My sweet, smart, bossy and bold little boy is 18 months today.
Within the last few weeks his language skills have exploded. His pronunciation is still a little spotty in that adorable baby voice kind of way, but a lot of things he can say very clearly. He knows all of his colors and can very confidently tell you when things are green (geeeeeeen) or yellow (yehya). The others he knows as well but sometimes needs a little help with how to say them. He also knows all of his letters! This was a surprise to me as I didn't think kids were into letters so young. We started reading an alphabet book about a month ago and it just moved quickly from there.
He loves music and loves to dance. His favorite song? The Jeopardy theme song of course.
He still continues to be fascinated by anything technology related or involving buttons, but thankfully it's not quite to the obsessive level it once was.
His once ravenous apetite has slowed and he's quite picky now. In typical kid fashion he won't entertain the idea of vegetables so I've taken to hiding them in things. He's none the wiser when I stir some squash into his oatmeal.
He's incredibly social, both with adults and other kids. He'll go up to strangers and flash them a smile, and walk up to kids and wrap his arms around them. He especially loves older kids, probably because of daycare where he's one of the younger ones. It makes me happy to have a kid that's not shy (for now). He loves to be the center of attention and will look to you for approval and claps when he thinks he did something good. I could see him being an entertainer of some kind! On the flip side he can also be a bit agressive, not hesitating to push a kid (either bigger or smaller than him) out of the way to get at something he wants. We're working on being gentle but it seems to be a hard concept to teach.
I'm learning to let him explore the world on his own, but I often find it harder than I thought I would. Despite my efforts to let go a little bit I'm usually the helicopter mama buzzing around the playground making sure he doesn't fall from this or jump from that. I know that a few bumps and bruises are going to happen along the way, but I feel like it's better to be safe than sorry and if possible avoid closed head injuries and broken bones. There's a fine line, and I'm working on treading it.
I could go on and on and on, but suffice it to say I'm proud of how much he has grown and how much he can do and I'm excited to see what more he has to show me in the future.
