18mos Checkup

Little JP is 18 months old! I was in Brazil so Jack took him to his checkup. Thankfully our doc sends a nice little report card so I could see all the details myself :)

Weighed in just over 23lbs (25%)
Height was also 25%
Head circum was 70%

He also had a TB screen & a flu shot. He's got to go back for a followup flu shot in a month. Apparently they were also out of one of the shots he was supposed to get, but they said it could wait til his 2yr checkup.

I had planned to get a flu shot & a Tdap booster this week myself. But the folks doing the IBM clinic (read: free shots) were completely out. So the clinics have been rescheduled & are still only tentative based on supply at the time. But hopefully we'll both be flu-resistant by the holidays. (We're pretty sure Jack already had the flu this year, he definitely had all the symptoms).

Jaxons 1st Haircut

At 18 months old, Jaxon finally got a haircut! He had needed it for awhile but there was some dissension in the ranks about it. Poor kid didn't even have enough hair to warrant paying for a professional cut so I did it myself. It actually worked out fairly well that way because he was able to watch Go Diego Go the whole time. The hardest part was that he decided to chew on the comb while I did the snipping. Next time I'll get two combs.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Walkin in High Corn

Fall is here which means corn mazes, pumpkins & sweet potatoes in the farms around us. We thought Jaxon would enjoy Ken's Korny Corn Maze down the street from us. At the start of the maze, he ran ahead & we let him 'choose' which path to take (aka pick the path straight ahead most times). That lasted maybe 15-20 minutes and then he decided it was more fun to sit down to play in the dirt and sand! Jack ended up carrying him on his shoulders for the majority of the maze. Throughout the maze, you look for the letters & then punch them off on your scorecard. And they time it, we finished in 1hr 3 minutes. I think it's better for older kids. The ones that seemed to be having the most fun were in the 4-12 range. Jaxon had more fun playing in the playground areas especially on the tractor. Here's a slideshow of our pictures.

Sounds like life to me

It's been one thing after another around here lately. I won't go into all the little things but my coworkers were swearing I'd better not drive or I'd end up with a flat tire. Suffice to say it was a patch of bad luck at the end of the month. In that string of irritations, the video card on my main home computer burned up, literally. The screen went gray which is never a good sign. Then it cut off & I smelled something burning. I had a moment of panic (please don't be my hard-drive!) while I opened up the case to see what was wrong. At first it looked like my TV tuner (lets me watch TV on my computer) but closer look revealed it was the video card (the thing that connects to your monitor). The fan had melted off the card & was hanging by the wires. Thankfully when I removed the card, the computer booted up fine (except I couldn't see it since I had no monitor connection now). Skip ahead to UPS bringing a new one (and even got to upgrade it a little, thanks Newegg!) and now I'm back! I'm a bit of a computer addict so I was unhappy while my primary computer was down. But I did learn a lot about video cards while I tried to decide on which one to order.

So now that you know why it's been all quiet on the blog-front, let me update you on the fun stuff:

Vocab - Jaxon's adding words all the time, pretty much tries to mimic any one syllable word he hears. Bear, taco, ding, car, etc. We tried to teach him 'Go App' in time for the football game but no luck there. He did pick up on football (booball).

Signing - I've been showing him some new signs. 'Bath' was a sign he picked up on with only a few tries (search youtube for 'sign bath' if you are curious) and he runs to the bathtub signing it and saying 'ba'. I've also been teaching him signs for words that are harder for him to say like drink, milk, thank you, airplane, grandma & grandpa but he hasn't repeated them yet. He's close on 'drink', but it still is hard to distinguish from 'eat'. Anyone have a copy of Signing Time I could borrow? I have it on my iPhone but he constantly flips away from the app.

Advances - He can now tell you the sounds made by not only dog & cat, but also cow, lion, & tiger. He understands to take something to someone (whether he'll do it is another thing). He loves to shut doors & open drawers. We often open our dresser drawers to find something odd like a paci, diapers, sippy cups & toys. Mostly though he just rearranges all the clothes (baby clothes in the sock drawer, socks in with pjs, etc) or pulls them all out on the floor.

Physical - Climbing is still his favorite activity & can be the most frustrating (like when he tries to climb onto the end tables from the couch & then screams when you make him get down). Sitting still (like at a football game) is not likely to happen. Even when he watches TV, he stands still for a minute or two at a time & then goes to find something to do. He's especially wound up outside & doesn't want you to hold his hand. We've been dealing with some teething too. Doc had noted that at his 15mo checkup but now he's working on (I think) four teeth. There are definitely two molars, one on each side on the top, that are nearly in. But I think two canines are coming in on the bottom as well. Poor little guy sometimes holds his hand to his face & fusses.

