18 Months Old and Turkey Day

Oh Noah, how are you already 18 months?!  Life with you is so interesting, exciting, intense, and never boring.  You are so cute with those dimples, and lucky for you, that allows us to forgive the screaming, challenging sleep, and throwing of food that are regular occurrences!  But seriously, you smile so much and light up our lives.

We are happy that Noah is continuing to grow well!  Here are his 18-month stats:

• Height: 33.5 inches (77%)
• Weight: 27 lbs. 4 oz. (68%)
• Head circumference: 47.5 cm (41%)

**Side note: Evie was almost the same height, but weighed SIX pounds less when she was 18 months!

A glimpse of Noah at 18 months:

• He has been sleeping for very long stretches at night.  Sometimes he will go from 8pm-11am!  We actually talked to the doctor about it because I thought it was so weird, but everything else about his growth and development is normal, so there's no cause for concern.
• There are still some nights that are bad, when he'll refuse to go to sleep until midnight or wake up several times crying and needing comfort.  I always blame teething for this!
• He has 12 teeth now, with his two bottom molars just popping through.
• He's kind of a picky eater, and our doctor warned us that it will get worse before it gets better.  He will almost always eat chicken tenders, mashed potatoes, or popsicles, and then he also loves crackers, pancakes, yogurt, cheese, peanut butter, hummus, apples, summer squash (weird, I know!), bananas.  His way of rejecting food is to throw it across the room.  Our poor house is getting trashed!
• He loves the play room, especially running around with Evie and playing with the play grill.  He'll put on the little oven mitts and tell us that things are "Hot hot hot!'
• He is a typical boy and loves trucks, making the "brrrrrmm!" noise whenever he sees one, but he also loves to play with Evie's dolls.
• His favorite book is "Little Blue Truck" and we have to read it before every nap and bedtime.
• He has quite a few words, but strangely "NO!" hasn't entered the vocabulary yet.  He will shake his head "no" and say "uh-uh" to communicate, but I'm sure the "no" stage is coming!
• Favorite words:  Mama, Dada, Eddie (Evie), Occo (Roscoe), "cuck" (truck, stuck), "dat kind" (when he wants something we have), cuk (milk), daduh (water), night-night

These days, Noah is very into climbing, and he's getting creative with his endeavors.  The scariest one recently was when he pushed a chair over to the fridge, opened the freezer and demanded a popsicle.  Some days I wonder how I'm going to possibly keep this kid safe!

We enjoyed the long Thanksgiving weekend with some family time at home, and dinner at Aunt Boo Boo and Uncle Corey's house.  Their new bubble hockey game was a big hit with the kids and the grown-ups (and the turkey was pretty darn good, too!).

Visiting Hermie the Hermit Crab at Aunt Mari's

Roscoe got his own Thanksgiving celebration...actually, this is what Roscoe gets in his Kong every time we have to leave.  High-maintenance much?

Evie has moved on to the Christmas season and has begun wrapping up lots and lots of things (like 10 packages a day).  We aren't even sure what's in the packages, but she is getting some good fine-motor skills work in the process!

Perhaps there's a "sparkly dish cloth" or two wrapped up?!

Yesterday was a sad day, as we bid goodbye to my Uncle Ben who had been suffering with ALS.  He was a quiet guy, yet his devotion to his family was obvious, and he will be dearly missed.