Daniel - 18 Months Old

Well, we've made it 18 months without a trip to the emergency room (for Daniel that is). He still loves to climb on everything but seems to be listening a little bit better. Except when it comes to opening the dishwasher. He LOVES to open the dishwasher. Not sure if it's because he knows he will get my attention or he just enjoys opening and closing it. The other day I found him like this:

Since he had a piece of string cheese in his hand the dog was keeping a close eye on him. At least the dishwasher was clean.

In terms of his speech, it hasn't progressed too much in the last month. He likes to babble a lot but hasn't really added any new words to his vocabulary. I'm trying to encourage him to speak more but he doesn't seem to get it just yet. He is a boy after all, so I really can't compare him to Allison. Actually, even if he was a girl I couldn't compare him to Allison because she talks more than most adults I know. Although at that age she was only saying single words too. He still says, mommy, dada, Riley, cheese, nana (banana), bye, ball, bath, sock, shoe and milk.

He loves walking and isn't too keen on sitting in the stroller unless he's really tired. It makes for quite a scene when were in a parking lot and I have to get him into a stroller. Probably sounds like I'm torturing my poor child. He definitely has a temper but luckily he doesn't get mad too often. He's a pretty laid back kid.

He's still attached to mommy (or daddy if he's the one watching him). At least now he is okay with me being in a different room for a few minutes (even though he usually follows me) but if there are any visitors in our house, he has to be right by my side. He is very slow to warm up to people. Hopefully he will eventually come out of his shell like Allison did (at age 2 1/2) but I guess we'll have to wait and see.

All in all, Daniel is a very happy kid who loves to play with his sister and his dog Riley. People often tell me how lucky I am to have a little boy who will just sit on a chair and eat a snack or stand and watch everything going on around him. He's definitely a watcher who just likes to take it all in.

Happy 18 months Daniel!