18 Months Old

Where has the time gone?! My boys can’t possibly be a year and a half already – 6 more months and they’ll be TWO! What a difference a few months makes. There is a huge difference in the boys from the 12 month post I wrote, even from the 15 month post I wrote. In the last few months it has become apparent our baby boys are no longer babies and are turning into little boys.

They are climbers, thats for sure. In the last month, they have master the art of climbing – climbing on the couch, ottoman, chairs and even on top of the dinning room table. Hayden is the instigator when it comes to climbing. We will turn our backs and next thing you know, he’s on the table or he has pushed a chair over to the bar in the kitchen and is playing with stuff on the kitchen bar.

We got rid of their highchairs and they are now in booster seats at the table, mainly because 2 highchairs took up too much room in our kitchen. They are both getting great at using utensils when they eat. If they go into hunger strike mode, sometimes just giving them a fork will break the strike. They are getting to where they want to hold cups when they drink instead of us holding it (when we are at a restaurant), forget the fact that they dribble water all down the front of their shirt- they are doing it by themselves, that’s all they care about.

We have taught the boys some sign language to help ease the frustration of them not being able to talk yet. They know the sign for more, milk and water (they rarely use water though). They have started talking some – mainly Ian. Hayden talks all day but nothing that you can understand. He has said quack for duck and cracker (not routinely). Ian will say ice, “nana” (banana), “nak” (snack), “go” (dog), “baf” (bath) and yesterday he tried to say “wa-er” (water). I think Hayden doesn’t feel the need to talk because Ian does all the talking and Hayden just goes along with it.

The boys have been playing together more and I love it when I see that. They love reading books and putting puzzles together. Ian would have us read 20 books before bed if we let him.

They are now comprehending things we say to them and will follow simple commands from us. If we ask them to pick something up and bring it to us, they will…usually. Hayden will find the tiniest little string or piece of something on the floor, pick it up and bring it to us. It’s like he knows he’s not supposed to play with it and/or he hates stuff like that lying around on the floor (that’s my boy).

We won’t take the boys for their 18 month check up until the beginning of May so we won’t know their weights until then. I’ll have to fill you in once we get them. I can confidently say Hayden still weighs more than Ian and is probably 1/2 an inch taller.

Hayden is still our strong willed child. He does things just to see if he can get away with it. He knows he’s not supposed to climb on things and will do it repeatedly after we tell him no, just to get a reaction, then laugh.

He is still a snuggle bug, but only when he wants to be. If he wakes up in the middle of the night, he will sit in the chair and snuggle with you. Speaking of waking up at night, the boy is an insomniac! He gets this trait from me, unfortunately. If you remember way back when, I posted on this very subject and if you want, you can read about it here. He goes in phases. He’ll go a week where he is up every night for about 2.5 hours just talking, laughing, playing, anything but sleeping. Then the next week, he’ll sleep just fine.

Hayden is a picky, picky eater…but I can’t complain, he is my child. I am a picky, picky eater myself. He pretty much eats carbs and cheese. He does like oatmeal so we squeeze that in sometimes. In order to get his veggies and some other sort of nutrients in the child, we still give him baby food if he won’t eat anything else. A few times a week we give them both a vanilla instant breakfast shake since it has a lot of vitamins and minerals in it, I purposefully stay away from the chocolate shake!

Just in the last week, Hayden has declared his love for TV. He will go to the ottoman and pull out a Baby Einstein or Sparkabilities DVD and bring it to us for him to watch. As soon as the DVD starts, he climbs up and plops himself down on the couch. We are trying to halt this new found love as much as possible because we don’t want them to sit in front a TV all day. They love to play outside so when he starts this, I’ve been trying to take them outside instead. I don’t know what we’ll do in the summer when its 110 degrees outside. I guess we’ll have to get a little wading pool for them to play in.

Hayden still loves his taggie and pacifier, but especially his taggie. He has started to tell us when he is ready for a nap or bedtime. He will grab his taggie and pacifier and point to his bed. He may not sleep all night, but he knows when he is tired and ready to go to bed. Jonathan says, “kind of like his momma.”

Ian tends to be our sensitive one and definitely has a sweet personality. He is also our musical one, we often see him in the backseat of the car bobbing his head to the music or dancing in the living room to music or even just dancing to the music in his head. He is our songbird.

Over the last week he has started trying to jump, although he hasn’t quite figured out how to get both feet off the ground at the same time. We have a feeling when we get back from our anniversary trip next week, he will be jumping 3 feet off the ground.

While Hayden tends to be a little more cautious, Ian is always going at full speed. Its not strange to find him running through the house or around the couch and kitchen table.

Ian prefers to be barefoot over having anything on his feet. If he has shoes on when you put him in the car, by the time you get him out they will be off, or at least 1 of them will be off. He still walks on his toes (with his toes curled under) sometimes, but not all the time.

When it comes to eating, he is our SLOW eater, but will venture out and try new foods. He typically eats more than Hayden , which is funny because he is the smaller one of the two. He is more likely to stick to eating with his hands more than a fork, but that is slowly changing as he gets used to using utensils more.

Ian loves books and loves to be read to. He will grab a book, walk over to you and then turn around for you to pick him up and put him in your lap so you can read him the book of his choosing.

He love his stuffed animals. He loves snuggling with a teddy bear or his Big Red Clifford Dog. The tree things Ian needs every night is a pacifier (which is a must), taggie and his clifford stuffed animal.

The boys are so much fun now that they are getting a little older and I can’t wait until they really start talking. Happy 18 months boys!!