We May Be in Trouble...

I keep trying to tell him that a baby will slobber, steal his toys, and take up room on the couch so it won't be ALL that much different than having another dog. Not sure he's buying it, but we'll keep working on it. Pretty sure that, boy or girl, the baby's nickname is going to be "Bobby" or "Puppy."

Not-so-Recent Stats and Some Current Tidbits

Connor had his 18 month well visit in the middle of December. Actually, two days before the appointment he got sent home from daycare with a fever of 102.7 so it ended up being a combination sick and well visit. Luckily he just had a virus and, aside from a few miserable days of coughing, runny nose, and no appetite, he's a healthy, growing boy. Here are his latest stats:

• He is 33 inches (he grew 1 inch in 3 months and 12.5 inches since birth) which puts him in the 67%
• He weighs 25 lbs. 2 oz. 23 lbs. 2 ozs. (gained 2 lbs.. in 3 months and 16 lbs. 6 ozs since birth) which puts him in the 37%
• His head circumference is 18.75 inches, which puts him in the 43%

In the past couple of months he has really started developing his own personality. He's now 20 1/2 months old and I feel like every day he learns new words, tricks, expressions, etc. I am amazed at what a sponge his little mind is. I guess it is officially time to start watching my language! 

Here are a few fun facts about Connor at 20+ months:

• He is an excellent sleeper. His usual bedtime is between 7:15 and 8:00pm. He goes down without a peep and sleeps through the night. Thankfully he has not yet attempted to climb out of his crib. I plan to keep him in a crib until he overstays his welcome! Most mornings I am able to get ready for work and if he is awake he just entertains himself until I go in and get him. Other mornings I actually have to wake him up.
• He takes one long nap per day. On the weekends he usually sleeps from about 1:00 - 4:30, which is awesome, because usually by that time I am also ready for a nap! At daycare, they have mandatory rest time. Most days he sleeps for about 2 hours, although there have been days that he has not slept at all. His teachers have said on the days he doesn't sleep that he is very good and will just lay on his mat and look around. The only possible drawback to his routine of taking a long nap is that it pretty much ties me to the house all afternoon on the weekends. I'm not really complaining though because I can get stuff like laundry done and just relax. I am praying that he continues to take good naps into the summer because I'm really going to need that time to catch up on sleep if I'm up 3, 4, 5 times a night with the baby.
• He's a pretty good eater. I try to give him pretty balanced meals and not go overboard on anything processed or sugary. He has some interesting tastes, to say the least. He is really not a fan of any kind of pasta or macaroni & cheese, but give the kid a few slices of ring bologna and he'll be your best friend. Similarly, ordinary vegetables like peas and green beans don't excite him, but he will most definitely ask for more black beans, kidney beans, and cooked carrots.
• Some of his favorites for breakfast include waffles, oatmeal, and Nutri-grain cereal bars. He also goes nuts over sausage.
• For lunch he usually has a grilled cheese or a quesadilla, peanut butter & jelly sandwich, or cut up bologna and cheese, some yogurt, and bananas or blueberries or raisins.
• His favorite dinner is chicken nuggets (but only the Wegman's brand for some reason), black or kidney beans, applesauce and Fig Newtons. He also eats pizza, meatballs, steak, lima beans, and french fries.
• We're working on getting rid of the binky. He goes all day at daycare without it but he knows where we keep it in the house and it is the first thing he grabs for when we walk in the door. I know we should be fully rid of it by the time he is two but I am terrified that taking it away from him will cause him to be fussy in public or ruin his amazing sleep habits. Part of me feels we should just do it cold turkey well in advance of when the baby arrives so that hopefully if he has withdrawal he will get it out of his system and get back to a normal routine in time for me to only have one kid who doesn't sleep. The other part of me feels selfish and thinks that it is important for me to sleep well now AND we have a good dentist in the family so I should just wait because no kid ever went to kindergarten with a pacifier. 
• He's become quite the talker. He knows the following words (half of them are not pronounced fully/correctly, but we know what he means):
• Mama, Dada
• Hi, Hello, Bye-Bye
• Uh-oh
• Baby
• Shoes/socks
• Cracker/Cookie
• Banana ("Nana")
• Doggie/Puppy
• Ball/Balloon (when we are at the grocery store and he sees balloons in the checkout line, he gets very excited and won't leave you alone until you grab him one...and then he makes you pry it out of his little hands when you are ready to leave so you don't have to buy it)
• Yum
• Please ("Peas")
• Car/Truck/Train ("choo choo")
• Blocks
• More
• Red/Green/Blue/Yellow, and he can correctly identify the colors in books, toys, etc.
• Moo (when asked what sound a cow makes....also sometimes when asked what sound a dog makes)
• Eye/nose (and points to the correct body part)
• He knows a few words in sign language and uses them regularly/appropriately:
• More
• All done/all gone
• Please
• Thank you
• His favorite toys right now are any kind of blocks (he especially likes the MegaBlocks), a few select books, cars & trucks, his train table, and these bowling pins that are shaped like animals (even though he does not understand the concept of bowling and really just likes to line them up and say what color they are). Thankfully, he's not overly impressed with noisy battery operated flashing lights and annoying songs toys. Or maybe it's just me that isn't impressed with them and therefore I really try to limit his use of them.
• He loves bath time and hates having his diaper changed. 
• He LOVES dogs and has no fear of them, although he definitely prefers big dogs to small dogs. He can spot dogs and balls from a mile away and it is usually the first word he says when we come downstairs in the morning. Sometimes it amazes me how patient our dogs are with him, especially Murphy, who used to be mean and scary any time Ryan or I would try to take anything out of his mouth. 

I don't know if you can hear it on this video, but he has recently acquired this devilish laugh that he uses very appropriately...such as when he is teasing the dog.