18 months

Our baby boy is eighteen months old. Where has this last year and a half gone?! It is just remarkable to me how much he has changed and what a little boy he is now. And he is ALL boy! He is already teaching me about the differences between raising girls and boys!

He has recently entered a "destructive" phase and I feel like every five minutes I'm cleaning up another mess or putting something out of reach or telling him no. And most of the time I don't think he does it to be naughty, but out of curiosity. "What'll happen if I throw this on the floor? What'll happen if I hurl this over the banister? What happens if I step off of here? What does this do? How far will this fly?"

His big sister was much more content to sit and play with toys or look at books, and while he does those things too, he's VERY busy.

He still drinks from a bottle. And I don't care. It's taken us *months* to switch him to milk. We've been gradually adding more milk to his formula and it's been such a process! At first he wouldn't touch the bottle if he tasted milk in it. And we're finally up to 75% milk/25% formula. Craziness! (But I've said this before, I'm not a big fan of milk myself and it doesn't bother me if my kids aren't big milk drinkers. Cow's milk is for cows.)

He really enjoys it when I vacuum. He gets out the toy vacuum and vacuums right along with me. It's really so precious. And then he cries when I turn the vacum off. His little heart is just broken!

He's a typical picky toddler eater, but he loves fruit. He regularly eats apples, oranges, bananas, grapes, peaches, kiwi, pears, pineapple and blueberries. He's not a fan of cantaloupe or watermelon, but hopefully those will "grow on him" this summer. =)

He adores his big sister. He follows her around and loves to do whatever she's doing. She loves him, too, and is really good at making him laugh if he's sad. (Precious!) They play really nicely together (most of the time) and then once in awhile they are each other's worst enemy! Taylor knows when he's pushing her buttons and he gets this mischievous little grin and giggles with delight when he makes her mad. What a stinker!

Taylor and I have had an incredible bond since he was born. He has always loved his momma and it has always been very mutual! But I can tell that he is gaining some independence and even though he still loves me, he is less of a momma's boy. While I'm thankful for his growth and development my heart breaks a little as I "lose" my baby.

He loves his daddy and Andy is so proud of his boy. They have a great relationship and do lots of wrestling and playing with balls.

Speaking of balls, as I've said before, they are Taylor's love language. He already has an incredible arm and you should see him shoot baskets! It's hard for me to believe that he won't be an athlete of some kind because it already just comes so naturally to him.

He loves books and likes being read to if it's a book that he's interested in.

At his 18 month check up he weighed in at 29 pounds 9 ounces and is 34 1/2 inches tall. When Lily was 18 months she weighed 22 pounds and was 32 inches tall. =)

Lily was much more articulate at his age, but he IS adding words to his vocabulary and he communicates in his own cute way. Some of his words include:
Doda (Dora)
Momo (Elmo)
football
basketball
uppy (pizza)
ollie (love you)
apple
apple (orange - yes, he says apple for both apples and oranges!!!) =)
dip (chip)
nana (banana)
Nandi (Mandi)
Mama (Grandma)
mine
off
choochie (cookie)
choo choo (train)
mo (markers
amen
chee (cheese)
book
beep beep
yay
whoa!
doo (dude)
achoo
ah-ee (sorry)
umee (excuse me)
no
fishy
moo (what a cow says)
moo (movie or tv)
baa
ruff ruff
meow
roar!
foo (food)
cha (chair)
boo (boots)
shoe

He loves to sit at the table and color with his big sister (he did not color that dog in the wagon! that was Lily's work from a long time ago)

Brushing his teeth!

Happy 18 month birthday, Baby!