Nineteen Months

Not much has changed in the past month since I wrote about Holden's development. He's talking in sentences a little more, and jumping a little bit higher. He's also sitting still just a little bit longer which is a nice change. He just has four more teeth to come in - his two year old molars. I can't think of much else. Since I don't have much to say, here's a picture of Holden watching a Baby Einstein DVD and enjoying some "beeps" (grapes).

Body Parts

I pick up Holden from childcare on Monday, and am approached by one of his teachers:

"Jenn, does Holden know the word 'boob'?"

"Ughhhhh......"

"We were identifying body parts today, and Holden said, 'Nose, chin....boob' and grabbed my boob."

I tried to make up some makeshift story of us calling him Boo-Boo, but I don't think it was totally believable. I was embarrassed but knew this was some of Trey's handy work. I got home and told him. His response? "That's my boy!"

The Stuff In Between

A lot happened this summer that I just didn't blog because we were moving and didn't have Internet service. Here was the stuff in between 17 and 18 months - July and August.

MOVING
Holden was in heaven when we rolled up the doors and started moving stuff into the PODS. For a while they were his own personal little playrooms. He saw toys he hadn't seen in a while and even got to ride on daddy's makeshift dolly, his very 80's skateboard.

THE BEACH HOUSE
Once we were moved out, we went to the beach house for a week. Trey had to work a lot but Holden and I had a great time lounging on Del Mar beach. He had his friends over for some good playtime too. I love the picture of Holden and Carter eating their snacks and watching the big kids at Surf Camp right next to us.


Holden's friends: Carter Sammis, 3.5 years; Holden, 1.5 yrs; Gavin Conley, 10.5 months, Paxton Sammis, 6 months.

VISALIA
After the beach house, Trey left for flight school and Holden and I went to Visalia to see my family. I had a major melt-down the first couple of days because I was so overwhelmed with moving. I was lucky to be with my family at that time. I didn't take many pictures but it was a nice mellow trip. My mom, grandma and I took Holden to Chuck E. Cheese one day while we were there; and I'm not sure who had more fun - Holden or my mom and I. We became ticket fiends, and after a while would only play the games where we could get the most tickets. Holden was oblivious to the whole ticket craze, but lucky for him - he walked out with one silver pom-pom and three Tootsie Rolls (which we ate). We went to Amanda's baby shower before heading back to San Diego.

Eighteen Months

What a month of transition! We moved out of our house, traveled around a bit and finally settled in our new home. Holden was a trooper and did great during this chaotic time. He slept like a champ in his Pack N Play, but was in heaven when his crib was unpacked and put together. The first two days we were in he slept 12-13 hour nights, and took FOUR! hour naps during the day. Really came in handy for the unpacking process.

This month he has added verbs and adjectives to his vocabulary. Now he says two word phrases like: I sit, I sit down, I swim, it hurts, hot boon (hot air balloon), hot pool (jaccuzzi), I go down (the stairs), dada's truck, big truck, bye-bye dada, and fast boat. It's amazing what a little chatter box he is. He is now starting to repeat words that we say too.

He got two more teeth, his vampire teeth on the top and bottom of his left side. The other two on the right side are just starting to pop through - they'll be in by the end of this week.

His temper tantrums subsided a bit, and his biting and hitting stopped altogether.......until we moved into our house. He bit a child at school his first week back to daycare and then bit me the hardest he ever has. I still have a bruise the size of a plum on my leg.

At his eighteen month check up he weighed 25 lbs. and 11 oz. (50th percentile), his height was 33 3/4" (85th percentile), and his head circumference was 47 cm (30th percentile). He didn't receive his Hep. A vaccine because they were out of it, so we'll do it at his 24 month check up.

His favorite activities are riding the motorcycle with daddy, swimming with daddy, watching Baby Einstein videos, and playing-playing-playing. Anytime we have left him with anyone for a bit, the same two sentences come out of their mouth - in the exact same order, every time, without fail. First, he was really good. Then, he sure is busy! Yes, we know. Busy, busy Holden.

Sandi took this picture of Trey and Holden at the beach house. Could they look any more alike?