The 18-Month Stats

Milo is 18 months old. A year and a half! Just over four months away from becoming a big brother. He’s such a little boy, with only traces of baby remaining.

• Weight: 28 lbs., 9 oz. (80th percentile)
• Height: 32 1/4 in. (50th percentile)
• Head Circumference: 19 1/4 in. (80th percentile)

Favorite words include outside, yellow, no, and up (as in, “Pick me up now, woman!”). He knows many, many more words: paci, hat, button, doggie, Zadie, spoon, fork, potty, bump, TV, truck, neck, book, robot, grape, peas, oh no, what’s this?, “Dog Go,” “La La La” (can you guess what two books are making the rounds in our house?), milk, etc. etc. etc.
Favorite books: Go, Dog, Go; Moo, Baa, La La La; Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb; Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed; and occasionally Goodnight Moon.

Favorite things to play with: Milo is into toy cars, balls, two splatter screens from the kitchen drawer, flash cards, and our cat.

Milo made up a new game the other day that Andrew and I think is hilarious. He put a pea on top of his head and said “hat.” Of course we laughed, and he kept putting more peas on his head, saying “hat, hat.” This led to other hats, including yogurt and peanut butter toast. Messy, but adorable.

The boy cannot get enough of being outside. Immediately after dinner (or before, or during) he starts whining "ow-side, ow-side!" and goes to the back door and just waits there.

He's quick to throw a mini-tantrum, like if he wants to go outside but does NOT want to put his shoes on, he'll cry and carry on for awhile until distracted by something else.

He refuses to let me kiss him. Sometimes he smiles and turns away, and it's kind of cute. Other times he screams at me, "Mahmee, Mahmee, no, nooooo!" and pushes away with all his might. Sad.

Milo generally likes food, especially breakfast foods, but he sometimes just refuses to even try something. Often if we can convince/trick him into taking a bite, he'll eat with gusto. But if our usual tricks aren't working, forget it. Grapes for dinner it is.

Milo can walk backward, run (sort of), bounce and almost-sort-of jump, spin in a circle, and go up and down stairs fairly easily (crawling or scooting).

Milo has taken a liking to stuffed animals, though they're not really loveys. He just likes to cuddle with them during story time and in his crib.

Every animal says "moo" and everything is the color yellow, according to Milo.

He can reach too many things all of a sudden. Drawers that he never paid attention to before are now opened and their (hopefully safe) contents strewn about. Things on the edge of the table or counter are pulled down. He OPENED THE OVEN DOOR, which seems particularly dangerous to me. I have no clue how to completely baby-proof the house. This kid is just too crafty!

Things at the new daycare are going great. Today was Milo's check-up, and Kristin (Milo's caretaker/teacher) had him up and ready to go and a snack all packed to take along to the doctor's. At the old daycare, we would have been lucky if Milo was in the room we expected to find him in, forget being in a clean diaper, awake, or with snack in hand.

Life is good right now. Milo generally sleeps well, he is currently without rash (though to keep him that way, he has to be in disposable diapers with loads of desitin, so goodbye cloth diaper dreams), he's smart and funny and adorable, and we're all getting ready to become a family of four.