18 Months!!

A year and a half?!?  How did this happen? 

Life with a one and a half year old is, well, busy.
Here's the things going on around our house lately:

• Loves helping with laundry and picking up. 
• Climbing.  Oh lordy, the climbing.  He's climbing on everything - we are in the process of strapping furniture as we speak.  Not only is he climbing, he's now jumping off of things now too.  Not from very high and usually he'll only jump off onto a pile of pillows or blankets but I'm going to have to keep a close eye on this dare devil.
• He is now starting to run from us when we try to take something away from him.  Great.
• Loves his big duplo legos and LOVES to stack things.  He is really good at it too - it is pretty impressive actually.  His hand-eye coordination is really good.  He gets really excited when he gets a high stack going - he yells in excitement after he stacks another thing on top and then turns his head to the side to "inspect" it.
• He's absolutely obsessed with balls. 
• He LOVES to go outside.  He'll spend hours outside with Aaron.
• He loves to hop and dance around his room naked after he gets out of the bath.  He also dances pretty much anytime he hears music.
• He knows how to "blow his nose" - and does it often if he pulls the wipes out on his own.  He is also starting to  blow on his food if it's hot.
• He starting to use utensils more consistently.  So far it seems he favors his right hand.
• He is saying and babbling more - we think he's right on the verge of a word explosion.  So far he can say: hi, bye, mama, dada, hi dada, bubba, bubble, ball, papa. go, no, apple, up, eye, ahba for bath, ilk for milk, ckk for truck, out for outside, aahh (with a scrunched up face) for hot.  Starting to say thank you and I love you but it's not very consistent.
• He says "eye, eye, eye" when I sing Old McDonald and "boom boom" when I sing The Ants Go Marching
• Understands pretty well what we say to him and is starting to be able to express what he wants.  Signs "more" all the time.  I love the way he does it - he takes his thumb from right hand and hits it to the palm of his left hand rather than hitting closing his fingers and hitting them together.  And he uses the sign as a "Yes, I want this/that" sign as well as using it for "more".  He has started shaking his head "no" for just about everything and also saying "Noo, noo, nooo" in a cute little voice.  Right now it's cute - I'm sure it won't be later when he's yelling it!  
• He is still in the crib - and I think he will be for a while.  He rolls around sooo much in the middle of the night that I'm afraid he'd fall out of bed nightly if we move him to a big boy bed.  He does well in his crib still and he sleeps well in there so I don't want to disrupt that sooner than we have to.  And he hasn't figured out how to crawl out of it yet...so, fingers crossed! 
• We haven't really started potty training with him.  I don't think he's anywhere near ready.  We did buy him a little potty seat that we just sit him on right before his bath just to get him used to it. 
• Our next thing to work on is getting rid of the pacifier!  Yikes.  I'm dreading it.

At his 18 month check-up the doctor wasn't concerned about anything and thinks Aaden is doing well.  He was 27 lbs - 70th percentile,  31 3/4" - 50th percentile, and his head circumference was only in the 10th percentile!  I think he's going to have a small head like his Daddy.

Stacker
(taken before his haircut)

Messer

 Cheeser

Reader

Cutie

Piggy

Rody

First Trip to ER

Poor guy was sick all weekend while we were up in the snow - he had fevers off and on, decreased appetite, stuffy nose, congested chest, a cough and he did not sleep well at all.  So Monday night after we got back from the trip, we were looking forward to getting back into our normal routine and having Aaden (and us!) get some better sleep. 

So we give him his bottle and put him to bed at about 830pm.  Well an hour later he woke up screaming.  I thought maybe he wanted more milk since he hadn't finished his bottle but he refused it.  So I got him up and we went out into the living room.  He was screaming, crying, batting at his right ear and sticking his thumb in his ear canal.  As soon as I saw that, I just knew that he had developed an ear infection after being sick.  We were able to force some Tylenol in him and decided to go to the ER.

