Dear William,
You turned 18 months old this week! How did that happen? Seriously, someone needs to figure out how to make time slow down some. You are getting to be such a big boy. I can't believe it has been 6 months since I wrote your last letter. That means there is a lot to catch you up on.
You have gotten so, so big! I can't believe how big you are now. We had your 18 month appointment today and we have an official weight and height for you. You were about 25.5 pounds (40th percentile) and 32.5 inches (60th percentile). You have slowed down in your size gaining over the last 6 months but we are wondering if you will just take after me more (sorry, kid!) of if you will do what Kenzie did and start to shoot up here soon. Only time will tell. You are slightly larger than the average still in height and the doc was super happy with your weight. You used to be so much heavier, so she was happy to see that you have evened out to the middle percentiles in the last 6-9 months. Your head is about 60th percentile so that is perfect too. Dr. Cobian said you are the perfect size. =) It's crazy that you aren't physically bigger because people seem to think you are. Something about you makes you seem huge, apparently because people are always amazed you aren't older and tell me how big you are. I'm so used to looking at you now, that I have no idea. Haha! It might be the hairstyle you wear sometimes. As soon as we spike your hair, you look about 6 months older, it seems. You are wearing every bit of 2t to 3t clothing for the most part. Your shirts are all that size. Shorts are a different story because we have learned 2 things. 1. You are crazy skinny like your sister so your waist and your height do not always match up in clothes. 2. That is okay for shorts because they are usually made pretty long for boys. Your 18 months shorts are actually longer than your sister's 4t and 5t ones. It's a bit ridiculous. Regardless, that means we can get away with putting you in 18 month to 2t shorts. You do own a pair of 3t and although they are big in your waist, you can wear them. Another thing we noticed is that if we happen to have shorts that have a slightly shorter style, you look taller. They are so long usually that they make you appear shorter at times than you really are. All of your sleepers are 24 months but your 2 piece pajamas are 2t. You are in a size 4 diaper still and I would really like for you to stay there until you potty train because bigger diapers are more expensive. Haha! I'm not 100% sure of your shoe size because your pedipeds are 18-24 months. I do know that your flip flops are a 4/5 and they fit pretty well so I figure you are somewhere in that range. You have a pair of 5s that are a bit smallish but they were the largest size made in the particular style I wanted so we are making it work. They fit, but if your feet get any larger, they won't.
You have been sick a few times in the last 6 months. We can usually thank your sister for those or maybe the nursery at church sometimes. The plus is that you will have quite the immune system by the time you go to school. I remember Kenzie getting sick frequently when we started putting her in the nursery at church and even more so when she started school, so hopefully this will help you avoid a lot of that. You had a terrible stomach bug just a few weeks ago. We all had it, but it was so sad to watch you get sick over and over again and not understand why. You recovered the quickest of all of us though and were back to eating normal pretty quickly. You have experienced a few fevers as well. We have learned that you just tend to run high fevers for short periods of time when you get sick. We think it is just how your body fights off stuff. You typically are sick for very short periods of time though compared to one of us with the same virus. You have started to show some interest in the potty. We have it down for you and we sometimes sit you on it, but we aren't doing anything major yet. I figure we will start in the next few months if you continue to show interest and maybe we will have you trained around 2 years old. It would be so nice to get out of diapers. We will see how it goes though. I always hear boys are harder to potty train so... who knows. You typically do not like dirty diapers on you though and will come to me when you have pooped so you can be changed. Well, you did. Until you realized it was way more fun to tell me you have "stinky poop" and then run away laughing while I try to catch you to get you changed. You grow hair like it is going out of style. We have cut it 3 times in the last 8 months. Crazy. You are getting ready to need another one soon. You did great at your last haircut and we went a bit shorter so we would hopefully have longer before you needed another one. Plus, the spiky hair look is definitely adorable on you. You now have 10 teeth. Your top 2 molars came in (finally) and the bottom 2 are cutting through. I expect we will see them shortly. Not sure when the others will follow, but you are getting there. One of your favorite times of the day is bath time. We usually try to avoid bathing you every day because your skin is so very dry, but you love to take baths. You splash like crazy. Your favorite game is trying to splash water at your sister. You just think it is hilarious.
