- His vocabulary is ever growing and changing. I've included some of the new things he's saying in the points above.

I can't believe it's been a year and a half already! I'm now realizing why so many people have told me that 18 months was one of their favorite ages though! He's a blast, and it is so fun to watch all the things he's learning.