18 Months Old

Oh my, I have an 18 month old, and he's big. He has pretty much skipped the 18 month clothes and is well into the 24 month clothes. He's much more tall than round. I am guessing he's 26 pounds, but we have his official visit in a few weeks. With the new baby popping out, we are trying to teach Nathan to walk while holding our hands instead of carrying him so much.

Things Nathan Loves

1. Breakfast. The kid loves breakfast. Thankfully, I am big on cooking breakfast. He eats at least 2 pancakes, an egg, and sometimes a clementine for breakfast everyday. I don't think he can handle a day without a scrabbled egg. The rest of his meals are hit or miss depending on the day, but breakfast is the big one.

2. Drums. Nathan still has a love of the drums. His friend Stephen game him a pair of REAL drum sticks this weekend. He is not drumming on everything. He spent 25 minutes the other day drumming on a plastic bowl in the kitchen, then the bowl cracked in half.

3. Bedtime. I am blessed, Nathan loves going to bed at night. He giggles and cuddles all the way up the stairs. He giggles through getting his clothes changed. He giggles through singing his good night songs. We are trying to go down to one nap a day (he takes a morning nap when he needs it, about 4 times a week and I wake him up after an hour) and when we made this switch his nights got longer. He goes to bed at 7pm and wakes up between 7:30 and 8:00. The kid's a sleeping champ.

4. Popcorn. I know you should wait to give popcorn to kids, but we always watch him with it. Daniel and Nathan have begun a daily ritual of popping popcorn on the stove together after Daniel gets home from work. Then they sit an eat it together, its their thing.

5. Talking. Though I don't know alot of what he says, Nathan is a babbler. He talks all of the time. He also reads himself books, which amuses me alot.

6. Elmo. Nathan loves Elmo, he talks about him all the time.

Things Nathan does not like

1. Vegetables. This kid does not eat vegetables. I try to sneak them into other food, like grinding up broccoli and putting it in his mac and cheese. If he finds the vegetables in his food, he picks them out, like he did to the peas I snuck into his noodles the other day. He will eat fresh spinach with ranch dressing, but that pretty much the only vegetable.

2. Being woken up and waking up in general. Nathan is like me and his father, he does not like to wake up. Now in the mornings and after naps I hear him at first stirring about, and I need to not get him for at least 20 minutes. If I go into his room too soon and he is still laying down in his crib, he will need to sit on my lap for another 20 minutes. Don't get me wrong, I like the cuddle time, but if we need to go anywhere he's a bear. Waking Nathan up is Daniels job, if he is at home.

3. When Daniel leaves. If Nathan doesn't actually see Daniel walking out the door, he is ok. But if he sees Daniel walking out, a small tantrum normally ensues.

Things I can't live without.

1. Independent play time. I recently moved independent play from Nathans pack and play to his room. Now Nathan plays in his room for 20-30 minutes while I get ready. Some days, like today, he plays happily and reads books to himself. Some days, Nathan protests and cries at the babygate I put up in his doorway.

2. Sippy Cups. I finally found a sippy cup that Nathan can drink out of and he CANNOT spill. We were using the Nuby kind for awhile and Nathan eventually figured out how to drip milk out of them. So he would spill milk on the floor and then dance around in it.