18 Months Old

Emmit is 18 months old, and he sure is growing up! In these last 3 months he has become so much more of a BOY and really keeping us busy! Emmit loves to climb on everything, has had a few falls, but for the most part is pretty tough. He loves to run around, chase or be chased, push cars on the floor, throw balls or anything else (and he has a really good arm!), and generally just get into mischief! We recently took the child lock off our kitchen garbage can so Emmit's 'chore' now is to throw things away. He started doing this before we unlocked the garbage, but when we started finding banana peels and other random things in the bathroom garbage we decided it'd probably be better off in the kitchen =) Emmit just loves doing everything Ellie does, and he sure can annoy her at times. His most favorite thing to do is to walk up to her, grab whatever it is she has, turn around, and run! Emmit loves to read stories and can be quite picky in the books he reads. If he doesn't like what I pick, he'll throw it on the floor, so I've pretty much resorted to just having him pick his own right from the start. He also loves to dance and has some pretty wild moves! =)

Emmit has picked up a lot more words in the last 3 months too. He's pretty much a one-word or couple-word talker, but does a good job of letting us know what he wants. His words include (somewhat in order of favoriteness)...Mama, puppy, nummy, Dada, Ellie, up, milk, more (with a sign to really emphasize!), mine, hi, uh-oh, buh-bye, and gapes (grapes). Emmit will also cheer 'Go Pack Go' which is really funny, I think this was learned at school =) If he can't say what he wants Emmit does a good job of pointing, signaling, or pulling us to what he wants so it's pretty much working, though he does throw the occasional temper tantrum when he can't get us to do what he wants. I always sing 'Twinkle Twinkle' to him at bedtime, so if he's tired he'll start humming it too, so cute!

Emmit can be stubborn and doesn't like when he can't get what he wants. He has a little obsession with getting in the refridgerator or going outside (since he can open all the doors now), so when I lock or close something he's gotten open, he gets MAD!

Emmit is a great eater. He likes so many things and tries a lot more things than Ellie ever did. Some of his favorite foods are grapes, bananas, hummus and chips, any kind of meat, sweet potatoes, any and all canned fruits, and all kinds of noodles. Emmit likes to eat with a fork or spoon, and if we let him, he'd use an open cup all the time. Sometimes he throws a fit and we'll let him, but it usually ends up in whatever he's drinking spilling. He sees Ellie using a big cup though so he wants to as well.

Emmit loves bathtime and just playing in water in general. He would turn faucets on all the time if he could reach. It's a constant battle in the bathtub with him to keep the water off.

At his 18 month check-up Emmit was a healthy boy. The Dr. commented on how calm he was as she checked him out. His stats were:

Height: 2 ft, 8" (40th percentile)
Weight: 28.5 lb (75% percentile)
Head: 50.3 cm (97% percentile)

Emmit is fun-loving, happy, and bringing smiles to our faces everyday - we LOVE him!

Doing what he does best right now - climbing!



Getting his second haircut and cooperating so nice!



Pushing Ellie in the stroller. Emmit likes to play with babies as much as his sister. Pushing them in the stroller is even more fun! The stroller is a source of fights much too often.



Playing in the snow. Emmit LOVES being outside, and will almost always throw a screaming fit when it's time to come in. If we're going out to the garage to get in the car (and he thinks we're going outside to play) - that is always a fun battle! He will fight, fight, fight getting in the carseat. Obviously Emmit needs his own bike! =)





Emmit's not really into TV yet. His favorite part of shows are the opening songs during which he'll dance, but after that, nothing really keeps him entertained. This particular night, we dug out the old Baby Einstein videos (which Ellie loved when she was little, and we just hadn't watched with Emmit yet)...he actually watched it. We took this picture to capture the moment...Emmit sitting still for 20 min. straight! =)



Being silly with Ellie's mask



Emmit loves to play hide-n-seek, and we all play almost every night. Emmit has 3 hiding spots, under the dining room table, behind his chair, or in the laundry room closet. He'll say 'Sshh' when he's hiding...he takes hide-n-seek very seriously! =)



And a couple cute ones of the kids together. For the most part, these 2 play well together, but they definitely have their spats (daily). Here they're having fun though! Such big smiles =)