It's time for the quarterly update on our Tucker boy!
I know I say it every single time, but I seriously cannot believe how much time has passed and how he is changing right before my eyes! He's a whole year and a half and that means we are closer to adding our second little boy to our family!
At 18 months, Tucker:
Weighs about 27.7 pounds is about 35.75 inches tall!
(can you even believe this baby of ours was born five weeks early?!)
He sleeps at least 12 hours every night (sometimes more) and has recently (within the last month) made the transition to one, 2-3 (a couple 4!!) hour nap. We try and have our bedtime routine started around 8 and have him in bed before 9, but we often don't meet this goal. This is probably why he sleeps till at least 9 every morning! Gotta get on that and refine our schedule a bit.
He has been walking since about 14 months and a few weeks after that, has been running everywhere.
Within the last couple weeks or so, he has figured out that he can climb onto our dining chairs and then onto the dining room table! Not my favorite. And he knows he isn't supposed to, so we try and keep a stern eye on him anytime he is in the kitchen.
He is a pretty picky eater. He definitely has his "favorites" of things but I got so frustrated at him not eating things and dictating the menu that I tried implementing a new philosophy that I read about of "You don't have to eat it." So whatever I give him, he can eat it or he cannot! I leave it up to him and let him know whenever that's the plan.
He will usually have some toast and fruit and sometimes yogurt (depending on how much I am feeling up to giving him a bath afterwards) for breakfast. This kid loves bread and fruit. I swear 80% of his diet are these two foods. Lunch is usually a modge-podge of whatever I can come up with. Sometimes I'll cook something and sometimes we have what we call a "snacky" lunch. For dinner we just give him whatever we are eating. A lot of times he will refuse the main part, but he usually gets enough with the addition of side dishes.
His favorite foods are: bread, grapes, cuties (little oranges), raisins, crackers, bananas, turkey pepperonis, mac n' cheese, apples (he will just take bites right out of the apple!), yogurt, goldfish crackers, carrots (mainly cooked but he likes eating them raw as well), cottage cheese, homemade pizza, craisins and pretty much any other dried fruit, green beans, french fries, and of course, fruit snacks.
He loves drinking from his camel back water bottle (and momma and daddy's as well) and drinking from straws. We give him mainly water, but if we happen to have juice I give him a extremely diluted version in his sippy. I think he mainly likes the color and the slight change in flavor.
He is still getting bottles, but we have cut out most of them in the hopes of having him "weaned" by the end of the year. He only gets one, very small bottle in the morning- lately I have only been giving him this if he didn't have much of a breakfast, and he also gets a bottle before bed. This bottle will probably be the harder of the two to cut out. I'm sure he will be fine and will probably exceed my expectations, because he normally does. But I am so weak for his little voice saying "baba" every night after he gets out of the bath- he just knows that's what has always come next!
He knows the following words: mama, mommy, dada, daddy, nana, shay shay, zachy, tess, jess, luke, Alli, grandpa, grandma, curtis, "nane" (Jane), Jesus, sock, socky, shoe, please, walk, go, up, wee, yucky, peekaboo, stinky, ew, yummy, noodle, book, toe, tickle, baba, brush, wash, tummy, knuckles, duck, dog, rock, juice, cracker, cookie, chocolate, apple, push, ball, bagel, glasses, buckle, hat, dear, show, baby, puppy, sassy, naughty, santa, ho ho ho, all done, wow, oh yay, no way, no no no, don't, oh gosh....probably some more I'm forgetting.
He knows what the dog says, what the duck says, what's in mommy's belly (baby), what santa says, what the cow says...(we're working on sounds- he has a harder time connecting the words with the sounds at this point), how to sign "all done", how to fold his arms and "pray" (we've been praying as a family at night before putting him in bed for a while now. He will kneel down if you ask him and can fold his arms. He was really good at being quiet the first few weeks but now he has a hard time sitting still so the prayer usually lasts like a minute or less. He will occasionally stop throughout the day and fold his arms and bow his head and start quietly mumbling and then look up and smile and giggle. Love his sweet soul.)
He knows where to find: face, nose, ears, eyes, hair, head, mouth, tongue, teeth, tummy, leg, fingers, hands, arms, toes, foot, cheeks, bum, belly button and we're working on: elbow, heart, knee
He follows commands pretty well. I have realized he understands more than he can communicate (obviously). If you ask him to do something, he normally will- or knows how. (i.e.- "Can you bring me that book?", "Where are your pajamas?", "Let's find a toy.", "Grab my hand.", "Let's walk down the stairs.", "Wash your tray (tummy, hands, face, etc).", "Go tickle daddy!", "Can you pick that up for me?", "Take this to daddy!", "Go show daddy what you have!", "Can I see what you have?"....and more obviously. But it's nice to know that he at least understand a big portion of what we talk about.
He loves: going to the park and going down the slides and swinging (whenever he sees the park he will say, "Oh wow!" and says "Weeeee!" before even going down the slide), running free anywhere he is given the chance (whether it is outside in our backyard, an open field, the grocery store, mall, etc- he loves to run and run away fast!), books (he will say "Book!" and point to his book shelves every single morning when I go and get him out of his crib. I always put a book in his bed at nap time and sometimes catch a glimpse of him "reading" on the monitor when he is laying quietly in there), he loves hiding (he will crawl up the stairs when we aren't looking and disappear and become quiet. i will go upstairs to find where he has gone and he will often be behind the rocker in his room, in his closet, my closet or tay's closet- and he will wait till i say "Where did Tucker go?" to pop out and squeal), being thrown in the air or onto the love sac or jumping off things into the love sac (tay's fave, mine not-so-much fave), sparkly things and things he is generally not supposed to play with (i.e. Christmas tree- hence why there are no ornaments on it this year.), dancing and music, playing the piano, any and every kitchen utensil, hiding things, climbing on the couch and chairs, pillows or any kind of softie, his buddy Luke and having play dates, tickling anyone, and many many more things!
He is learning how and will attempt: putting on his shoes, getting dressed (he helps us so much more), using fork or spoon, being gentle, to color.
He can: clap his hands, wave hi and bye, give high fives, do fist bumps or as he/we call(s) them "nookles" give kisses and hugs, give baby brother (momma's belly) kisses, dance, play peekaboo, open baggies, close doors, comb his hair, walk down the stairs (terrifying!), brush his teeth.
I never want to forget the fun, happy boy that Tucker is. This stage is definitely challenging at times, but is also so, so fun. He is so sweet and will give me loves and kisses if I ask but is also full of fire and excitement- which sometimes results in injuries (mine or his). He wakes up so happy every morning and laughs the majority of the day. He is such a fun boy and he has truly made our lives so much more exciting. I am excited (and anxious) to add another baby (BOY!) to the mix and am really curious to see how he does, but I have no doubt that these two babes will become the best of buds and we can't wait!
We love you, Tucker bud!
-My computer hasn't been working, so I do all the uploads to my blog on my phone. And so all my pictures are from my phone- and not the best. Hopefully we can figure out the computer situation and I might be getting a newer phone that takes better pictures- hooray! Until then, here are a few of the cute pictures we've gotten in the last while.-
