One and a Half!

James is 18 months old today! How did that happen?! He is definitely no longer a baby, and most definitely a little boy. I have to say that I was so sad and nostalgic when James turned one, but I have enjoyed the past 6 months more than any other period of his life so far. It really does just keep getting better and a lot more fun to be James' mom. His personality has really started to develop and he is becoming such a little person.
James learning to walk, and now run, has been one of the biggest changes since he tuned one. I love every second of it. It makes life so much easier for both of us. He can go where he wants and explore what he wants on his own. He took off walking and never looked back to crawling. He is now working on running and jumping.

Another big change in the past 6 months is that James no longer nurses. He had cut down to morning and nights around 15 months, just morning around 16 months, and he was completely weaned around 17 months. Considering we had a fairly difficult start to nursing, I am thrilled that we were able to have such a successful and long nursing relationship. It was time to stop for both of us, and the plus side is that James has been sleeping through the night consistently every night since he stopped nursing.

James has continued to be enthusiastic about almost all food and enjoys eating pretty much constantly during waking hours. He will frantically point to his mouth anytime he is hungry, which is pretty much all the time. The only thing he does not enjoy is meat, with the exception of meatballs. When he sees someone eating something he wants to try, he will go, "Mmmmmm!" and then point to his mouth alternating with his sign for "more." He will put any type of food into his mouth, and if he does not like it he will shake his head no, remove the food and hand it to you. He also loves to share his food, and will hand bites of it to anyone around. He can use a fork and spoon to eat any type of food now, including yogurt and applesauce, but the results are sometimes rather messy.

James has started to talk a little bit, and has quite an explosion of words while down in Florida on this trip. Here is a list of words that he can say (almost) correctly and uses in the appropriate context and with meaning:

• Dada
• Mama
• Up
• No
• Uh oh!
• Papa (Dave)
• Mimi (Katie)
• Ball (although it is usually baa baa while signing it at the same time)
• Dog (more like daa while also signing it)
• More (Mo while also doing the sign)

He still signs and will make up his own signs for a lot of words and use them consistently. His latest signs that he now uses consistently are please and thank you. When you ask him to say a word that he can't say, he says, "No no no!" while shaking his head.

James can also tell you what sounds the following animals make:

• Sheep-"Baaaa!" (this is his favorite)
• Cow-"Muuuuhh"
• Dog-he pants with his tongue out
• Cat-"mooww" (he whispers this one)
• Monkey-"Ah ah ah!"
• Britney Spears-"Uh uh!" (He loves the song Womanizer and makes this sound at the appropriate time during the song and that is what he says when you ask him what Britney says) James is still shy and serious some of the time, but outgoing and bubbly some of the time too. He loves to wave like crazy to people that he sees, and then when they wave back he gets shy and will bury his head into me. In new situations, he likes to sit back and observe and take it all in while being very serious, but when he is comfortable he will run around like crazy. One of the cutest things he does is his fake laugh. If people around him are laughing about something, he will just crack up in the cheesiest fake laugh and then look pretty pleased with himself that he was in on the joke.

James still loves books, balls and dogs. He could read all day long. He chooses a new favorite book every couple of days or so and will ask you to read it over, and over, and over. He loves sitting in your lap to read, so he will grab a book, turn around and back himself into your lap. James goes nuts anytime he sees a ball, or anything resembling a ball. He will sign and say ball over and over until he gets the ball or you can distract him with something else. James loves dogs (and cats) and one of his favorite things to do is to go walking around our street looking for them. He still loves Jax most of all and Jax is the recipient of about 10,000 hugs a day from James.

One of my favorite things about James right now is how affectionate he is. He loves to cuddle, and to give hugs and kisses. He will come up to you say, "Up!" and then wrap his arms around you and give you a big hug, take your face between his hands, kiss you on the lips with a big smack and then want to put down again. I can not get enough of it. If a bunch of people are around, he will often want to repeat that cycle with every person, especially the kisses. As much as James has changed in the past 6 months, I can't wait to see what the next 6 have in store for us! Happy 18 month birthday James, we love you more and more every day!