17 Months

I am a little late on this update, but here goes! I can't believe that our sweet boy is almost a year and a half old. He is just so much fun! At 17 months:

-He is learning new words every day. I can't remember all of them, but my current favorites are "quack quack", "banana", "truck", and "cool". He also loves to point to everything in the room and say "what dis?" or "what dat?". It is so cute! Also he is on a "dada" kick and loves to say it over and over. Another fun thing that he does is sing. I will sing a high pitched note like an opera singer and then he will do it. He loves to try and imitate anything that we say.

-Jackson has learned to turn around in circles. He lifts one of his arms up when he does it. After about 2-3 times around he starts getting dizzy and clumsy. I will try and upload a video soon! He is also still a dancing machine and boy can he really boogie!

-He never formed an attachment to the blankie or animal (Eeyore) in his crib. Sometimes I wish he would snuggle with a blankie or stuffed animal in hopes that he may sleep better, but no such luck. He does have two animals that are with his toys that he really loves. He has Pooh and Mr. Chompies. Every day he gets them out of his toy box and gives them a big hug and kisses. Sometimes he will lay down and put his head on them to give them love. It is the sweetest thing! He has been very affectionate lately.

-Jackson loves to "read". He is constantly bringing us books to read to him, but sometimes he will flip through the pages and "read" on his own. His favorite books are his Usborne touch and feel books. He is also really into the "Five Little Monkey" series. My mom just gave him a book of opposites and he loves that too. I think we counted 7 times that I had to read it too him today. He loves to make all of the animal noises in the books and point out different objects.

-He has been coloring a good bit over the last month or so. We got him some big sheets of paper and assorted jumbo crayons. He will pull out all of his crayons and sit still and color for about 10 minutes before he wants to start shredding the paper.

-He loves bathtime and now he pitches a big fit every time we get him out of the tub. He has figured out how to fill a cup up with water and pour it all over him, and he does it over and over. He also loves all of his bath toys and will play and splash.

-Speaking of pitching a fit, Mr Whaley has spent a little time in time out lately. He has been in a hitting phase. He doesnt hit hard, but he will get frustrated and lightly smack one of us on the arm or leg. Time out has been effective, and he is learning to "apologize" in his own way. When I get him out of time out, he will lay his head on my shoulder and say "Mama" in the sweetest voice you could ever imagine and then give me a big kiss. He is learning, but I know he is testing us. I don't know where he learned to hit. We have never even spanked him!

-Sleep is not really getting better which is frustrating. In fact, he has decided that he wants to be in the bed with us. We start him out in his crib for the 1st half of the night and then the 2nd part of the night he ends up in our bed or else he will keep waking up. I know this is not good, but once I lay him in our bed he is out! It is a bad habit, but since we are headed to Hawaii for two weeks where he will be in bed with us the whole time, now is not the time to try and break him of it. When we get back we are going to have a hard time relcaiming our bed, but we will do it. Justin's mom made me feel better the other day about Jackson's sleep. I was telling her that it is the one area where I kinda feel like a failure with him because he still isn't sleeping through the night. It seems like every blog I read, the child is sleeping straight through the night and then playing in the crib for awhile in the morning before the parent gets them up. His mom told me that Justin flat out did not sleep throught the night for the first 3 years of his life. He would wake every 2-3 hours. She said it got better around 15 months or so and then after a month it went right back and didnt change until he was 3. She said that the second Justin woke up he would cry and want to be picked up. (This describes Jackson to a T!) Justin's sister Brooke, however, slept through the night on her own at 6 weeks and would wake up and play in her crib. Justin's mom said she didnt do anything different with the two and that some babies are just not great sleepers. So maybe Jackson is just genetically predisposed not to sleep through the night for a few years? At any rate, we soldier on and as long as Jackson is happy and healthy, everything else is small potatoes. On the plus side, he is taking GREAT 2.5-3 hour naps during the day, so on the weekends I am getting some rockstar naps too!

-Jackson is almost completely off of baby food. I know he should have been off of baby food a long time ago, but I have been supplementing with it after he eats normal table foods. I am always worried that he is not eating enough, so I would offer baby food to fill him up. He is now rejecting it, which is great! Some days he eats like a bird and others he will gobble everything up on his plate. ( I read this is normal) As his cousin Kaylan would say, when he eats all of his food, he makes a "happy plate" :) I am content with what he is getting now since he is much more open to trying new things. He getting better every day at using his spoon and fork like a big boy.

-That reminds me, he holds his utensils in his left hand to eat with, but colors with both his left and right hand. Justin thinks he will be left handed, but I still have my doubts about that. He also still has beautiful blue eyes.

-Tomorrow is his first dentist appt. He is great at letting me brush his teeth, and we do it twice a day. He almost has all of his teeth! I hope it goes well!

What can I say, we love love love this boy! He is our pride and joy :)