A YEAR AND A HALF!

Whoa whoa whoa. Slow down there time. You are gettin' a little quick for my liking. Ander Man has gotten big way too fast. He is 18 months old! That's like... a year and a half! =P

 I do have to say that he is sooo much fun at this age, even though we've seen glimpses of his future "terrible two" year old self (oh please let him stay an angel!). He is so independent and so curious about everything.

He sure is a happy little fella. He definitely knows how to get his way with that cute smile of his. I mean, who could say no to that? He is so so sweet and is so good to snuggle with mom and dad.

He still doesn't say a whole lot. He mostly just grunts and points. I'm pretty sure I gave birth to a caveman. ;)
Here's a list of some things he says (and a lot of them are his own interpretations of the word):

• Mom, Dad
• Nana, Pop Pop
• Papa
• Dog, Puppy
• Bottle
• Blankie
• Hi
• No,Yes (but mostly "no")

He can make quite a few animal sounds. I think he just might be convinced that giraffes say "la la la". He also can make the sounds of most of the letters in the alphabet.

He signs quite a bit. He knows milk, more, again, food, change (diaper change), dog, bath, sleep, potty, please, sorry, thank you, and others I can't think of right now.

I continue to work with him on letters, numbers, shapes, and colors, but he isn't very interested yet. He'd rather be playing basketball, building cars with his Mega Bloks, riding on his rocket, dancing with mom or cooking in his kitchen. Some of his other favorite activities are:

• walking up and down stairs while holding hands with mom or dad
• giving hugs and kisses
• "reading" books
• watching shows (oops)
• going on walks outside (mostly with Pop Pop)
• walking the dog
• playing with hot wheels cars
• knocking down towers of any kind
• coloring
• playing on mom or dads phone (or any sort of electronic device)

He's a wonderful eater. He just keeps going and going... Yet somehow he is still so skinny! Ha ha.
Food Likes: pickles, spaghetti, all kinds of fruit, broccoli, asparagus, green beans, veggie straws
Food Dislikes: pizza (Whaaaat? Where did he come from?) and things that are harder to chew like carrots and celery

And, as always, he is a marvelous sleeper. He sleeps 11-12 hours at night and takes 1-2 naps during the day. We are in transitionary period where we are trying to figure out if he wants to take two shorter naps or one longer one during the day. Two shorter naps seems to be winning out so we will probably keep it that way for a while longer.

18 Month Stats:

• Height: TALL (34 in., 90th percentile)
• Weight: 25 lbs (59th percentile)
• Head Circ: HUGE (49.5 cm, 95th percentile)

We sure love our Ander Man. He is such a blessing in our lives. He tries our patience sometimes but more than that, he brings us joy and makes us better people.

A friend of ours got this traditional Indian outfit for Ander while Brandon was in India last week. This isn't the best picture because he was NOT in the mood to be photographed. Still, adorable.