April 9, 2010

• Happy 18 Months!

  I have a 1.5 year old!  I think 18 months is one of those turning point months where something else in that brain clicks on.  After having a few tough past few months filled with frustration, tantrums and super-clinginess, BB has seemed to change overnight.  Not completely, of course….he is still my super spirited boy who must have things his way NOW or the world as he knows it is over!

  He now has 14 teeth…I think.  He won’t let us look.  I think he has 2 more pre-molars and then his 2 year molars left.  He is totally fine brushing his teeth himself…and he actually loves to do it himself.  But his brushing is actually “brushing” so I have to do a quick once over, which is literally a wrestling match every night.  I have to pin him down with one arm, while squeezing his cheeks with my hand and then brushing with the other hand.

  He knows the sound of all the letters in the alphabet and can recognize them on paper.  He doesn’t actually know what the letters are called, like “A”, “B”, “C”, etc.  But if you ask him what the “A” says, he’ll say “aah”…”B”, he’ll say, “buh”, etc.  If we point at a letter (in a book or a sign), he’ll recognize what it is and make the appropriate sound.  He learned most of this from watching the Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD that we got him for Christmas.  He had only watched it once every few days or so for a month or two before he picked up all the letters! (It’s not just him…my friend’s kids also picked up the letters after watching for a couple of months). 

  He finally decided to enjoy stacking his blocks.  We’ve had those blocks for at least half a year and he had shown no interest in them other than dumping them out all over the floor.  He used to just stack one or two, but would walk away afterwards.  Now he stacks 6-7 (he probably could do more if he weren’t stacking on carpet) and will do it over and over again.  He will try to stack anything he can.  The one cabinet he is allowed into is all plastic jars of various sizes.  He’ll take them all out and stack them as high as he can reach.  He managed a few times to make a tower taller than himself!

  He also finally decided to enjoy his puzzles.  He can put all the pieces over the appropriate spots.  He still has trouble getting some of the odder shaped pieces in.

  He’s picked up a few more words, but not many…but I think he is starting his word explosion since he said 3 new words today.  His new words include: apple, orange, Heather (the babysitter’s name), flower, door, shoe (I think…it actually sounds a lot like “sh*t” when he says it haha) and Amen.  He only uses maybe 8 of his words regularly…the others he’ll say only on command.

  He can walk up and down the stairs….but I still make him hold my hand because he likes to randomly turn around when he’s on the steps and it freaks me out.

  He is getting better at using the fork and spoon.  He can physically do it…..but most of the time, he doesn’t want to.  He’ll use it for the first few bites and then it becomes a toy/catapult and winds up on the floor. 

  He loves to touch everyone’s facial features and then touch his own.  So he’ll touch my nose…and then touch his own nose and then touch his monkey’s nose and then do the same with the ears, eyes and mouth.

  He is totally into cars, trucks and trains and Elmo (or as he says it, “ElmA”).  Actually, he loves all the Sesame Street characters and knows them by name.  He is going to love it when we take him to Sesame Place in May!

  He is terrible on walks.  He hates to hold anyone’s hand, so I end up holding his forearm. He spends half the walk trying to get it out of my grasp.  I usually let him walk freely unless he decides to go on someone’s yard or head towards the street.  His new thing is to sit down as soon as I start dragging him the opposite way.  Then I have to pick him up and carry him while he’s kicking and whining.

  He is also terrible at the grocery store.  He always wants to get out so that he can push the cart.  We generally don’t let him out of the cart because he never stays with the cart.  For such a shy kid, he loves these public places and will take off by himself in a second.  He used to be okay in the cart…but now he’s big enough to reach the stuff in the back and the entire time, he’ll pulling things up and hurling them back into the cart.

  We are re-sleep training him again.  He can put himself back to sleep easily if he wakes up at night…but he won’t go to sleep easily at the beginning of bedtime.  For a while, I was so pooped from being pregnant, that I would fall asleep during our quiet time and then he would just fall asleep in my lap.  He got used to that, so now he won’t go to sleep by himself in the crib.  But with baby #2 coming in a few months, we really have to try to get him to sleep on his own.  We still do snuggle time after his bath for 10-15 minutes and then it’s into the crib he goes.  He is so stinking stubborn with bedtime….it has always been our struggle.  Once he’s down, he’s completely fine and we’re good until he wakes up in the morning…but it’s getting him down that’s so AARGH.

  We got memberships to the Philly Zoo and the Please Touch Museum.  Admission is so pricey that it’s so worth it.  Just 2-3 trips per year will have the membership paying for itself.  It’s fantastic that both the zoo and the museum are only 15-20 min away (local roads too!), so we can pretty much go all the time.  I remember growing up in Queens that going to the Bronx Zoo was a whole day planned affair because it took so long to drive there.

  I’m planting our gardens now.  It’s actually really tough to plan a garden with a toddler around.  A lot of plants are toxic if digested and BB is such an oral kid that everything still goes in his mouth.  He also is a grabber, so I have to choose very hardy, prolific plants.  The beautiful, delicate plants are a no go.  I ended up with a lot of shrubs hahaha.  But I’m excited and can’t wait to see the full effect next spring.  We are also going to completely re-do our lawn because the previous owners let it go and there are more weeds than grass.  There is no way we can pull out all the weeds.

  Pregnancy is going well…I still barely have time to think about it.  I actually only have a few months left and we have done nothing for this baby…not even picked a name. I don’t even remember what it’s like to have a newborn!  A friend asked me to hold her 3 month old and I barely knew how to…she seemed SOOO tiny and floppy!

  I decided to switch my delivery from HUP (where I had Tyler) to the hospital by my house. It’s literally a 3 minute drive and they just re-did the L&D unit a year or two ago.  It’s part of the private chain of hospitals here and they’re all really nice (there is one further out west that is known as “the hotel”, it’s that nice).  Every room is private so there is no risk of having to share rooms.  My parents will probably be watching Tyler while we’re in the hospital, so it’s just easier being close to home so that PB can go home whenever he wants.  We might have him go home for the bath and bedtime routine.  Plus my parents won’t have to worry about driving in every day to bring Tyler to see me at the hospital (HUP isn’t that far away, but the only way there is through West Philly, which is um….not the most comfortable place for my parents to drive through).

  • 10:21 pm
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