Third Person: 18 Months!

The young Maio gentleman hit the 18 month mark earlier in May. To date my least favorite stretch of parenting is the 12-24 month range, so we're half way through! Although certainly full of precious moments, adorable expressions of love and warmth, and the squeezable baby fat still hanging around, I do find the 12-24 month child's desire to express themselves mixed with the inability to comprehend when mom says no occasionally a wee taxing.

That said, Luke continues to generally steal all of our hearts with his sweet disposition and charisma. He is as busy as ever, pushing any toy he can maneuver, climbing like a monkey, and speeding away on the Harley (new favorite game: attempt toddlercide by zooming into the street while laughing like a maniac). I won't say he's no fear, but he is definitely unfazed by falling, tripping, or having more goose eggs in 18 months than his sister had in four years.

About two weeks before his tubes went in, L's vocab finally started to emerge. Since then he's added a new word every day. Current lexicon includes all your not-very-articulate-but-we-still-know-what-you-mean toddler basics: mommy, dada, GG, up, down, baby, ball, help, yes, no, uh-oh, hi, bye-bye, night night, (ba)nana, etc. He can identify all of his body parts (my personal fave is "where's your butt butt butt? it gets a laugh every time) and while he won't say most animal's names he will do what they say. Our favorites though are the way he says more (a crescendo of mooooooooooOOOOOOOE!) and please (peech).

Luke is growing more attached to his security items, specifically his Puppy Fussy and his burp rags, aka chewy. He and his chewy are like a dog and his bone; one is always chomping on the other. And at night as soon as I throw those on my shoulder he lays his head right down. Do not confuse this with actually going to sleep. He'll sit and blab away in his crib for at least half an hour before giving up. The boy is an early riser and if we make it to six bells I'm thrilled to death. The young prince requires a cup of milk and a banana immediately upon waking, so I'm buying bananas by the truckload these days. He's a good eater in terms of variety but isn't huge in volume. Translation: we're still in the 90th % for height at 34" and the 30th % for weight at a mere 24 lbs 3 oz.

He has seemed to bounce back well from his surgery a few weeks ago. We are fighting some blocked tear ducts so the little dude looks like he's about to cry all the time. Hopefully one more round of antibiotic drops kills it because fighting him at 18 months to work that goo out of there is a lot different than at 8 days (the first time he was on these drops).

At 18 months Lukie is often a snuggly and charming little bookworm. But our little lad is also a hard core brut who loves to wrestle. If G is sitting on the floor coloring or reading, it's guaranteed that he will sit on her head. He'll try to push her over in the tub. He'll purposely crack his melon right in to my clavicle when I'm holding him - because that feels good for everyone involved. He and daddy spend every night wrestling before bed, and it's happened more than once that Luke will put his hands behind his head and with all of his little might just CRUSH his skull right in to Matt's chest. Then he'll laugh - either his "Eddie" laugh from Friends (Chandler's roommate), or his full on HA HA HA. There is a serious caveman streak in there. He gets it from his father.