Quinten {18 months}: sweet and ornery in one

My poor second child only gets pictures posted on Facebook and Instagram. He doesn’t have a baby book and there is no documentation of his awesomeness. {Full disclosure: Maximus has a baby book, but nothing is in it.}

18 – 19 months seems to be his sweet spot. {Knock on wood and cross all the crossables} He sleeps. He eats {a lot}. He talks {and yells a lot}. He runs. He plays. He climbs. He gives hugs and kisses. And he fights with Maximus {and the dog}.

Some of his recent highlights:

• This week he started calling Wrigley by name, “WreeWree NOO!” His favorite ways to communicate with Wrigley: “WreeWree GIT DOWN!” “WreeWree NO!” “WreeWree GIT UPP!” Yes, that’s all yelling. And sometimes he runs across the living room yelling at him with his hand up in the air ready to hit him. He’s bossy, err, he has great management potential. {Probably better work on the hitting part before he gets his first job.} This morning when he saw Wrigley for the first time he said very nicely, “HIII WreeWree! Mommy WreeWree!” This is progress.
• Kisses. I love when little guys learn to give kisses. We had some hit-or-miss attempts a few months back, but we were a little too close to the biting stage so we tried not to promote it too much least we get teeth marks on our faces. It transitioned into him giving you his cheek so he could get a kiss. It was the most nonchalant, bored look a baby could give. Kiss me if you must lady. {Maybe from all the chubby cheek kisses I’ve been giving him since he was born?} Now, he gives you his pursed lips. Then comes back for two more, each time with his mouth open a little more. It’s the sweetest. All the love and milk I’ve given him over the past year-and-a-half are paying off. 😉

  

• We had a very short episode of tantrums over things he wasn’t supposed to have. Mostly phones. And Wrigley’s water dish. We had awful flashbacks to Maximus at 18-months and remembered the horrible tantrums he threw. Quinten’s were short-lived because he decided it was really fun to give them to you. At the same time he learned to say, “Dear Doe.” {Translation: Here you go.} At first he always said, “Tank you.” Until he realized that’s what we’re supposed to say when he gives us something.

  

• Getting his own shoes. It’s the little things that help us get out of the house a few minutes sooner. Everyone with thumbs, get your own shoes! However, Quinten spends a good chunk of time bringing everyone shoes, all day long. “Dear Doe!” He’s a doer, just like the rest of the boys in my house.
• Asking for more food. He’s developed multiple ways of doing this. “Eat!” “More more!” And running to his high chair and yelling non-words.Quinten’s meals go like this: start feeding him fruits before supper is ready, give him the main course and veggies, give him the second round when you sit down to eat your food, and give him food off your plate while you eat, and sometimes give him crackers after you’re done eating. Then he hands you his plate and yells when you clean him up. At some point, Maximus usually pawns some of his food off in a disguise of being helpful. We know it’s just his way of getting food off his plate. Quinten will eat anything. He favorites are broccoli, crackers, and milk. He chugs milk. At 18-months he switched to whole milk 100% of the time. It was a good time for us to end our mama-baby milk relationship and he took it pretty well. He had a few moments of weakness the week after we stopped, but no major setbacks.

  

• He sings songs. His favorite is Old McDonald. On the weekends {the only time he wakes on his own}, he stands in his crib and sings “ey yi ey yi o.” He also really likes dancing to music. Singing songs has been Maximus’ way of helping calm him down in the car. It started a few months ago after daycare when Quinten didn’t want to be in his seat. Maximus usually sings the ABC’s first and then Wheels on the Bus. Quinten has been known to participate by clapping and yelling, “YA!” at the end of the songs.
• Over the past week, Quinten has gotten into pointing out semis and trucks. He watches them from our living room windows and when he’s in the car. “Ohhh! CA! CA!”
• He loves birds, which he also watches from our living room. He sees a lot of them and points and yells “bidie!” He thinks all animals are puppies. And seems to love them all. At a wedding last weekend, there were two cats roaming around and he loved pointing and yelling at them, but didn’t like it when they turned around to come towards him. A beagle showed up during the reception and I told Quinten I saw a puppy like Wrigley. I put him down on the ground and he full on sprinted out of the barn into the grass and ran right up to the dog and petted her. {We know the dog and Bryan was right next to her when I let him down.} He was way nicer to Maggie than he has ever been to Wrigley. He’s definitely ready to have his mind blown at the zoo!

• His communication has blown up over the past month. He is still rear-facing in the car and he calls out to Bryan or I and then tries to have a conversation. He loves saying “hi” to people. Usually people he knows, but the more comfortable he gets with an environment {doesn’t take too long}, the more he starts yelling at everyone else.
• He continues to love water – splashing it, dumping it on his head, and drinking it. We haven’t made it to the pool this year, but I know he’ll love it and give me a run for my money {along with a couple of heart attacks}.

  

His stats are pretty consistent with the past year. He’s 85% in weight at 26 pounds and some ounces. His height is somewhere in the 75% range at 31 1/2 inches. And I think his head continues to be around that same percentage as well. I have reached the dreaded clothes confusion point. Last week, Maximus asked me why Quinten was wearing his shorts. It was the end of the day. It turns out they were Maximus’ shorts. Whoops! So he’s apparently wearing anywhere from 18 months {a little snug} to 4T.

He’s a busy second child. Lobbying {yelling} for attention from Bryan and I. He’s bringing out the competitive side in Maximus, while they both try to get held by me first. Physically climbing and pushing each other over to get up first. He screams and cries when he doesn’t get to go outside with everyone else. He relaxes into the stroller when we go for walks. And he grabs the closest musical toy when the drums and guitars come out. He gives the sweetest, longest snuggle hugs and passes out hard when he sleeps. He’s the best mixture of sweet and ornery in one vibrant, happy baby.