You love to eat. You have entered a slightly picky stage... but it is nothing like Kenzie at this age so I will take it. Mainly, your pickiness is your lack of wanting most vegetables. You will usually chew on them a while and then choose to not actually eat them. It's gross, but at least you aren't at the point that you refuse to put them in your mouth at all. The other day you ate asparagus dipped in barbecue sauce. Whatever works, crazy kid. You LOVE fruit. Just about any fruit. You also love to eat anything off of my plate. As a matter of a fact, sometimes we put extra food on my plate and less on yours because we just know you will be eating off of mine. I, honestly, do not mind because it still means you are eating the same food as us and most of the time, you will eat off your own plate (in addition to mine.) You end up eating some crazy foods sometimes because you want my food. You helped me eat a Carolina pulled pork sandwich at Sonny's the other day. Pulled pork and coleslaw on garlic bread with mild barbecue sauce. You also love to scarf down my tacos anytime we have them. Yet, if I make you one, you won't eat it. Whatever works for you, I guess. I think your favorite food is definitely pizza. You can eat a couple of slices without taking a break. You also love bananas but you do this weird thing where you make me peel it and then put it on a table or something instead of just taking it out of my hand. So strange. You have gotten good at opening the cabinet and getting out food you want. You will randomly bring me crackers or an applesauce pouch or cereal bar or something to open for you. You can also eat all day long. We find that you (and your sister) like a few snacks a day and 95% of the time, you will still eat a full meal. You stop when you are full but maybe your metabolisms just work really quickly because you are asking for a snack shortly after each meal and you continue to do that all day long. Whatever works, as long as you are eating things that are good for you. You snack on mostly fruit and some cheerios. For a special treat, you might have a couple of goldfish or a cereal bar. You love to eat cucumber as I make salads and recently you have even taken to eating lettuce when we sit down with a salad. When we got out to eat, you typically have your own kids meal and can usually polish off almost all of it. You actually eat more than Kenzie a lot of the time. As long as that metabolism keeps up with you, you should be all right. We will see.
You started walking right before 15 months. It was Christmas Day when you took some pretty serious steps across the living room and you never looked back. It wasn't a week later and you were walking everywhere. Now, you can run (well, it's more of a jog until your feet get too fast or you lean too far forward and you end up tripping.) Not too bad when you consider that you have only been walking for about 3 months. I think you just wanted to keep up with Kenzie. Just yesterday you got your first pretty bad egg on your head when you tried to run down the sidewalk to say hi to the neighbors and because of the hill in front of our house, you just tripped. You recovered well though. You scraped your toe, top of your foot, knee, and head. Comes with the territory of being a toddler. You can walk backwards, climb on just about anything, and even do a makeshift jump with both feet. You love to march, but right now, you only march with one foot. You just pick that one foot up really high over and over again but your other foot walks normally. It is hilarious. You are still unable to climb on the couches because of their height, but you can get onto any of your own small chairs and into your stroller and you can get off the couch and our bed when you want to. You figured out turning around to slide off pretty quickly. You have quite the arm on you and can throw a ball overhanded to us. It doesn't always go far, but you are getting it. Sometimes you will chuck things across the room though and surprise us all (including yourself, I think.)
We are still fairly certain you are going to be left handed. You just favor it so much. If we hand you something (like a spoon) in your right hand, you will sometimes try to use it that way, but about 95% of the time, you just change hands and go about your business using your left. While we are on the subject of spoons, you are in love with the idea of using a spoon or fork on your own. You can't always get food onto those utensils, but if we help you, you can usually get it to your mouth without too many issues. It means that meals take a lot longer for you now, but we know it is important to let you learn to use utensils. You still use your hands a lot, but at least you are showing an interest. We are going to start practicing more with regular cups soon too (without lids). You have been seen taking my cups or Kenzie's cups and taking a sip or two from them. Eventually you end up spilling them if we don't help, but you at least understand the process. I think we will have you on a regular cup at dinner time (at least) in the next few months if we keep working on it. You really seem to enjoy coloring and picked up on it pretty quickly. Again, you favor your left hand, but you definitely seem to like coloring more than your sister did at this age.
You have a bit of a temper. Such is the life of a younger sibling. You get quite frustrated with Kenzie sometimes and you let her (and us) know it. You stomp your foot when you get angry. I know I shouldn't, but I sometimes have to turn away and laugh because although you are irritated or mad, it is so adorable that I can't help but laugh. You will purposely pick up things just to throw them on the ground and scream like crazy when you are annoyed. At the same time, you think Kenzie is the greatest person in the world and the two of you are often laughing like crazy at something silly one (or both) of you are doing. You love to have dance parties with her and whenever you hear music, you can't help but move to the beat. You love to sit at the piano and put on a concert with Kenzie. You have gotten really good at hand movements to a lot of songs. I credit a lot of that to the storytime we go to at the library almost every week. You really like Row, Row Your Boat. Mainly because Daddy "rows" your arms when he is home during messy diaper changes to keep you out of whatever else is going on. Now, any time you have a diaper change, you start rowing and ask me to "row, row" with you. It is adorable. You love books. Lately you have been really into bringing me book after book to read to you. You don't always sit and listen to the entire book, but you do listen. If you walk away to do something else and I stop reading, you come back and give me the book back to finish. You also love, love, love bubbles. The two of you chase them around, laughing, and trying to pop them all before they hit the ground. You love to play outside and would gladly stay out there all day if I let you. That is one thing that you often get annoyed with me about and you will sometimes throw yourself on the ground and cry when I tell you it is time to come inside. You eventually come, but you voice your displeasure with that. If we get home from an errand and I put you down in the garage once I get you out of the car, you will immediately go to the toys we have in the garage and start playing. Apparently you just assume that we are going to let you stay outside and play the remainder of the day. You like to play in dirt or sand. You will spend quite a long time filling buckets with dirt from the flower beds (which is a super fun thing you learned from Kenzie and our next door neighbors) and carrying it to other places before dumping it all out and laughing. You also love to find sticks and carry them around. If you are outside, you probably have a stick in your hand. You love to ride in the wagon or car and have someone pull or push you around. You also love when we go for walks and are content to just sit and watch the world go by.
