Vince at 17.5 months

Vince is a completely different baby than he was 2 months ago. I am in awe at his developments.

As far as physical development goes, for the past month he has been able to get up and down the stairs with no problem so we took down the gates. He walks 75% of the time and crawls about 25%, usually when he's unsure of the terrain or when he's experiencing social anxiety with unfamiliar people watching him. He also struggles to keep his balance when wearing shoes. It's been interesting to watch him ease into walking over the past 2 months. I didn't start allowing him to self-feed with a spoon until we moved to our new place at the end of April because our old dining room was carpeted. Now, that we have tile I let him loose with a bowl full of yogurt or applesauce. He still gets quite a bit of it in areas other than his mouth but, he's improved since the end of April.

My boys wearing chacabanas at Tybee- perfect attire for a beach wedding (John & Tara's)!

His ability to communicate has sky-rocketed! Signs he knows: dog, cat, bird, bath, butterfly, horse, bear, car, star, more, please, eat, cheese, thank you, flower, sleep, sad, hurt, shoes, fish, dada, hat, water (using 1 finger instead of 3), ball, train (not perfect but, I recognize it), baby, hot (this is Savannah in the summer! He signs this and says it whenever we get into our 120 degree car after it's been sitting in the sun), brush teeth, bug (not perfect but, I recognize it), and airplane. That's 30! I would have been shocked to know he could do 30 signs right now 3 months ago!

Words he can say: dada, mama, azure, babo (globo/balloon, bubbles), tweet-tweet (bird), all done, ma (more), ut-oh, eat, cheese, please, thank you, flahw-flahw (flower), no, I don (I don't- think he got this one from Azure. He hates getting his diaper changed. 90% of the time he cries and tries to roll off the changing table. "I don" is what he chants during most diaper changes. It's always a wrestling match with a lot of screaming. Not my favorite thing to do), Hi (this is usually accompanied by a wave), at (hot & hat), teeth, ball, and Gi-Gi (Jesus). 20 words.

Directly in front of his high chair is a pic of the Newport Beach temple. He has learned to put his little fingers together like a spire and sing, "I" in perfect pitch with "I love to see the temple". I switch between singing that song and "I am a child of God" to him every night before bed. He instantly recognizes those songs and "Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam". It's so fun to see his face light up when we start to sing them.

I am still nursing him 2x a day. In the mornings and before bed. My original plan was to omit the morning feeding and just keep the bedtime feeding around 18 months but, there is something so special about waking up to him in the morning, sometimes groggy myself, to just sit in the quiet darkness of his room and glide together in the glider. He is so serene when he first wakes up and he looks up at me with such love and trust with his big, beautiful blue eyes. I'm not ready to give that up. So, I'm not.

Since we still only have one car we've done a lot of dropping Daddy off and picking him up from the hospital where he's doing his residency. It also happens to be the hospital that Vince was born in. As soon as we pull into the parking lot, Vince always says, "Dada!" and sometimes does the accompanying sign. He's beginning to recognize places outside our home.

He has a keen sense of awareness and is a great listener. He will frequently sign words that he overhears me saying to Azure. For example, a couple days ago Azure asked for something and I told her she needed to say please. Immediately Vince said, "Peas!" and did the sign. Azure followed suite.

Nicknames: Chunk(a)-monk(a), Chunk (this is what Azure calls him most of the time and it makes us laugh for 2 reasons. 1) It's the name of that kid on Goonies and 2) He's really not that chunky), Chubba, Vincey.

He is improving in his social development as well. It takes him awhile to warm up but, once he does he interacts well with both children his age and adults. He has gotten a lot more independent the last few months which I am so grateful for! He can play upstairs in his room alone for up to 20 mins while Azure & I are downstairs. Yesterday we went to the soft play in the mall and he did pretty well playing with the other kids there.

He now has 11 teeth. 4 molars (2 on top, 2 on bottom), top front 4, 2 bottom, and number 11 in just this week (bottom left incisor? tooth).

He has his 18 mo checkup in 2 wks. After that I'll update this post with his height and weight.

I love this stage of increased independence!