18 Months Old!

Matthew & Claire are 18 months old!  They’re starting to learn their ABCs and numbers.  They both say lots of words and can associate most words that they know with the actual object.  They both just recently put two words together.  At about 16 months Claire started saying “uh-oh doggie” and last week Matthew said “bye-bye Dada” when Jeremy was leaving for work.

Matthew recently discovered “dip” and enjoys dipping anything and everything that he eats.  He’s very interested in anything and everything mechanical.  He can hear or see an airplane a mile away and will point and say “airplane”.  He loves to watch out the window when Jeremy mows the lawn.  Matthew loves things with wheels and will point out and say very clearly “wheel”. 

Claire loves to read books and will happily flip the pages and “read” to herself.  She says so many words and says them very clearly so that even people that aren’t around her all the time know what she’s saying.  She even says some really tough ones like “monkey” and “ladybug”.   Claire also loves buckles.  She is constantly trying to buckle the seatbelts on the stroller and pointing out anything that has a buckle. 

Recently, I bought them a few kids’ CDs for the car.  Immediately when we get into the car, Claire requests “E-I-E-I-O” so that I’ll play Old McDonald.  They both love it and Claire will sing along to the part that repeats “E-I-E-I-O”.   

We also recently discovered sidewalk chalk.  Jeremy thinks this is the greatest invention ever because they can write all they want and not mark up our walls, etc in the house.  The kids love using different colors and drawing pictures and letters all over the driveway.  They frequently ask us to draw certain things, mostly letters and numbers.

At their 18 month well baby check up, Matthew weighed 24 lbs (25~50^th percentile) and is 33 ½” tall (50~75^th percentile), Claire weighed 21 lbs (5~10^th percentile) and is 32” tall (50^th percentile).  The doctor said they’re right on track with their development and he liked how much they talked and how well they interacted with each other and with me and Jeremy.  Matthew now has 14 teeth; he has all 8 in the front, 4 molars and 2 bottom eye teeth.  Claire has 12 teeth; she has all 8 in the front and 4 molars.

Matthew continues to be our picky eater, he eats really well if it’s a food he likes, but definitely lets us know what his preferences are.  He loves yogurt, cheese, cut up fruit, carrots and is starting to like chicken a little bit.  Claire is our more adventurous eater.  She will try just about anything off mine or Jeremy’s plates.  She doesn’t have too many foods that she doesn’t like.  She likes all kinds of cooked veggies (carrots, green beans, asparagus, etc), she loves cut up fruit and bananas, yogurt, eggs, and most types of meat that we cook for dinner. 

18 months is a really fun age, they’ve learned so much over the last few months, they talk up a storm and it seems like they’re learning something new every day.