18 Months

Recently Donovan had his 18month check up. Before I went in, they got me to fill out a little questionnaire to see how his development is.

Climb up stairs by holding you hand - check

Go from floor to standing without holding on to anything - check

Able to put very small objects into a small container - check (and by the way, can we say "CHOCKING HAZARD"?)

Turn pages of a book when you read - check

Gets upset when frustrated - check and double check for good measure

Help around the house - check (he likes to vacuum and swifter)

Imitate you doing daily tasks - check (too cute to watch him brush his teeth and "spit" into the sink with me)

Take off some articles of clothing (like socks) - check (in fact after most naps, when I go into his bedroom he is pointing to the side of the crib (the back and against the wall) where said socks have been thrown. Just today I retrieved 3 pairs from back there)

Try to help put his own clothes on - check

Have a 10 - 20 word vocabulary - umm..... well no....

The doctor asked me about the vocab again, because I hadn't checked it on the sheet. I smiled politely and asked,

"Does "uh-oh" count as one word or two?"


All in all, Donovan is doing great. I was asked about speech therapy, and I laughed and said, "no, he's 18months old!" That being said, although no panic is happening around here, we are trying to work on the speech thing.

Since this appointment Donovan has got "Daddy and Dad" down as well as "Ruby" ok, Ruby is more of "uh-eeee" But we know that that MEANS Ruby, so I count it.

Oh and mom? mommy? You know, me the one that takes care of him every day, looking after every need, whim and fancy? The odd time I get "Jackie" (Donovan language Jackie of course) but that's only when he's frustrated, the rest of the time, I'm Dad too. But it's ok... you know I'm not hurt about this at all.... *sniff*

He'll look at me, call me "Dad" and I'll say, "I'm MOMMY" and he will smile so big you would swear his face is going to break and shout "DAaad!" pest...

The rest of the time he communicates in a series of grunts and groans. Think the seagulls on Finding Ne.mo "MineMineMineMine"

So we are working on the speech, slowly but surly.