18 months old - my baby boy

As the saying goes, he will always be my baby. I can't believe how quickly he's grown in the last couple of months! Not just in physical size but in development of new skills and language. 18 months is such a fun age and his personality and independence are really showing. He's still in awe of his big brother and does everything (good and bad) that brother does. What's been surprising though is his independence which is probably the result of being the second child. While he'll follow brother around he is also perfectly fine doing his own thing and doesn't hesitate to jump in on his own even when brother is a little more cautious. Case in point - we went to a big indoor play area when we were home visiting my parents and Colton took his time testing out the slides and bouncers slowly progressing to the bigger ones. Teague had no fear and immediately went to the biggest slide and clawed his way to the top.

Teauge is in a big daddy phase right now. Only daddy can put him to bed and hold him and only daddy gets kisses. Well, every now and then when he's hurt mommy will be the only one but for the most part it's all about daddy. It's so sweet to see him rush to daddy and climb up on him to rest on his chest. Daddy is first word in the morning and the last person he wants to see at night. I love seeing my boys develop such a strong bond with Josh.

Let's see, other things I want to remember about Teague at this age: he's a big climber, jumper and all around daredevil. He has no fear and loves to jump in giant pillow piles with his brother. He sings his ABC's and can count to 10. He has incredible balance like Colton and Josh even found him standing on a basket the other day (the thin edge under each foot, amazing). His most commonly used phrases are "what's this" and "no Colton." He is a great eater and loves yogurt, applesauce, buddy fruits, any and every carb, raisins, spaghetti, peas and corn. Typical breakfast is two buddy fruits, a banana and a bowl of whole grain cereal of some kind. He walks into daycare and is immediately ready for snack. He's a bottomless pit! It makes sense though, at his last check-up he'd grown to 30 lbs and 35 1/4 inches tall. He's wearing Colton's 2t clothes and is only two shoes sizes smaller than Colton (he's in an 8 1/2). Teague is still an awesome sleeper - he takes a two hour nap daily from 12-2 and sleeps at night from 7:30 p.m. until 6:30 a.m. He rarely wakes up at night which is awesome considering his brother's bad habit of joining us at night!

Teague loves animals and came name them all, even the weird ones like Toucan, Gorilla, Cheetah and Ostrich. He loves to make animal noises and I took him to the zoo for a mommy/Teague date and he was in toddler heaven. He called everything a cat that day which was so funny. He knows the animal names but he refused to say them which had everyone around us laughing as he pointed at things like a bird, ostrich and monkey and called them cats.

Some of Teague's bad habits include taking off his diaper constantly when we're just hanging out around the house. Maybe a future nudist? He's a climber for sure and we have to watch him carefully because we've caught him a few times at the top of the stairs which is problem since he doesn't know how to get down. He's rough - we've had to work on hitting a lot more than I remember with Colton. Again, that's probably a result of being the second boy and needing to defend himself. It's something we've worked on and I've already seen a lot of improvement - every now and then he'll make the motion like he's hitting but not actually make contact. Much better than the hard whacks he was dishing out before!

I really can't imagine two more perfect little boys and Josh and I feel so blessed that we get to be their parents. Parenthood isn't easy - we struggle daily to know the best way to handle tantrums and discipline and we work hard to feed them well and make decisions in their best interests but ultimately we know that their lives are in God's hands. There's no right way to parent and we can't take credit for the good they do in life OR for the bad, we can only love them with all our hearts (that's easy) and provide guidance and the rest will be up to them and God's plan for them. Just the other night as Colton was laying in bed and about to fall asleep I told him that I was sorry for the mistakes I make as a mommy. Sorry for the times I've yelled and for not being patient and I promised him I would try harder every day to be a good mommy. That precious little boy kissed my hand and just said "I love you" before closing his eyes and off to sleep.

Teague 12 to 18 months

Love,
Jenny