You laugh A LOT. You have a smile plastered on your face at least 3/4 of the day. If you aren't crying, you are laughing or smiling. There isn't really much of an in between for you. Everything is funny to you and you smile at everyone. You have the cutest little cheeks still and you seem to know how to use that lady killing smile to your benefit already. We are in trouble one day. You are also quite the chatterbox. While we do not always understand your words, you use a ton of nonverbal communication mixed with your own language when telling us about something or asking for something. You have quite the vocabulary as well and you love to mimic what we say. Kenzie and I were counting something the other day and you repeated every number (to the best of your ability) after me as we were counting. All the way to 20. You just love to mimic us which is a really good thing. Your favorite words though are probably "Daddy" (Kenzie taught you how to say Daddy instead of Dada a while ago and you LOVE to call out his name when he gets home from work every day) and "no". I remember thinking Kenzie saying "no" was so cute... and yours is just as adorable. Though, like Kenzie, I'm sure I won't always think that. You love to tell me "no" sometimes when I ask you something or tell you to do something and then smile and laugh before saying "yeah" if I ask you again. It's like you know you are making a joke or being silly. I MIGHT have taught you to say "stinky poop" a week or so ago. Now, you announce that you have stinky poop any time you need a new diaper because you pooped. I will ask you if you pooped, you laugh and say no... then when I change you, you laugh and say "stinky poop" while I change you. Hilarious. You can follow commands pretty easily. You are able to do about 2-3 steps usually depending on what they are. You are starting to sometimes help clear your plate or put your cup in the sink whenever possible. You have mastered opening the garbage can so we can ask you to throw something easy away now and you will do it for us. You haven't figured out closing the garbage can yet, so that is still done by us. You can identify a pretty significant number of body parts. Your favorite is to tell me where your toes are and try to get me to pretend to bite them. You also love to pull up your shirt and announce "belly" to me. You actually just love to pull your shirt up regardless. It's quite funny. You do it all the time though we aren't always sure why. You can identify your belly, toes, feet, hair, mouth, tongue, nose, ears, hands, and eyes at this point.
You still love to be worn. Which is great because we spend a lot of family time at Disney and I don't know what we would do if you didn't like it. You love to walk and be your own little man, but you are still a Momma's Boy and love to snuggle with me. Plus, when you are tired, it can be a lifesaver. Speaking of tired, you continue to be able to sleep anywhere. We are also still able to transition you without too many issues most of the time. I have ever reversed it before and taken you from your bed to the car without you waking up. Such is the life of being a second child that has to go to pick up the first from school right in the middle of nap time. You now take 1 nap a day and it typically lasts anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 (and sometimes even 3) hours. That doesn't mean we don't have the occasional day of a 45 minute nap. That does happen sometimes and we seem to be on a 45 minute kick for the last week or so. Those days are tough because you will NOT take another nap usually. Hopefully you go back to normal soon. You usually nap right after lunch though we are going to be pushing that back over the summer to accommodate Kenzie's school pick up time next school year. You also go to bed between 7 and 7:30 every night. The time depends on what our day has been like and what your nap was like. You usually fall closer to 7:30 if both Daddy and myself are home and closer to 7 if it is just me. You sleep anywhere from 12-13 hours at night. Sometimes your sister wakes you up as she comes out of her room, but sometimes you will stay in bed until close to 8:30 even if you were put to bed at 7 the night before.
We have experienced a few holidays since you turned a year old. The first was Halloween. This year, you were Clark Kent (changing into Superman) and it was ADORABLE! You definitely pulled it off. You weren't walking yet so you were content to hang out in the stroller while we trick or treated, but Kenzie was nice enough to make sure she got an extra candy for you at every house since you couldn't always get to the door because of the size of the stroller. P.S. You like candy but I probably ate most of that for you this year. We also had Thanksgiving where you ate a lot. Any holiday with food probably ranks up there near the top for you. Christmas seemed to be your favorite. You did okay meeting Santa and while you weren't 100% sure, you didn't cry. We will see how it goes next year. Haha! You loved all your presents and you loved having family around. Like I mentioned before, that is also the day you truly started walking. Merry Christmas to Mommy and Daddy's backs. =) Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day were not anything too big. You enjoyed Easter too. You got a bunch of good stuff in your basket and you seemed to enjoy the music at the church service on Easter Sunday.
I can't believe we have already hit 18 months of having your bright, smiley face in our lives. Your little personality is amazing. I wish I could capture every smile and figure out how to save it. Your laughter is contagious and you truly seem to love life (most of the time). Happy half birthday, Little Man! You are so loved.
XOXO,
Mommy
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