18 months

We had Drew's 18 month well check last week. He weighs 23 pounds and is 33 inches long... 75th and 25th percentile's. The doctor had all good things to say and thought he was doing great in all areas! Highlights for Drew at this milestone month...

- Talking non stop and tries to repeat everything we say. 

- Imitates pretty much everything we do. Andy is not a huge fan when Drew chooses to imitate me getting ready to go somewhere... he has tried to fix his hair, use the eyelash curler, apply makeup and lotion his legs. I have some pretty good pictures and video of all of these that will come in handy one day!

- Went from calling us Mama and Dada to Mommy and Daddy, but he also learned our first names... "Andy and Sessie". 

- Surprised me one night last week and started singing "Jesus loves me" during our nighttime routine before I even started! He says Jesus pretty clear, but the rest of it is mostly the pattern of the song. Doesn't matter... highlight of my week, for sure! 

- Loves having his shoes on and can put them on himself if he has enough time to try.

- Loves music and loves to dance. He has some pretty decent moves too!

- Still doesn't watch much TV, but did get in to Mickey Mouse on the way to the beach. He says "oh toodles" when he sees it now!

- Moved up to a new class at school. Very emotional day for both of us, but his first week was great! - - - Signs and says "more", "please" and "all done" anytime he really wants something or really wants to be done with something.

- Loves to clean (especially sweep), empty his plate after dinner and is really good at putting his toys away when we ask him to.

- Loves Duke and looks for him all the time. He really likes giving him treats too. When we got home from the beach, he followed him around the house with hand full's of his dog food trying to feed him. And when we pull in to the house after being gone, the first thing he says when we get in the driveway is "where's Duke". 

- Starting to count a little bit. Most of the time when he's "counting", he just says 2 over and over, but he has started including the 1 over the last couple of days and has actually gone to 3 a few times. 

- Recognizes a few letters.We have foam letters in the bathtub and he likes to look for O, D, Y and J and will say them while looking for them.

- Really in to "working"... he loves taking things apart and putting them back together, opening and closing things, taking things out and putting them back in (i.e. the shelves in the pantry and refrigerator). 

- Has most definitely started showing an ornery side and has really started testing us. One of our biggest things right now (at home and school) is throwing his milk cup and food during meal times. We have tried everything... scolding him, ignoring him, not giving it back, swatting his hand, making him pick it up every single time he throws it... he. does. not. care. Nothing is working! Apparently he has gotten better at school and I would say some days are better than others around here, but we still have quite a bit of work to do... we will get there... eventually. 

- Has been introduced to the potty! We bought one just to get him familiar with it before we fully start trying. His school starts lightly working on it with them from 18 months - 2 years and then really get in to it after 2. To my knowledge, he has never actually had a successful trip to the potty, but he has sat quite a bit, so he is definitely interested! His teacher told me last week that she can't keep him out of the bathroom in the classroom because he mostly wants to wash and dry his hands!

That was a lot of highlights, but he is doing SO much lately and I wanted to make sure I didn't forget anything! So many of these milestones seem small, but they are so exciting to us! We are having a blast with Drew at the 18 month mark... he is funny, sweet, smart, very busy and very ornery... but oh, so very perfect!

Cute little video while waiting on the doctor...