Toothpaste, Car Seats, and Park Ladders

I figure it's been a while since I've written, so I better keep up!

Kyle is still 18 months old, he will be 19 months on February 26th.  He is doing amazing things for his young age!  Yesterday I took him to a park that we haven't been to yet.  There was a curved ladder that went from the ground all the way up to the top of the tall playground platform.  Kyle went right up to that ladder and started climbing it all by himself, like he had done it a million times before!  He went one foot after another, and climbed right up!  I could not believe my eyes...he is only a year and a half after all!  There was a time where he fell through in-between the ladder rungs, but he held on with both his arms, holding all his body weight until I helped him back up.  He is SO strong, and SO smart!!

Here is the link where you can view a video of him going up the ladder:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ky1edavid#p/a/u/2/ogN410_55-M

Kyle is very into tools right now.  He watches and helps daddy work on things around the house, the boat trailer, etc.  He has his own set of plastic tools to play with, and one of the sets has a little plastic piece that looks like wood, and a plastic screw and nut to go on it.  The screw was secured with the nut on the "wood" piece, and when Kyle pointed to the screw (non verbally asking what it was), I told him it was a screw.  He then proceeded to go to his bin of tools, got the screwdriver, put it in the hole end of the screw and started turning it back and forth.  He is SO smart!  After fiddling with it on and off for a while he did manage to get both the nut and screw off of the wood piece using the screwdriver.  Very coordinated little guy for 18 months, I think.  :)

Kyle still enjoys going to The Little Gym, and likes to swing on the uneven bars all by himself.  He can hold on for longer amounts of time, and can now swing with just one arm like a monkey.  Too cute!  I'll try to get a picture one of these days.

Kyle started using toothpaste on his toothbrush at 18 months.  We are using the "training toothpaste", that is supposedly OK when swallowed.  It's a good thing because most of the time he likes to suck it off the toothbrush right after it's been applied on there.  Ha, ha!  Most of the time though if he gets distracted with something on the bathroom counter, I can get in enough brushing with the toothpaste while he isn't paying too much attention.  Tricky mommy.  :)

Just a couple days after Kyle turned 18 months old we turned his car seat around to face forward in the car.  I wanted to try to wait until he was at least 2 year old, just for safety reasons, but Josh really wanted to turn it around because he though Kyle would be more happy.   Kyle was starting to really make it known that he was feeling unhappy facing backwards.  He seems much happier now that he can see us and interact a little more during car rides.  Often when I take him out in the car and he sees a truck now he says "da, da."  Josh has a truck, so Kyle now associates trucks with "da, da."  If you ask him to say truck, he will say "uck." (He knows that it is a truck....he's just now making the association between truck and daddy having a truck.)

Kyle's vocabulary is growing more every day.  He tries to imitate almost anything you ask him to say...although his response often doesn't sound clearly like the word you asked him to say.  But he sure does try, and most of the time he gets it pretty close!  :)  Today he was trying to say "yellow" which is a new one.  His favorite one right now is "bye, bye."  He also has a word for "Grandpa" now, it almost sounds like he's really saying Grandpa.  The other day he said "bye, bye ma ma."  We had just arrived at the gym where I work out, and I was taking him out of the car.  I think he knew that I was going to drop him in the daycare and he'd see me when I was done.  What a smart little guy, and CUTE!  He doesn't talk a lot in general yet, but it's getting to be more and more as he learns and gets more confident in his language skills.  We're just letting him do it at his own pace, no pressure, and no worries.  :)

We took Kyle to the zoo the other day and it's amazing how much he really looks for the animals now when you tell him what to look for.  When he sees the peacocks (which are free to roam all over the zoo) he points and says "ock."  I've been taking him to the zoo since he was about a month old and it's funny to see how his perception and interest for the animals has changed over time.  This time at the zoo there was a baby zebra, so that was a treat for all of us to see.  Kyle's favorite animal, ever since he was really little has been the giraffe.  That is the one that he is most fascinated with.

