Eighteen Months.

How, how, HOW is my baby one and a half??? Ha! I guess I will write that every month right? I was just telling Jack yesterday how time goes by so fast!

Here it goes.



Monkey, you are growing up way too fast for your own good! I keep saying this but you amaze us every month more and more! We are loving this stage!

You got sick with Hand, Foot and Mouth. You had a fever and when it finally broke, you got a really ugly rash on your body. We were so worried about you! Thank God you're such a strong little boy and you were acting like nothing. You were your normal self!

Watching you be so independent and knowing exactly what you want and need is awesome to watch. You're learning other signs and you are talking so so much. You repeat everything we say! Not always a good thing but we are minding our language a lot more these days.

Bananas are still your favorite and watermelon is a very close second. You're still a pretty good eater and will occasionally reject something until you try it. It's funny! But you do eat pretty much everything in your path.

Being outdoors is your favorite thing in the world and you could stay out all day. You know you're not supposed to go on the street and when you're near it I tell you not to and you listen! Only thing you listen to ha! You don't like it when we bring you inside because sometimes it is too hot to have you out there. You ask for water right away though, a sign that it really is hot outside and we aren't lying to you. :)

Your favorite words are: cracker "craka", doggy "doddy" (you call every animal doggy), dada, teeth "tee", shoes "doos", cheese "teese", plus all the other ones you already have been saying and all of the talking you do.

You're still so friendly with everyone around you. Sometimes it takes you a bit to warm up to people but after that you're playing and talking with them. A good thing, but we need to teach you that this isn't always the case.

Coloring and reading books is your thing right now. We put some paper on your table and a container with crayons and stickers and you will sit there and color and sticker everything. I find random stickers everywhere! When you want us to read a book, you'll go and get it and give to us to read. When we are done, you want us to read a hundred times more and you grunt if we say no. You get so excited and you recognize the words in the books. One of your favorites right now is Five Little Pumpkins although we are nowhere near Halloween. I think it will be your favorite holiday like daddy's. Once I get to the page where it says "...and out went the light..." you know to cover your eyes. I also tickle you every time there's a spider on the page and you point to it knowing a tickle is coming up! I love it! You do it every single time.

You got your first haircut, well trim, to cut off your little back curl :( I was a little sad but it needed to be done! the back of your little head was getting a little crazy. You did so good! You sat there with me and didn't even flinch. I'm so proud of you!

You're throwing tantrums but nothing we can't deal with. Yeah sometimes we want to pull our hair out but then you do something to make us laugh. You're the biggest clown! You make faces and walk funny when you want us to forget why we got mad at you. You are a very stubborn kid, something you got from both of us! We will call it Strong Minded. ;)

The only thing we need to figure out is your hitting. You will come up to us and hit us for no reason! You'll be perfectly fine and we will ask you for a kiss and we get a slap to the face instead. Well that and throwing food on the floor. We are also working on time-outs and you're hating them but they are necessary, you fight them until you give up and sit there until we come and get you. We have a ways to go with it but we will work this out young man!

We love you more and more everyday!