Grant - 18 months

Age: 18 Months

New Stuff: I don't plan on doing monthly updates anymore, but I feel like so much has changed with Grant since my last update!  He is talking so much more, much to my relief.  He loves to be chased around the house (while screaming!) and he LOVES to be scared.  We are constantly hiding behind walls and popping out.  He comes around corners smiling now because he's looking for us. We need to step up our game to keep him on his toes.

Words: At his 15 month checkup the doctor made me worry about his lack of words.  I've been working VERY hard to get him to talk since then, and I honestly haven't seen much from my effort... until the last week or so!  My last update at 17 months he was saying Dada, Mama, This, Uh Oh, Bubble, but not very often at all.  All of a sudden he's trying so hard to talk to us and he even repeats us now.  We are up to about 11 words that are recognizable, but he's saying much more that I just can't make out.  He says Da all of the time and sometimes I think he's saying Duck and other times Down, who knows.  But we have added Book, Ball (his all time favorite), Car (his 2nd favorite word), Hi, Bye Bye, Kitty, Shoes,  and Dog.  Everything that is round is a ball.  Periods.  The Sun.  Seriously, anything round.  He points and looks at me all serious and says Ball. 

Other Stuff: He has started picking me "flowers" aka weeds, and bringing them to me.  How adorable is that?  He LOVES giving us hugs and he's even started giving me kisses.  Of course a toddler kiss means his mouth is WIDE open when he comes at me.  I'll take his slobbery kisses any day though.  It's the most precious thing I've ever experienced.  I'm absolutely loving this age (apart from his major fit throwing of course) and I much prefer having a toddler over a baby.  I love that he can feed himself, express what he wants, show me his emotions, etc.

We took him to the park last weekend, and he had such a blast.  I took him about a month ago and it is seriously crazy how much more independent he was this time.  He was able to crawl up the playground himself and even go down the slide.  He loved the slide! He's such a little dare devil!