z's 18 month old update

January 07, 2015

z's 18 month old update

here is my nose!

belly button

giving hank some kisses

ah, toddlerhood. it's maddening, challenging, hilarious, exhausting, heart-melting, and similar to taking care of a very drunk adult. at this stage in z's development there are so many things going on, so many new changes and developments. it's hard to keep up. let's see, z has been walking for quite awhile now, about 6 months, he talks talks talks all day long. one of the things he says that cracks us up--when we ask him what a dog does he says "fuff. fuff. fuff." i don't know why but it is so funny. and he has a little toy stuffed dog that he calls fuffy. it's the first thing that he has named. recently he has become more demanding. he'll yell 'mama!' or "down!' or 'water!'. we're teaching him how to say please and thank you but he only uses it about 10% of the time. but earlier today he did ask for more orange and he said 'mo. oinj. peese.' it was the first time he has used please on his own without prompting, at least with me, and it was great. he usually eats well, he eats whatever we eat for dinner, and i try to cook a good variety of different kinds of foods so that he can get used to and start to enjoy lots of different types of foods and foods prepared different ways. for breakfast we are kind of in a rut of toast with cream cheese and jam and some fruit and maybe some yogurt with or without granola. hubby and i were trying to figure out different kinds of foods that we could serve z for breakfast, and z will in no way eat eggs. and i have been trying to do a better job of incorporating veggies more often into his breakfast and lunch. so we came up with a few ideas, one of them is a potato hash type skillet dish with different kinds of veg (carrots, mushrooms, zucchini are the ones we use the most in the skillet) for breakfast and if i don't feed z dinner leftovers for lunch then i will make him a grilled sandwich with cheese or pb and shredded carrots and honey or shredded zucchini or sometimes finely chopped spinach in a grilled cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread. he's usually game for any of it. he still won't eat avocado or eggs. right now he loves oranges/satsumas/tangerines. and crushed ice. he loves to play outside, go to the park or a playground. he still likes to read, his faves are Go Dog Go, The Ear Book, The House In The Night, Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes, and one particular prayer book. he likes to color, but only for a couple minutes and then he wants to eat the crayons or throw them. mostly, he just runs around the house from room to room playing with a few things; his musical activity table thingy, his little red car that he can sit in and 'drive', his blocks, books, rocking airplane, his easel with crayons, and his activity corner. his favorite room to play in is the kitchen, he loves opening up his two drawers and pulling out his plates, cups and bowls and forks, knives and spoons. he is learning that when he wants a snack or some water, he should pull out a bowl or cup, close the drawer and hand the bowl or cup to mama. he is getting good at that. i hung some command hooks on the wall that hold his apron, broom and hand broom with dustpan. that has to be one of his favorite things, sweeping the floor with his broom. he loves it. about a week ago i got him a stool to use in the bathroom so that he can stand on it and turn the faucet on to brush his teeth or comb his hair. he thinks that this is the best thing in the world. he is becoming more independent as far as doing things for himself. he wipes the floor after he spills, he is learning to put his clothes in his little clothes basket at the end of the day, decides when he would like some water and drinks out of a cup by himself, things like that. we took him to his 18 month well child visit the other day and he is 48 percentile for weight and 90 for height. we are working on night weaning right now using dr. jay gordon's method, which actually has been working ok the past week or so. i'll write a separate post about that later. there are times that hubs and i watch z play or figure something out or say a new phrase, and we look at each other and can't believe how much our little guy is growing and how he his turning into a big little boy (and how cute he is, hahaha). he has discovered his pockets and so will walk around with his hands in his pockets, it's pretty funny.

got a little broom set for him, and an apron, and have them hanging on the wall so he can grab them whenever he wants to "fweep"

in his rain jacket

-growth: still growing like crazy, he is a tall kid, and slim but not skinny. he is very strong and dexterous, he has an uncanny ability to catch himself when he is about to fall or when something is about to fall on him (for example, he was pulling on the back of one of our kitchen chairs and it started to fall on top of him and i was worried it was going to smash his face, but as he fell backwards, he used his core to control his fall, and fall back very slowly while holding the chair back above him, and it didn't hit him at all. i was amazed. of course i was already heading over to grab the chair so that it didn't fall on him, but he controlled it very well). he is learning to jump and climb and he runs everywhere. he is in 18 month and some 24 or 2T (what is the difference in 24 month or 2T i ask you? because i don't know, besides semantics). his shoes are size 5 and i think we are going to have to transition to a 6 here soon. he has lots of clothes because some of my awesome friends with older boys have so graciously handed down their sons' clothes, we are so lucky!

