18 months

I have to start this post with these pictures from about a week ago... my favorite moment from that day. It's tough raising an 18 month old, and most of the time I'm not sure if I'm doing it right, but these little moments of reassurance from him make it all worth it.

...and a close up of that sweet face before I tell you what he's really been up to: 

These last couple of weeks have been interesting. Brady has found his whiny voice, has learned to say 'no! noooo!' and has also started hitting me when he's upset. It's hard for me to not take this personally but I know that's because it's new. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to deal with it. We had a good day today - only two hits and one headbutt, and they were all before 7:30am. Score!!

Hairdo brought to you by Daddy, who sprayed him down with a water hose then gave him a mohawk!

Brady just loves to read. When he wakes up from his nap he stands up in his crib and says 'book, book, book', and as soon as I take him out of his crib he runs to his basket of books and starts pulling them all out, sitting down with each book and flipping through the pictures to see if it's one of his favorites.

His living room reading spot. We spend so much time here every day.

Our afternoon walks are something we both look forward to every day - he likes to point out all the squirrels and birds (kuuhl and buwhd), and he especially loves stopping at the park to play for awhile. One of my favorite things ever is when he sees a picture of a bird in a book or sees one flying by outside and says 'ca-caaaawww!'.

Brady says 'hi' and bye' to literally everything. For example, when he wakes up from his nap and goes over to his books as I mentioned above, he says 'hi book!' and when we walk downstairs when he's done reading he says 'byyyye!'. When we're in the produce section at the grocery store he tells the bananas hi and bye, and when we're out and about he tells pretty much everyone (humans and animals alike) 'hi' as soon as they come into his vision and 'bye!' as soon as they walk by. (Side note: my mama heart breaks every time someone ignores his hi's and bye's.) He gets more enthusiastic sometimes and says 'BYYYYE!!' with a huge hand wave when he's really excited.

This is his new 'ooooohh' face. It is SO cute. He does this when something really strikes his attention and he is impressed by whatever is going on.

A few other fun things about Brady at 18 months:

- He loves to sing 'Choo Choo Train' by Poppy. This is a grandkid favorite and Brady requests it all the time by saying 'tchoo tchoo tchoo'. 

- He's quite the talker. He talks a lot. He will just babble on and on like he's really saying something, using facial expressions and looking at us as if we really know what he's talking about. On that note, he does say several words that we understand. It's funny how only a kid's parents can understand what their child is saying. Some of his favorite words are airplane: 'pane'; balloon: 'boon'; fourwheeler: 'eeler'; roller: 'wohwoh'; blueberries/strawberries/raspberries: all 'bbbvvbrry'; donut: 'nonuh'; cheeto: 'tcheeto'; car: 'cahw'; and of course his favorite blanket: 'bae'. He also loves to name all the members of our family. We talk about our family a lot. :)

- He has just become aware of the power of Mama's kiss. When he hurts himself, he will look at me with that scrunched up face and bring his 'bo bo' over to me, holding up his hand or knee or whatever is hurt to let me kiss. You know I love this!

- He really isn't scared of anything. He is a daredevil and doesn't think twice about falling off of things - the risk of falling down and getting hurt is nothing compared to the fun he'll have doing it. He will crawl on top of anything and stand on top of the highest point he can reach. This is terrifying to me, but I love to watch him challenge himself.

- He likes to do workout videos with me in the morning. I ask him after breakfast 'Are you ready to work out?' and he walks to the TV and starts squatting and lifting his arms and breathing real hard. Pretty funny.

One morning post-breakfast. He loves green smoothies!

We like to go outside together after nap time and enjoy an ice cold popsicle. The other day he stole my popsicle (the nerve!) and ate both popsicles, alternating which one he licked until one was gone. He threw the empty popsicle stick on the ground and when Willa came over to lick it he said 'NO!' and picked it back up to hold onto while he finished his other one. 

Helping Dad bathe Willa.

Our strong-willed, active, fearless, happy 18 month old. The fun is just beginning! 

(thanks Koko for the picture :))