18 Months!

Look at me! I'm a year and a half!

I don't know how it happened, but suddenly I have an 18 month old! I remember back to a year ago when we gave Noah his first sweet potatoes tonight and he wasn't even sitting on his own yet. Now he's a wild man running through the house, eating chunks of chicken, and telling me "no, no, no." It's crazy how time flies.

Each month Noah's vocabulary continues to expand by leaps and bounds. He's pointing to all kinds of things and takes great delight in naming the things that he knows. He can repeat most words that we try to get him to say (except "gramma," much to their dismay!), but I only count the words that I think he knows the meaning to or uses regularly. New words this month are:

• side (for outside), shower, eat, bowl, papa, sock, walk, ride, phone, shirt, gate, eye, toe, mouth, head, teeth, boom, nose, apple, hat, foot, spoon ("foon"), bubble, yucky ("ucky"), whoah, mine, food, fork, rock, nana, house, bucket, book, park

Noah can point to all kinds of body parts including his head, hair, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, hands, belly, wee wee, knee and feet. He is able to follow simple commands like "get your milk," but doesn't always choose to listen. He likes to bring me random objects and places them in my hands. He will give a kiss when asked, or just spontaneously, and I love it! He also makes his toys kiss each other. So sweet! My mom taught him how to blow kisses over FaceTime, too. He's getting more opinionated and independent by the day. He lets us know if he really wants something by spinning in a circle and stomping his feet. Noah is also upping his game in the tantrum department. He gets upset when he can't have his pacifier, or when he has to come in from outside. He doesn't like having something taken away from him, and sometimes the tantrums just seem to come out of nowhere. He likes to throw his head back, flail his limbs, and scream. I guess the "terrible twos" start much earlier than two! He also has a tendency to hit or bite me if I make him mad. I've tried time-outs and an upset, stern voice to try to redirect this behavior, but so far he's not getting it.

In other developmental news, Noah got his first two molars this month. Along with them came his third ear infection. Boo! He has his official 18-month appointment on Halloween (trick or treat, you get shots kiddo!), but at his most recent ear checkup he weighed in at 23 pounds. I'm curious to see where that will fit into the percentiles. I think he's definitely still on the small side! He's my little peanut!

Happy Half-Birthday, Sweetheart!