My little Ev monster is 18 months old. He's no longer my little baby.
He is full of energy, spouting off new words and running around exploring everything he can get his hands on to. He sleeps through the night consistently, goes down for bed wide awake after a few books and his sippy cup of milk, and naps like a champion. Speaking of sippy cups at bedtime, we have ditched the bedtime bottle and we haven't looked back! He didn't even fuss about it. Yup, life is good.
When he's willing to sit down long enough, he loves to do the shape sorter and work on chunky piece puzzles. He's also a fan of coloring...for a few minutes at least. He loves picture books so he can practice some of his new words, but his absolute favorite book is "Brown Bear, Brown Bear". It's absolutely adorable to read the book to him because he can barely contain the excitement with each page turn as he is so proud to show off his animal sounds. Cats, dogs, horses, sheep, bears, birds, and even fish (gup, gup), he loves mimicking the animals in the book.
After a month of picking at every meal, we finally realized we could attribute his poor eating to him cutting five teeth at once. He finally has all four top front teeth, all four bottom front teeth, and he's cut all four of the first round of molars. Poor thing! And to think we were worried about him going from August until January with no new pearly whites.
I think we're in the clear for a little while before he pops out any new ones. So, his eating is slowly starting to pick back up. The boy is one picky guy. His favorites change on a weekly basis. Just when I think I've got what he likes figured out, he decides he won't eat any of it. But, for now, he's digging broccoli, yogurt, any fruit, black beans, and soup. He loves feeding himself with forks and spoons and does a great job manipulating the food on his silverware. Even better than Sean it seems...
As much as he loves his Elmo, I'm grateful that he's also started to make some attachments to stuffed animals. Every night he sleeps with his stuffed animal dog and the caterpillar from Eric Carle's book. His newest love though, is for his baby. The thing is adorable with a yellow shell that you can put him in since he's a "Little Peanut". It's too cute for words to see how much love he can give his baby. Not to mention, his air kisses and real kisses, complete with sound, for me, Sean, or daddy makes my days complete.
His true love, though, is for a ball. Soccer ball, bouncy ball, basketball. You name it, he'll play with it. And now the kid is so advanced, he can let go of the ball and repeatedly catch it. I'm amazed! I can't wait to get him enrolled in something like soccer or basketball. I know he'll love it! In the meantime, we just play catch with him or we pass the ball back and forth to each other. Future athlete in the making...
Check Evan out catching the soccer ball here.
Well, as each milestone continues to blow by, I can't help but get excited. I'm loving this stage that Evan is in; curious about everything around him and learning new things every day. The baby toys are put away, the bottles are gone, and the bottom shelf of my kitchen cabinet now finally stores sippy cups and plastic dishes for the boys. It's hard to imagine that at the end of this year we'll be starting potty training with him and transitioning him out of the crib. He looks more and more like a little boy and less of a baby every day. And his mannerisms are those of a toddler. We're so proud of how much he's grown and how much of a bright, passionate, and busy little boy he's become.
Happy half birthday, Evan!
Love,
Mommy xoxo
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