Colin at 18 Months

Do you remember before you had kids how parents would tell you that being a parent is fun?  And then you would see them and their life looked anything BUT fun?  I get it now.  It is fun!  No, I don't think anyone can convince me or other parents that the crying and the diapers and the food thrown at me is fun, but I tell you, their little personalities are.

Colin is pretty much the most hilarious kid ever!  He is constantly making us laugh and I can't believe how much personality is squeezed into his little body.  

To bore you all to tears and for posterity's sake, let me tell you all about Colin at 18 months:

• Colin can "say" lots of words now: mama, dada, nana, papa, saycee (Stacie), daddy (doggy/daddy), gampa (grampa), gamma (grandma), tank tyoo (thank you), dis (this), dat (that), no, inee (Indy the dog), baba (baby), hehee (kitty) 
• Colin can make some animal sounds on command: moo, siss (snake sound), woof (more like an intake of breath), oink (kind of like a soft snort), cock a hoo hoo (cock a doodle doo).  We are working on meowing, but most of the time he just repeats "kitty!" 
• We are working on his body parts, and so far he can point to his nose and put his hands on his head when asked.
• Colin is a climber and can climb over and under and all around pretty much anything within reason...his most recent conquest is learning how to climb into his high chair.
• Colin loves to read and constantly brings "dis" for us to read.
• He pretty much understands most of what we say and his favorite things to hear are "Daddy's home" (he runs to the garage door), "Let's get the mail" (runs to the front door), "Let's go!" (runs to the garage door), "Let's go outside" (runs to the back door), "Let's play upstairs" (runs to the stairs), "Go get your shoes" (runs to find his shoes), and "Let's take a bath" (runs to our room).
• Colin loves to play with phones and jabbers nonsense into them whenever he can.
• Colin loves to Facetime/Skype with his grandparents.
• Colin is still a fan of peekaboo.  When he really gets going, he runs behind the wall and peeks out every few seconds.  If he is playing while sitting he still grabs the side of his head instead of covering his eyes.
• Colin has opinions!  When I ask him questions, he can answer me with the cutest and sweetest little no, or point and smile for a yes.  He knows how to nod his head, but he hasn't connected it with a meaning yet.
• He has definite separation anxiety!  We leave him with babysitters ever other week or so and he is just fine, but he is not a fan of nursery at church.  We are working on getting him in there amidst the screaming and crying.
• He is learning how to dance.  When he hears a song that he likes he does this squatty, jumpy dance that is so adorable!
• His favorite TV shows are Jungle Junction, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and Little Einsteins.
• He likes TV and movies, but only when they are happy shows...when the music get scary, he starts to curl away from the screen and grip you harder. 
• He is a shameless self-promoter and claps whenever he does something he deems worthy of praise.
• He has pretty awesome temper tantrums that include banging his head on the ground/couch followed by lots of tears as he inevitably hurts himself.
• Colin loves basketball!  If people are playing on the court at the park, he tries to go and join them.  We bought him a small hoop and he LOVES when he gets to play with daddy.
• Speaking of daddy, Colin pretty much copies whatever he does...good or bad.
• He is doing so much better with eating!  He loves cottage cheese, string cheese, hot dogs, pasta, chicken, beef, pork, rice, peas, grapes, fruit loops, fishy crackers, fruit snacks, and watermelon.
• He is pretty good about using a spoon and fork and can successfully feed himself a bowl of cottage cheese for breakfast.
• He has finally figured out how to use a straw!  It only took the motivation of sharing some of my In 'N Out chocolate shake to make it happen!
• He is down to one nap, but still sleeps a solid 12 hours at night (8:30pm-8:30am) allowing lots of mornings for me to sleep in!
• He loves to ride in the car and run errands.  He is a total flirt with all the ladies he passes and makes sure to flash them a huge smile while he pretends to get shy and embarrassed.
• He falls all the time!  This is one clumsy kiddo :)
• He loves to assert his independence in walking on his own when we are out...of course this then leads to more falling!
• He wants to walk up and down stairs instead of crawling (again, more falling!).
• He still likes to keep all the doors shut. This probably stems from the fact that we keep the doors shut so he can't get in places (like the bathroom, laundry room, or pantry) and so when he sees one that is usually shut, open, he has to close it.
• His favorite toys right now are his balls and his lawn mower (which can double as a pretend vacuum cleaner!)
• He demands your full attention and will often grab your face when you check your blackberry (Kevin!)
• I have assigned Colin chores.  Colin is in charge of picking up mom's pillows to put on her bed when she is making it, he pushes the laundry baskets around the house to put clean clothes away, he puts trash in the trash can (we are trying to channel his love of throwing things away), he pushes the buttons on the washing machine for mom, and he is learning to put his toys away.

And now for his stats:

31 lbs (98th percentile)

34 in (98th percentile)