For my own personal record I should mention where he is at, growth wise and all.  At his 18 month well check he was 27 lbs. and 35.25" tall.  He still goes to bed at 6:00pm, and usually sleeps a good 13 hours at night.  He is currently taking about a 2 hour nap during the day (we've been doing one nap a day for a good couple months now at least).  He likes his sleep!  He's been in size 4 diapers for what feels like forever!  He went into size 4's when he was pretty young...around 5 months I think (I don't remember exactly).  He was just too tall for the smaller sizes, they were rubbing his little legs red.  Kyle is currently wearing 18 month size in pants, but I think he'll be moving up again pretty soon just because of his height.  He's wearing 24 month and 2T in t-shirts.  A few of his 18 month shirts still fit, just depends on the brand.  He's wearing size 6 shoes.

I have Kyle all signed up for his ISR (Infant Swimming Resource) refresher class coming up next month.  I'm excited to watch him swim again!  He hasn't swam since right after his lessons at the end of last summer.  He was 12 months old.  His teacher is amazing, we just adore her so much!  This time he will only have lessons once a day (last time he did an accelerated class and was going twice a day 10 minutes each lesson - every day...this time he will only be Mon-Fri, 10 minutes a lesson), and for 1 or 2 weeks.  Then we can enjoy swimming together for the rest of the summer, YAY!  I see lots of swimming at Grandpa Hayes' house this summer!  :)

Kyle 12 months old

There, now that I have that all documented...I hope you enjoyed the update, and I'll catch you next time!

Kyle's Latest & Greatest...

I figured it was about time to do a Kyle update on all his new things these days.  He is a very busy little guy!  Kyle will be 15 months old in 6 days.  He is walking like a pro, and exploring everything new that he can get his hands on!  He likes to climb on whatever he can, and he's an expert at pulling books off the shelves.  He is very happy, healthy, and engaged!

He is starting to talk a little.  He says 'out', and wants to play outside all the time now!  He also says 'at' for cat...or anything that he knows belongs to the cat (like the cats toy mouse).  He tries to say milk, and he says 'hot'.  He understands everything we say, and follows our directions so well!

He has learned to be very gentle with the dog and cat.  He pets gently with an open hand.  We have caught him "petting" other children's hair, just like the animals.  LOL  Kids are so funny!  :)  He is very good at sharing with others, whether it be his food, drink, or toys.

Kyle still goes to bed between 6-7pm...but usually it's closer to 6 than 7.  He usually sleeps 13 hours at night.  I think he's been trying to move into one nap a day.  So some days he takes a 2 or 3 hour nap and that's it.  If he takes a 1.5 hour nap in the morning he usually takes another short nap in the afternoon.

Kyle is really cute with his stuffed animals...he likes to give them hugs, and lately he has been putting them on the glider chair and rocking them.  It's pretty cute!  He likes opening and closing doors, he thinks that is great fun.

We've been having a hard time getting Kyle to eat lately.  I think he is teething still.  His 7th tooth came in a few days ago, but I think there are more on the way.  So, today when Kyle walked over to his high chair, set his ball on the seat, and tried to climb up, it was amazing!  He has never asked to get in his high chair before, so I was shocked!  He did actually eat a little after I put him in his chair.  Hurray!

When Josh got home from work today Kyle was playing with us really cute.  Josh was at one end of the couch and I was at the other.  Kyle was running back and forth from one of us to the other, laughing all the while.  It was so cute!

Kyle is still trying to figure out his sorting blocks.  He can consistently get the circle in the circle hole...but is still trying to figure out the other shapes.  He's learning so quick, so I have no doubt he'll have those figured out pretty soon.  :)

We still have Kyle's car seat backwards.  We are going to keep it that way for as long as we can.  According to the AAP, the new recommended age for a rear facing car seat is 2 years minimum.  This seems like a long time, I know, but it really is safer if you can pull it off.  You can view this video about the safety of rear facing car seats vs. forward facing.  Kyle doesn't complain about being backwards which is helpful.  :)

That's all I can think of at the moment.  I'm sure there are more cute things he is doing that I will think of later!  I'm just trying to keep a little journal here, so that I don't forget these things, and Kyle will have this information when he gets older.  :)  If you are following my blog, hit the follow button.  All that does is let me know who is interested in my blog.  It's just nice to know that people are checking out my site.  :)  That's all for now...  Good Night.