18 Months!

Growth: Currently 44% for weight (23 lbs) and 83% for height. Starting to wear 2T clothes, though we're rolling up the bottoms on most of them. Size 5 shoes.

Eating: You LOVE food! Your consistent favorites are Tator-tot hotdish, Chicken pot pie, mashed potatoes, Chipotle (black beans and all), scrambled eggs, yogurt, chow mein, oatmeal. Also really into snack items including Goldfish crackers, Teddy Grahams, saltines, and loved the Ghardettos he got at grandma's today! Doesn't really seem to enjoy canned fruit, deli meat, or boxed mac n' cheese (weirdo...it's a good thing though). Grandma's cookies are a huge favorite as well, and anything an adult is eating, you think you have to have.

Likes: Bath time (down to twice a week due to dry skin), Food, MILK and JUICE!, your monkey, books (your consistent favorites are 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?', and 'Jay-Jay the Jet Plane').  Exploring cabinets, Turtle night light, 

Dislikes: Kraft Mac n' Cheese, Diaper changes, You are starting to catch on to it being 'nap' time and have begun kicking and screaming when mom (accidentally) says the word 'nap'. Being told the word 'no', being held in public (would rather run and explore). Getting your hands dirty via finger paint, play-doh, etc., elevators and vacuums (You want to be held)

Development:

• Speech- Says the words 'Mama', 'Dada', 'Down', 'More', and 'Done' and many others I believe, but just can't figure them out yet. You once repeated 'Thank you' after me, but I think it was just luck. If we count, mom says '1', you say 'ooo (for two)', mama says 'three', you say 'orrrrr' (for four), may says 'five', you say 'en' (for ten). If mom says, "Where is your hair?", you can consistently point to it, we're working on consistency with belly and you think your mouth is your nose.
• Motor- Can stack 6 blocks consistently, beginning to jump, can walk backwards, tries to stand on one leg, climbs onto everything, beginning to practice lifting the leg when walking up stairs
• Cognition- Mimics many things now including using the hairbrush, talking on the phone, putting on clothes, sitting on the potty
• Self-care- feeds self with a spoon if food is sticky, practicing using a big boy cup, pretends to put shirts on over his head

Sleep: You are FINALLY sleeping through the night! You go down to bed at 7:30pm, usually wake up around 6am, take a sippy of milk, and will go back down again until 7:30/8:30. Provided you slept well the night before, you take one 1.5-2 hr. nap after lunch. These last few days have not been good as your eye teeth have been coming in, but mommy is hopeful you'll get back into your routine once they pop through.

 You are still in ECFE parent-child class one morning a week, and you really love it. You have no issues with mommy leaving the room for parent group and are excited to see me when I return. I am looking into 2 days/week preschool.

And some big sadness in our family in the last month...mommy and daddy are getting a divorce :-(. You seem to be handling it really well as not much has changed for you yet. One thing is true, you are still the apple of mommy and daddy's eyes and forever will be.