18 months

It was with mixed emotion that we celebrated Spencer's 1/2 birthday today. On the one hand, as he gets older, he is more and more fun, but on the other- what happened to my little baby?

He woke up pretty early so I made him lay in bed with me until what I considered to be a decent hour (7:00). Here he is in his crib telling me he was ready to start the day.

After we got up we went to the kitchen and I made breakfast. While preparing toast I noticed some weird stuff going on in a bag of sweet potatoes. Apparently sweet potatoes can grown their own plants if left on the counter, in a plastic bag, next to the stove for a week. It's actually kind of pretty. I feel like putting it in a vase or something.

After breakfast we took Ginger for a walk.

Spencer likes to help hold the leash. The walk slows down considerably when I let him do this.

We got ready and then I let Spencer watch Baby Einstein on the portable DVD player while we drove to Toys R Us (see post from 3/1/09 on my permissive mothering style)
Spencer has a new interest: playing in the sand. Even though the park is 3 houses away, I don't want to have to walk there every time he wants a little sand action, so we decided to buy a little sandbox for the backyard. We just used his 18 month birthday as an excuse to buy it today.

Then we met Megan at 5 & Diner for lunch.
After Spencer's nap we checked out the sandbox, which didn't have any sand it in- yet. Each bag of sand weighed 60 pounds and I had a hard enough time getting them off the shelf and into the cart and then from the cart and into the car. There was no way I was attempting to carry them through the house. For the record, the customer service at Home Depot leaves a little something to be desired. I was a bit perturbed when none of their employees offered to help me with the sand even after they saw me pushing a baby and the sand around in the cart.
Here's my big 18 month old boy before bed tonight.It's amazing what happens in terms of growth and development in 18 months. Even in just the past 3 months he's changed so much.

I've lost track of all the words he uses, but I'll try to list all the ones I can remember: hi, bye, mommy (about 4,895 times a day), daddy, Da (Ginger), all done, nana (banana), cheese, ni-nite (night-night), choo-choo (for the train), do (shoe), poo-poo (yep- that's poop), nose, ear, no-no-no-no (and yes- he always says it 4 times- at least), keys, whizit (where is it?), aubree (brush teeth), tink (stink) and baby. He says moo for the cow and smacks his lips when you say food or eat. He'll lift his foot when you say the word foot and he puckers his lips when you say kiss. I'm sure I will remember more but that's the best I can do for now.