One Year and Six Months

Today Oliver is 18 months old. That means in 6 months...

Here are his latest stats. Yesterday at the doctor, he had another ear infection, Oliver weighed 27 pounds. He is still right on his growth curve for being healthy. His actual 18-month check-up is not until next week, which will be useful for routine things as well as for making sure his ears are ok. Yes, tubes have been discussed, but the doctor feels that they are not necessary for now. If the infections continue through the summer then we'll reevaluate.

Oliver is doing great at school and interacting with the kids really well. He loves to play chase with his friend, Sarah, during gym time. He also mimics much of what the other kids do, which (so far) is a good thing. For instance, he spent a good portion of the weekend growling like a lion.

Oliver also loves playing at home. We play tag around in circles, he copies our motions like touching different body parts when prompted, and he's still really good at playing independently with his blocks and cups. He's getting quite mischievous; he even tried to climb into one of the shelves in the office. At home we're starting to battle temper tantrums, but he's quickly learning that Time Out is the immediate result. Due to the consistency Brent and I follow we've "beat" playing in the dog bowl and dragging out DVDs with Time Out. The next feat, other than temper tantrums, is staying out of the trash can.

Oliver's also talking our heads off! In the morning he repeats "Good morning". He's mastered "Bye, bye" and understands that it means you are leaving something. He says it when putting on his jacket, throwing Mr. Giraffe in his crib in the morning, and at bedtime. Both yesterday and today he asked me for a "nanana" even when we didn't have any more. He points with "What's that?", says "Wilson" is his dog, answers with "Thank you", and tells us "I got it" after finding something he's looking for. Our favorite is when he says, "I love you" at bed time. Though his words are not perfectly clear, we know that he understands what he's communicating and he's getting clearer all the time. These are the phrases we can pick out so far. There is also a lot of mumbling that we've yet to decipher.

So there's the monthly update! Little man is getting so big, and we are loving every second of watching it!