18 Months

This week was Zeke's 18 month birthday. 18 months! Today, he is closer to age two than he is age one. Wow...where has the time gone? Here is a little bit of what he is up to lately:

He doesn't say much, but communicates very well. He signs for "more" and says "moe" whenever he wants anything. If he is hungry, he goes to the table and prays.

It is a constant battle to keep him out of the cupboards, off the counter, out of the toilet, you name it. When he is awake, he is a tornado. He leaves a path....

  

It takes our whole family to keep track of him and keep him safe. He is an incredible climber and is always standing on or scaling across something. 

He can go up and down the stairs by himself and is favorite place to play is downstairs with the big boy toys.  Zeke mimicks his big brothers and with all his great role models, has grown up faster than any one of us liked. He is less and less a baby and more and more a toddler every day. 

He absolutely lights up when he sees his brothers. He especially loves it when they come wake him up in the morning.....and LOVES it when Eli crawls in bed and jumps with him.

 

Zeke knows what you mean when you ask him to get his shoes. He knows to get his socks out of his drawer after he gets dressed. He carries shoes around the house and gives them to the right person. He doesn't have a lot of real words yet, but he jabbers sentences. He chewed a little girl out in church last week....we just don't know what he said! It was pretty funny.

The words he says are:
E-eye
I-zik
Ba (every time he sees a ball - football, baseball, basketball, doesn't matter)
Mmm- my (mine)
pu pee (puppy)
dog
pa pa
ma ma
da da
no no
uh oh
moe  (more)
pee (and grabs his diaper when we ask if he needs clean pants....I wish that meant he was ready to use a big boy potty!) 
I am sure there are more, but I can't think of them right now. It's not a ton...but the words he says are clear and consistent.

Zeke loves to perform for us. He is goofy and thrives off of people laughing at him. The boys say over and over, "He's the smartest/funniest/cutest baby they have ever seen". They adore him as much as he adores them.

Zeke is strong willed and stubborn. When he doesn't get his way he throws himself on the floor and throws real-life tantrums.

He doesn't like his high chair and would prefer to eat where the big boys eat. I think this is going to be an ongoing battle between Zeke and I....me trying to keep him my baby and him trying to be a big boy!

 

Zeke, you are so sweet and so challenging. I understand that you want to be a big boy...but could you please slow down. I am not sure where these past 18 months have gone....we love you so much!