18 Months Old

On Sunday, my little baby turned 18 months old. He is growing up so fast. Here are the latest Jack stats:

• 29 lb 8 oz.
• 35 1/2 inches long (off the charts!)
• Wearing size 3T
• 16 teeth (those last 4 molars are taking their time)
• Favorite treat: Nerds
• Can currently say: mom, daddy, no, kitty, dog, nose, eye, teeth, done, up, apple, stuck, eggs, hi, happy, and papa. Now, most of these are spoken only on command. His only meaningful words, spoken without prompting, are: mom, daddy, no, kitty, dog, eye, and happy.
• He has learned how to climb up on the tall bistro chairs around our table.
• He loves taking a shower with dad, especially with his foaming Elmo soap that he can rub on himself and the shower door.
• He loves to smell things. Today he played "smell the candle" with me for almost an hour. He took big sniffs and then offered it to me to smell. It was cute.
• Jack loves to help in the kitchen, stirring dinner, and tasting it. He even says "mmmm" after a taste.
• He talks in his sleep, which is a little weird. He mainly just says daddy, no, and dog, although sometimes he barks in his sleep.
• He has been waking up with nightmares or night terrors on a pretty regular basis and that has not been fun.
• He is very particular about which book he wants to read each night and it always changes, although he is very fond of Where is Baby's Belly Button?
• Every day his dad comes home from work he gets very excited, runs to see him, and then runs away and hides before his dad can give him a kiss. He loves his dad a lot and often times, when I ask for a kiss, he goes to kiss his dad instead.