18 Months Old!

*This post is nearly 3 weeks late...but at least it got done, right?

*There is another new post below this one.

At 18 months old, Nathan weighs 29.2 lb and is 34" tall.  He wears size 24 month / 2T clothes, size 6 shoes, and size 3 diapers (barely!).

Nathan has grown up so much this past month.  I was quite anxious over the last few months about how I was going to handle both Nathan and a baby this summer, but Nathan has 'aged' and has become so much wiser/rational, that I don't worry about it anymore.  He has learned how to listen and has learned that I will seldom give in to him, so he has become a lot more cooperative.  The three largest areas where I see this are:
1.  He has accepted the rule that he is not allowed to walk by himself in parking lots.  For a couple months he refused to hold my hand, so I told him that he would have to be carried then and so that's what I did...carried a squirming, crying child through the parking lot to our destination/vehicle.  Now, when I tell him that it's a parking lot and he has to hold my hand, he reaches for my hand and holds it without fighting and we walking peacefully, hand-in-hand, through the parking lot.
2.  He does not run in the opposite direction of me as often.  He used to quickly run down the sidewalk as soon as we got off of our front porch, but now he nicely walks to the car (for the most part!).
3.  He finishes all of the food on his plate.  As I've mentioned previously, our rule is that our kids have to eat everything put on their plate (which is always a reasonable amount of food), whether they like it or not.  I try to not cook items that I know they don't like (which are few and far between), but if there is a new recipe that they don't care for, that's too bad for them.  Nathan has learned that he will be put in his crib if he is not wanting to finish and/or that we will eat dessert in front of him.  He still needs reminders, but his plate is always empty at the end of each meal.  Jon and I had a more difficult time instilling this rule on Matthew and Kayla, but I think that Nathan is picking up on it quicker because he sees Matthew and Kayla being rewarded/praised/leaving the table and puts two-and-two together, whereas Matthew and Kayla didn't have anyone to learn from.

Nathan still doesn't have many words in his vocabulary.  He can say:
Mom / Mommy
Dad / Daddy
Lace (Lacey)
Ooooo (Moo, for cows or horses)
Dad (Again)
Is? (accompanied with hand expressions for 'Where is it?')
Other than those words, everything he communicates quite effectively by pointing and saying 'ah!'.

Nathan is learning how to jump.  He enjoys jumping off the last step of stairs and does a bum drop on the trampoline by pretending to do a huge jump and then falling onto his bum.

He loves to put things in their place (still).  Right now, he likes to put garbage in the garbage can.  I can't remember the last time I've had to throw out a disposable diaper!

I noticed him drinking the last of the milk from his cereal bowl, just like Matthew and Kayla do.  He does fantastic at it!  Doesn't even spill a drop!

He says 'uh oh' when he drops his fork or spoon while eating (most often because he likes to try to balance his utensil on his head)

He loves my cell phone.  He knows exactly how to navigate to the games as soon as the password is entered.  I need to hide my phone if I don't want him on it at all.

Nathan loves Thomas the Tank Engine.  If you ask him to bring you a book to read, he'll often bring a Thomas book.

He always wants to colour if Matthew and/or Kayla are.  He strongly prefers to colour with markers, but if Matthew and Kayla are using either crayons or pencil crayons, he'll settle for that.  He knows exactly where the paper and markers are kept, and will help himself.

Nathan LOVES wearing crocs or boots, because he can put them on himself.  Luckily it's Spring, because he wears boots or crocs all over the house ALL THE TIME.  If he puts them on the wrong feet, I just have to tell him to switch them and he does instantly.  He knows exactly whose shoes are whose in our house, and will often bring Matthew and Kayla their shoes when we are getting ready to go somewhere.  

He loves it when Matthew lets him wrestle with him.  His favourite is to sit on top of Matthew and have Matthew bounce him up and down.

Yes, I let my kids have suckers just before bed.  I'm trying to get rid of the last of my their halloween candy.

Matthew LOVES it when Nathan is matching him.  Nathan is wearing Matthew's old pajamas, and I just so happened to get the exact same pair in a large garbage bag of clothes I bought for cheap off of the swap for Matthew.

Nathan still asks for/demands his bottle every evening.  He always wants me (as opposed to Jon) to hold him while he is drinking it (he's only been laid on the ground a handful of times), and usually drinks about six of the eight ounces.  He gets a 1/2 tsp of Restoralax added to his bottle and that helps keep him regular.

Nathan loves to brush his teeth.  He'll climb up on the stool, brush his teeth, spit out some toothpaste, have a swallow of water from the cup, and then dump whatever water he doesn't want to drink in the sink.  So cute.  He has to do it exactly like Matthew and Kayla.

When Jon puts Nathan to bed (which he does 95% of the time now), Nathan will give Jon a kiss, and then rests his head on Jon's shoulder whille giving him a hug, and then rests his head on Jon's other shoulder while giving him another hug.  Really sweet.

Nathan's routine:

7:15am  Awake

7:45am  Breakfast (cereal or bread/toast, often with frozen blueberries on the side, which he LOVES)

12:00pm  Lunch

1:00pm  Nap

2:00pm  Awake, followed by a sippy cup full of juice (diluted with water), usually being held

5:00pm  Dinner

6:00pm  Bath (if the kids weren't at my Mom's while I worked, because then she bathed them already)

6:45pm  Bottle

7:45pm  Bed