A year and a half old. I can't believe it. But I think I have said that about both my boys each time they hit a new age. Garrett turned 18 months old on April 27, 2016.
Here's all the things going on with G-Money at 18 months:
Diapers
He's in size 4 and I don't forsee him going to a 5 anytime soon, but we'll have to see I guess.
Diapers
He's in size 4 and I don't forsee him going to a 5 anytime soon, but we'll have to see I guess.
Shoe Size
I took Carter to Sikes in Homewood for the first time and they were kind enough to also measure Garrett since I hadn't officially measured him yet. He's a 5 1/2 Wide, just like big bro was at this age. Carter is also still rockin' the wide foot. Hopefully we'll grow out of that by elementary school.
**Garrett LOVES to stack things and he's really good at it. He's been stacking blocks from a young age. He loves to knock stuff over after he stacks it up.**
Clothes
Garrett is solely in 18 month clothes right now. I doubt we're going to be buying this kid any clothes any time soon! Evidently mommy bought Carter a gigantic amount of clothes at 18 months so Garrett probably has more 18 month clothes than I have in my entire closet.
Sleep
I discussed in his 15 month post how he was still taking two naps a day and really needed them. He stayed on 2 naps a day until about 16 1/2 months and then we forced him down to one to make life easier with both boys taking one nap at the exact same time. He transitioned pretty well. He still goes to bed around 7-7:30pm at night and wakes up anywhere from 7-8am. Every now and again he'll wake up at 6:30 but is able to entertain himself with the stuffed animals in his crib or the mobile that makes music.
Feeding
The perfect eating baby. Period. He eats everything! And he's gotten really good at using a fork too. Sometimes I have to put the food on the fork and then give him the fork and then he'll put it into his mouth. Depending on the food, he can sometimes put the food on the fork himself. In his 15 month post I mentioned he was developing some preferences but he's moved past those. He used to only eat blueberries and bananas as fruits but now he loves strawberries and peaches. I haven't tried grapes yet. I'm sure he'd love them, but grapes make me nervous. He's gotten back on the veggie bandwagon and eats his peas and corn and green beans. Those three are usually the main ones we eat in our house. I need to do better about making both boys eat carrots. Carter likes carrots so I need to go buy some and make sure they are getting that veggie as well.
**These pictures are from Easter. How handsome are my kids?!?!**
Unlike his big bro, he loves bread. Things he typically eats are peanut butter sandwiches, cheese quesadillas, grilled cheese, turkey meat, string cheese, yogurt, lots of those Gerber Graduate meals, Spaghetti O's, applesauce, various pouches, corn, green beans, ham, fish sticks, chicken nuggets, etc. I could probably go on with this list for a while. He really is a good eater! A big difference between him and Carter when it comes to eating is textures. Carter is a meat and three kind of guy. He likes three separate pieces of food. For example, ham and green beans and blueberries. He refuses things mixed together like pasta or casseroles. Garrett loves that kind of stuff.
**Garrett is just like brother and always wants a placemat, even though he's allowed to have food directly on his highchair table-unlike brother who must use a plate on top of the placemat. But regardless, Garrett always wants to be like brother and have a placemat. In the picture above, Garrett is saying his blessing. He knows it's what we do before we eat therefore he's associated the placemat with the blessing. He can't actually say the words yet, but he puts his hands together and kind of jabbers as if he were trying to say it. A for effort!!**
Mother's Day Out
Garrett loves school and his teachers love him. I always ask how he was when I pick him up and they all say the same thing "that baby always has a good day-he's always so happy!". Garrett loves food so much that he is frequently the "vacuum" after the kids in his class eat. When everyone's done with their meals, Garrett gets the leftovers. You'd think I don't feed him enough but I swear I do! We only have 2 weeks of school left and then we're all done for this year. But luckily, both boys are attending Saint Mark's Summer Fun program so they'll have two weeks at home with me but then they'll go back to school four days a week for three weeks. Two weeks at home and this mama will be ready for them to go back and so will they. They love playing with friends and toys they don't have at home so both boys really do love school.
