19 Months

If you look at this picture closely, you can see a single tear coming from his left eye. He was literally CRYING to go "ow-sye" (outside). And then when he got out the door he saw our neighbor's dog and about bolted across the street to say "hiiiii, woof woof!" 

He requires constant vigilance.

Even though I haven't done a monthly update since he was 11 months (oops - small, single tear of my own), I thought, why not? He needs the attention. 

Stats: According to our home scale, he weighs in at 25 pounds. He is in 12-18m shorts, 18-2T shirts, and size 6 shoes. First set of molars are all in. Shock of blinding white blonde hair. 

MILESTONE: Will gave him his first haircut a couple months ago because the mullet was worse than it is even now.

EATS.

He is an EATER. He pretty much eats anything, but it MUST be at room temperature or below. Otherwise he shouts "HOT!" and screeches in agony and refuses to eat. We're routinely sticking his food in the freezer before eating. 

He wakes up in the morning asking for a banana ("nana") because he has priorities. Literally as soon as I pick him up out of his crib. He eats a banana every morning around 7:30 (plus whatever else is being served up - kid loves some pancakes), then lunch at 11:30, snack at 3, dinner between 5-6. Daycare taught him pretty decent table manners. If he's hungry, he will sit at the table and eat with a fork and can use an open cup. He'll still usually get pretty messy, so it just kind of depends whether we're in the mood for cleanup to allow him to eat on his own. 

SLEEPS.

Glory, glory, hallelujah! Okay, so . . . Will got ear tubes in July. (Four ear infections since his first birthday, constant fluid in his ears at every check, and mild hearing loss from the fluid.) Ever since, he is napping longer and sleeping in. It's been a dream come true. He goes down around 6:30pm every night and sleeps in past 7am every morning. Sometimes he wakes up, but he'll lay in bed happily and quietly for the most part until we go in and get him. (He used to NEVER do this — he would cry angrily upon waking — probably because his ears were hurting.) Sometimes when he's tired, he will take a pillow off the couch and proclaim "night night!" and lay down on it. 

He's down to one nap per day. He'll go down sometime between 11 and 12:30. He'll usually sleep about 2 hours, but sometimes he'll stretch it to 2.5 or 3. Currently, he's been in his crib since we returned from Mass just before noon. He rolled around, babbling "dada" and "night night" for over an hour, and just recently fell asleep. Whatever.  

Yup, he's a pretty dreamy sleeper lately. I am counting my blessings. And also deathly afraid of interfering with his sleep situation by tampering with his routine by way of introducing a toddler bed or anything of the sort. 

POOPS.

Dude. Duuuude. He still poops 4 times a day. Even the daycare teachers were like HOW?… WHY?… NOOOOO. He is in Size 4 disposables. I am thinking about putting him back in cloth, but I haven't decided yet because he still poops 4 times a day. Also, he had a really scary skin infection about a month ago (a strain of staph) and I am afraid that there is still bacteria cultured in his skin. (He has a few pimples here and there on his body, but nothing like the infection in his diaper area that required a lancing by the doctor and a round of heavy duty antibiotics.) BUT, he has been peeing through his diapers at night lately and I know his giant bamboo fitted diaper will hold it all in. 

Being a mom is so glamorous. 

HOBBIES.

// Proclaiming that objects are his by shouting "MINE! MINE! MINE!"

// Climbing and jumping off furniture.

// Waiving at Jesus and blowing him kisses.

// Brushing his teeth.

// Giving his dogs pats and kisses. 

// Playing hide and go seek in the Tupperware cabinet.

// Waiving and saying "HI!" to ANYONE and EVERYONE and EVERY OBJECT EVER.

// Airplanes ("ow-sye?" - yeah same word as "outside" - took us a while to figure that one out), trucks, tractors, and firetrucks. 

// Pushups, which he learned to do from his favorite person ever, his cousin Molly. 

// Fake chatting on the phone. 

// Pointing out your nose.

// Beating on mommy's belly. Because OHMYGOSHIT'SSOBIG.

It's so funny that his fundamental personality really hasn't changed since he was a baby. I recently re-read his TWO MONTH update where I speculated that he was an extrovert/busy-body/people person. 

Most accurate. 

Begrudgingly dragged to the car to head to Mass because he didn't want to leave the neighbor's dog.