All things baby [18m]

Well it has been 10 months since I wrote 'a state of the baby address'. It is truly amazing how quickly and vastly babies and toddlers change in such a short an amount of time!  Baby J is no exception and even though I would like to slow the process down, he just keeps growing up!  Some nerve! 

His eyes are still a striking bright blue gray and we are often stopped in public to discuss their beauty.  He doesn't have much hair, but it is growing in slowly, more in the back than on top.  Working his way to a mullet.  The back of his hair is beginning to curl, with 3 or 4 little ringlets forming. 

Current Stats:
LENGTH- 32 inches long - 60th percentile
WEIGHT- 22 lbs - 10th percentile
12 TEETH: including his first molars and he is beginning to cut his eye teeth.

Vocabulary:
Baby J tries to say many words.  He will attempt to repeat almost anything you ask him to say.  Even if it comes out sounding absolutely nothing like the word you are saying to him.
His main words: the ones he uses on a daily basis consist of...

• Daddy- "Dah" & "Daddeee" & "Dada"
• Momma- "Mah" & "Mommy" & once in awhile "Momma"
• This- "Dis"
• That- "Dat"

This and that are accompanied with lots of pointing.  He will ask, "Dis?" with a point and if he is told no, he will point again and ask "Dat?" hoping your answer will change.

• Dog- "Doh" and Puppy- which he can say very well, but sometimes sounds more like "buppy"
• Please- "Pa-weee" if he is trying and "Bee" if he is just wanting you to give him what you have quickly.  
• Eye- he can say while pointing to his own eye or poking you in yours.  
• Ball- "Bah" this is the same word he uses for Balloon too.  I suppose it is just a floating ball.  
• "Ow-ey" when something hurts.
• "Oooooooooooo" is how he says Moo.  He has a small plastic cow and he refers to it as his "Ooo".  But will also say it if you ask him "what does a cow say?"
• Ruby- "Ru-E"
• Wrigley- "Rey"
• Instead of saying "Yes" he makes a cute "He-he-he-he-he" chuckle noise.
• No- "No-No" always said twice and usually while shaking his hand at you.  I'm afraid he has since me shake my finger at him and say it too many times.  

Speaking of "No-No"...
Each morning I push our coffee table against our couch to prevent him from digging in the drawers which are full of cords, cables, notepads and sharpie markers.  He has learned to climb onto the couch and then onto the coffee table and stand up.  He thinks it's fun to be so tall.  I have told him not to do this, so now he climbs onto it,  stands firmly in the middle and shakes his hand saying "No-No", "No-No".  It is impossible not to laugh!  MM and I have to turn our faces away to collect ourselves before once again getting him down and telling him that he cannot stand on furniture.

contemplating standing on the coffee table

• Hi and Bye Bye- both accompanied with waves 
• Book- he says correctly, but usually without the ending "k" sound
• Granola- "La-la" really rolling that tongue for those L's.  So cute!
• Darla - He can say Darla well, it's the name of a friend's puppy that he really likes. 
• All Done- He signs this instead of saying it
• Banana and Nana- "NAH" (MM's mom's name)
• Mimi he can say  (my mom's name)
• Papaw/Papa- "Pah-Pah"
• Gigi he can say

Papaw and Gigi taught him to say those last 2 when they were up visiting at Easter.  The funny thing is because their names are said together so often, when we ask him to say Papaw, he most often responds "Gigi".


Body Parts:
Baby J has been learning where his body parts are located.  He loves to point to them when asked.  He can point to his eye, hair, ear, nose, lips, neck, belly button, toes, elbow, and fingers. 

"where's your nose?"

Other Baby Tidbits:
We are still the very lucky parents to an excellent sleeper.  He goes to bed by 8pm and will sleep 11-12 consecutive hours.  It is fabulous!  He has been taking just 1 nap a day for about 6 months now and it's made for an easy daily routine. 

He still loves to play peck-a-boo, we call it "where's J?" while he hides his face with his hands.  He always peeks out at us between his fingers.  

He may have taken a little longer than other babies to walk, but he sure has made up for his delayed desire to move upright.  He is walking all over the place and he is fast too!  He also climbs the stairs with ease, going up and down too many times a day to count.  But the other day he was distracted by a dog at the top of the stairs and missed judged his knee placement, slipping and tumbling the whole way down the stairs.  I was standing beside him at the time of this accident and like slow motion I reached out to grab him just as he slipped away from my grasp.  I honestly think my heart stopped for a few seconds!!!  Watching him tumble like a rag-doll was nightmarish.  I consoled him, checked for major injuries, and loaded him into the car and drove straight to the Emergency Room.  Turns out when you have a toddler at home it is very helpful if your husband runs an ER.  We were able to slip in the back and have a doctor look him over.  He received a clean medical check-over and I was able to take him home with peace of mind.  This incident actually makes the second time in the past month that we have visited Daddy's work- and not to say hello!  The other accident was when a friend's older dog who isn't used to kids bite Baby J after he attempted to hug her.  It wasn't a bad bite, just really scary.  We wanted to insure that no infection would begin in the wound so we went into the ER to have it properly cleaned, medicated, and bandaged.  I pray we are done with the accidents for a little while- at this rate I will be gray before I am 30!  

Baby J is still the happiest little boy.  He makes each day joyful.
He loves his doggies and plays with them often, even climbing into their dugout (kennel) to hang out with them.  He feeds them too; they have learned just whose chair to hang out under during dinnertime.
He is really into music.  MM plays piano and guitar at home and Baby J loves to listen and watch and sometimes tries to join.  If there is a musician/band performing on TV he will stop what he is doing, becoming mesmerized.  I hope music is in his soul.  I also hope he has his Dad's natural abilities and talents in that department.
He's a banana lover and starts each morning with one.
In the evenings we take Baby J and the dogs for a walk in the neighborhood.  Baby J likes to hold the leases and let the dogs pull him in his stroller like it is a sled.  It's really comical!
He loves to "attack" if you are lying on the floor.  Meaning we lay on  the floor and he climbs all over us while we say things like, "he's getting me!" and he giggles.  He really likes to sit on his momma's belly and bounce.  This is not mom's favorite game. 

I feel like I could go on and on with cute, funny, and exceptionally smart for his age, things Baby J does each day, but I know that it's just not as fun to read the ongoing list if you aren't the parent.  So I will force myself to stop here.  And end by saying Baby J is doing great and we are blessed.