beau andrew | 18 month update

Oh my goodness. I haven't done one of these in a WHILE! I feel a little rusty! Beau is EIGHTEEN months old today! That feels like such a big number. Pretty soon we won't measure him by months and we'll switch over to boring years, like the rest of the population. ;) 

Here we go...hopefully I can remember everything that has changed since last time!

-He currently has 10 teeth. He has his front 8 (4 on bottom and 4 on top) and has two molars (I think), one on top and one on bottom in the right side of his mouth. He hasn't let me see or feel back there recently so he could have more. We had to start buying drool bibs because his shirt is getting soaked with slobber early in the day!

-Beau is still a great eater. Of course, depending on his mood, he will refuse to eat or throw stuff around, but he will pretty much eat anything. Right now the few things he is 'iffy' on are steak, potatoes, and bbq chopped meat (like pork or brisket). He has loved a few casserole type meals I've made recently and he has definitely slowed down on eating 'pouches' (which we still keep on hand in case our meal is a little lacking on veggies and other good stuff). He LOVES fruit, except for cantaloupe,  and snacks on it every day. Cheese, too. He's only drinking milk and water and I'm hoping to keep it that way for a LONG time. 

-He's had one professional haircut (his first) and a little at-home trim but he's way overdue for his next cut. He has beautiful curly dirty blonde hair that he's always getting comments on. It's unruly, though. I never know how it's going to turn out! We pretty much let it do it's own thing.

-Beau started walking at 13.5 months (I don't remember if I covered this!) and quickly learned how to run. We are learning that he is pretty cautious and only does things that he is confident about so we haven't had any bad tumbles yet...I feel like I'm jinxing myself by typing that!

-This little boy understands EVERYTHING you say and will attempt to repeat it maybe 30% of the time, but it's not understandable, at all. There are probably 15ish words that he knows and I know what he's saying, but he's really not super vocal. He hasn't figured out any hard "ca/ka" sounds and gets his d's and his n's confused most of the time. For example, "nana" almost always comes out as "dada". And "mama" comes out as "baba" a lot, too. He definitely can say "dada", though! He knows lots of animal noises and has a lot of his books memorized, especially Bow Wow Meow and The Going To Bed Book. 

-Continuing on that last point, he LOVES books. I think they are his favorite 'toy'. He's always bringing me books when we're at home and we spend a lot of time reading them. Other than that, he loves toys that he can carry around, take out, disassemble, and 'put in'. He'll dabble in things like cars and the interactive all-in-one toys that have lots of sounds and music, but he really just likes to tinker. He likes putting the various balls we have in his stacking cups and things like that. He loves playing with his Lego duplos and then likes to take them apart and put them back in the container. He also loves to throw. I probably say "no throwing" or "don't throw that" about 30 times a day. Still working on that one...

-We are trying to learn how to share! Obviously this will be important when the new baby comes but it's also important now since we are starting to have play dates and things like that. It will probably be a long road but he has shown a little improvement in the sharing area. Recently he's been a little overzealous with sharing his larger toys and has started pushing his friends (literally) to play with the toy, resulting in the friend falling over and some tears. Here come all the hard lessons in life! There must be so much going on in his brain right now, it's crazy to think about!

-Mark has taught him how to kick a ball and they love to play together. Beau put it together that dada is his playmate and it's so funny to see how they interact. 

-Since before his birthday, Beau finally found his groove with sleeping. I think it was at about 10 months that he started being more consistent with sleeping through the night and now he is super consistent. He has only woken up on the rare occasion that he was sick or teething and he goes back to sleep really easily. He sleeps from between 8-9pm until about 8am every morning. And he always takes a nap! No-nap days are non-existent around here. He transitioned to one nap around 15 months and usually sleeps from 12-3 or 1-4 every afternoon.

-Beau LOVES animals. He thinks Motley is the funniest thing and loves to play with her outside and inside. We had to buy some tennis balls for Motley so Beau could throw them for her (instead of the sharp sticks she likes to chew on). He will also go over to her toy basket inside and pick out her rope and try to get her to play tug of war. She's having to learn how to be gentle! He watched me give her the command to 'speak' and now he mimics me and tries to get her to bark. It's the cutest thing! He loves Kitty too. He can say her name (more clearly than most) and will aggressively pet her until she retaliates. He's learning how to be gentle and how to leave them alone when they don't want to be bothered. Beau isn't a fan of little dogs, though. We think he's had a few too many encounters with little dogs that can easily get in his face or jump on him (as opposed to big dogs, which don't need to jump since he's already at their level or shorter) so he always keeps his distance when he comes across a dog that is smaller than him. We went to the Fort Worth Stock Show and he was wary of all of the animals (in cages, of course) except for the cows. He has loved cows for a long time and he was so excited to see them! I was the wary one in that situation! They are all lined up with their rear ends facing the aisle you walk down and I am always afraid of being kicked if I wander too far off the path. I was carrying him and he was pointing to the cows, waving, and saying 'please' in sign language. It was too cute!

-His sign language has just expanded as he's gotten older. He still uses it for a lot of things like 'hungry', 'water', 'drink', 'please', and 'thank you'. He started blowing kisses and that looks almost identical to 'thank you' in sign language. He also nods his head 'yes' and shakes his head for 'no'. He learned how to sign 'play' and 'help' and has started signing without our prompting when he wants something. 

-This little boy is snuggly and I hope it always stays that way! Mama is his comforter and he always comes to me, arms up, if he gets hurt or is in trouble for something. Many times throughout the day he will just come sit in my lap (with a book) or will straddle me and lay his head on my chest or my shoulder. It's like he just needs to recharge for just a few seconds and then he goes back to playing. I LOVE it!!! He knows when we say 'snuggle', 'love', or 'hug' that he can lean in and love on us. Ugh, it's just the best feeling!

I could go on and on about the little intricacies of what Beau has learned over the last six months (since my last update) but I wouldn't want to write a novel. I love having these recaps to look back on and see how far he has come and I'm sure I'll really like having them when the next little boy is here! Beau is our sweet little boy and we are loving every second with him.