18 months

Connor is 18 months old!

I'm amazed at how quickly this little boy has grown, from a newborn baby:

 

to a one year old:

 

to a big 18 month old boy

who had to be bribed with candy to take these pictures.

 

Connor will eat anything. While he has a big sweet tooth and loves cookies and candy (which are both words he can say very well), he will also eat healthier food. Most mornings, he will eat a bowl of plain oatmeal for breakfast with fruit on it. He also loves yogurt and granola. He eats raisins like they are candy (he probably thinks they are), and I have to fight him away from my bowl of wheat chex. I guess his taste buds take after mine.

 

He's mastered a pretty good scowl.

But he can only hold it for so long before he starts to crack a smile.

 

Last week he learned how to lock the bathroom doors. The first time it happened, he locked himself in the windowless bathroom with no lights on. Luckily, the key tool was on the door frame, but it took me a few minutes to figure it out. (I've never had to unlock these newfangled bathroom doors in this house.) So he sat in the pitch black darkness for a few minutes. Parenting win.

 

Connor loves books. He made a comfy little reading corner for himself in his room behind the rocking chair.

He'll sit there and look at books by himself for 10 minutes.

 

All this reading has extended his vocabulary. He knows so many words! I think he benefits from having Dallin only a few steps ahead of him developmentally. We've been working very hard with Dallin on his speech and Connor has picked up a lot of it. He can even count to three!

 

 

Connor likes to watch me cook and really tries to help.

 

He likes to look out the window in his bedroom, especially when people are coming in or leaving our house.

He watches Dallin leave for school and come home. When Mckay walks out the front door each morning, Connor runs to the window to watch as he leaves. And when I tell him it's time for me to teach piano lessons, he watches for my students at the window and tells me when they arrive. It's like having a pet dog that barks when people come over.

 

Connor could live outside. We can play outside for hours, and he'll still cry when I make him come back inside.

 

He is only a few pounds short of matching Dallin's weight. They're wearing neighboring sizes in clothes (Connor 18 month, Dallin 2T) and some shirts will fit either one of them.

Connor has grown a lot in 18 months and Dallin hasn't really.

 

Connor at 2 months, side by side comparison:

 

 

 4 months

 

 6 months, Dallin 3 years

 

 8 months

 

 10 months

 

And apparently I stopped taking these pictures so here is a current comparison.

Connor 18 months, Dallin 4 years.

They won't lay still on the floor anymore. Incidentally, Dallin is also not above being bribed with candy to be in a picture.

 

And it still took some time to get a decent still picture.

 

And then Connor wanted to make himself look bigger than Dallin.

 

Connor has big up and downs in his personality. He can throw huge screaming tantrums when he doesn't get his way. This usually involves him wanting some kind of food and not getting it. He can also be such a sweet calm boy at times. He gives lot of hugs and kisses, especially to me. He knows when he needs to sleep. At night, he asks for pajamas and "teeth" because he knows that once his teeth are brushed he gets to go to bed. He can be super grumpy at night, but as soon as you say "Let's brush your teeth," he smiles and runs to the bathroom.

This kid sure is something.