18 months old

Charlie turned 18 months old on Tuesday. As you've seen from my previous post, we're still waiting on Charlie to find his independence and sprint down the hall. He's on the brink so it shouldn't be much longer. As for his vocabulary, we've just got animal sounds. It is fun to hear him moo and bark though! He's almost got a cat's meow.

Charlie had his 18 month check-up with the pediatrician today. She pretty much said he's not walking or talking because he doesn't need to. Busted! I am so busted! I've learned his grunts and whines. He's using his sign language but the doc mentioned that these can make him lazy. The more I think about it the more I'm convinced she's right. I thought I was doing good but I guess I'm just gonna have to get tough and deal with the whines and screams until he figures out he has to tell me what he wants. I've gotten so good at asking him to show me what he wants so that he's not screaming at me.

I was told to work with him alot during the day to get him to take a few steps toward me. So, maybe we'll have him walking by Thanksgiving! We tried to get him to walk in the doc's office but he was already having a traumatic time and was just screaming so he wouldn't do anything except stand there and scream. I think it traumatized him because if I try to get him to walk to me, same thing...screams or whines. Tomorrow's a new day. Maybe he'll work with me.

In addition to the usual questions regarding eating, drinking, napping, sleeping, etc., I got asked a few other questions. Some were does he stack things, does he point to body parts when asked to, does he respond to/follow simple directions, and others I can't remember right now. To answer some of these...sleeps 12 hours a night; eats well; drinks about 20 ounces of milk a day and about 4-6 ounces of juice a day; takes one nap (around 2-2 1/2 hours) in the afternoon; yes he can stack things; he will point to mine and Daniel's nose, mouth, eyes, ears, when asked; he follow directions/commands well.

Some of Charlie's favorite things are still his books and his cars. He loves to sit and put things in and take them out. He loves to look out the window. I have to raise the blinds every morning so he doesn't tear them up "raising" them himself. Charlie is entralled with the cat. He likes Khaki but I think she's a little too hyper for him right now. We walk the floors all day long. I guess that's how he burns his energy during the day.

Charlie's stats from today are: weight - 24 pounds 8 ounces; height - 31 3/4 inches; head circ. - 19 inches. We would have gone shot-free today except that I had them give Charlie a flu shot.

Well, I guess that's about it for an update.

I mentioned in a previous post that I was working on a book for Charlie. I finished it a couple of weeks ago but have just now gotten around to getting pictures of it so I could share it. My aunt gave me the idea to make a book for him that were "his" things. She did this for both her kids and they loved them and still cherish them. I hope Charlie will do the same with this one. He, of course, loves the page with his kitty on it. His other favorites are the train, the cars and his books. Maybe, one day, his favorite page will be his mama or his daddy! :) Anyway, I had fun making it for him...

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com