@ 18 months...

-I've pretty much mastered this walking thing! I still can't stand up on my own without crawling over to something and pulling up on it. When Mommy helps me practice, I think we are going to do a forward roll so I tuck my head instead!

-When I first started walking, I kept both of my fists up in the air to help me keep my balance. I don't have to do that any more except when I am going really fast and need to have more balance. And I have gotten pretty fast! It helps to yell, "Go, go go!"  

-I'm trying to walk in shoes more often. I have some light foam flips flops which aren't too bad, but I still prefer to be barefoot, even outside and in public. My feet were measured again for new shoes and I'm a 3.5, so I wear a size 4 now. I'm pretty good at walking in my "feet-in" pajamas too

-Sometimes I startle Mommy when I walk in to the room instead of cruise along the wall. She says she's not used to seeing me there!

-It took me a few weeks to master turns while walking, but now I can walk all around in circles and take turns like a champ. Sometimes I wander back and forth or in circles for no other reason than I can!

-I can bend down and pick up a toy and then stand back up!

-Mommy used to have to carry me to the front of the music class to take my turns, or to the middle of the circle at gym to get materials, but now I can walk and do it myself and then turn around and come back to Mommy!

-I'm still a little upset with Mommy for locking the kitchen cabinets, so I steal the towel hanging from the stove every chance I get!

-Sometimes I still choke or gag while I'm eating. Most of the time, I choke on water and I think it's because I drink too fast. I'm also a bit of a stuffer when I eat and tend not to really chew foods if they are soft enough, so when I'm given a firmer piece of food, I gag a bit. Getting better though

-I can get into a sitting position with no problem. I guess before I didn't really have all of the strength or coordination that I needed. And since it seems to have coincided with the walking, I must be strong enough now

-Every morning while Mommy and Daddy are getting ready in the bathroom, it's my job to get out everybody's toothbrushes and toothpaste (and everything else in the cabinet!). I would bite Mommy's finger when she tried to brush my teeth with the finger cover toothbrush, so she got me a big boy toothbrush! I still don't like to have my teeth brushed, but I can (sorta) brush them myself. Mommy puts the toothpaste on the toothbrush and then I put it in my mouth and move the handle all around. Too bad the brush part of the toothbrush stays in the same spot! Mommy is still helping me work on that 

-When I'm getting out of the carseat, I know when in the unbuckle-ing routine I should put my arms up in the air!

-I'm kinda over putting things in my mouth all of the time. That's for babies! And after all, I am a toddler now. That being said, I still find myself sticking new things in my mouth. But just briefly. I guess that's out of habit

-I will eat almost anything as long as it is coming from somebody else's bowl! Mommy tricks me sometimes by pretending to dip my food into her bowl

-Bubbles! I can say bubble, I know the bubble container, I try to eat bubbles in the bathtub, and I can even recognize pictures of bubbles in several different books! I've even started searching on my book shelf for this one Clifford book that I have where he counts bubbles and bring it to Mommy and say "bubble book!" I do the same thing with an 'I Spy' book that has bubbles on one page

-When Wrigs starts barking really loud, I figure Daddy must be home, so I start repeating "Dada" and walk toward the front door. Sometimes it's not Daddy though, but I'm really excited when it is!

-I have a lot of new words! Once I figured out how to walk, I went back into a language learning phase. Now I can repeat: "duck," "block," "boat," "boom!" and "bye bye dada." I can say all on my own: "book," "night night," "up," and "go go go go!" I've also said my first few 'sentences': Mama book," "Bubble book," and "Mama (b)up" Of course these are all in addition to my other words, which puts my total around one dozen!

-I love to hold up a ball or a book and proudly announce to the entire room what I am holding! Also, I bring a book over to someone and tell them "book" to ask them to read it to me

-I say, "nana" when I find a picture of a banana in a book

-I've heard Mommy say, "Why did we teach him that?" when she has her hands full and I'm standing at her leg saying, "Bup! Bup! Bup!" and she has to pick me up!

