Connor at 18 months

Connor is officially 18 months old and while I was a little worried about his progress after his 18 month check up, I don't have any worries now. I think he has just blossomed in the few weeks since we saw his doctor.

 

  

Physical

This boy is a runner! I love hearing the little pitter patter of his feet down the hallway in our house. When he runs he slings his arms back and forth almost faster than his feet are going.  

He has become more independent and walks into school by himself every morning. I mean - I walk with him, but he doesn't want me to carry him like I had been. He gingerly takes his time walking down the hall and then basically steps into his classroom like, "here I am!!"

Most days I carry him after I pick him up, but more and more he is happy to walk to the car himself.

 

His wave is side to side now instead of up and down and he now waves for 'Hi' as well as 'Bye.'

 

He still love, love, loves to throw balls. Nana got him some golf sticks that he is obsessed with and I'm always surprised at his good aim when throwing. We finally got him a basketball hoop and he has started throwing the basketball instead of always dunking it. I'm super proud. :)

 

 

Communication

Talking has been a bit of a roller coaster for us. He said his first word, duck, at about eight months, but since then has slllooooowed way down. He completely forgot the word duck, but started saying a few words around his first birthday. My last update at 14 months he was saying four words consistently and the doctor seemed happy with that.

 

At his 18 month appointment I started to get worried, because he really was just not talking much, the doctor said he wanted him to have at least 10 words at this age and I said he basically has two:

Dada and Ball.

I started getting a little panicked about how hard it was going to be when the new baby came if Connor wasn't able to communicate with me.

 

In the last two weeks, his vocabulary has really expanded and as of today he says the following words consistently:

Ball (by far most used word)

Dada

Mama

Bye-bye

Go

Elmo

Baba (bottle)

Book

Baby

Nana (banana)

Mine

uh-oh

Bubble (newest and maybe his clearest)

 

He also signs "more" and nods his head yes and no (sometimes). I wish he would communicate yes and no more often, but I'm sure that will come and I'll be wishing he didn't know the word 'No' Another cute thing he does is puts his hands in the air, palms up, to say 'where did it/they go.'

I can't wait for football because he for sure knows "touchdown!" with his arms.
My new favorite trick is when I chant USA USA USA during the Olympics he will pump his fist.

 

Lately I feel like he understands 90% of what we say, which makes communication much easier. He will follow instructions and *usually* listens when we say "no" or "uh-uh"

 

 

Eating

This boy still loves his carbs. In fact, last week he insisted on have a sandwich roll for breakfast.

He loves bananas and apple sauce, sometimes he likes grapes and apples.

We have not made any improvement on the vegetable front.

He love pizza, beans, rice and yogurt.

He also, of course, looooves sweets.

 

Usually in the morning he will have a bottle and toast/waffles.

For lunch he will have a banana, sunflower butter sandwich, and applesauce.

He usually eats a snack after his nap of goldfish, granola bar, or fruit.

For dinner he eats whatever we are having.

 

He also really likes feeding himself and I discovered recently that he will eat more if he gets to use the fork to put it in his mouth.

 

The doctor did say that it was time to get rid of his bottle (uh oh). I'm guessing the sooner the better because we don't want him wanting his baby sibling's bottle - or feeling like they 'took' it from him. Right now he has at least two bottles of milk a day. Sometimes more when we are home all day.

 

I loaded up on sippy cups last week and we are hoping to make the complete transition in the next month or so.

 

 

  

 Loving

Around April Connor really started to enjoy watching videos on my phone and/or the iPad. We try to limit it and I think we do a pretty good job. He will watch in the morning while I get dressed and he eats his breakfast and drinks his milk. His favorites are Bubble Guppies, Elmo's World, songs, or random videos of people opening/reviewing toys.

 

Recently he has been obsessed with books. He will bring them to us to read to him or he will just look at them by himself. One thing he loves to do is point at all the balls on the pages and scream 'ball.' Even his nighttime routine has changed from me singing songs to watching three songs on my phone to now - books.

 

He looooves animals. He gets excited anytime we see one (not often - LOL) or he sees one on TV.

 

Connor gives hugs all the time. Anytime we say ouch or act hurt when he slaps or a ball accidentally hits us he comes over and hugs us. This weekend I taught him that the baby is in my tummy and he when asked "where is the baby," he will point at my tummy, kiss it and hug it.

 

He still FIERCLY loves his blankets.  He loves to chew on the corner and then (weirdly) tap his ear or the corner of the his eye with the wet/harder corner. Recently he likes to put the corner of the blankets between his toes. I'm glad we have 6 of these blankets and can try to rotate them through the laundry often.

 

He loves people - especially strangers. If someone next to us at a restaurant is not paying him attention he will just stare at them and laugh loudly until they do. hahaha

 

He also loves being rough. If Cecil or I are laying on the ground, we immediately become a jungle gym and he thinks it is hilarious.

 

Copy cat - he copies everything we do and its adorable. This past weekend Cecil was scratching his chin, so Connor did too and then looked at me for approval.

 

Me - he definitely is attached to me and does not like it if I'm holding anyone else. Seriously does not like it. He doesn't even like it if Cecil rubs my arm sometimes. I think he is in for a rude awakening when the new baby comes. uh oh

 

 

We just love this sweet boy of ours and I can honestly say 18 months is one of my very favorite stages. My heart bursts with pride every time he learns a new word or copies Cecil doing something ridiculous. He makes our house 100 times happier and we love him so much.