18 months of Clayton

...a month late, but better than never!  The pictures are from March-April.

I just love this little guy. Every time I look at him I just want to smoosh him. In a good way.  Just an update on what he's up to these days...

Stats:
Weight: 24 lbs 7.5 oz, 30th percentile
Length:  32 1/4", 47th percentile
Head: 18 1/2", 28th percentile

He's wearing size 18m-2T clothes, size 4 diapers, and size 5 shoes.

-He loves to play.  His favorites right now are cars, trains, balls, and animals.  I guess he's a pretty typical toddler boy there.
-He loves to be outside.  In our back yard (which is fenced in---so nice!) he spends his time throwing or kicking balls and then chasing after them or going up and down the little 2 or 3 inch step between the patio and the grass.  He's just recently mustered up the courage to step down rather than stop, turn around, drop to hands and knees, go down feet first, then stand up with a grin.  It was quite comical.
-If he escapes out the garage or front door, he runs straight for the street.  Fortunately we live in a quiet cul-de-sac. He also likes to ride on the coaster car scooter, which he can finally do by himself.  He loves Jackson's bike and always wants me to put him on there and ride him around.

-He is goofy! He does things just to make us laugh. He likes to tease.
-He likes things to be orderly.  He closes the kitchen cupboards that I leave open.  If the syrup/honey/ketchup lid is flipped open or the milk jug lid is off while we're at the table, he points and squeals and grunts until you close it.

-He's a good cleaner upper and likes to put things away--cars in the car container, blocks with the blocks, etc. He loves to unload the plastic plates from the dishwasher and hand them to me one at a time to put them away. If he sees me sweeping, he chases me around with the dust pan, ready to hold it while I sweep the pile in, and then he carries it to the garbage (with help) to dump it.

 -He loves his big brother still.  They usually get along pretty well, though they have moments of wanting the same toy, etc.  Clayton has learned how to tease Jackson by grabbing a toy and holding it up while running away....wonder where he learned that from.  They do play well together most of the time though.

-He'll go the fridge and "Uh! uh! uh!" for me to open it for him when he wants his milk.  But he will not take his cup from me until I give him Jackson's cup and then he'll run off to take Jackson's cup to him and then come back and get his.  It is cute and sweet, but often Jackson doesn't want his milk so it ends up causing a bit of a problem. (They have different kids of cups to keep the milk and soy milk straight.  Clayton definitely knows which kind is his cup.)

-Clayton is a little rough physically.  He likes to hit, grab faces, and tackle.  We're working on that.
-He sleeps really well.  Until about 17 months old, he was ready to go to bed at 6 or 6:30 every night.  That was kind of hard to go anywhere in the evenings and hard because he'd be ready for bed when we were trying to eat dinner.  Recently he's shifted to 7:30ish and we do most of the bedtime routine with Jackson now.  Clayton naps from about noon-2:30 or 3 usually.  I have just recently started laying him down when he's still awake for naps and it works most of the time.  Don't know why I didn't try that sooner...he's always done it for bedtime.

-He loves to dance! We have dance parties almost every day.  He turns on the cd player himself and goes to town.  He thinks he has to push buttons between every song to make it go to the next one so he presses pause-play-pause-play-pause-play-pause-play until the next song starts.  I'm ready for some new kids' cds.
-He's a pretty good eater and will usually eat pretty much anything.  He loves oranges, apples, strawberries, broccoli, hot dogs, noodles, chicken, rice, scrambled eggs... he always takes his sandwiches apart before eating them.

-We're still avoiding milk/dairy for him.  If he accidentally gets some he has an upset tummy and nasty diapers for several days after.  Perhaps an improvement from throwing up?
-He is in nursery!  He's gone for about 4 weeks now and does great.  The first week I took him he hung out near me for a few minutes and then was drawn away by some cool cars and great nursery leaders and I snuck out.  He's done great every week since.
-On Clayton's first week going to nursery I told Jackson that Clayton was going to go to nursery that week and Jackson was so excited for him!  They held hands and walked down the hall and I took Jackson to Primary and then went to the nursery to take Clayton.  In the car on the way home I listened in on their (one-way) back seat conversation..."Did you have fun in nursery today Clayton?  Did you play with the swirly car ramp? That is a fun toy.  And did you listen to the lesson? What did you have for snacks today?" It was just so cute to see Jackson acting as the experienced big brother. Nursery? I'm an old pro.

-At playgroup he usually sits on my lap for the whole time.  By the end he'll venture out a bit to get a toy and bring it back to play by me.  At music makers he sits right on my lap for the first part and then by the time we get to the run-around part he'll run and play with the bigger kids.
-He recognizes extended family members in pictures and gets excited to see them.  I wish we lived closer to the Shirts side of the fam so he could know them better!  It has been great to be able to see the West side so often.

-He still does not say any words, but he's starting to imitate new sounds and will copy them when we ask him to.  He doesn't really give them any meaning though.  I don't even know what to call it--not grunting or babbling--he mostly just says "uh! uh! uh!" and points if he wants something, or just makes tones up and down like he's talking but without any real consonants in there.
-He totally understands everything we say--sometimes when I'm not really even talking to him I'll realize that he's paying attention and following along.  ex:  I was saying something to Jack about the scriptures and Clayton took off to the bookshelf and got the Book of Mormon off the shelf and brought it to me.  He follows directions well when we ask him to do something.

-He seems to understand most of what Jack is saying to him in Chinese, too.  It is mostly the same words/phrases used every day, but he understands it--mom, dad, big brother, little brother, yes, no, ball, train, airplane, several animals, milk, soy milk, eat, drink, come here, sit down, stand up, brush teeth, give ___ a hug, fold your arms for prayer, etc.  Tonight Jack would say a body part in Chinese and Clayton would point to it on the doll and did pretty well!  Maybe the dual-language thing is why his speech is a little behind, but that's ok :)

-Clayton loves books!  Some days he probably brings me 20 books to read.  He'll often find a book and flip through the pages, looking at it and pointing to pictures by himself.
-He likes to sing, and often sings recognizable tunes, like "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" or "I am a Child of God."  When he wakes up in the morning he'll just chill in his crib, singing and talking to himself while I shower.

We love this little guy!  He really is not a baby any more.  It is so fun to watch him grow and learn new things and to see the ways he's like his big brother and the ways that he is his own little person.  I'll keep him!