Still doing the same things we always do. Playing in the backyard outside if it's pretty. He loves to get in his little blue car or Carter's "4 by X" as he calls it (it's a toy 4x4). Garrett likes to ride in both of these toys around the culdesac next to our house. Lately I've been putting them both in the radio flyer wagon and walking them around the circle in our neighborhood. Garrett loves to be outside just like his brother does. He still loves to be read to as well. He enjoys sitting in your lap and listening to you read books to him. He loves cars. Possibly because of how much Carter loves cars and how many cars are all over our house. He and Carter love playing with cars together. Just like Carter when he was this age, Garrett doesn't do a lot of TV watching unless he's strapped in the car seat. He doesn't like standing still long enough to watch much. He really likes the Barney song as well as the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse hot dog song. You're likely to catch him dancing to either of these.
**This is one of his favorite toy cars and it's really one that Carter got for his birthday. When you press the button it plays music and Garrett dances to it.**
Garrett still doesn't really talk a ton. I was concerned about this because at this age Carter was basically talking small sentences. At his 18 month appointment I talked about it with the doc and he said he's not at all worried and that Garrett is right on track. It's just hard for me to see that because my only comparison is Carter and Carter is really advanced for his age now just like he was at 18 months old. Garrett's definitely the observer whereas Carter is the talker. Carter just yap yap yap yap yap's away. He could talk to a brick wall. Garrett just prefers to sit back and listen and observe. I'll probably be appreciative of this later. Garrett can say about 15 or so words and he tries to say more all the time so he is working on it. He's just not a talker like Carter is.
We are working on body parts and Garrett has shown us his head, tummy and ear before. But he just doesn't do it every time you ask. He hates performing. Justin and I can tell he understands pretty much everything he sees and hears, he's just choosing to not show us that he understands it right that minute. When you say that it's time for dinner or lunch, Garrett will walk right to the highchair. When you say bath, he goes right to the bathroom and when you say bedtime he heads to the stairs. So he knows exactly what is being said. The doc told me about how speech pathologists look for two things: 1) receptive and 2) expressive. They're more concerned with receptive than they are with expressive. And Garrett is extremely receptive and knows exactly what you're saying to him and what it means. He is just not an expressive kind of guy. Doc said this may just be his personality.
Statistics
At his 18 month appointment, Garrett was measured at 31 inches (10%) and weighed 24lbs, 9oz (55%). He got one shot and after that one shot, Garrett is done with shots until he's 4. Minus the annual flu shot, that is. Carter demanded to go with us to this appointment because he wanted to be there for his brother when he got shots. And he was. He told him "it's ok Garrett, we're about to go home! You're almost done!" So sweet.
**This was at the McWane Center in the Itty Bitty City section. My boys love cars so much!!**
Teething
I have lost track, to be honest. Garrett has gotten all of his teeth except his two year molars. I know he had about 7 coming in while we were in Disney but all those came in and then a month or so later, he got four more. So when I look at his mouth now, it's full of teeth. One of the ones on the bottom left is already cut but still making it's way in now. Garrett's never been one to show pain during teething though. Thank the Lord!!!
Garrett's next appointment is at 2 years old! He's growing fast and time is flying by so much quicker with him than it did with Carter. Probably because I'm so busy with two whereas Carter got all the attention when it was just him. As much as the boys love to play together, they do fight over things and this is a new development within the last month or so. Carter pretty much understands sharing and the concept of "he has a turn then you get a turn", but Garrett does NOT understand that so that's the struggle we deal with now. I have to constantly make sure I'm not taking advantage of Carter and making him surrender his turns to his brother because then he will grow to not like playing with him and always having to make concessions for him because "he's the baby". So I'm doing my best to teach Garrett these things and force them to both follow the same set of rules. Hopefully Garrett will begin to understand it more as he gets older.
That's all I got for now with my sweet youngest boy. Life is an adventure with them both but I love it!!
