18 month Update!

It is with great excitement that we reach the 18 month mark in this little adventure. I can hardly believe that my little baby is 1 and a half. At 1 and a half this wee boy is the sweetest thing I've ever seen and at the same time the biggest pain in my ass. To date, there is significantly more sweetness than anything else.

Dylan has colossal amounts of energy. Enough that each day we need to plan a way for him to expend an equivalent amount of energy as running a marathon. I'm not sure where he finds the energy since he's adopted the rule that any food he eats must be something he has eaten in the past week, must be whitish in colour and must not be mashed or purees'd so let's see, that leaves us; plain pasta, fries, eggs, cucumbers, pears, yogurt, bananas, bread and of course milk. Think of the possibilities!

At 18 months this little monkey knows that when I say "come over here", that it will surely be more exciting to run in the other direction and so he does and giggles at the hilarity of it. Dylan is constantly doing the opposite of what we ask although most often I have to hide the fact that I'd rather laugh than put my hands on my hips look stern. Just the other day, after repeatedly asking him to "come over here please" and he refused to comply I lifted my hand, palm up, and repeatedly curled my finger back and forth like a hook. This interested Dylan enough to gain his full attention but not enough to draw him any closer to where I was sitting with a diaper and butt cream. After a couple more minutes I took my finger and pointed directly to the ground in front of me and ordered Dylan to "COME HERE". My son took his finger and stiffly pointed at the ground immediately in front of himself and then turned on his heels and ran his bare little ass in the other direction. Oh the fun we have.

We haven't made any great strides lately with the talking. We've said for 6 months now that we think he's on the verge of exploding into a whole new world of language but so far he prefers to communicate in baby babble as well as pointing and yelling. For months we have pointed out the same things day after day; nose, eyes, socks, ball, is that a ball Dylan? BALLLL, car, vroom vroom?, CARRRRRR, milk, milk, milk? Today he can say Hi, Bye, Mom and Dad, sit (he says this to Tess and Woody) and just this week we have a very solid Tess.

Dylan can be frustrating and exhausting at times and simultaneously be the most precious and funniest little light in my life. He is a deliciously cute little man who loves to move, explore and experience everything around him. Sometimes, as he spins through the house like a tornado, he will stop and throw his arms around one of us for a 3 second hug and then spin off again on a new adventure. We hope he knows how much we adore him and even though he exhausts us every day, we never ever tire of him. We have big dreams for this little person and we want him to know we will always be there for him. When Saturdays come and go and he is sound asleep, we finally collapse on the couch always say "what a great day". It can't get much better than that.