Paul at 18 months

This is my first Paul post that doesn't use "Baby Paul" in the title! He'll always be my baby but it's time to acknowledge that is no longer a baby! We are loving the toddler phase for the most part. Paul is such a charming little guy who loves to laugh and make us laugh. It's fun to watch him discover the world! There are things I miss about the baby phase, like all the cuddles and holding a sleeping baby, but for the most part I much prefer the toddler stage.

Firsts:

- The biggest milestones between 15 and 18 months was learning to walk! He took his sweet time to practice this skill as he didn't walk until 16.5 months. I was definitely stressed about how long it took him to walk but he's definitely showing me that he does things on his own time frame.

His early walking days!

- Trip to Target! When I posted about his first trip on IG, some were surprised that he didn't go to Target until he was 16+ months. In general, we do not run errands with Paul. I think it's a lot of work to take a toddler in and out of the car seat so we tend to run errands while the other person is watching Paul. Plus there is a Target a block from where I work (dangerous!!) so I usually go to Target during the work week. But I took him to Target shortly after he learned to walk to buy him some shoes. He loved riding in the cart and looking at all the other people!

- We got a water table for him in July and he has loved playing with it! He sees it when we leave the house/come home and always says "agua!" and points to it. This table was an absolute pain to put together but in the end it was worth it!

Words: Paul's language skills really took off in the last 3 months! He says so many words now! His favorite words are 'uh oh' and 'no.' Go figure! It's hard to write down all the words he says as he says so many now! I love hearing him say "kitty" - he says it in this sweet higher pitched voice. He loves her so much but the feeling is NOT mutual. Ha!

Growth: After a huge growth between 12 and 15 months, his growth has leveled out. He weighs 21 pounds and is 31 inches tall. So he did not gain any weight between 12 and 15 months. His doctor said that is common once they start walking and she's not concerned. So he's back down to 10th percentile after his surge to 26th percentile at 15 months! I guess when you look at the stature of Phil and I, it makes sense that he's on the leaner/smaller side as we are both naturally pretty slim, especially Phil (Phil struggles to gain weight  - lucky guy!). Paul also has very tiny feet - he just moved into size 4 shoes which is very small!

He is still mostly in 12m clothes, although I've started to buy 18m shirts since they aren't too big on him. He could probably still wear 9m pants as the 12m ones are pretty lose and plenty long on him.

One thing that has grown in the last 3 months is his hair! It's so white that it's hard to see in pictures, but you can see how much hair he has in the picture below. We joke that he looks like Bernie Sanders or Larry David as he doesn't have much up top but has lots of fluffy hair in the back/on the sides of his head.

School: He started to transition to the toddler room during the last 2 weeks of August. This is his first full week in the toddler room. The transition has gone smoother than I thought it would but I imagine he will continue to adjust to being in a different environment with different kids/teachers. He's been crying at drop-off, though, so I can tell it's still a hard transition for him. Hopefully the crying subsides soon, but at least Phil is the one that deals with it since he does drop off and I do  pick up.

I think his language skills will advance even more now that he's with bigger kids and has a more challenging curriculum. They have a weekly curriculum in the infant room but I don't know how much he got out of it until the last couple of months. I think he'll get more out of the toddler curriculum.

Loves: 

- he still loves reading which makes me soooo happy! He loves books with flaps and touch and feel books. He is very particular about what he wants to read. We have a stack of books next to the rocking chair in our living room. I will show him books from the pile and he will say no and wave his hand until I pick up one he's interested in reading. Ha.

 - he still loves playing peekaboo! This game just never gets old. I think we have a future class clown on our hands as he loves to laugh and make people laugh! Below he is playing peekaboo with cousin Anna and I also included a short video of him playing peekaboo with us as at home.

- He loves spending time with his cousins. He gets so much attention from them. But he definitely has a huge soft spot for cousin Matthew! Matthew is so good with him and the admiration is mutual!

- He loves to look at pictures and watch videos of himself. We spend a lot of time looking at chatbooks, which are filled with pictures of Paul. It's a good way to work on identifying family members. I let him watch videos of himself when we gave him ear drops during his ear infections. I'm trying not to make a habit of letting him use my phone, though!

- He still loves stroller walks. I know he'll eventually reach a stage where he will want to walk on his own so I'm savoring the days of being able to take long walks with him in the stroller!

Eating: Feeding Paul is still a challenge. He eats super well at daycare so I've kind of given myself a pass at home and we tend to feed him the same 3-5 meals over and over. I want to work towards eating family meals and exposing him to more things this fall/winter. Right now it doesn't work to eat together since we take family walks after work which leaves very little time to make his dinner. So meal prep needs to be very quick! But when the weather is colder and we are cooped up indoors, I'll have more time to make dinner when we get home from work and we can eat together more often. One thing I don't love about meal time is his propensity for throwing food. When he throws food, we take his food away but then he asks for more so it's not like he is throwing it because he's not hungry anymore... I hope he grows out of this stage very soon.

Dislikes: getting his diaper changed, getting dressed, taking oral medications, and getting ear drops! I hate it when he has a fever because he absolutely hates children's motrin and tylenol. Most of the time he spits it out. Even if we shoot it into the back of his mouth, he will usually gurgle it and spit it back out. So we usually try to mix it in with something like yogurt.