Eighteen Months Old

Lawson is a year and a half! Where does the time go? I need to go ahead and start planning his next birthday. Lawson is as precious as ever. He changes day by day. Lawson is always saying, "He has changed so much since last week." And it's so true!

Some notables:

• Stats: At Lawson's last doctor's visit over Thanksgiving (he had an ear infection) he weighed 23 pounds. So thankfully he is gaining some weight. I do have to admit that I did give him cookies (as did Aunt DeeDee) at his request when we found out he was in the 50th percentile of weight. Thankfully he is gaining weight. He is wearing 18-24 month clothes and occasionally 12-18 month shirts. He is on the way out of his size 5 shoes, but the size 6 shoes we have are a little big. He is still in a size 4 diaper and doesn't seem to be moving up any time soon. No leaking either, so that's nice. He wears Pampers, so he likes to look at Elmo on his diapers.
• Foods: Lawson does not like a wide variety of foods. He was a great eater when it was baby food, but for some reason big people food doesn't interest him as much. For breakfast he will eat grits, eggs, muffins, Cream of Wheat, oatmeal, toast (with jelly) and biscuits. And cookies if I let him. Over Christmas, we have discovered that he loves Cinnamon Life cereal. For lunch he will eat grilled cheese, pb&j, canned pastas, anything that has carbs. For dinner I feed him what we eat, but as of now, he is not a big meat eater. He will eat some of the veggies (still doesn't like green beans), but will eat sweet potatoes, white potatoes, corn, broccoli, peas, carrots, bread. He is a thrower, so we have been working on that. Our curtains by his high chair have been destroyed by his spoon and food. He loves to feed himself. Sometimes I want to feed him because I want him to eat a lot so I will make a bowl of food and use an adult spoon and feed him while he runs around the living room. He will eat better that way. Other favorites are mandarin oranges, apple sauce, cheese, yogurt, pudding, Yogurt Nibbles, Yogurt Melts, fruit strips, cookies, cookies and more cookies. And he likes things I wouldn't have thought he would. French onion dip, b-b-q chips, ketchup. He will dip french fries in ketchup and lick it off. Still loves his water, but is drinking more milk and juice.
• Toys: He has a bunch of toys but his favorites are balls and things that make noise. he loves to throw anything he can get his hands on. Unfortunately we have been pegged with various objects, such as sippy cups and stuffed toys. He has decided that he likes Elmo and will talk about him. We never watch Sesame Street, so all Lawson has is Elmo Live, Tickle Me Elmo (which makes him cry and get upset) and a soft stuffed Elmo we bought him to sleep with. When we got it, we gave it to him and he loved on Elmo for a minute and then he said, "Bye-Bye" and tossed him down. He does that with lots of things he doesn't want. Mostly he enjoys taking all his toys out of his toybox and all the books off his shelf and just looks at them all. We have started putting him in his room for short periods of time with the gate up and he is content to play with his things. And throw them over the gate.
• Words: The kid is a talker. He has jargon, which is not words, but speech babble that follows the conversational tone of the spoken word and he will just talk and talk and talk. He has about 20-25 words that he says, such as: Go Gators, Elmo, Mo (remote), moon, moose (although I don't think he is talking about a moose), ice, juice, cheese, milk, cookie, Dada, Mama, Mimi, Papi, PawPaw, DeeDee, BeeBee (Uncle Ryan), water, No (his favorite word right now), outside and several others. He is imitating words all the time, which makes me and Lawson mindful of what we say.
• Other favorites: Lawson loves to go outside and play. Lawson will also play with him and they wrestle on the bed. So far, books are not his thing, but I keep reading them to him. We can make it through part of a book before he takes it and throws it or decides to look at it himself. He likes the tv show "Jack's Big Music Show" and the "Imagination Movers". We have taken "The Wiggles" off the DVR for our sanity. He can climb on the couch and ottoman and tries to get on the coffee table. He has to feed himself and does not like it of you try to feed him. Lawson no longer walks anywhere, he goes at a sprint. He will also dance on command or when he hears music. Lawson has taught him to march, so they will march through the house. Too cute!

He is a precious boy and we are so blessed!!!! We think he is going to be a joker, because he loves to do funny things and laugh and make us laugh. What a great kid!!!