Half birthday

(Photos down... to be added later.)

Today it’s your half-birthday… you’re 18 months old! I largely abandoned doing these monthly updates when you hit the 1 year mark, but I think this milestone calls for one, because so much has been going on with you lately... things I think it will be fun for you to know about someday.

It’s amazing and hilarious to us how much you have turned into a little person lately. You are a huge copycat. You love to watch us do stuff and try it out for yourself. This means that you have picked up doing several chores lately and I love that you love to do them! We can give you something for the garbage and you will throw it out for us; you enjoy emptying the dishwasher and watering the flowers; and when I cook you’d rather be sitting on the counter helping to stir than just about anywhere else. You would rather follow us as we do things around the house than play with your toys. If I brush my hair, you want yours brushed too. If I take a bite of something and say “Yum!” you immediately do the same. Funny little dude!

You LOVE being outside. You perk up when we ask if you want to go out, and if we don’t ask, you will often start getting all of our shoes out of the closet in order to drop the hint. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing in the yard, puttering around on your scooter, or going for walks… you’re happy doing it all. For our walks we do a circuit around our block, and you usually make it halfway on your own two feet. I can’t blame you for tiring out, because the walk always includes a sojourn up and down most neighbours’ driveways, jumping off of every curb in sight, splashing in any puddle you can find, stopping in front of the Boires’ house to point and say “Bow wow wow” (yes, you know that Sam lives there!), and picking up every stick you can find (even if it’s 4 feet long) and dragging it along with us for the remainder of the walk.

At home, your favourite indoor activities still include reading. Every day you sit down and flip through about 20 books, pointing to and naming the things you know, babbling your way through the rest of the story. You also enjoy being read to; when you think it’s time, you bang on my knee with a book and start demanding, “Up up up!” until I pick you up and begin. You like doing animal puzzles and pushing toy cars around on the floor and riding your rocking horse. You run laps around the sliding closet doors. You love to brush your teeth (if only for the chance to play with the taps); and you like flushing the toilet, and have been known to empty in several rolls of toilet paper to watch them disappear…

What else can I tell you about yourself? You love squirrels. You are starting to say ‘kitty’ instead of ‘cat’, but I don’t think you will ever say ‘dog’ – they will always be ‘bow wow wows’ to you. You also still say Mom and Dad instead of Mommy and Daddy, which makes you sound like you are about 10. You love being tickled under your chin and encourage it by tipping your head back and leaving yourself open when you are in the mood. You are addicted to French fries (oh dear) and juice boxes. You eat everything well, but still prefer fruit and cheese to most other things. You still hate to get your hands dirty. You love the dogs next door from a distance, but get shy when you have the chance to see them up close. You can be very clingy when we first get home from work. You like to stand in front of your growth chart and back up to it so we can see how tall you are. The other day we brought home a pair of rubber boots for you, and I can’t believe how they have instantly become your very most prized possession.

At 18 months old, you weigh xx and are xx inches tall... to be determined at Monday's doctor's appointment... and that's as far as I've gotten for today.