Barrett - 18 months (wowza!)

Barrett is 18 months. As the title of this post says - wowza!

He is quite the expressive little boy. As my mom says, he keeps his emotions right at the surface. Happy, sad, they change from second to second. His laugh is infectious and he loves to play games. His latest is hiding in his closet and shutting the door and waiting for me to wonder where he is. Then he'll push open the door and laugh. I can't remember if I posted about this last month, but one day I was upstairs and Tim was in the kitchen and I came down and asked where he was. There were a few moments of panic as we searched everywhere for B. I knew he couldn't have gone anywhere, but where was he?? Tim saw a tiny blond figure out of the corner of his eye, hiding in the dining room corner between the wall and china cabinet. Just standing there, hiding from us, and laughing to himself. What a prankster!

He still happens to be a peanut. He is 31 1/4" tall (20%) and 22lbs, 10oz (10%). I can't believe how little he is. He is growing steadily though, so that's the main thing. The weight might be thrown off by last weekend's illness.

His new words in the last few months are:
duck (every bird and chicken is also considered a duck)
moo (every animal says moo)
walk
mine
sock
cheese
bear
cookie
boo-boo (accompanied by pointing at the spot where a wound was a week earlier)
I sit (as he's climbing into a chair)
and I know he knows more, but I just can't think of them right now!

We are working hard on please and thank you - his manners are a little lacking so far!

He's awesome at falling directions. We'll go tell him to get things and he will. Sometimes he even likes to bring us things unprompted - like he's constantly bringing us our shoes (he knows whose are whose) and we have to say thank you and sneak them back to the garage door). He is learning how to communicate with us, be it by going to his chair when he's hungry or going to the fridge when he wants his milk. In the last month or two it seems like he's really exploded in his understanding of what we're saying. He definitely comprehends a lot of what we say now when we talk to him and it is so cool to be able to see that!


His new favorites in the last month are: going down slides, going for walks, the book Goodnight Gorilla (has replaced Baby Talk and I Love You Through and Through as the most recent fave), cookies, cheese, and Momma. He is going through a big Momma-is-the-best phase, which I of course love! I wish this would last a few more decades, but I know I'll be lucky to get a few more weeks out of it. He's really into giving me hugs, holding my hand and leading me around, and wanting to be near me.

Sometimes I feel badly that he won't be getting 100% of our attention anymore. I know it's a great thing for him to be getting a new sister, but I worry about the upheaval in his life and how he'll adjust to not always being the star of the show. I will miss this precious time with just him - it has truly been a very special year and a half!