Now that I'm back up & running with my computer, I've got a few other posts to make soon. I still don't have my camera back (Best Buy warranty was still good so they are working on it) but I still have a few pics to post, some from friends & family too. I'll try to get those up soon. Jack & I are not feeling well (and trying really hard not to get Jaxon sick) so it may be next week before I get to those.

August update

My main camera is broken so I have not been taking many pics lately. (Anyone know a local place to get that looked at?). But here's a pic of Mr. Busy playing in Fayetteville last weekend. More to come on that later.




So what's JP up to lately? He's been working mostly on expanding his vocabulary. I've long since stopped bothering to count his number of words but I'd guess that it's nearly doubled in the last month.

Some of my favorites:

Green beans : mean meeens
Cat : caa
Meow : aaow (high pitched & funny)
Oh man (from Swiper on Dora the Explorer)
Bye (used for outside, let me down or just bye)

He's also become an expert at the sign for food. He uses it to mean food, more food, different food (as in I'd rather have fries than a burger), drink, and paci. Now if we can just get some new signs or words to replace those extra meanings.

He's also into everything as can be expected of his age. We constantly find something new that he's able to do. He loves to be outside especially to play in the rocks on the driveways in the neighborhood. Playing with other kids is something he does not get to do daily since he's not in daycare. But he loves it when he does get a chance. Last night one of the neighbors stopped by with his kids about some home owners stuff. When they left, JP followed them right down the front steps, up the driveway, and out into the street. Barefoot. So we both ended up following them up & down the street while they talked to all the neighbors. Both barefoot. At one point we even had a neighbors cat join the procession. It was a trip. He just loves to be outside.

-- Post From My iPhone

15 mo. checkup

Jaxon had his 15mo checkup this week. He's doing great healthwise and is still small. He was a little shy with the doc but didn't even make a peep when he got his shot! JP was more interested in trying to pull off the bandaid than anything else.

Weight: 22lbs 4oz (25%)
Height: 29 3/4in (10%)
Head: 47.7cm (70%)

Next checkup is at 18mos.

I'm a big boy

Everyday it seems like JP's doing or learning something new. Here's some of the fun things he's doing now:

- Says Bye, Dog, Ju (juice), & Pretty (sorta). Signs 'eat' and 'more', often at the same time. Also will sign 'all done' but usually only if we have signed it first. He pretty much tries to mimic anything anyone does or says.

-Helps put on his clothes, he can put his arms through the holes with little or no help & will try to put his feet through the pants too

- Brings you a book to read to him. If you don't take it, he'll pull open your fingers & push the book into your hand. Snuggle Puppy is his favorite I think. One of the first few times I'd read this book to him, he laughed hysterically as I did the song part.

- Understands more words than we realize! For example, one day we were talking & said the word 'outside' in our conversation, JP jumped up & ran to the front door. Another time I was asking him if he wanted a few things (cuz it was funny that he said no to every question). When I asked if he wanted some oranges though (mandarin), he started signing 'eat' very adamantly. I ended up getting him some oranges!

- Knows a dog says Woof Woof. But ask him 'what does a ___ say (insert animal of choice) and the answer is also Woof Woof. If he hears a dog, sees a dog, thinks about a dog, he'll start saying 'oo oof'

- Will whisper if you whisper, sometimes. One night recently I was trying to get him to sleep & whispered something to him (about it being time to sleep probably) and he whispered back some gibberish. It was so sweet & now I can only get him to do it again when he's really calm.

- Climbs. Ok this is not really a fun one, but it can be funny for a minute or two. Mostly it's just tiring & frustrating. He climbs up the back of the couch, on the side tables, stands on anything he can get to, climbs on & over us in bed & will try to climb out of your arms onto anything nearby. Thank goodness we don't have stairs in our house!

- Dances & drums. See the attached video of him drumming. He will drum on anything and sometimes randomly start dancing. Of course he dances to music but sometimes I think he's got songs stuck in his head (Noggin is particularly bad with the catchy kid songs but I like that it has no commercials, plus Yo Gabba Gabba is still his all-time favorite).

Some typical toddler struggles we are having: hitting, head-butting, tantrums. This story is for you Grandma - If JP has a particularly bad tantrum, he'll start by stomping in place while he scrunches up his face. Then he runs straight for the nearest bed or couch & flings himself onto it to scream into the pillow or mattress. I don't have the slightest idea where he got that temper from. :)