The Kane Family, Est. 2006: Jack: 18 Months Old

Jack is 18 months old!

He is changing and learning so much every day. His favorite thing is to read books. He will take out books from his bookshelf and bring them over to you saying "boo-ook" and then sit in your lap. Of course you then have to read it to him! He was big on the board books for the last few months, but in the last few weeks he's started to bring out his regular books to read as well. I was afraid he'd rip the pages, but he has been doing great with them so far!

His favorite books are any Peter Rabbit book ("Petey"), One Fish Two Fish ("fishy book"), books in the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie series ("cookie book"), One Special Day (a book about becoming a big brother: Jack likes to point out the baby in the pictures and name all the animals in the book), and Where the Wild Things Are ("hiya-hiya"). James would read him Where the Wild Things Are multiple times per day when he was home with Jack for winter break and when it was time for the wild rumpus, James would make tribal and parade sounds ("hiya hiya", etc) and dance around. Now Jack calls it the hiya-hiya book and will turn to the rumpus page and start dancing and saying "hiya-hiya". He also loves books with animals and can point out, name, and make noises for tons of animals: pigs, cows, sheep, kitties, puppies, monkeys, duckies, birdies, owls, lions, elephants (he raises one arm and makes a blowing noise-- that "sound" is my favorite), and more.

When he's not reading books he is running around playing. He will not sit still for any tv (I admit I've tried to watch a few episodes of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in these last uncomfortable weeks of pregnancy to take a break from all the running around, but it hasn't really worked). He will sit for a few minutes and color on his new table or do big piece puzzles. He loves playing with blocks. He loves all his balls and wants to play catch a lot. His new favorite game is going halfway up the stairs and then throwing his ball down to you to play catch. James has taught him what a football is, so he can point out his "but-ball" and do a touchdown dance if you ask him (marching in place and waving his arms around!)

The one thing that DID keep his attention for about 20 minutes or so... the Puppy Bowl before the Superbowl.

He's eating more and less at the same time. Before he was about a year old, he would eat anything you put in front of him but it had to be limited because he didn't get teeth until 11 months or so. Now he has 4 top teeth, his 2 bottom teeth, and the start of his first molars on the top/bottom/right/left (very slow to grow teeth, this guy!) so he can eat more but he's getting pickier. He loves any fruit and bread item still. His favorites are apples (he points out ANY apple he sees and says "more apple!"), bananas (nanana), kiwi, oranges/clementines (orannn), and blueberries (bloobies). He'll eat cooked veggies most of the time, but we have to give those to him first because if he sees any fruit on the table he's totally lost interest. He doesn't really like meat, which I am okay with but this really frustrates James the carnivore :) He's started to use his kid fork and spoon... not very well, but he will try and then pick up whatever he couldn't get with his fingers and eat it with his hands. During eating he's also starting some of the "challenging" toddler behaviors... if he doesn't like a food or is done he'll just throw it on the floor. It's frustrating because if you tell him "no", he will typically either give a cheeseball grin or a cute look and I end up laughing. James says I am already a pushover...

I let him try some chocolate...

He is still a great sleeper. Typically he sleeps for about 12 hours a night. He can do 13 hours or so on weekends, but we usually have to wake him up on daycare mornings during the week. At daycare he takes 2 hour naps because that is their schedule, but at home with us he'll take 3-4 hour naps. We finally got rid of the pacifier "cold turkey"... and that actually went better than expected. Around 1 year we reduced it to sleeping time and car rides only and were putting off getting rid of it totally. But really he's done fine without it... I think it was more of a crutch for us than him.

My favorite part of the day is getting Jack up in the morning. If it's a weekend day I usually wait to go in his room until I hear him chatting with his friends in his crib.

He's usually up bouncing...

...And smiley

... And usually he's thrown all his stuffed animals and blankets out of his crib

He had his 18 month doctor appointment today and was 23.8 pounds and 33 inches tall. Not much growth from his 15 month visit, but that's okay. I think it's either because he's just running around and burning off all his calories or he's starting to thin out like his Dada!

Here are some random pictures of the last few months:

It's been pretty snowy and cold up here in Wisconsin. Here is Jack's first time playing in the snow. James just pulled him around in the sled by our house. At first he didn't really know what to think, but towards the end he was smiling!