18 months!

My "baby" is officially a year and a half old as of last week.

That's halfway to 3!

Where has the time gone?!


We had his 18 month check-up last Friday - Jay is 32.5 inches tall (almost 3 feet!), 26lbs 7oz (he's gained almost exactly 3lbs in 3 months!), and his head is 50th percentile. His weight is also 50th percentile however his height is just over 50th percentile, which is no surprise there as his daddy's tall! Everyone seemed to know he had grown recently though as he can now reach things he couldn't before, such as things on tables or counters... oh and he can climb on the couch now and reach things nearby!

We asked about his lack of talking (he *can* talk, he just chooses not to - he'd rather communicate non-verbally) - the doctor said to continue to really work with him these next few months and if he's still refusing to use his words after 2-3 more months then he would refer us to a government funded group nearby that works with delayed speech development. We have noticed a slight improvement over the past few days - Jay's started to say "all done" when he's finished with meals or bathtime the other night and his babbling is getting better too as it sounds like he's actually trying to say something instead of just babbling. He still says "dada" "mama" "baba" and "dog" among a few others but not regularly.

Poor kiddo though, he was in tears for most of his check-up - he got upset when the nurse came in 1st to check his vitals and measurements, then he freaked out when the doctor came in, and then... he had a different nurse this time for his shot so that caught him off guard but obviously he cried when she stuck him with the needle. His next visit isn't for 6 months though, at his 2 year check-up so we're clear til then! He does have his urology check-up in a few weeks though up in Milwaukee - hopefully that one goes as well as it did last time!

We gave him one of his plastic forks last night at dinner, just to see how he did with it as that's

probably the next thing we'll need to work on with him. He seemed to have the idea of sticking it into food down, but not so much the next step of putting it in his mouth.

Breakfast consists of a bowl of strawberry banana yogurt, a bowl of oatmeal made with milk, and a straw cup of milk with strawberry syrup (he won't drink it plain); sometimes he'll get a waffle too if he's still hungry or some cinnamon bread.

Lunch is usually some crackers, some applesauce or other fruit, and a meat/protein such as chicken nuggets, a kosher hot dog, rice with chicken and veggies or beef ravioli in meat sauce.

Dinner is whatever we're eating (usually a pasta and some kind of meat/chicken) plus a veggie if one is not normally included.

For a bedtime snack he gets another bowl of strawberry banana yogurt and some water from his straw water bottle (which he also drinks at other meals and throughout the day).

Normal wake-up time is anywhere between 930-1130am just depending on how tired he is (or if Grandpa's loud in the morning and wakes him up super early and he can't fall back asleep).

He still takes 1 nap in the afternoon (when he goes down depends on how late/early he woke up) and

is usually asleep from anywhere between 1.5-3hrs. We start getting him ready for bed around 10/1030pm (depending on if it's a bath night or not) and he's normally in bed by 11pm at the latest.

He's in 24 month tops, 18 month bottoms, and his feet are a 5.5wide (so they have us buying a 6wide for growth room).

We think daddy being home during the day is throwing him off quite a bit, especially since mommy's been picking up extra hours at work like crazy and he now spends more time at home with daddy than with mommy, as opposed to it being the opposite for all his life.

He loves being outside though and picking up stones/rocks - when we first got out of the car at he doctor's office, we let him walk on the sidewalk holding our hands... well they have a bunch of rocks in their landscape around the building so yeah... he immediately took off running towards those to "collect" some. He also often comes home from Grammie and Grandpap's house (my parents) with rocks in his hands that he picked up around their backyard and didn't throw into their small fish pond!

He's still big on Thomas the Train, as well as the Wiggles, but lately he's been on a hardcore Elmo kick. I recently picked up a Pocoyo DVD for $5 - he's seen the commercial for Pocoyo on one of his Wiggles DVDs and seemed interested so I figured why not check it out. He seems to enjoy it and I like that that Pocoyo seems to speak in 1-word sentences, kind of like what we're working on with Jay. I must say, like he burned us out on the Wiggles, I'm starting to get burned out on Elmo! He loves his books too! There's several he really likes us to read to him, but it's not uncommon to find him sitting somewhere in the family room, or in his crib or car seat with a book in head, just looking at the pages! Glad he likes books!