Eighteen Wonderful Months

James has reached a milestone. He is 18 months old. As members of the LDS church, this means one especially important thing: he's old enough for nursery. Woo hoo! In the last few months, the three hours of church was getting rather difficult for James. He wanted to play! Now, we just have to keep him subdued for the first hour of church. Then, we drop him off at nursery for two gloriously free hours where he plays happily with the other children (and has a snack, singing time, and lesson time!), and Paul and I can BOTH listen to Sunday School and Priesthood/Relief Society! Yep, it is a truly glorious thing. (It was especially glorious yesterday, since both Paul and I were teaching lessons during the third hour.)

Yesterday, when it came time for us to drop him off for the first time, Paul and I (in true first-time-parent form) both took him to the nursery. We tried to make a big deal out of it (say good-bye, give him hugs, show him around), but he would have none of it! As soon as we set him down he was off, without so much as a glance back at us. He had a wonderful time! James was made to be in nursery, and nursery was made for James.


We had his 18 month check up this morning, and the doctor (who just loves James :) ) was pleased with his development.

Here are his latest measurements:

Height: 31 3/4 inches (33rd percentile)
Weight: 23 pounds (13th percentile)
Head size: 48 1/3 centimeters (70th percentile)

Still short and small with a big head, but I think maybe the numbers are starting to even out. His height and weight percentiles are higher this time, and his head size percentile is lower.


At this appointment, I had to fill out a developmental worksheet for James so they can track his progress and make sure nothing stands out as problematic. I had to laugh to myself when I got to the language section of the worksheet and it said, "Child knows 8 or more words and uses them in context regularly." (The possible responses were yes, sometimes, and not yet.) I've certainly got a talker on my hands!

As promised, I've made a list for this post of all the words James knows so far. I limited the list to words that he consistently uses in the correct context without prompting from me or Paul. It's a good thing I did this now, because I think he is very close to having an explosion in word development and soon we will not be able to keep track of all the words he knows. As it is, I have probably accidentally left a few out of this list.

THE LIST:

Foods: milk, juice, water, cracker, cookie, apple, applesauce, yogurt, peas, raisins, Kix, banana ("nana"), strawberry (comes out more like "bah-bey"), french fries ("feh fie"), pizza, spoon ("poon")

Toys: toys, ball, baseball, bat, hat, car, truck, Elmo

Miscellaneous nouns: door, button, prayer, book, fan, tree, sun

People: Mommy, Daddy, baby, Becca, Michael, Jesus

Animals: cat, doggie ("goggie"), horse, pig

Body: head, eyes, ears, nose, toes, belly button (sounds like "bey bun"), shoes, socks, shirt, pants, diaper ("bopper")

Action words/Phrases/Other: hi, hello ("heh-oh!"), bye bye, night night, yes, yeah, no, nope, uh oh, eww, oww, yucky, up, down, open, closed, walk, all done, all gone, what's that, alright!, more, go, mine, please, thank you ("dit-doo"), you're welcome ("mah melcome!"), Amen, nice nice, yabadabadoo! (a la Fred Flinstone...comes out "dub dub dooowwwww!"), where go? (while hiding his face...translation: Where did I go?), there is! (translation: There he is!), two, three ("tree"), four, five (he still doesn't say one, though :) )*

*Clarification on the numbers: James doesn't yet actually understand how to count things, but he pretends to count things. I say "one" and he touches things (toys, blocks, pictures in a book, etc) and says "two, three, four, five!" as he points to them.

Yep, I'd say he knows "8 or more" words!


In the last few weeks James has started putting together two word phrases from time to time (such as "more raisins", "daddy home?", and "go bye bye!"). It's truly incredible to watch James as he learns. I feel so blessed to have him in my life. He brings me and Paul so much joy! Sure, he also seems to be mastering The Tantrum lately as well, but the good and fun things far outweigh the bad.



We love you, James!


The end! Get it? Ha ha ha ha...ha ha...ha....I crack myself up. Oh dear.