Lil'S is 18 months!!!

(Actually, he's technically 19 months in a few days, but that's the life of a blogging, pregn mama with inconsistent internet service!)

Smiling for the camera is not a concept he's learned yet.

(Of course the camera lens was dirty when I attempted to take pictures. . . . You'd think I'd have done that enough times that I'd check it before the photoshoot!)

 Mom, why are you playing peek-a-boo with the camera in your hand?

To get you to smile for a picture, my child.

No, you're not going.

All About Lil'S

Little Mr. S has been on an independent streak the past month or two. Here are all the things S and I can think of that he likes to do on his own.  Not letting him do these things--or not knowing in advance that he wants to do these things--usually results in a shriek of frustration and a very cute angry face.

- unload utensils from the dishwasher--actually into the drawer!

- get his plate from the dishwasher and put it on the table

- turn on the bathtub faucet

- put on his shoes and socks (Or at least randomly shriek at me and try to grab the sock/shoe from my hand and bang it against his foot.  Gratefully this outburst is usually short-lived as this is obviously an area where he's needing much more development before he'll be able to actually put the shoe/sock on himself.)

- drink from a cup that doesn't have a sippy lid

- get his own bread out of the bread bag

- put his milk cup back in the fridge

- open and close the microwave door (S says he stood there letting him do that over and over for like five minutes.)
- steal fruit from the fruit plate and giggle as Mom chases him down

- climb up into one of the kid chairs to color at the kid table

- climb into his kid-sized car!  (PHEW!  new this past week or so)

- use the baby potty (No! Really! He's potty training himself! Not that I seriously think he'll go diaperless before this next baby comes, but if I were a dedicated, consistent mama, there would be high chances of that!) 

- use the baby potty standing up  

Yes, this morning my 18-month-old placed his potty where he wanted it, stood back, and let it go.  ACK!!!!!  After grabbing the potty and trying to catch what was coming, my initial thought was, "I really thought he had better control than that!"  But then realization dawned on me.  This afternoon I asked S, "Has [Lil'S] seen you use the bathroom standing up?"  S gave me this am-I-in-trouble-for-something? look and slowly replied, "Yes."  After I told him what happened, S defended himself, "You told me you wanted me to teach our boys how to do it" I just laughed, "Yes! But when they're like three!!!  Not 18 months!!!"

I still can't believe that happened, but then again, with how imitative Lil'S has been lately, I really can!

Other things Lil'S likes to do

- anything that has to do with water (Drinking it, playing in it, washing his hands, splashing in puddles, etc. Ah, that's probably where the potty training has come in. Not only do we wash out the baby potty, but he also gets to wash his hands afterward.  Bonus!)

- play outside! (I know I said it already, but he's finally mastered climbing into the car by himself! I haven't seen if he can go forward yet, but at least he can scoot himself backward.)

- color! (He is a drawing fanatic. He loves to sit at the kitchen table across from H and draw while H does her homework. He will seriously sit there for a whole hour! Too bad he likes to eat crayons and bite the tips off markers and colored pencils. . . .)

- play with toy cars and trucks

- push things around (doll strollers, real strollers, plastic drawer sets, library book carts....)

- read (He probably reads books with us or by himself for about 20-60 minutes day!)

- go with Daddy in the mornings to see H off on the bus

bye, Daddy

- watch Daddy leave for work on his scooter in the mornings

- sit on Mommy's lap and watch the cars go by while waiting to get H from the bus. (Well, actually, the past couple weeks he's been wanting to go onto the highway to see the cars up close; I might have to start strapping him in the stroller again to get sister from her bus. . . .)

- shriek at Mitzie to see her jet away (His shrieking phase would have been short-lived had she known not to react to him!)

- be Mr. Social (I had some friends come over Monday afternoon, and he immediately led them into the house and showed their 3-yr-old boy his toy truck. Another time, he sat at lunch with a 3-yr-old girl, chatting away like a perfect gentleman taking a woman out to dinner for the first time. As nap time approached, he started getting a little looser, and by the time the meal was over, he was as loopy-doopy as any man who drinks a little too much on a first date with a pretty woman.  Hilarious!)

- walk around the house with the hula hoop (Been a fav since the moment he learned to walk.)

- let us know when we forget to remove the oven knobs that are within his reach (Hey, Mom, I can reach this!)

- smile at Mom/Dad sweetly while she/he tucks him into his crib on good nights (I. LOVE. THIS. I can't even express how much I love this!)

Things he wants to do that we won't let him do.

- play outside at 7 in the morning (Mom's COLD!)

- walk around the house eating (But Mom and Dad do it!)

- open and close the oven door (new and gratefully short-lived)

- sit in a chair without his booster (He's been one happy man ever since Saturday when I washed his booster and didn't get it strapped back onto his chair.)

- get what he wants to eat out of the fridge

- stand on the kid table (new the past few days)

- climb onto the kitchen table (Also new. . . . Can you tell he's not much of a climber? Some kids'll be on top of the fridge by 18 months.)

First Words

Lil'S has mostly been doing monosyllables, but every now and then the past couple weeks he'll do the typical "na-na, ba-ba-ba" thing.  So, he's a bit behind.  We'll wait until he's two to get him evaluated.  (Ha, when I'm busy with a newborn? Maybe we should just make an appointment now for when he's two just so it's on the calendar!)

- Ma (Mommy)

- Da (Daddy, truck, down)
- mao (As in "meow", not the Chinese dictator. That's the way I taught him to say "meow" when I noticed he was only using one syllable at a time. He used to go over to Mitzie and sweetly chat with her while petting her. "Mao . . . mao . . . mao. . . ." Too cute.  They had a great relationship until he decided to experiment with shrieking.)

- ba (ball, although he only said that for a week or so, if that)
- na-na (Hannah, banana; usually only once every month or so, although I think a couple times the past few days. . . .)

newest word:

yeah! (very hoarse and very exuberant)

newest mode of communication:

A growly yell whenever he doesn't get what he wants. (Thanks to the Baby Sign video Daddy brought home for Lil'S during his breathing treatments, we had at least two days were he decided signing was a better way to get want he wanted. If only that had lasted. . . .)

newest sound:

Some funny "la-ol-lu" thing he's done with his tongue every now and then the past couple days.

First Signs

me!

ones he made up: 

(I love these.)

- tickle

- me! / for me! (I've only seen him do this three times, but I still lucked out and got a picture of him doing it when I didn't expect him to!) 

more!
(Sometimes I wonder about his eyes, too.
Well, we'll find out at H's appt in Jan/Feb.
Her dr. offered to check him out then too
 since it's genetic.  She's awesome.)

ones we taught him: 

(not as much fun, but necessary)

- milk

- eat

- please

- help

- bath (much more exciting here...water's involved!)

ones we're still teaching him

- drink

- water (At first I was surprised he didn't pick this one up immediately, but it is a more complicated sign, and he's always been at the latter end of the normal development range for his motor skills. For example, he just started pointing at things this past month or two and at things in books this past week. . . .  That's a little behind isn't it?  At least I was thinking it was. . . .)

- sit (Although this one is pretty pointless. I've really just been using it lately to add emphasis when telling him to sit, not that it necessarily helped much. ;) When would we want him to use the sign, telling us to sit?  Maybe if he wants us to read him a book?)

And, now in case you haven't heard or seen enough of Lil'S, here's a video of his cuteness.