18 Months Old
Height: 33inchWeight: 22lbs 12 ozI find it very hard to believe that in just 6 months, my little boy is going to be a full-fledged toddler.
Nowadays, Carson eats whatever we are eating, however, I find him being a little bit more picky with foods that he was never picky with before. My mom mentioned the same thing. Although, no matter how picky or cranky he is, I have no failure with these snacks: grape tomatoes, pretzels, grapes,
raisins, goldfish, teddy grahams, cheerios or graham crackers. As for meals, pretty much a no fail with a PB&J, Peanut butter and banana sandwich and chicken and rice. He now has 14 teeth, so he does very well chewing pieces. He feeds himself with silverware, extremely well. With 14 teeth, we brush his teeth, twice a day. Brush brush brush!
We are also considering packing up the highchair. We put his booster at the table with us and he is very content sitting with us, wherein the highchair, once he is done, he wants OUT. I have no problem packing up the highchair, more room in the house. Right now, we just leave it at its lowest level and leave his snacks and water on the tray.
Just like his momma, he has a sweet tooth. We've made a few trips up to the ice cream store by our house and he recently had his first ice cream cone, strawberry ice cream with sprinkles. That was a huge hit and not
AS messy as I expected.
Carson is into EVERYTHING. He keeps us on our toes. He has perfected his fast "walk" and is turning into a run. It's always enjoyable to watch him when he is on the move.
Getting into trouble
Carson likes to
try and dress himself. He knows the concept, shirt over the head, feet in the leg holes, shoes and socks on the feet. He has put a shoe on by himself a couple of times. I love when he puts our shoes on and tries to walk around. I am so grateful for my camera on my Iphone, I am able to capture all of Carson's best moments.
Trying on Daddy's shoes for size
We are still working on the potty and Carson still does very well. Where we are now: If we see him trying to go poo poo (he makes a very distinct face), we tell him, hurry lets get to the potty. He
books it to the potty, and attempts to pull his pants down. Sometimes we make it, sometimes we don't. Then there are other times where he already went poo poo and goes into the bathroom and looks at us like, hello. At our 18month c/u, our pediatrician recommended that we really work with him now getting on the potty. Not to push it too much, but really practice with him, because Carson does understand the concept.
As far as napping goes, Carson weened himself down to 1 nap a day. This happened in between 15 and 18months. He goes down around 1/130 and sleeps for about 1.5 to 2 hours. As for the crib, I have 100% thrown up the white flag; Carson wins. HE HATES THE CRIB! We now have a family bed. Maybe we have had a family bed for some time now, I am just now admitting to it. ha!
Never in my life did I think that would be a situation I would be dealing with, but I've tried it all with this kid. He cried it out, I rocked him to sleep, it was on occasion that he would sleep straight through the night. Eversince we "gaveup" and put him in our bed, its a different world. We tell him its bedtime, walk him in the room, put him in bed and lay with him. He gets comfortable and just like that, he is out until 730/800 in the morning; sometimes even later. AND he doesn't wake up in the middle of the night and we ALL get a good night's sleep and wake up refreshed.
We are in the process of converting Carson's crib to a big boy bed. We are thinking if we make it a bed and it is not a crib, we can slowly wean him out of our bed and into his room. It's really trial and error. Eventually, everything will fall into place. I have faith that with enough mistakes, we will figure it all out. haha.
As you will recall in a previous blog post, he repeats what we say. However, I think I posted that too soon, because he repeats what we say, when he feels like it. All of a sudden out of nowhere, he will repeat a word. But, for the most part, he babbles and babbles and tells us stories and points to everything. We so badly just want him to spit it out, but that day will come, soon enough. We have our flash cards, we do the colors, he knows the animals when we ask him to point to the duck or dog, etc.
Our evenings and weekends are spent making memories with Carson. The fact that we are both full time working parents, we cherish every moment with him. We recently took him for his first ride in the bass boat in the lake behind our house. Geoff went fishing and we sat there and he pointed out the birds and the lily pads. Not even a whine about the life jacket. Even if he did whine, its jacket or no boat.
On the boat in our backyard
When Geoff is working or busy on the weekend, I sometimes take Carson to the beach. At first he wasn't crazy about it, but now he loves it. He enjoys digging in the sand, playing in the surf. He is all ready for the summer in South Florida.
Carefully carrying his "building" water to the castle
We have toyed with the idea of Carson starting pre-school in the Fall. We have gone back and forth, researched different pre-schools, did the numbers for price and compared. My last decision was to ask the pediatrician what his thought was on Carson attending at 2 years old. His response, "not unless you want to see me more often". That being said, we are going to hold off until next summer or Fall, being closer to 3 years old.
We have so many big events coming up this summer. Our biggest, we are super excited for is Carson's 1st Memorial Day trip to the Florida Keys. Last time he was there was in Mommy's belly....Stay tuned.. :)
