A year and a half??? What the what???

How??

I mean, HOW????

So much attitude.. so little time...

Austin at 18 months:

so cool

**and the pictures have no correlation to the statements... I slacked on getting pics of the things I reported on!**

-Weighs 27lb 1.6oz (68%) Height 34.75" (97%).... getting tall and skinny!

-wears some 18month clothes (mostly pants) and all 24month shirts.

-has huge feet and is almost in a size 6 shoe.

-beautiful strawberry blonde hair that I hope never ever darkens!!

backyard picnic!

-says a few words/phrases really well: cracker, dog, stop (says “bop”), car, Dada, Momma, Poppa, bye-bye, up, go, yeah, what's that, uh-oh, diaper, icky, kick and….. no. The “no’s” have started.

-says "oh no!!!" over everything.. him spilling something, dropping something, etc. He makes us read this one Mickey Mouse book over and over because there is a part that says "oh no!" and he loves to repeat it loudly and put his hands up to his head. 

-Jabber “talks” a lot. He is enunciating sounds and gesturing and having “conversations.” Its just not in English yet. He's close though.. a lot of his words sound really close to real words. I swear some days he is talking French. Like seriously. 

-associates objects with actions. He found a thermometer at Poppa’s house and lifted up his shirt and tried sticking it in his armpit.

Merry-go-Round time!

-wants to do what the adults are doing. He helps me unload the dishwasher, and he likes to help cook. We let him help whenever he can.. like handing my Fred Meyer card over to the cashier at the store, or carrying light bags out from the store. 

-loves to dance and went to a music class at school one day! He bends his little knees and grins and bounces up and down to the music. 

-throws tantrums out of frustration. They usually stem from 1) us taking something away from him that he shouldn’t have 2) us keeping him from something he wants to do (like go outside when its rainy) or 3) him being really tired and over-stimulated. Thankfully (so far) the tantrums are short-lived and he’s calmed down after a minute. We wait until he’s calm then explain the situation to him. It doesn’t work on his little mind yet.. but someday.. maybe..

-loves to look at fish swimming. This is his favorite animal at the zoo!

-is good at following commands. He’ll throw things in the trash when I tell him too, and after he has a tantrum I make him hug me to “say sorry” and he complies. He will also go pick things up he dropped and put them back where they supposed to go.

-likes to go outside and dig in the dirt and his sandbox

baby lion statue at the zoo!

-plays a hiding game with me when we drive. He takes his binky and balances it on his head then says “nah!!”… I look around and he is grinning at me, with his arms held up like “what the heck?” and I have to respond with “where is your na-na? where did it go??” which he then grabs it from the top of his head and grins and laughs at me and I call him a trickster and a stinker.

-says “bye-bye” to everything.. the ceiling fan when we leave his room, the bath water when we pull the drain, the TV when we turn it off, the house when we leave for the day. He’ll even start walking away and then stop, turn around, and wave “bye-bye” some more.

-wants to eat off an adult plate, with an adult fork. One night for dinner I stopped fighting it and I ate with his toddler fork because he stole mine. I was almost done eating before I realized he had walked off and I was still eating with the toddler fork.

-is still hesitant to try new foods, which is frustrating. What he loves is: hummus (oh god, LOVES!), crackers, bananas, cheese, ground meat, plums, smoothies, mac-n-cheese, applesauce, tuna cassarole, bean/cheese quesadillas, Grillers meatless patties, PB& J's. These are our go-to foods for lunches and dinners. I wish he had a more broad palette. He is definitely not a "he eats everything we do!" kid, but we are working on it. We've started giving him exactly what we have for dinner. If he eats, awesome.. if not.. we don't give in and make him something special. He'll get with the program eventually.

The day he decided he liked nectarines

-is very stubborn and wants to do things himself. He doesn't want to be fed, he wants to do it. He wants to put on his shoes, his clothes, his socks. Sometimes he throws a fit if we intervene and dress him so we can just get going. 

-throws EPIC meltdowns where he flails his body around, sobs until he is out of breath and thrashes about. 

-loves to be chased up and down the hall and around the island. 

-got croup for the first time. It was hard listening to him wheeze and cough so horribly. 

-likes to get dressed "like a big boy" which means standing and stepping into his pants. 

The world's biggest sandbox.. Austin's heaven!

-loves his baseball bat (is anyone surprised by this??? *ahem-#lookatwhohisdaddyis* and swings it around with a better grip then I can even manage. Hello Pros???? 

-can go up and down stairs upright (not on all fours) by himself if holding onto something. He still prefers to hold a hand though. 

-knows his animal sounds really well! Every time he sees Olive or another cat he likes to proclaim "meow meow!" really loudly. 

-loves trains and pumps his arm up and down and says "choo choo!" when we pass tracks. He also loves to yell out when he sees cars, trucks and bikes!! 

fun at the zoo!

-likes to water the yard and roses in the yard and gets a bit obsessed with the hose and sometimes throws a tantrum when we turn it off. 

oh hey! A pic that goes with the statement above. Apparently I don't slack quite 100%. Go me. 

-gives me kisses when I ask, and when I drop him off for the day. A lot of the times he'll lean in for multiple kisses! He has his very sweet moments. 

-doesn't like to have his feet touched. He never has... but this has made cutting his toenails REALLY hard. We've tried while he was eating, sleeping, resting, bathing, distracted, in the car.. and its still World War III. 

-is weaned from the bottle and formula! He gets a sippy cup with a little bit of milk in it before bed just to soothe him. Hooray for no more washing bottles!!!