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| e i g h t e e n m o n t h s |
Even though my blog has been long forgotten, I couldn't miss writing about my sweet Dylan at eighteen months old. I'm in disbelief that he's no longer a baby. We still give him a bottle (he never took one while nursing but we started giving him one when I weaned him a few months ago), rock him to sleep, call him the baby, I even found an old binky of Clark's and gave it to him the other day! It took him awhile but he got the hang of it and he looked so adorable sucking it! I just can't bear the thought of him growing up. I really haven't been making much of an effort to get him to talk, learn letters/colors/numbers, etc. because I honestly haven't felt like he's old enough for those things! I still think of him as a baby. He's started saying more words the past few weeks and it's SO weird to hear him talking! He has the sweetest little voice!
Even though we like to think Dylan's still a baby, he surely does not think so. Always trying to keep up with his big brother, Dylan picks up on things so quickly. Since he turned one, Dylan has learned to walk, run, feed himself, climb onto just about anything, use my phone (he's obsessed with coloring games and the PBS kids app), can match shapes with the shape sorter bucket, understands pretty much everything we say, and loves copying everything Clark does!
Clark and Dylan may be brothers but they are different in so many ways! I never have and still do not think they look a thing alike. I think Dylan looks like a combination of my mom and Mark and Clark looks like my dad and me. Dylan is fearless, wild, messy and carefree. Clark is safe, careful, clean and likes things to be just so. One thing they have in common: their love for cars!
eighteen month stats:
weight: 23 lbs. (43rd percentile)
length: 34.5 in. (98th percentile)
head circ: 19.25 in. (48th percentile)
He's just like Clark at this age, tall and skinny!
♥ ♥ ♥
f i r s t s
♥ 3.19.19 Cotton candy
♥ 3.20.19 Dentist appt. - Dyl was so brave! He let them clean his teeth, floss, and was so cooperative. Can't say the same about Clark's last appt.....
♥ 4.4.19 Surgery - Dylan had a small tear duct procedure done on his left eye, which has been dripping since the day he was born. When he was born, he breathed in lots of amniotic fluid and those first few months he had lots of trouble breathing. Normally, the tear duct clears on its own by the baby's 1st birthday but Dylan's eye showed no signs of improvement so we had the surgery done and I'm sad to say his eye still drips, though maybe not as much? Not sure if we are going to try again because now he's too old to do it in the office so we'd have to take him to the hospital and put him under.
♥ 4.23.19 Started walking - Dylan has been taking steps since he turned one but didn't officially start walking as his main method of getting around until one random day when he just suddenly stopped crawling! We had gone outside to eat lunch and I set up the playpen for him and he was practicing walking from one side to the other and later that day he started walking more. The next day he was done crawling!
♥ 5.1.19 - Started giving kisses! Dyl is the most loving boy, he will give kisses to anyone who asks for one and I get kisses all day long! Whenever I'm working or distracted, he will randomly come sit in my lap, grab my cheeks and move my face to his and kiss me on the lips for 5-10 seconds!! He is going to make some girl very happy someday but right now that girl is me ;)
♥ 5.24.19 Tricycle ride - He absolutely loved it!!
♥ 5.24.19 Meeting Poppy
♥ 5.31.19 Playing @ Urban Air - Technically, we took him when he was about 10 months old but he couldn't do very much. He had so much fun but was also a little overwhelmed!
♥ 6.26.19 Zoo trip!
♥ 7.4.19 4th of July Parade
♥ 7.9.19 Meeting the cow at Chick-Fil-A
f a v o r i t e s
At eighteen months, here are a few of Dylan's favorite things:
eating, GoGo Squeeze pouches, fruit snacks, sleeping in, playing outside, pretending to drive, climbing, water play, my phone, Word Party, Elmo, dancing, being loud, Let it Go, Ariel, making messes, being chased, being read to, his bunny, cars, Clark, ME!
e a t
He's still our wonderful eater but the hard thing is getting him to sit still to eat. This child has SO much energy! The only time we really put him in his high-chair is for breakfast and he only lasts 5-10 minutes before begging to get out. The rest of the day I don't even bother. I either try to get him to eat at the little kids' table (he usually ends up climbing all over it while I feed him) or he will just eat in between running in circles around the house. It's honestly just easier for me that way, except for the trail of crumbs he leaves behind. He also has this obsession with carrying a piece of food in his hand (as if to save it) while running around the house. He never actually eats it and finally I have to just take it from him, resulting in a meltdown.
