18 Months

Kissing his pal, Pooh

Opening his Valentines Card...Notice the chocolate around his mouth. :)

Jackson is 18 months old!! A whole year and a half....where is the time going? I feel like a broken record, but we are just enjoying this age so much! Jackson is learning new things every day and we are constantly surprised and entertained by all that he does. At 18 months:

-Jackson is a talking machine! He can repeat most words and we are working on teaching him his ABCs. His new favorite word is Hawaii. I am constantly amazed at how quickly his vocabulary is picking up by the day. He also loves making all kind of animal noises. His current favorite is a monkey (go figure!). He will be sitting there and then all of the sudden go "Ooh ooh Ah Ah Ah!" Then I will say to Justin "Daddy, is there a monkey in here? I think I hear a monkey!" That gets Jackson really excited and he will keep doing it over and over again. He also loves to "blow" his nose (like Daddy) and smell flowers.

-His new favorite show is Special Agent Oso on the Disney channel. He still loves to read and his new favorite book is "Little Red Riding Hood". It is a really colorful book, and I think he likes the pictures a lot. He also still really loves his truck books. One thing he loves to do is point out momma and daddy in any book or magazine. Basically if he sees a man, he points and says "Dada", and if he sees a woman it is "mama". This is really funny when he gets ahold of a magazine. The other day I was reading People magazine and he saw a picture of Charlie Sheen and said "Dada". haha!

-He still loves to hide and pop out to scare us. He gets ALL excited and will start running around like a wild man while laughing. He also loves to run free. In Hawaii he got to do that a lot on the beach and around the resort, and I guess he got spoiled. He will still hold our hand, but he doesn't like it. When we let him go he will run as fast as he can and I can tell he thinks he is hot stuff.

-He is not biting or hitting at all anymore, which is great. If he throws a fit, it is not too severe at all. An occasional screech or cry is usually the worst of it. It mainly happens when we take him out of the bath at night. He is not happy about that, but he calms down really quickly. I am thankful that we are not in the throws of tantrums right now, but I know we have a long way to go before we see the worst of it. I heard the 3's are the worst! Time out is still completely effective when he does act out. He will walk to his "time out" spot in the room and stand there until we tell him to come out. He usually just looks at us and whines during his time there.

-He is completely off baby food now! Shortly after my last post he flat out started refusing it. He still loves his yogurt, though. He calls it "yo". This has been really convenient, especially when we went on our trip. I have found that some days he eats like a bird and other days he cleans his plate at every meal, so I know that is completely normal. Still, I am really trying to push some green veggies since he is not getting them via baby food anymore. Also, his yogurt is green bean and pear. Sounds nasty, but he loves it! He was really open to trying new foods in Hawaii. Some of his new foods: bacon, blueberries, loved Hawaiian french toast, broccoli, breakfast potatoes, rotisserie chicken (yay).

-He is still nursing 3-4 times a day, but only when he sleeps or wakes up in the night. This was KEY in helping him to adjust during our vacation. I think that was such a huge part of why the sleep transition/travel was so easy. He associates nursing with sleep, so he basically went to sleep at night/naptime whenever we wanted him to. Although I thought I would be done nursing at 18 months, Justin and I were so thankful that I still was for this reason. Yes, I plan on weaning him soon but I am taking it day by day at this point. No, I never thought I would be nursing him this long. Yes, I am really gonna miss that time with Jackson when we are done. No, I'm not going to be that girl that you see on the news who nurses her child until he's six ;).

-It may be time to convert his bed to a toddler bed. He can crawl out of his crib now. It doesn't really matter, though, because he sleeps a good portion of the night in our bed. He slept in our bed every night during vacation and he doesn't want to give it up. We sleep fine with him there, but it will have to stop soon. We just haven't made the effort yet to deal with that battle, and believe me, it will be a battle. He loves to snuggle with Justin and he will stay glued to his side all night. I don't know how Justin can sleep so well, but he does. Still, we know it shouldn't go on too much longer.

-He loves to sing "head, shoulder, knees and toes", although it comes out "nanana". We are teaching him to say please and thank you. He still really loves music and will dance and clap when it comes on. Also, he loves to color and put stickers everywhere. I love to watch him play independently and with others at Mother's morning out when I go to pick him up. He is always going up and down the slide over and over. He loves to interact with other kids.

-Jackson is simply the sweetest boy! We love that he is so affectionate, happy, loving, and attached to mommy and daddy...yet he is so stubborn, independent, and adventurous all at the same time. Also, he has THE GREATEST sense of humor and always finds something funny to laugh at. He is just the best!