We pulled up to the hospital and the Tylenol must have kicked in because Aaden had fallen asleep.  Aaron and I sat outside in the parking lot debating on whether or not to go in.  Would they think we were silly bringing a sleeping/calm baby in?  How much is this trip going to cost us if it ends up being nothing?  But if it is an ear infection it's better we get seen now.  Lots of deliberating and after a few minutes, we decided to go in.  We figured we were there now, better to go in and get it checked out than to have Aaden wake up in a few hours and have to come back.

I'm glad we decided to go in because sure enough - he has his first ear infection.  I am actually surprised (and thankful!) that he's gone almost 18 months without getting one.  I had horrible ear infections when I was a kid and had to get tubes put in twice - I've always been worried about my child(ren) having ear problems.

The new ER at Hazel Hawkins is really nice and the staff was great.  They had us in and out of there within an hour and a half.  Aaden was a really good boy while we were there - despite peeing all over me, the bed and the floor!  They gave him his first dose of antibiotics and told us to give him some ibuprofen when we got home.

By the time we got home, he was crying again - I think the Tylenol was starting to wear off plus he was just exhausted.  We dosed him with ibuprofen and he slept all night.  He woke up today and was already seeming to feel better!   

Strawberry 2012

We made it to Strawberry for the 5th year in a row.  It's always such a fun, relaxing trip.  There was not nearly as much snow this year but fine by me!  There was still enough for the skiiers and snowboarders to get a good couple of runs in.  Aaden was sick with a cold most of the trip and it kind of knocked him down a bit but he was still such a good boy (despite sleeping horribly) and he had so much fun playing with Jaya and Chase!  A weekend with other kids is like a slice of heaven for him - good thing Jaya and Chase seemed to enjoy playing with him just as much!

The sun was shining right in Aaden's eyes. 

Thankfully Papa had this janky umbrella to help block the sun.

More than anything Aaden hates the sun in his eyes.

Friday night.  Kate and Uncle Brother with Aaden

Mommy nebulizing Aaden

Happy Boy

Nothing more manly than pink boots ;-)

Aaden and Papa at Dodge Ridge

Daddy and Aaden

Family pictures

Emmy, Aaden & Papa

Daddy, Mommy, Aaden & Uncle Brother

Daddy, Mommy, Aaden, Kate & Uncle Brother

Mommy and Aaden

My sweet boy modeling his snow suit for us

Walking on the snow - he wasn't a big fan

Aaden and Mommy. 

This picture makes me laugh, he's saying "Goooo"

I think he was ready to leave ;-)

Being a goofball

Watching Jaya ski

Playing on the iPad with Papa and Chase

Love this picture - nakey butt

Bath time for Bonzos

We got to meet up with Pappy in Jamestown.

Pappy lives in Sonora now so we don't get to see him all the time

Mommy, Aaden, Daddy, Uncle Brother & Kate in Jamestown

Chase and Aaden playing with the pots and pans

Silly boys.

Aaden loved hanging out with Jaya all weekend!

 
 Getting ready to go

 
 In & Out Burger on our way home. 

Aaden was not feeling well. :(

Eli's Party at USA Sports

Our friend's son, Eli, turned 3 this week so they had a birthday party for him at USA Sports.  The kids get to run around and play with "coaches" and do fun physical activities.  Aaden was the youngest one that participated - he pretty much did what he wanted since he's not great at following directions at this point.  He had a fun time though.  One of the floors at the facility is a real bouncy surface and Aaden had a great time jumping around on that.  One of the coaches was really impressed that he could jump with both feet - she said that she has some 2 1/2 year olds that can't do that yet.  She was also really impressed that he could hold a ball, throw it up (a few inches) and catch it.  He just mastered this skill - he loves playing with balls at home so he's had a lot of practice.  I must say, it made Aaron and I beam with pride a bit to be told that Aaden was doing so well with those things.

Oh and we got a new word today ---> "Go".  We were getting ready to leave for the party and I said, "let's go" and out of no where, he said "GO!"  Clear as day. :)

Hangin' out with one of the coaches

 Playing on the obstacle course

 Just hangin' on the bouncy floor

 Running away...

 Now back to the big ball

(look at the poor coach's face - she was exhausted from chasing him)

 Hopping on the trampoline

 More balls! 

He definitely had fun! 

 I think if he could have he would have just played with the balls all day

 and jumped on the bouncy floor!