18 Months!
As much as I hate to admit it, my baby Aiden is now more boy than baby. The leaps in development he has taken from his first birthday to 18 months are staggering. First, the physical: here are the stats. He has come up a little to the 75th percentile in weight and 80th in height. His head, however, is holding steady in the healthy 90th percentile. He almost has a full set of teeth with the last four canines coming in all at the same time (he's still missing his 2-year molars.) Getting new teeth is about as fun as chewing rusty nails. My Aiden Elijah has beautiful, soft (almost imperceptible to the touch) golden blonde hair and stormy blue eyes. With full lips and a cleft chin, he's already making the toddler girls swoon.
Aiden sleeps about twelve hours a night without a break, and then usually takes about a 2-3 hour nap in the afternoon. Sometimes this even coordinates with Liam's occasional nap. Those are good days. He wears 24 month or 2T clothes and size 6W shoes. He wears a size 5 diaper, and is in cloth half of the time. His skin is so sensitive that he breaks out in a terrible rash if I put him in diapers with chlorine (why do diapers have chlorine anyway?!) So, we buy the expensive, natural, corn-fiber ones that are made in Sweden. Nothing but the best. I've gotten over my disgust of washing soiled cloth diapers. Sort of. I mean, it saves money, and the earth I guess. Okay, it's pretty gross.
Aiden's little personality is shining through in full force these days. He is so different from his big brother, but loves him nonetheless! One time, Liam left the room and Aiden pointed to him and told Grammy, "Liam. Budder (brother). More." The boy knows what he wants, and he's not afraid to say it. The fact that he is putting complete thoughts together in words at this age is pretty amazing. You should hear him sing The Itsy Bitsy Spider. It's pretty dang good. At this point, I have no idea how many words he knows and can say; it's in the hundreds. His little mind is a sponge. If you tell him a new word, he'll likely remember it. By the way, in case you were wondering, 2-50 words is considered "normal" at this stage.
Aiden's latest interests include but are not limited to: dancing the flamenco, listening to music with a good beat, pressing buttons, yelling "hi!" and "bye!" at friends and strangers, climbing things, HappyTots, frozen smoothie pops, putting things in containers and removing them (over and over), copying Liam, playing trains, stomp-rocket, blocks, pushing his bear around in a stroller, watching Preschool Prep to learn his "words," counting to ten ("one, two, four, five, six, sehnin, eight, nine, eight, nine, eight, nine…), pumpkins ("kunkin!"), telling me if things are quiet or loud (he covers his ears if they're loud), hard or soft, or on or off, reading books (he knows the last word of every page of his favorite books), sleeping, his "B," calling Grammy ("Mimi") on the phone, FaceTime, elephants ("phent!"), the animal flashcards iPhone app, coloring, visiting Liam at Preschool, playing piano with Mamma and snuggling. Yes, he's a professional snuggler.
Aiden does NOT like when people he loves leave the room (saying goodbye makes him very nervous), when girls half his size borrow his toys, most food right now (teething), when Liam yells at him, when Mamma or Dadda washes his face and hands after a meal, well-child exams, getting shots, getting out of the bath, brushing his teeth, or basically anything that involves personal hygiene…Oh, and nursery. He has a deep, deep HATRED for nursery. What kind of baby doesn't like nursery?!
Every month or so, Aiden starts to do something repeatedly that cracks us up. I MUST remember to record these things because they are gone just as soon as they appear! The latest is when Aiden makes his bears "talk" to each other. He starts using this darling growly-talky voice and faces two bears toward each other, as if they are having a bear conversation. They usually end up hugging each other. My favorite times are when I catch Aiden doing this on the video baby monitor. Hilarious!
The Discovery Gateway Children's Museum is probably his favorite place if he could tell me. It is a virtual land of discovery, and he thrives on an adventure. Everything is SO interesting!
For the past six months or so, Aiden has been plagued with a harmless but irritating condition called Molluscum Contagiosum, or water warts in layman's terms. It basically means he has little bumps all over his body that spread if touched (wash your hands if you encounter them!). They will run their course and eventually die out, but in the meantime, I have to dab a melaluca/iodine mixture on each wart until they dissipate. Dr. Terry helped me research holistic treatments since the typical response by the mainstream medical community is that there is nothing to be done; just let them run their course. Zymaderm is the answer! It is definitely accelerating the death of these darn warts, and now Dr. Terry recommends it to all of her patients with MC. One thing is sure: I love this little boy, warts and all.
We are so blessed to have Aiden in our family. I can't remember life without him. He is an angel and quite frankly, the easiest baby on the planet. Sometimes after Wes and I put the boys to sleep at night, we pour over pictures of them, as if the separation between night and morning is just too much to bear. He is sweetness embodied! I love you, kunkin!
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