18 Months

Our sweet little man turned one and a half already! I cannot believe how much time has passed since we celebrated his first birthday - he's going to be two before we know it! Jackson continues to be such a delight. He is full of personality and 100% all boy. As I've said before, he goes from the minute he wakes up until he goes to bed at night (he rarely ever seems to get tired!!). Although it is draining at times, and being pregnant does not help, I would not have him any other way!

Jackson has more interest in actually playing with toys at this time. He can sit and stack his mega blocks or work on a puzzle for a few minutes at a time. He of course still loves bowls and spoons and many non-toy objects, but we love the fact that he is developing an attention span for playing and that he is more engaging in his play. He stills LOVES books and reading. His most recent obsession (and I don't see this changing anytime soon) is cars/trucks. He talks about them ALL day long and loves to point them out as we are driving or when in a parking lot. He has a couple of books with trucks in them and he gravitates toward these books the most.

He is still talking quite a bit and is a little parrot these days. He tries to repeat many words and names and is doing a better job communicating with us. Most words he says really well, but he still has a couple that do not make any sense to us. For example, he says "dookoo" for goldfish. All other developmental milestones seem to be going really well.

We did have a big schedule change recently. The little guy dropped his morning nap about a month ago or so. We now nap mid day around 12:30. Some days he will nap for 2.5-3 hours and it is great! But most days it only lasts about 1.5 hours. His wake up time has been fluctuating a lot too and I think this has to do with the nap change and also the sun rising earlier. We sure do love the days when he sleeps till 8:00 though!!

Here is a little summary of Jacks at 18 months:

• He is talking a ton - knows several animals names and sounds, talks about cars, can say most family members names, repeats everything, knows the name of many food items. He does speak some in 2-3 word phrases. 
• Eating is going pretty well. He is a toddler so you never know what you will get from one day to the next. He almost always likes fruit and dairy but is hit or miss with certain veggies and meats. We continue to try and offer these healthy foods and try not to fill him up on junk. He can feed himself some foods with a spoon but mostly prefers to hold the spoon and eat with the other hand. We are still working on this. 
• He has grown a ton in the last 6 months! He grew over 3 inches and over 4 pounds. He is now 35 inches tall and over 25 pounds. As expected, he continues to be off the charts in height!
• He still sleeps well at night and takes one good nap a day. 
• The boy is never still - he loves walking, running, climbing, jumping, bouncing - you name it! 
• Socially he is still more interested in older kids or bigger toddlers. He is interacting more with some kids his age or size. He calls everyone a baby though! 
• His current interests are cars, trucks, planes, trains, boats - anything that goes! He also likes books, animals, balls, and blocks. He loves to be outdoors and just runs as far and fast as he can if he gets the chance. (Mommy prefers parks that are fenced for this reason). 
• Jackson remembers everything - it is amazing how early those little brains can retain so much information. He sees something once and then tries to do it. He is also starting to correlate like objects.
• I know we are far from potty training, but he does almost always tells us when he has pooped. He says "I poo-poo," and then usually runs from me when I go to change his diaper. Crazy boy! Baby steps I guess. :) 
• Jacks is still a mommy's boy but he has gotten a lot more into daddy these past few months. He asks about him a lot during the day and thinks about him pretty much every time he sees a truck. I'm sure by two, this will change even more. 

That pretty much sums up any changes over the last few months. I did have my first trip away from the little guy a couple of weeks ago. I was nervous and said before my trip, but I can say that we both did great! Mike and I definitely had a harder time than him - he seemed to not even skip a beat. He had a great week with Grandma while we were gone and they kept in touch with pictures, videos, and facetime. Now we just plan to soak up our last few months alone with Jacks before his sister arrives. His life (and ours) will be changing a ton after that! 

A few recent pictures:

Just reading one of his favorite books.

Jackson got to play in his first snow in January. We've had two pretty good snows and the kid loves it. The cold didn't phase him and he did not mind that it was difficult to walk in. Mommy made him his first snow man. :)

The day after Mike and I got back from our trip to Jamaica was Jackson's 18 month birthday. We celebrated by a fun day together and spent some time outdoors at the park. 

Sorry the pic is sideways, I made him a little cake to celebrate. 

He loved his treat! 

Just a little fun time in the ball pit! 

Swinging at Uncle Corey's and Aunt Claire's! 

We love this little guy so much! He brings so much happiness and Joy to our lives and we are forever grateful that God chose us to be his parents. We just feel so blessed every day that we get to spend with him. We are looking forward to all of the upcoming changes for our little family!