in his new ride, convertible car seat, still rear facing for now

at the park

brushing his teeth like a big boy

brushing his teeth

-development: he talks so much, he says well over 40 words and lots of phrases like what happened? where did it go? what are you doing? where's so and so? i love you; ba (that's what he calls arman now) at work; ba hiding. he is starting to refer to himself in the third person now, when he hides he says "where zabih" and then he pops out and says "there zabih". he picks up new words and phrases all the time. it's great. i love to hear him string new words together, the other night he asked where ba was and i said he is going to go to sleep and then for the next five minutes he says 'ba nigh nigh' over and over again. he imitates us and other things and people. he imitates arman when he is shaving, he imitates the sound of a crow. one time we were in a store and someone sneezed and z imitated the sneeze all throughout the store for the following 20 minutes. he still likes to figure out how things work or how they are put together. now he likes taking objects out of one container and put them into a second container over and over again. he loves playing with things that aren’t toys like the kitchen utensils, various tools and household gadgets, and of course electrical items like our phones or the ipad or cords, things that he is not allowed to mess with. he recently started to pick up things that are unwieldy or heavy, he moves it somewhere else and while he is holding it he says “heavy! heavy!”. he has also learned the meaning of the word stuck, so he says it all the time. Sometimes he wakes up in the middle of the night with no warning screaming ‘stuuuuuuck!’ and it startles me and hubby awake. we’re thinking, who the heck is in our house! he is still in diapers and we are still using the cloth diapers, bum genius 4.0 and they are still working great. i just got him a potty training seat so my plan is to research a little bit on different potty training methods and then get started on that within the next few months. as i said above, we are night weaning, on day 7 and it seems to be going well, he hasn’t nursed in the middle of the night for 4 nights now, and after we’re done, i’ll write a post about it as well. anyway, he is learning how to manipulate; he practices putting on a pouty face. he has started pushing chairs or other such objects around so that he can use them as stepping stools to climb up on other things. he is becoming a little more bossy (move! water! mommmmaaaaa!) but affectionate (hug! i yuv you!) and challenging (i touch it! throw! no no no no!). oh and he knows lots of body parts and where they are located.

walking around near our house

swing!

-transportation: mostly running, walking

sweeping

as nacho libre for halloween

-sleep: as stated above, we are night weaning, so it’s a little touchy right now. he had gotten into a really good routine of sleeping, but then started waking up frequently during the night wanting milk. and because i was so sleepy in the middle of the night i would often just bring him into bed with us, but then none of us got any sleep and z thought he was at an all night milk buffet, nursing as frequently as he did when he was a newborn. it all got to be too much so we started the dr. jay gordon night weaning method. anyway we are on night 7 so we will see how it pans out. i really hope it works because i am getting tired of waking up in the middle of the night to put him back to sleep. oh, and for thanksgiving, we travelled to California, so his sleep was a little disrupted and then when we got home, he had a little cold, then his top molars were cutting, and currently his bottom molars are cutting and his canines are starting to come in, and now he has another cold, so i think those things have interrupted his sleep. he dropped a nap so he now takes one nap a day, usually between 1-2 hours. it has been a little harder to get him to sleep at night, it as if he has regressed to being 9 months old again. i read that is common around this age, though, so i’m just trying to ride it out.

first big boy haircut

-nourishment: like i said above, he eats basically whatever we eat. he eats pretty well most of the time. there are some days where he eats very well and others that he doesn’t. i kind of just trust that he will eat well when he needs to and if for some reason he isn’t, it’s because he either isn’t that hungry or doesn’t feel well and it’s ok. over the course of a couple days, his diet turns out to be balanced and it all works out. i’d like to sneak in some more veggies, but he does eat most veggies with no problems. he is learning to feed himself with his utensils and i’d like to get him a small table and chair so that he can sit and eat his breakfast and lunch. he still nurses a little, when we wake up in the morning, before is nap and before he goes to sleep at night. after we have successfully night weaned, i plan on weaning him from his naptime nursing session, which i’m sure won’t be too difficult, especially since when i go back to school, he will have to nap during the day without mama’s milk. i’m hoping to wean him fully in a few months, i feel like i’m getting to the point of being done.

-personality: he is funny, laughs easily, likes interacting with people, is a little shy when he first meets people and sometimes clings to mama, he is becoming more snuggly and loving (for example he will run over, yelling “hug!” and give my leg or hubby’s leg a big hug, and he very sweetly gives us hugs and kisses randomly when he feels like it), he says “i yuv you!”. he is becoming very vocal and bossy sometimes, and must work on his patience. he is incredibly active. he can listen really well to directions, although sometimes chooses not to. lately he has really been pushing boundaries and limits, even the limits of himself physically. sometimes he is crabby but i think that’s normally when he is uncomfortable for some reason.

i love this pic my sis in law took

-likes: bubbles, doing work like helping mama load laundry into the washing machine and ‘helping’ with the dishwasher, his step stool, brushing his teeth and hair himself, hugs from mama and baba, reading books, throwing things, climbing on things, playing outside, playing on indoor playgrounds, interacting with other children, babies, eating ‘nacks’, cousin lucy (whom he calls ‘soosy’), his buddy amelia, cats and dogs, sweeping

helping install the gate

-dislikes: getting hurt, sleeping by himself at night, getting ‘stuck’, being told no, riding in the car, being strapped in his carseat or stroller, having a stuffy nose