The Lion at 18 Months

My baby turned 1.5...well, over a week ago.  But I'm finally expressing my horror!  One and a half seems so VERY old.  There is no remnant of baby left.  He even thinks it is hilarious when I wrap him up in a towel and tell him I'm going to "hold him like a baby".  Sigh.  Love my little man, but it's going too quick!

Favorite activities:
COOKING.  Most of the time now, I have an assistant in the kitchen.  And I'm going to have to do another post on this because I have the most adorable video of him beating eggs for last night's phad thai.  Yes, he cracks the eggs, I empty them into a bowl, then he whisks them.  Serious business folks.  At least now it's actually easier to cook because having a helper (even one who is trying to light every burner) is easier than having a sack of potatoes you have to carry and incapacitate one arm.
TRUCKS, CARS, VEHICLES.  He is all boy.  He was in HEAVEN at my parents' because he got to play with all the old matchbox cars.  3+?  Pssh.  He now is upset that his "baby" dump truck does not have a dump part that moves.  He has a large, Green Toys, dump truck that does (and is awesome), but not his little one.  He whines about this often, and hands it to me to "fix".  Which leads to...
BREAKING THINGS.  He likes to remove parts from his toys for me to fix.  The door off his little people's bus, the back end of his little tractor, etc.  So far, he's only "broken" things I CAN fix.  Dreading the day I have to explain that something can't be.
OUTSIDE.  Pretty self explanatory.  He loves running, parks, slides, being outside.  He was initially nervous about snow, but then thought it was pretty awesome.

Eating:

Eating is quite poor right now.  To the point we're almost wondering if his 2 year molars are coming in.  He's not very interested in it, though he'll still "suffer" and eat junk food or any "bread" variety.  So, this week I've made both pumpkin and banana bread, and I'm pretending there's enough nutritional content there.  He recently had his first Hershey kiss, and thought that was fantastic, and now tries to raid the pantry for all my baking chocolate goodies.  The dog continues to be fed too much, but we've moved to eating from the table, not his high chair tray, so it's a little reduced.  

Sleeping:

Eh, generally it's alright, though last night was rough.  He's a little sick, though.  But, it was a milestone!  Chris was able to go in and put him back to sleep!  18 months, and this is a first.  Chris has also put him to bed 2x this week...you may have guessed...yep, we're on day 5 of weaning.  (More on that later.)  He's a fan of sleeping with me again right now, but we're trying not to give in too much.  This got re-started when we were in Columbus for Thanksgiving, and the pack-in-play was just NOT cutting it.  

Language:

I have never been good about keeping a list of new words.  Recent ones I can think of: dinosaur, waffle, Gianna, Isaiah (daycare friends), grandma, outside, inside, "Robby, NO!", "Mommy, NO!", "Daddy, NO!", up, cup, "bad dog", "Bubba outside", snow, bubbles, bath, penis, diaper, football, touchdown, JoePa, soccer ball, yeah, cocoa (which he's never had), crack (as in egg)...I'm sure there are a ton more, but you get the point.  

Behavior:

I think this is the age when you really start seeing the effects of how you handle situations.  Are we having more temper tantrums?  Sure.  But he 100% understands "time out", knows when he's doing something wrong (and is usually shouting, "NO, Robby" as he does it), and is sneaky when he doesn't want to be found out (like hiding behind a couch with a bag of chocolate chips).  Also, on the positive end of the spectrum, he has started developing some very GOOD behavior traits, as well.  I have to give daycare a lot of credit for this.  For example, at gym class this week, a girl cut in front of him in line and pushed him out of the way.  Her father saw and pulled her aside to talk to her.  As he was explaining that you don't cut or push, he said, "You need to say you're sorry."  Robby, on hearing him say the word "sorry" walked over to the girl and gave her a hug.  Which is absolutely the routine at school.  Yay!  

Size:
Oh, I was so happy with the stats!  He's running 50% in weight at around 26 lbs, 75% in height at 33.25", and...he now has my giant noggin.  90% with 19.5".  What is a little sad, is we have now moved into the realm of only going to appointments every 6 months, so the stats are going to dry up.  He wears size 5 diapers and 18m or 2T clothes.

Watching "mo mo"

Robby,

At the playground yesterday I almost teared up, because I got thinking how thankful I was for how absolutely perfect you are.  Don't get a big (well, bigger) head now.  You can always work on behavior, but goodness I'm a lucky mom.  I only hope that we can continue to make the right decisions, and, well, luck out as much in the future.  You are so sweet, energetic, intelligent, athletic...I could go on and on.  Thank you for being such a great kid.  Now cool it on the tantrums. ;)  Love ya, buddy!