18 Month Photoshoot...

Alexander has been a bit tempermental lately. Most times he has his meltdowns when he's with me and just likes to scream & flail about. We knew going into this mini-photoshoot that it probably wouldn't go well as he was already starting to crash. But we figured we'd try it anyway...
Well, as you can tell from the pictures, the poor guy wanted nothing to do with this and we didn't really push it further...

18 Months...

18 Months...

Developmental:
-Meltdowns are continuing
-Gives great kisses & hugs
-Has 2 bottom teeth & 2 top tooth
-He takes direction very well, excellent at putting things away
-Eating with utensils
-He is great with stairs and is getting even better at going down them by walking (holding hands)
-Very good with brushing his teeth before bed and can tell if you're tried to trick him with no toothpaste
-Loves to put things in 'hiding' spots
-Uncanny ability to throw things
-Loves playing in the water
-Waves Hi & Bye
-Still a huge flirt
-Loves dogs & birds
-Knows exactly what I'm asking for when I say "go get your dinosaur book" or what his other books are
-He knows all of his body parts
-He screams, loudly, when he's excited
-Puts his hands up for "touchdown" or how big are you
-When we ask him to turn himself or something around he mimics my finger of spinning in a circle
-Loves to lick (people, food, things)

Vocab:
dada
mama
Ahh Daa (is his word for Please and potentially thank you)
up
apple
turtle
JoJo (His teacher's name is MaryJo)
Aiden (aah-den)
Hi
Moo
Quack Quack
woof woof
Yah
Bye
All done
All gone
baaaa (sheep noise)
New ones:
No
uh oh
baabaa
'ruck (I think this is truck)
Hat
Hot
hot dog
elbow
cup
ball
baby
pat

Animal Noises:
He knows what sounds the lion, cow, sheep, dog, duck, frog, elephant, & cat make.

Sleeping (hasn't changed except he's on a pattern of waking up on the early side):
-Wakes up around 5:30-6am every day, even on weekends
-Takes one nap in the afternoon, usually 2 hrs
-At home on the weekends, most times he takes his 2 hr nap in the late morning
-Asleep by 7:30pm each night (on average)

Clothes:
-12 Months and moving into 12-18 Months (Gap/Old Navy)
-18 Months pants are HUGE (length & waist) yet 18 Month shirts isn't that large (but wouldn't it figure that 12 month pants are too short and sometimes too tight in the tummy)
-Shoes: Size 3 or 4 depending on the shoe
-Diapers: moving into Pampers Size 4 Cruisers

Feeding (Really hasn't changed that much in a month):
-He drinks mainly milk or sometimes water from sippy cups
-Three meals a day: (typical menu for school)
--Breakfast: pancake, waffle, cereal bar or muffin with his sippy cup
--AM Snack: Cheerios & fruit (bananas or strawberries) or graham crackers
--Lunch: Grilled Cheese or Hot dog & cheese, applesauce and milk in sippy cup
--PM Snack: snack bar, fruit, graham crackers, or yogurt
--Dinner: the staples are: PB&J, Hot Dogs, Grilled Cheese, cheese pizza, egg but he will eat veggies & fruit in the Gerber containers (he loves to feed himself)
-- Does not like food with texture
--Loves to get out the bread from the fridge so he can have a slice

Likes:
Being outside, water, taking baths, Bubbles, going down slides, Singing ABCs, reading books, pushing his truck, playing blocks, saying Hi to the vaccum, being chased by Daddy, showing off that he knows his body parts, medicine, sweeping

Dislikes:
textured food, apparently Dr. M (poor guy)

18 Month Dr Appointment...

Alexander had his 18 Month Dr appointment today. Meltdown. That's the best word to describe it. It was only Alexander & Drew (Kate left the group/practice and we don't know where Lucas was) so it should have been pretty easy & lowkey.

At first, Alexander & Drew were playing just fine and sometimes with each other. Lee came in to get things started and we were filling her in with updates. Dr. M joined us shortly after. And then things changed. Alexander panicked. He started to cry and it quickly escalated to silent screams of hysteria. Both Dan & I tried to calm him down and although he wanted both of us to hold him, he was not able to calm down. Dan took him out of the room and he calmed down. After a bit, Dan brought him back in but Dr. M was not there so Alexander was fine. But Dr. M was just going out to get his scale & other tools. As soon as Dr. M walked back in the room, Alexander ran over, clung to my body and started to cry again. Poor little guy probably thought he was getting more shots.

And I've noticed that when Alexander is excited (happy, sad, upset, etc) and I'm holding him, he'll pinch me quite hard! I have the bruises to prove it.

Because they weren't getting shots, this was going to be quick especially with just two of them. Dr. M went over to Drew to check him out & weigh him. Drew was pretty good except for a little fuss at the scale part. This whole time Alexander is FREAKING out. We're talking meltdown to the Nth degree.

Dr. M comes over and asks me to hold him as best as I can. He checks his ears, chest, and measures his head. He checks his stomach and abdomen and said everything looks good. Alexander does have a slight cold (sniffles/congestion) but there's nothing in his chest and his ears look fine. Then it's time to weigh him. Yeah... Alexander was having no part of that! We tried and tried and tried. Nothing. The best weight we could get was 23lbs but that's what he was at his 15 Month appt (22 lbs 15 oz) so we're not going by that. Maybe sometime this week, I'll call Lee to see if I can pop in after work when Dr M has a patient so Alexander won't see him and try to weigh him that way.

Overall - an interesting experience but a major meltdown for the books!

18 Month Pictures...

Today we (Mommy, Alyson & Grammie) took Alexander to get his 18-Month photos taken. You would never know it by looking at these pictures but he wanted NO PART of sitting there, getting his picture taken, or god forbid posing! He wanted one of us to hold him, and then he would want someone else to hold him.

We tried all the tricks and nothing worked. The fact that we actually got 23 pictures total (we only picked 6 out of those 23) is remarkable because he was one fussy little guy. And the weird thing is that he had a great nap right before.

We took the first few shots of him sitting down and he was okay but then gave up quickly. Plus the photographer didn't seem all that patient. I'll never understand why a person who is not patient would work as a photographer for kids. Plus, she kept trying to pose him even though we said he won't pose and we don't really want the poses in the pictures. Finally he gave up. we agreed we'd take a break, walk around and come back to finish.

After our break, we came back and the original girl was on break (whew) so we got Michelle who was very nice. She was also patient with him and willing to help us out. Finally, Alexander found a basket of fake apples and was interested in those. So we decided to use them as props. He was much happier when he realized he could throw the apples around. We would put them on the ladder and he would throw them and then clap. Made for much better pictures...

I'm very happy with how they turned out especially considering he was being a nudge. Plus, he looks so cute and actually looks like himself (unlike his 12 month photoshoot). Enjoy...