18 months

It is hard to look at Logan today and even imagine him 18 months ago as a newborn or even 6 months ago as a kid who didn’t walk/climb/talk/self-feed etc.  So much of his identity and our lives on a day to day basis is driven by these monumental changes.  We talk with him nearly constantly and he is very opinionated, expressing his thoughts and feelings each moment (wonder where he got that from :P).  I am so impressed with each little change and each little development and I am so in awe.  He is such a neat kid and I am so lucky to be his mommy.

Stats

Logan is 29 pounds and 33.5 inches tall.  He is 95th percentile for weight and 75th-90th for height and head circumference. 

Talking

Logan is a super talker.  I would say he has somewhere between 300-400 words that he can say at this point and many more that he understands and responds to but doesn’t say.  I am also impressed that his understanding of language has gone beyond the physical (car, monkey, tree, banana), to the more abstract (behind you, the other way, Mommy’s vs logan’s, etc.).  He also is good at associating different kinds of things as similar, and some connections that seem harder.  I am not sure how but he knows all birds and all bird “tweats” are birds.  If we are in the house and we hear a bird, he will tell us about it even if you can’t see it.  He also knows the word “raining” (yes he is a seattle boy) and applies it in the shower and also when my dad is watering plants.  Some classifications are harder as most 4 legged things are still “puppies” but can you blame him since we say everything from a teacup dog to a st brenard is a puppy?

Logan has very strong opinions and his ability to communicate is key in keeping him happy.  He will tell us what he wants to do and we can (generally) accommodate it.  Of course he is also a junkie for “Phone” “pictures” and “watch” “tv” but those aren’t options most of the time.  Although he doesn’t always like what we have to say, explaining to him what is going on has been a helpful way to manage tantrums.  It isn’t perfect but he seems to understand and accept things.  We have also worked on giving him options, especially in tough situations.  We have been giving him food and clothing options for a long time and he likes the choice but now for instance he gets the option of having our leg over him pinning him down during a diaper change or he can lay still.  With Charles he hates the leg and will often stop struggling.  With me, he likes me leg over and ask for it to be “on” him.  Conversely, we are having to work on our choice of what we say when it comes to giving him options that aren’t options.  We’ve been talking to him for so long without him understanding that we got in the habit of phrasing things as questions, like “do you want your diaper changed?”  We need to change this because logan understands the question and understandably says “nn nn” and shakes his head (he doesn’t say “no” yet, always “nn nn” with the head shake).  So we have switched to “we are going to change your diaper now and when we are done we can play again.”

We found on our trip to LA that our ability to talk to him (and him to understand) really helped him calm in stressful situations.  His ability to talk was less helpful as he is crying and yelling “daddy, up, car, carseat, home” at us.  I think he was really frustrated that we weren’t listening.  We tried to explain that it wasn’t an option, but he kept repeating his demands.

His language is developing very quickly with him learning several words a day and popping out things from nowhere.  Although we have always called his “sandbox” a “sandbox” and he knew what it was, he never said the word but the other day showed Papa and told him “sandbox.”  It is pretty neat!  He also knows all of his face body parts and is working on the rest (knows tummy/belly (both words), and belly button, penis, toes, feet, arms).

His pronunciation is pretty good for his age, I think.  Some sounds are harder, like f’s and l’s and “r”s but he can say them all.  “ella” comes out well and “owl” and the f is getting more common in “puffs” “coffee” and “off,” though he often uses the p instead, especially in a hurry.  Some words, like “water” are coming out “awa” or “wawa” even though he could at least say “wa-duh.”  “Open” is still a funny one because he says it with his mouth completely closed.  Some strange words also sounds strangely alike, like “high chair” and “outside” have morphed into similar sounds even though he used to differentiate them more.  And of course every day there are a few words he says that we can’t yet translate but we will figure them out eventually!  Although a stranger may not understand him at first, it is fun to see our family adjusting to his dialect quickly and being able to quickly enjoy all that he has to say.

Movement

Logan is a proficient walker on all surfaces.  He can go up and down hills and rarely falls.  He is also now picking up his pace and although not quite a full run, I think he gets some air between his legs and certainly moves quickly.  He has learned to go down our two stairs walking, without holding on to anything and will go down the staircase outside holding on to the wall next to it.  He still mostly crawls up stairs but has occasionally taken a stair standing up (balance is harder).  If he can hold on, he can walk up the stairs without a problem.  Logan is a climber at heart!  He has fallen in love with slides at the park, and not the dinky kiddy slides, but the 6 foot tall kid slides.  He can climb up on his own, get himself seated, and push himself down the slide.  He has in the last 1.5 weeks learned to climb into his high chair, climb our taller brown couch and tonight (climb our coffee tables).  His increased understanding of climbing combined with his growing muscles is going to make him quite a force to reckon with. 

He is a very active fellow and his muscles mean he can put up a really good fight when he wants to be doing something different than you want.  This can make bedtime, diaper changes, getting into the car seat, and other activities quite a fun challenge.  It also means we have to think really hard about letting him “free’ when we are out.  We generally don’t even let his feet touch the ground at grocery stores or the farmers market because he will run around like a crazy person and lose his marbles if you try to reign him in.  We try to give him plenty of time at the park to run around and selfishly keep him contained when we have things to accomplish.

Eating

Logan is overall a really good eater.  He’s had some tummy troubles the past few weeks so his diet had slipped to more of a BRAT type diet, and then the dr prescribed that for another week, but he is showing increased interest in other foods again and I think he’ll be back to eating in no time.  He’s getting more picky and I think we are going to have to make choices about how to handle that in the future.

Our best tool recently has been to switch to family dinners.  He is much more interested in what we are eating (even if it is salmon or quinoa stuffed peppers) than anything in front of him, even if bagels or something very desirable.  Sharing meals with him is a fun social experience and really seems to help improve his pallete and his diet.

Logan is proficient at self-feeding.  He can “poke” things with his fork and eat them and he can spoon feed pretty well.  For spoon feeding, he still thinks it is very entertaining and will sometimes pause to long in celebration before closing his mouth and lose the food in his bib, but overall it is pretty good.  We are still sticking to more viscous substances like oatmeal and yogurt, but will try other things with moderate success.  We were so sure when he was little that he was right handed because he would do everything first with his right hand, but Logan has shown a real preference for his left hand with self-feeding.  Just in the last week or two the right hand is coming into play more, but he seems to prefer left.  We’ll see!

Personality

Logan is a strong willed and independent fellow.  He is very good at self-entertaining and will generally direct his own play.  He will tell you if he wants to go outside, or in the car, or to a park, or play in the sandbox, or play the blanket game.  His favorite request is to watch tv “pictures” but if we turn it on he almost instantly loses interest in it.  It is interesting to see facets of his personality shine, for instance he loves cars and dogs (puppys) and we don’t particular care for either, but they are probably his new favorite thing.  Despite his stranger anxiety he also recently started being very interested in “people” so maybe that will signal an ebbing of his major anxiety.


It is probably obvious since we are having another kid, but we have both enjoyed more than we could have imagined being parents to Logan these last 18 months.  I have so much trouble describing the impact it has had, but we met with our doula about baby #2 yesterday and she described it wonderfully.  She said it is like she was living in black and white like in Wizard of Oz and then the whole world lit up with color.  It has made me happier than I thought possible and I am so honored to get to see his smiles and watch him grow and develop.