Has it really been a year and a half since our little pumpkin blessed our world? Time has flown by so quickly and we still feel so blessed to have a child in our lives to keep us laughing, playing, and enjoying our lives from a child’s point of view.
At 18 months old, Carter is still wearing size 18 month clothing and he’s in a toddler size 6 shoe. He has 13 teeth as of right now (one of them freshly chipped, thanks to me) and gets hair cuts by yours truly on a regular basis (probably every three weeks). I won’t have his official weight and height until after his appointment on Friday, but here are some of Carter’s habits and traits at this stage in his life –
* When playing with his toys that play songs and make noise, he’ll push the appropriate button over and over again (as if he’s flipping through stations) until the song he likes best starts playing. He’ll then turn around and look to us to sing the song. When the song is over, he does the whole routine over again.
* He can successfully complete a shapes puzzle, but is still working to understand the farm animal one.
* Carter will “count” for various reasons. A couple of examples, when he’s reading his counting book with us or when he’s preparing to go down a slide. His counting sounds something like “aahh uuhh EEEEE”. I was informed yesterday that he’s started to do this when playing hide and seek with his friend Griffin at daycare.
* When we get out his alphabet stacking blocks, I usually sing the ABCs to him while we stack them, but last night when I just got the blocks out and then starting talking to Matt, Carter started singing the song himself. Of course he doesn’t know the actual letters, but he was singing the tune with an ‘ah’ or an ‘ee’ or an ‘uh’ for each letter. He also will attempt to “spell” his name in the same way.
* Our little man loves to color and draw. He spends time on his doodle pad almost every night and jumps at the chance to get his hands on crayons or color wonder markers.
* Mr. Carter enjoys “reading” through his books. He’ll sit in front of his little bookcase with his book of choice and sign the animals he recognizes. Once he’s done with a book, he’ll reach up and grab another to read through.
* He hates having his teeth brushed and isn’t very good at picking up his toys.
* When we have been in the apartment for a little too long, Carter will retrieve our flip flops for us and place them on our feet.
* He still sleeps with Mr. Froggie (hasn’t slept a night without him since he was probably 3 weeks old) and will tell us “bye bye” as we leave his room at bedtime.
* Carter can name everyone in his household – Dada, Mama, and Aaaeeee!! When I pick him up from daycare, he’ll start saying something to me, stop in mid-sentence and say “Ma?” just to make sure he has my full attention. He uses this attention getting technique any time he wants to make sure I’m listening. He’ll repeat himself, “Ma?” – silence – “Ma?” – silence- “Ma?” until I respond to him and he knows I’m listening.
* While our little man has his head shaking down to a science and is quick to remind us he knows exactly what the word ‘no’ means, the poor guy still can’t nod his head.
* Just in the last few weeks, Carter has taken more interest in dancing. While watching Dora or Yo Gabba Gabba, he’ll stand up and start dancing when a familiar song is used. He mainly just swings his arms around, but it’s cute to me, so I usually dance with him.
It’s hard for me to believe that in only six more months he’ll be two years old. I can only imagine what he’ll learn between now and then. He’s learning so quickly these days!!