18 months

first i must state for the record that both of these pictures were, in fact, taken today, this talan's 18 month birthday. we had a wardrobe change, but fear not, i am as anal as ever.
so this morning i tell talan we need to take his picture with his bear. so he goes running into his room to get his bear, runs back out to the living room, climbs up on the couch, lays himself down and starts wiggling all around with a silly smile on his face. easiest laying down picture i've taken since before he was mobile. sitting up? that was a different story. hence the wardrobe change.
every time i sat him up, he's just scoot back down to a laying position and start wiggling around again. i'd sit him up, he'd growl at me and then lay back down. after awhile i just gave up and decided we'd have to try again later. i only got 2 shots sitting up but that would have to do. heaven forbid i try another day when it wasn't actually his 18 month birthday!
talan has started trying to talk quite a bit more within the past few weeks...mostly the past few days actually. dave pointed out a few weeks ago that he talks with his mouth closed. he just makes noises that come from his throat to form his words. so they all end up sounding the same. shoe, sock, flag, tweet tweet, it's all the same noise that doesn't come across well when typing.
he continues to say "baaa" for ball and balloon, however just yesterday i realized he could say "bubble" perfectly clear. hayden and i even heard him say "purple" but that only happened once.
he now says "dada" all the time and quite excitedly whenever dave walks in the door. and he always calls for hayden (haaaennnn) whenever hayden goes off to school.
yesterday he started trying to say "heehaw" but it is just "hee hee" with the first hee being higher and the second hee being lower...just like if you said hee haw. but if you ask him what a donkey says, he first starts to bark. doggie and donkey sound a lot alike.
several weeks ago i commented out loud that i hadn't heard talan's horrible cough in so long i couldn't even remember the last time i did hear it. maybe a week and a half later he came down with a cold and the cough is now back. just in time for his 18 month check-up on monday. well, at least it was gone for a couple of months. i figure it's back to stay for the winter.
talan went through a big eating spell for awhile where he would eat 4 chicken nugget dinosaurs at a sitting. now he barely eats 1. things he used to eat he will now put in his mouth, make an awful face and spit it back out. oh how i hope it's a phase and that i don't have another hayden on my hands!
one thing he does still seem to eat a lot of are hot dogs. he ate 2 of them yesterday for dinner before hayden even ate his one. he also really likes the little carrot shreds that you find in bags of salad. thank goodness they actually sell bags of "matchstick carrots" cuz it was getting hard picking out enough of them from the salad to keep him satisfied.
he still really likes capt'n crunch crunch berries, but will only eat the berries. and he loves lucky charms but really only eats the marshmallows.
talan used to be the world's easiest kid to put to bed. all i would say is, "ready to go nite-nite?" and he would grab his blanket and binky and run himself into his room. i'd lay him in his crib and we wouldn't hear a sound from him until the morning. he did this both at nap and nite time. then he came down with that stupid cold and ever since, he lays in bed crying for awhile before finally falling asleep. it's probably more annoying now because he is 18 months and not a newborn. and because he used to go down so easily. now just listening to him scream in there is like nails no a chalkboard. several times i have been taken back to when hayden had colic. then i remind myself talan's will only last 1/2 hour TOPS not 4-6 hours straight. only then am i able to stop shaking him and gently lay him back down.
he continues to be the world's messiest baby. he can tear your entire house apart in 12 minutes flat. his favorite place in the house is the basement of course because that's where the most stuff is. he has zero attention span which leads to his mess making. hayden at least played with things for more than 2 minutes. not talan. the only thing he plays with for long extended periods of time are his drum sticks.
talan continues to LOVE to dance. anytime any music comes on he starts dancing away, sitting or standing, it doesn't matter. most nites we have a dance session where we turn on some cd's and let the boys dance around the living room while we stayed entertained. and talan doesn't just dance fast all the time. if it's a slow song, he'll gently sway to the music. i've been trying to get good footage of him dancing to the ellen show to send in, but of course he never does it when the camera is rolling. she'd love it though. i say she'd even hire him to just be at every show and dance.
i have come to realize after all of these months, that talan hates wipes. and i think he hates them because they are cold. he doesn't care if it's winter or summer, he just doesn't like having his butt wiped with a cold wipe. hayden could have cared less which is why it never it me talan had a problem with it. i just figured he didn't like being changed...which many times he doesn't, but i think the majority of the time he just doesn't want a cold pack wiped across his naked butt.
talan continues to love his big brother hayden. they play hide and seek and chase. they spin around the room together. they dance together. throw balls to each other. push each other. and drive each other crazy.
just this morning, talan was sitting on my lap after he had gotten up. he climbed down, walked over to hayden and leaned on him....which meant he was hugging him. he climbed back up into my lap and then did the same thing 2 more times.
talan also has recently taken up an interest in exercise. i have started doing my workout tapes in the living room right after the bus picks hayden up in the morning. talan now waits for it to come on and then starts saying "kick kick" (it doesn't come out quite so clear but there was no other way to type it) as he starts lifting one of his legs. he also loves to "punch" and jump up and down when they are doing jumping jacks. the rest of the tape is lost on him, but he gets plenty of exercise doing other things....like running in circles around me, hitting my butt when i'm doing my lunges and running back and forth trying to have me miss him while doing kicks.
talan continues to be a very active little boy. he loves to run and jump and never sit still. he loves to play up on our bed. he can't talk a lot but he knows what he wants. he shakes his head "yes" and now also "no" to help us figure it out. he loves pushing cars around and saying "beep beep." he loves opening the cd player and taking all of the cd's out and then putting them all back in to one slot. he loves to turn the music all the way up when i'm outside at the bus stop. he has recently really started getting into watching tv and movies and his favorite show is yo gabba gabba. he loves running and pretending to fall...but usually does it rather hard...he still thinks it's funny. just today when i said "you be careful, you almost bumped your head" he then went back to the headboard and purposely banged his head into it. he loves climbing down the basement stairs by himself now and will often sneak down when i don't even know it. the other day he slowly brought up cans of food one by one. he loves trains. he loves the beginning of thomas. he loves having his shoes put on. he loves baths. he loves playing with my hairbrushes.
he hates wipes. he hates to sit still. he hates being told no. he hates sitting for meals. he recently started hating going to bed. he hates keeping his socks on when his shoes are off. he hates having his hair washed.
we are headed to the dr. for his 18 month check-up on monday so we'll report back later with his stats. he is now mostly wearing size 18-24 month clothes. he has ginormous feet and wears a size 6.5 wide or extra wide. we are using up the last of his size 3 diapers as he is ready to be in size 4. he goes to bed anywhere from 7-8pm and wakes up around 7am. he still takes his afternoon nap from 1-3 or 4.
i honestly can't believe talan has been around for a year and a half. time has flown by, but we are now at my favorite age. he seems to learn and try new things every day. i can't wait to see what each new day brings but i'll miss each yesterday as i know how fast the time goes.
happy year and a half birthday, baby talan! we love you so much!