Wacko's Modern Life: 19 months & 2 weeks

Jackson turned 19 months yesterday. His vocabulary is the only significant change...he seems to add new words everyday. Since I have run out of room in his baby book & I am using this as a sort of virtual baby book, I am going to go through it all....

Here are some of his words: tractor (this is his word for any car, truck or tractor), banana (he calls every fruit a banana), yea!, hot, bath, go!, waffle, please, thank you, boat, car, poo-poo (he uses this to mean diaper & that he has poo-poo), owl (this is the only animal he will call by name before saying the sound), mammy (his word for his pacifier), shoe, book, mem (milk), uh-oh, baby, puppy, eye, nose, there, see, cheese, ball, walk, bubbles, shampoo, water (wa-wa), bye-bye, hello (he has always said hi, but now he also says hello), night-night, vroom, choo-choo, then of course there are the proper names - Mama, Dada, Yaya, Papa, Gabby, Pops (who he sometimes calls Baba or Bubba, but he can say Pops), Nana, Emme (which sounds like memmy), Leyla (he says our dog's name exactly right now, as opposed to LaLa before), Elmo (he says Elbo). He's started putting small phrases together, like bye bye Mama, or Go, Leyla! or Memmy mammy (Emme's pappy). He actually has to say bye-bye to all his bath toys & the shampoo when he gets out of the bath and then he says night night to our fish and his stuffed animals.

The owl & sheep are his newest animal sounds and he will occasionally do a chicken too, but he confuses pictures of chickens & roosters. For some reason it took us forever to teach him the sheep and now he screams BAA! at you if you ask him what a sheep says. His others are: cow, dinosaur, lion, tiger, bird, rooster, dog, cat, pig, frog, duck, snake, bee, monkey, elephant (he holds his arm up to his nose when he does the noise - thanks Yaya for teaching him!).

He takes one nap a day anywhere from one & a half to three hours. Since school has been out, we've had some difficulties getting on a consistent schedule, but we're working on it. Jackson is doing so well with Emerson! He loves to kiss her and hug her and pat her on the head. He'll say "pat-pat-pat" when he does it and it is so cute! We need a little work on gentle patting, sometimes he gets too rough, but most of the time he does great! He loves to give her the pacifier, even when she is eating or sleeping peacfully without it. Jackson squeals when he sees her toes and he likes to point to her eyes, nose, ears & belly button. Everything is going so well, in fact I haven't seen any significant signs of jealousy. We are truly blessed!

He's such a big boy and amazes us everyday. We could not love a little boy more - he makes us laugh all the time and is the light (or now one of the lights) of our lives!

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Emerson went for her 2 week well check today even though she won't officially be 2 weeks until tomorrow. Dr. Pielop was pleased with her growth and checked all the basics...hips, soft spot, girly parts, ears, eyes, etc. She has been having milk come out her nose - well, it has happened a handful of times, so I asked about that and he said he would only be concerned about it if she also cried for 3 hours a day or took a long time to recover from it. Since it never even phases her and she rarely cries, he does not believe it to be reflux, but we'll keep an eye on it. We are keeping her upright after eating & burping for at least 20 mins and then I also put her in her vibrating bouncy seat to help work extra air out also. Hopefully this will help. Her weight today was 7 lbs 13 oz, up an ounce & a half since birth and 9 oz since discharge. She is in the 45th percentile for weight. Her height is 20 1/4 inches, up 3/4 of an inch since birth and putting her in the 50th percentile for height. Her head circumference is 33 1/2 cm, which is in the 5th percentile.

She is becoming more & more alert every day for longer & longer. We are really blessed that she sleeps and eats well! Nursing is so much easier this time around, and I am very thankful for that! Emerson's umbilical stump fell off on the 24th, so she has been able to bathe in her tub now and seems to find them relaxing...she slept through the first bath.