Semenick family: 18 months

My sweet little man turned 18 months old today. He is now a year and a half old... a year and a half! I can't believe that in 6 short months my baby is going to be a 2 year old! The past three months have just flown by since I last posted all the wonderful things he was doing when he turned 15 months old. Will is learning and growing each and every day, and we are having a blast watching him! My 15 month post was a little long and kind of rambley... so for this post I've decided to keep it simple and make a list of all the things he is now doing. This list will also help me when I get my act together and start working on his "Baby Will year 2" album... which I'm sure will be completed sometime during his year 3.

- He loves to try new foods.... especially off of Daddy's plate... for some reason they must taste better that way. He loves milk still and would drink half a gallon a day if I let him
- He can now catch a ball when it is thrown to him, and he continues to have the best throwing arm of any kid I've seen his age... he also loves to play any and every sport imaginable
- He's a daredevil and loves walking across the tall beam at LG by himself and jumping off the mats to catch the bar so he can swing all by himself. He also likes to go down the steps by himself without holding on to any of the railings... there has been much more gating of the stairs recently because of this
-He runs so fast now that I actually have to run myself to keep up with him... and I'm not talking like a slow run beside him, I'm talking full on run to keep up with him
-He is communicating so much more now... he still uses his sign for more and all done a lot, but he is now talking as well and will repeat (or try to repeat) most things we say. He has a pretty good vocabulary so far with words such as.... up, down, outside, hug, boo, doggie, mama, dada, hi, bye, water, bath, wash, no, car, bus, ball, egg, cup, juice, crocodile (sounds like crocodaddy), cracker, cookie, yum, thank you (sounds like tank ooo), that, this, there, what... and a bunch more.
- He still loves people and enjoys chatting with everyone he meets. He is also incredibly adventurous and will try just about anything, and will go to just about anyone. I am so excited that he is so well adjusted that he is ok with others holding him and doing things for him... (yet I'm still a little fearful since he isn't scared of anything). This does make it easy when I leave the house though.... there is no crying, he just walks over to me and gives me a big hug and kiss and tells me bye bye and then goes back to his playing
-He loves being active and getting out of the house... he really enjoys playing at Little Gym, Swimming, and most of all hanging out with his friends in our LGSC group
-He loves to read.... oh how he loves to read. He points to objects, animals, people in books when asked to and he would sit for hours if we could read to him that long. He also loves puzzles and in my opinion has some crazy good fine motor skills since he can put all of his puzzles together by himself already.
-He loves to sing and dance, and he loves to laugh. I think his favorite part of the day is when Daddy comes home and they chase each other around the house or play hockey together or some other sport while I'm in the kitchen making dinner
-He is a very sweet and loving child. 9 times out of 10 if you ask him to share something or give a toy to one of his friends he will walk right over and give up the toy. He doesn't get upset when kids don't share with him and he just kind of goes with the flow most of the time... of course there are always the occasional tantrums when it comes to toy sharing :)
- He has started with tantrums, but they aren't too bad so far. I am hoping that I'm getting lucky and this is as bad as it's going to get... we shall see.
-He has climbed out of his crib... not shocking for my little climber... but only once, and we're hoping that it stays that way
-We are starting to prep him for potty training and got him a potty the other day. It sings and plays music, and he loves loves loves to sit on that thing... but no pee pee yet... I guess 18 months is still a little young to expect him to potty on that thing, but we'll keep trying
-I don't have any stats for him yet in regards to weight and height.. he has an appointment in a few more weeks... but I do know that the kid is a peanut! If I go by my scale in the bathroom, he weighs 23.8 pounds, and I'm guessing he's probably just grown a little bit in height since the last doctor's appointment. He's in 12-18 month pants, but only ones with adjustable waists, and then 18-24 month shirts. He has some pretty good size feet though and is currently in a size 7 extra wide.... WOW!!

Oh wow, it looks like I might have written as much as last time... at least it is easier to read this time around!! I love going back to previous monthly posting updates and see how much he has learned and changed over that period of time. I wonder what 21 months will bring us?? For now I will leave you with some darn cute pictures of him showing his Daddy how his new potty works, pics of him bugging the dog, and of Will walking around in my flip flops the other night. As for me, I'm going to go look back at the pictures from when he was a baby baby and cry about how much my baby has grown up. It just goes way too fast...

The poor dog just wanted to rest after playing outside, and Will just kept playing with his tongue and trying to shove the tennis ball in his mouth... poor puppy!!