A year and a half?!?!

Where did the time go with this little man? It's hard to believe that Ely is almost 18 months old. I remember receiving some 18-month clothes for my baby shower and looking at them compared to the newborn outfits, thinking "My little boy will never be that big!". And of course, at 18 months, he's already wearing a 2T!

Ely's personality continues to emerge, especially with as much as he can talk. He probably has about 75+ words now, and his annunciation is getting better and better everyday (including his s's as in "shoes," "horse," and "juice"). I'll save you the length of my previous posts by just listing a few of his newest and cutest words: boat, nut (as in acorn), train, tree, banana, grapes, carrot, eye, glasses, cheese, "chip" (for chipmunk), robin and grackle (which he can identify correctly along with blue jay and cardinal), star, "pop" for Grandpa Terry (which is probably the cutest), Cindy (his daycare provider), water, hot, cold, potty, kitty, and the list goes on. He has a huge interest in animals (and who says we don't push our own interests off on our kids?), and can identify and name about 25-30 different animals in his books. His favorites are "gunk" for skunk, owl, moose, cow, goat, giraffe, and zebra. He can also make the noise for a monkey, cow, sheep, horse, dinosaur, and owl. We have buckets of Little People animals that he loves to line up on our coffeetable. He's got a bit of his mom's personality in that he likes to organize - the cows must all be together in the line, and all facing forward, and then once that's accomplished, he likes to help me count them. He can now count to 2 and can tell me when there's 2 of something, which I consider pretty good for someone who's not even 2 himself!

But Greg's personality shines through most of the time. He's full of energy, always wiggling, and LOVES outside. In fact, when I lift him out of his crib in the morning he wants his juice, but then promptly yells "SHOES, OOOOOUUUUUT!, BALL!" Greg has taught him to do push-ups, complete with grunting and counting (Ely says "Two" for every one). He runs, not walks, everywhere he goes and has extremely good dexterity and fine motor skills. We think he will be left-handed, as he seems to prefer that most of the time and is definitely more coordinated with his left hand.

We are just beginning the potty training process. He doesn't show real readiness yet, but he is able to tell me when he has gone in his diaper and is extremely eager to please both Greg and I. He has his own potty, so we are just beginning to talk about those sorts of things. I can't say that I'm very ready to go down the diaper-less road yet - he's already growing up fast enough as it is!

Here are a few recent pictures:

On a recent wildflower walk at Beach Cemetery Prairie:


Favorite game to play AND watch on TV - basketball!


Blowing a dandelion


Best thing about summer!


My little ham!