-I know that "bup" is also to get out of the highchair, or carseat, or grocery cart, or crib....

-I also use "bup" to get down from someone's lap, but can repeat "down" if someone corrects me

-When I'm finished eating, I say, "Bup!" and take my bib off. If Mommy is taking too long, sometimes I start pushing my food off of the tray and onto the floor

-Mommy is very happy that she is no longer a 'function.' You see, for the most part, "mamama" only came out of my mouth when I was hungry or tired or had a wet diaper. But now, I look at her and say, "Mama" for no other reason than to acknowledge that she is there and smiling back at me! One time, I was standing with her in the kitchen while she was making me breakfast and went over and pulled at her pants leg. I said, "Dada!" and she said, "I'm not Dada!" So I immediately said, "Mama!" and she laughed!

-I still babble most of the time though, and will have days where I repeat random sounds over and over all day. Like the day I made space gun sounds (high pitched "pyou! pyou!), or the day I said "boom-ga!" all day

-Mommy keeps telling me how good watermelon and cantaloupe are, especially this time of year, but I just don't like them and spit them both out

-I love going to the beach and taking naps

-When I'm sleepy, I put my head down on the shoulder of whoever is holding me. I've also started to do as a way to give a little hug and let them know I love them. I also pat on their chest while I have my head down

-Mommy and Daddy did too good of a job not letting me watch TV, so now I have no interest in it. Mommy wishes that just sometimes I would sit and watch something so she could make dinner or flip the laundry. The only 'video' that I am interested in watching is an Australian video of "If You're Happy and You Know It." It always makes me smile!

-I play peek-a-boo in my high chair by turning my head and pressing the side of my face against the back of my seat. I can still see them when I look out the very edge of my eyes, but Mommy and Daddy can't see me that way because I hear them saying, "Where's Shay? Where'd did he go?" and then they are surprised when I turn my head back to facing forward and appear out of nowhere!

-It may not be as big an accomplishment as walking, but I can now put all four of the rings back on my ring stack toy

-I'm learning to sit and play with my toys by myself more often. Lots of times I catch Mommy watching me from the kitchen and I just can't help but to get excited and crawl over to her. Or I have to bring her and Daddy books to read to me. The pictures are OK to look at, and sometimes I can 'read' to myself, but I still like it better when someone reads to me

-Mommy says I going to 'school' soon so she can go back to work. I'm still on the fence about the whole idea

-I can rub my hands together like Mommy does when she wants to get the crumbs off of her hands

-One day, Mommy woke me up from a nap because we were going to be late for gym class, but tried to keep me asleep so I could keep sleeping in the car. We made it all the way outside before I woke up and Mommy realized that I had a pacifier in my mouth, and one in each hand! Which means that I was sleeping like that during my nap!

-Mommy is becoming an expert in hiding veggies in other foods

-I love soft things that I can fall onto, like the sofa, bed, mats at gym, doggie beds, or big piles of blankets

-When Mommy says, "Where's your bellybutton?" I can lift up my shirt and point to it! And then I want to life up her shirt (or Daddy's, or Grandmommy's, etc.) and show you where hers is too! 

-I also know where my hair is, and I'm working on finding my nose, but usually grab yours instead!

-I've started to practice coloring with big fat crayons. Mostly, I just want to hold them all, and then drop them all, and then do it all over again. My first piece of crayon art work was appropriately entitled "Confetti"

-I get to hold the spatula and wisk when Mommy is baking or cooking

-Every time we go outside and it's sunny, I sneeze. Every. Time.

-Mommy signed the paperwork to officially dismiss me from Early Intervention!

-I sit on my knees and bounce, especially when I'm excited

-I love to eat fish! Salmon and tilapia are my favorites. I even pick out the pieces of fish from my mac and cheese and eat them first

-If I am reading a book and happen to have my pacifier, I take it out to identify pictures, and then I stick it right back in!

-When I wake up, I often point to the bulletin board that hangs above my crib and ask Mommy to tell me what all the things mean (NICU diaper, March of Dimes sticker, sea shell from my Godmother, cross that was my Godfather's, etc.)

