18 Months Ago...

... Lucas was born! Yes, our little turkey is 18 months old today. What an amazing journey it has been so far. Lucas is our sweet boy. Here are words to describe our 18 month old: sweet, kind, competitive, loving, silly, serious, intense, goofy, impatient, bright, curious, cute, smart, short tempered, playful, soft, fast, tough, adventurous, and fearless.

I am at a place how where I can't get enough of Lucas. I miss him when he goes to sleep at night and am happy when I hear him call for me when he wakes up... although it is nice to relax with Jeff for a few minutes every night after Lucas goes to sleep! Seriously though, just when I think Lucas can't get any more fun, he surprises me. We are at a time when we are starting to think of expanding our family, but it's hard for me to envision sharing Lucas's time with another baby. I don't want to miss one second of his life. I remember having the same feelings about Tyson, however, and I found more love in my heart... haha.

We have our 18 month well visit tomorrow, so I've been thinking of things that Lucas is doing in case the doctor asks...

Food: Lucas still nurses 1-2 times during the night, in the morning, before his nap, before bedtime and a few short times throughout the day, especially when he sees me after being away for a while. My goodness, I just counted and that is 6 times, which on average every 4 hours. I recall hearing that they go through a heavy nursing phase before they wean... something to do with needing the security to become more independent.

We offer him solid foods at least 3 times a day, but he doesn't eat that much. I'd say on average he takes about 5 bites before he starts to throw it on the floor. I'm interested to see if he's continuing on the same growth curve and what the doctor says about his eating habits.

Sleep: 9-10 hours at night and 3 hours during the day. Wakes 1-2 times at night, usually 1am and 4am.

Words he uses daily: Mama (ma-MUH?), Dad (dah) and hot (hah).
Words he says if prompted: choo-choo, monkey noises, elephant noises, hi, hello (oh?), Tyson (ta-ta), woof-woof, one, two, three

Signs uses almost daily: more, all done, eat, cat, dog, cookie, ice cream, night-night, book, help, ball, elephant, monkey, itsy bitsy spider, head-shoulders-knees-toes song, thank you, hot, bath, water, please, wheels on the bus, cracker, bathroom, friend, swing, play

Games Lucas plays: chase with mom and dad (signs more to initiate the game and then runs away giggling); runs around the kitchen table during dinner hiding behind his high chair on each round; "this is mine" with Tyson and Tyson's green Grinch doll; builds towers with his leggos and gets upset sometimes if they fall before he is ready; it seems he invents a game almost daily... we'll do something that makes him laugh and then he prompts us to do it again and again and again.

Notable things he has done lately:
- handed the ball to a friend at the park, said thank you, and ran away (he needs to learn the sign for "you're welcome")
- He was really tired one evening after playing in the water outside and I had him cuddled up in a towel when he fell asleep. I laid him on our bed with the plan to let him sleep 1/2 hour or so while Jeff and I ate dinner. I slid a water proof blanket under him, in case he went pee-pee. After dinner I told Jeff that I missed him and that we should go wake him up. When we walked into our bedroom Lucas was already sitting up. He looked at us with a big grin and started showing us the bathroom sign over and over. I think what happened is that he peed and was laying in it, so he thought it was funny, but also wanted us to help him.

Hair: We've been talking about getting Lucas a haircut for over a month now. We made an appt a couple of weeks ago and cancelled it at the last minute. I think we're going to try and snip this one piece that is long on his left side on our own. Jeff keeps asking me to do it, but I'm never ready... I feel like we have to record it somehow and never have the cameras near.

Mobility: Lucas runs just about everywhere that he goes.

Sweet Kisses: Lucas usually gives a kiss when we ask for one, although sometimes he shakes his head back and forth. He gives us each a kiss before going to bed... sometimes even Tyson gets one. He gives us a kiss after he does something "wrong", for example, sometimes he gets excited and hits our face and before we can correct him he plants a big smooch on our lips... how can we get mad after that? Little stinker.

More updates tomorrow after his check-up...