Eighteen Months Old

I'm amazed that it was six months ago that we were celebrating Trip's first birthday. It's incredible how much development takes place in such a short amount of time. We have loved each stage that Trip has gone through, and 18 months is no different. He is social, active, and communicating more each day.

I wanted to get some pictures of Trip with his monkey, but most of them looked like this...

because of this...

and this...

Then, I had a good idea... videos on my phone!

Almost...

There we go! And that's the best we got!

• By his first birthday, Trip was just learning to crawl. Six months later, he is running everywhere and generally picks himself right up when he occasionally falls down.
• He is getting better each day at feeding himself with utensils. He still uses his fingers a lot to pick things up, but really enjoys using a spoon or fork too. He has also realized that bowls and plates don't have to get dumped on the floor. That one was a struggle for a while, but I can now give him a bowl of food and be fairly confident that it will stay on his tray. The other thing he loves to do is share his food with the dogs. He sits there like a little prince and they wait eagerly for their portion of his meal or snack. I love having their help keeping food off the floor, but we're working on not feeding them on purpose.
• We have been dealing with some nasty incisors as of late. All but one of them have at least broken the skin, which is great. Trip's front eight and four molars have been in for a while, so he will soon have a full mouth of teeth. I know there are still more molars to come, but it's a relief when each set is complete.
• Trip has always been a good napper, and has been sleeping through the night for quite a while. He goes to bed around 8:30 and wakes usually wakes up between 6:30 and 8:00. Sometimes I can get him to go back to sleep when he wakes up early, but not always. He still takes two naps most days, which none of us complain about. :) He has started to wave at me when I put him down and head for the door. It's so cute!
• One of the biggest changes lately is that he is trying to talk and learning new words all the time. He still uses a few of the signs that we taught him (mainly please, thank you, all done, and milk). He says Dada, Mama, hi, bye bye (buh-bye or mum-bye), no, cookie (cooh-key), uh oh, tasty (ta-ty), ball, shoe (shu), go, car (cah), church (ch-ch), and a few others. Kelly told him that all she wanted for Christmas was for him to say her name. Well, a couple of days ago, he finally did. Now he says "Keh-yee" whenever he sees her. We've tried to get him to say Jaime, Jordan, Erik, Jonathan, and others but he just says "Keh-yee." Another name he says is Noni. Whenever he sees my phone, he says "Nono!" and sometimes gets very upset if we don't call her.
• He loves to make animal sounds. He knows what dogs, cats, fish, monkeys, elephants, cows, ducks, beavers, pigs, horses, and sheep say. When he wants Goldfish crackers, he makes fish faces, which is really funny. When we were at Grandpa and Noni's house at Christmas, he kept pointing to the door of the pantry/laundry room and making fish faces. At first we didn't understand why. Finally, we realized that there were some packages of Goldfish on the shelves and he had spotted them. Another thing he can spot anywhere is a dog. Living in such a rural community, people have dogs in the back of their trucks all the time. We were in line at the post office yesterday and Trip started barking. I looked out the window, and sure enough, there was a dog in the back of a truck. He spots them in the store parking lot constantly as well.
• Although he has become a big mama's boy and likes me to be nearby, he also loves to play with other kids and adults too. When kids come over, he gets so excited and has a blast entertaining everyone. He doesn't like the days when I work, especially if he sees me leave. He and Kirk dropped me off at the high school yesterday and he apparently cried "Mama! Mama!" all the way home. Last week, Kirk found him standing next to my side of the bed crying for me. As much as I hate to leave him, I'm thankful that it's usually only a couple of days a week and I'm glad that it gives him a chance to play with friends and develop some independence.
• He still loves to look at books and play with his toys. He is learning how to throw a ball and usually tries to say "Ready, set, go!" (which ends up being two random sounds and then "Go!") before he makes the throw. I'm sad that football season is coming to an end because Trip loves to watch football. Even seeing commercials or pictures in books, magazines, or on the internet that have to do with football gets him excited.
• Our son is crazy about anything electronic. Remote controls, X-Box controllers, phones, computers, he wants it all. He is especially crazy about my phone. He absolutely loves watching the videos of himself that I have on there, hence how I was able to distract him to get a picture.

You are a pretty cool guy, Trip, and your daddy and I are so thankful to have you as our son!