Seventeen Months

Riley-bean is seventeen months old today, and he shares this “birthday” with his daddy. Happy happy Birthday, Ken! We love you lots.

At 17 months, Riley weighs approximately 27 lbs and stands about 35 inches tall. He is definitely a growing boy.

Here’s what I want to remember from this past month:

• The biggest thing was that he dropped down to one nap a day, starting mid-month. He naps after he has his lunch and usually sleeps for a couple of hours, although some days are better than others. I’m still not sure how I feel about this change, but I think it was the right thing for him.  We shall see how it goes from here!
• He tried a few new foods this month, including tortilla chips, sour cream, shrimp, grilled cheese, kingcake, frozen yogurt, pecan, fresh spinach, “cuties” (clementines), raisins, and goldfish crackers.
• He has gotten a little bit pickier about what he eats, but he still enjoys a wide variety of things. He drinks like a champ these days, both milk and juice, which means a couple of additional diaper changes. Wow.
• He now has 10 teeth.
• Lots of new words this month, and he is still talking constantly: sleeve, on, noise, heavy (“hebby”), bead, elbow and knee (and knows where they are), tickle, sausage, giraffe (“garaffe”), hippo, machine (“sheen”), chickpea, hair (and knows where it is), bean, bubble, guitar, slide, tractor, fleur-de-lis (“lur-la-lee”), pickle, printer, paper, house, tunnel, fishy (“shishy”), broccoli, tuna, apple, strawberry, crumb, poopy, wet, hole, hay, cow.
• Lots of new phrases/names too: Scoutie, Riley, Riley-bean, Grandpa, Mater, Lightning, Rocky, Mickey, “oh no!”, “I’ll get it,” “not nice,” “big boy,” “choo-choo” for train,“ah-ah” for monkey, “cluck-cluck” for chicken, “oink-oink” for pig, “caw-caw” for macaw, “tweet-tweet” for bird. He has also been responding with “hayyyy up!” when asked what the farmer says for a couple of months; Grandpa loves this because it’s how he calls the cows at the farm!
• He’s getting better and better at controlling his balance and coordination, although he has continued to take some tumbles on account of running and tripping over his own feet. Nothing serious, though, and he usually picks himself up and carries on. He’s tough.
• Daddy taught him to do what we’re calling his “tarzan” move, where he beats his chest with his fist and makes a sound while doing so.
• As you may have seen last week, he’s doing great with his colors. Most of the time he can identify green, yellow, red, blue, orange, and purple by name. He can also usually pick out the letters A, B, and R.
• He continues to amaze me with how smart he is. He picks up on things so quickly and he is incredibly observant.
• He LOVES his trucks, especially Chuck. We put his trucks to bed each night in the toy bookcase downstairs, and he tells them night-night. Then in the morning after he has breakfast he wakes them up! Too cute.
• He still loves his baths (especially with bubbles…..I have also done this with him and really want to do this too), being outside and collecting sticks, watching the airplanes take off and land, and having his belly rubbed.

Seventeen months old and getting cuter and cuter! Happy happy birthday to both of my boys. :)