18 Months of Jameson

I’m a little late with this post (sheesh, it’s hard work keeping up with this kid) but I can’t believe we have a one and a half year old! Jameson is really coming into his own now, and we see bits of each of us in his looks and personality…plus a whole lot that is all Jameson. 🙂 He is extra sweet, so kind and thoughtful, very silly, adventurous, brave, and smart, and very much a rule-follower (which I personally thank the good Lord for). He’s always looking for ways to make me proud or get me to smile and we have way more good days than we ever do hard days. Jameson is all we could have ever asked for and more.

Here’s where we stand at 18 months!

Weight & Length: At his checkup last week he weighed in at 23 lbs, 1 oz (which is exactly two pounds bigger than he was at 15 months. Slow and steady with this little guy!). This puts him in only the 34th percentile for weight, even though he seems big. He’s actually quite the little peanut. He’s 2 ft, 7.25 inches tall which is only a quarter of an inch taller than his 15 month appointment, keeping him all the way down in the 14th percentile. His pediatrician isn’t worried at all though, as both my husband and I were small kids. Jameson will likely hit his growth spurt later than most, but then he will shoot up to around 6 feet or a bit taller, just like his daddy. I just hope he doesn’t mind too much about being small for awhile. I know how frustrating it can be for a kid to always be the smallest.

Clothing: He’s in 18 month stuff now, or 18 month-2T if the sizing runs small. I just got him some new stuff for the summer since it’s already warming up over here and it’s all sooo cute! (Thank you, Gymboree.) He still needs a couple more things but then he should be set until the fall!

Hair & Eyes: He’s always getting compliments on both of these things. I would probably call his hair strawberry blonde, although sometimes it’s more strawberry and sometimes it’s more blonde. My sister just gave him his third haircut and ohhhh he just looks so handsome and grown up! He loves to comb his own hair (aka mess it up after I’ve already combed it) and even though the banana curls are gone, his hair still has an adorable wave to it on the top where it’s longer. His eyes are a dark hazel with the looongest lashes.

Sleep: This is pretty much all good, or all bad haha. He goes through phases where he’s waking up several times a night, every single night, and crying until we go in and sit down next to him (he doesn’t need or want to be held, he literally just wants someone in there with him). And then he goes through phases (like right now) where he sleeps perfectly peacefully through the entire night with no wakings at all. I think he’s just very sensitive to certain things, like teething and growth spurts, and his sleep just reflects that something bigger is going on with him. He still naps once a day, sometimes for a couple of hours but usually more like an hour and 20 minutes at the most.

Eating: Homeboy is so picky, but because he aims to please us we’re able to get him to at least try different things. Although even when he likes a certain food he sometimes still refuses to eat it for reasons I have no idea about. But we’re pretty consistent with him and he has to eat enough or try a bite of a new food before he’s allowed to get up. His favorite things to eat are all types of fruits, Pirate’s Booty (his absolute favorite snack), Mac ‘n Cheese, french fries, pasta, French Toast, pizza, smoothies, scrambled eggs, and desserts of course. He hates most meat (except chicken nuggets, but are those really meat?) and won’t go near most vegetables unless I disguise them or hide them in smoothies.

Milestones: He’s got 12 teeth now (his four molars are in) with his incisors breaking through just last week. He runs literally all the time, can jump a little bit (doesn’t get very high haha), loves doing all things by himself, tries his best with his t-ball set, and is learning so much so fast. He copies almost everything Alex or I do and he especially LOVES to copy his cousin Madelyn, which is sometimes great and sometimes causes trouble haha.

Communication: I just realized how big of a leap he’s made in this area since 15 months! Last time I wrote an update he had about 10 spoken words and 10 signs, and now I just counted and he’s up to 65 spoken words, tons of animal sounds, and he still signs 5 words. And he’s learning a new word almost every single day. He’s started combining two words together (“Uh-oh, Mama” or “up please” or my personal favorite “my do”) and once or twice I’ve actually heard three words in a row (“oh, my wawa!”). Most often, though, he speaks in strings of gibberish with random real words thrown in there. I really think he’s learned so much from how much we read, and he loves to recite books he’s memorized along with me (our current favorite being “Breakfast by Molly”). He’s also gotten really good at relaying stories to us about events that have happened. He has a great memory! For example, if he falls down and gets a little owie he’ll take my hand, lead me back to where he got hurt, look me in the eye and explain an entire story in gibberish while pointing and telling me about his owie. It’s amazing how much he can explain and get you to understand even without saying very many real words. We’re currently working on some colors (he can point to a few correctly but still has yet to say them) and some shapes too. He knows the letter A as well but that’s the only one haha.

Loves: Copying his cousin Madelyn, loving on his baby cousin Benji, watering the garden/playing with the hose, dancing, Curious George and Thomas the Train, swings, playing with both sets of grandparents, bubbles, all things outside (he’s constantly shouting “back? back?” because he wants to go in the backyard), chasing Charlie, and anything that allows him to get his little body moving!

Hates: When he can’t get something to work on his own, sitting still (church is especially a challenge right now), any food he deems unworthy, and long car rides (kind of goes with the sitting still thing).

Things I want to remember: Watching your daddy show you how to hit a baseball, the way you tell us you want a snack or a bite of something (loud slurping noise), the way you yell “Mama?! Mama?!” when you need to find me as soon as possible, your gibberish stories that have perfect intonation and facial expressions to go along, how you always say “oh no!” when things go wrong, how you say “I dunno” when you’re not sure of the answer, how gentle and sweet you are with your cousin Benji, how you say Chuck (“duck”) and Madelyn (“danna”) and Uncle Colby (“CoCo”), the way you wake me up every morning by kissing my cheek multiple times, your little slide to the side dance, the way you say belly button (“bucket”), how Charlie sleeps under your crib for every one of your naps because he doesn’t want to leave you, your happy kicky legs when Daddy pops up next to your window in the car and surprises you, how you squint one eye shut while we pray and say “amen” at the end, how you randomly wave and say hi to us throughout the day, and the giant proud smile you get on your face after you do something cool or help me with a chore. Oh there are so many more things I could list! Eighteen months is so much fun.