This boy loves his juice like no other! He really loves drinks in general. He always has his sippy cup in hand and is sneaking Clark's whenever he can. We still give him a bottle of milk at morning and night (even though he never took one as a baby) but we are trying to quit that, especially since Clark always wants one too.
Both of these boys LOVE sugar. Wonder who they got that from??? They can spot candy a mile away and all of their favorite foods are full of sugar (cereal, oatmeal, granola bars, yogurt, fruit, juice). Dylan will eat a variety of foods though and likes pretty much everything!
Dylan's palate at 18 months:
♥ fruits - apples (loves carrying them around with him), bananas, grapes, cuties, peaches, pineapple, pears...I don't know a fruit he doesn't like!
♥ veggies - loves salad and carrots! He will even eat raw veggies and likes them!
♥ breakfast - cereal and milk, yogurt, smoothies, oatmeal, waffles
♥ lunch - turkey/ham sandwiches, PBJ's, Lunchables, Pizza, Mac 'n Cheese, Chicken nuggets, anything!
♥ dinner - whatever we're eating!
♥ snacks - GoGo Squeezes (he's obsessed!), teddy grahams, vanilla yogurt raisins, goldfish, granola bars, crackers, ritz pb sandwiches, Fruit pouches
s l e e p
Our angel sleeper!! Dylan takes the best naps (2-3 hours) and sleeps from about 8/8:30 pm until 8:30/9 am every morning. Sometimes he sleeps later (if he goes to bed later). He did have a minor sleep regression a few weeks ago that lasted about 10 days where he would cry minutes after being put down and want me to come back and rock him. So I would and after 5 minutes or so, I'd put him back down and half the time he would go to sleep. The other half he would get up and cry again. It was pretty bad for a few nights (he would wake up around 11 and cry until 2 am if we left) so Mark slept in there one night and the other night we let him cry himself to sleep. But now he's back to normal!
p l a y / d e v e l o p m e n t
Dylan's really lucky because Clark didn't have anyone to play with when he was his age but Dylan has a built-in best friend. Sometimes it's easier with the two of them because they play together but they also fight like crazy! Dylan is a little instigator, he loves pushing Clark's buttons and it's like he gets a thrill from upsetting him. He will storm in and knock over Clark's carefully built lego tower, climb up on his Cars table and throw all the tracks off, mess up his perfectly lined up cars, and crash down his magna tile buildings in an instant! This of course sends Clark into tears and Dylan will come running out with a wicked grin! The little devil!
Most of the time Dylan drives me and Clark absolutely crazy! He is just nonstop, a walking disaster and is always getting into trouble! Clark has always been really good about playing by himself. He loves doing puzzles, playing with his cars, doing lego's, playing grocery store, etc. But Dylan is always finding a way to make Clark miserable. I joke with Clark that we're going to sell him to the circus and so then sometimes when Clark gets mad at him after he's messed something up he cries, "I want to sell Dylan to the circus!" in between tears! But just when I think I can't possibly take it anymore, Dylan will come up to me, crawl in my lap and give me a couple of long kisses. Then he'll grin at me with that sparkly smile and those scrunchy, twinkling eyes and I fall in love with him all over again!
Even though they bring so much chaos into my life and some days I feel like locking myself in the bathroom and eating cookies all day, these two boys bring me SO much joy and happiness. They give my life purpose and meaning, they are the sweetest little souls and they love me with all their heart. I am the luckiest mama to have them and while I'm not sure we'll be having any more (at least not anytime soon), I wish I could keep them this way forever.