-I know what 'gentle' means and open my hand and rub it back and forth slowly on Wrigley's back. Usually, I can't control myself long though and have to grab his fur. He is so nice to me and I'm not sure why!

-I love being chased and being caught doing something naughty!!! My entire body tenses up and I smile and laugh like, "Huh huh huh!" Sometimes I crawl or walk away really fast, but sometimes I go directly to the person who caught me for a big hug!

-BOTH of my top center teeth are coming in now! They are about half way in, but you still can't see them when I smile, so I still look like Dracula in pictures

-I'm working on going backwards down the stairs or to get off of things like the sofa or the mats at gym. I still prefer to try to go head first

-I can hold my sippy cup with one hand and walk around with it. Not so good at putting it down though, so I just throw it when I'm done. Unless I'm sitting in my highchair, then I can get it back in the cup holder myself

-Sometimes before I put a piece of food in my mouth, I open up really wide and say "Aaaah!" because that's what Mommy says

-I took my first stand up shower because I had the stomach flu. Ok, make that first few stand up showers. Yuck

-The rings are my favorite thing to do at the gym. I can hold on to them the entire time that Mommy flips me upside down to do a backflip while holding my legs! I also learned to do an assisted forward roll on the balance beam. And of course, I can walk across the entire big red mat now!

-Daddy taught to to put both of my arms straight in the air when he says, "Touchdown!"

-I like to bring Wrigley his toys (and bottles that I have stolen from the recycling bin) and think it's so funny when he takes them right from my hand

-One morning, my eggs were a little too warm and I made this awful face and my body shuddered and I waved my hands back and forth really fast when I put it in my mouth. So Mommy blew on the next piece of egg to cool it down. Now, every time I eat eggs, I either blow on the pieces myself or hold it out to ask it to be cooled off for me

-Mommy had to reattach and reinforce the bumper pads on the edge of the fireplace because I kept taking them off

-I can almost climb on to the sofa by myself. A few times, I've used a pillow to stand on to help me reach better. I like to sit on the sofa just like everybody else, on my bottom, facing forward. I'm also a fan of standing on the sofa, but that's a no-no! And it's always fun to throw all of the pillows onto the floor

-I still love music. One day, I dozed off in the activity chair at Grandmommy's house while listening to my CDs. And I often hum or 'sing' the first few notes of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star/The ABC Song/Ba Ba Black Sheep. Have you noticed they all sound the same?? I use "ba" and "ah" as my singin' notes! "Ba ba ah ah hah hah hah..."

-When Daddy leaves in the morning, I have to walk him to the door and then I stand at the glass door and watch him walk away until I can't see him any more. The whole time, I say "Bye bye Dada!" over and over while I wave at him

-I've been to the pool a few more times and I'm starting to kick when someone pulls me around in the water by my arms. I either pretend like I'm walking or kick both of my legs at the same time like a dolphin. I do not like to be on my back in the water at all!

-Since the Olympics were on this month, Mommy and Daddy 'awarded' me with medals when I did something new or well. I got a lot of gold medals in climbing and walking and a few silvers in being gentle with Wrigley

-I continue to immediately spit out any food that I do not like. I've also learned how to blow raspberries when I don't like something with a pureed consistency. Mommy was not happy with me when I blew pureed cauliflower all over her face one day!

-At home, I'm usually in a shirt and my diaper, as you'll notice in almost all of my pictures!

If I'm not proficient with a spoon, I'll just have to figure out other ways to get the yogurt out!

Is it still raining out there?

This sauce is for fingerpainting, right?

Spinach unibrow!!!

Nap under the umbrella

Four pacis is still not enough!

Music is relaxing

"Where's your bellybutton?"

Ahh!

Betcha didn't know I was back here!

Watching my Australian singing YouTube video

Coloring/dropping crayons repeatedly

Blogging

Kicking the soccer ball around with Daddy

I've seen them do this before. Why isn't it working?

Caught in the rain!