18 Months!

It's a classic battle of the ages.  Toddler against toddler.  Unlimited resources at their disposal but they both must have the same piece of chalk.  In this battle, Miles happened to start out with the coveted pale yellow chalk.  The battle ensues.  A parent intervenes.  Miles gets knocked down, the chalk wrested from his hand.  But, justice prevails; the parent hands the chalk back to Miles and gives him a deserved kiss on the forehead. And this is where one might expect that the story ends, the toddlers heading off in opposite directions, the other whimpering at her loss. But now, as a ray of light shines down from the sky, highlighting his golden tresses, Miles does the unthinkable (at least for an 18 month old). He walks to the chalk bucket, carefully selects another piece of chalk, ambles to the defeated toddler and hands over the bounty.

Our hearts melt.

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We had a pediatrician visit today, his 18 month check up.  His head is growing really well.  So much so, that it's difficult to fit it through the appropriate sized clothing for him (for those family members who might be reading this and might want to get him clothes for the holidays, he's wearing size 18 month shirts and size 12 month pants).  The 18 month shirts are a little baggy on him but his darn head won't fit easily through the 12 month sized tops!  And most of the 12 month sized pants fall down because his waist is too narrow unless he's wearing cloth diapers.  Thank goodness for cloth diapers.

His head growth is really showing too!  He is picking up new words daily.  He can identify a bunch of letters in the alphabet and he says a whole bunch of them too.  It's fascinating watching him learn the letters, because I see patterns among the letters I don't think I had ever noticed before.  He gets V and Y and K mixed up.  They all have a V shape contained in them and it's really interesting to watch his brain work the through the similarities.

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Lucas and I commented recently that this age is so much more fun than any age before it.  Miles has become a completely separate person, with his own very distinct personality. A little person who lives with us.  And it's not like having a crappy roommate (although he doesn't pick up after himself very much), we totally get a kick out of him.  He's good natured and funny!  He made his first joke!  Baby's first joke:

Lucas: Miles, where's the ball?
Miles: points at the ball
L: Where's the zebra?
M: points at the zebra
L: Where's daddy?
M (with a gigantic silly grin on his face): points to himself

It's subtle but he was totally pointing to the wrong person to be funny!  "Look how funny I am, I know I'm not daddy but I'm saying I am!" Anyway, we're very, very happy to be a little family together. I feel I lucked out on the husband and the kid fronts.

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Here are the most recent pictures of our funny little roommate:

Just relaxing.  No need for back or butt support.

Hanging with the neighbor girls.
You think in 15 years this will be them, but taller and sneaking cigarettes?

Cheese architect.

Autumn leaf pile!

There has to be a yoga instructor out there who could use this
picture to illustrate downward facing dog.

Reading a book at sing-a-long.

Books don't go in tape decks Miles.
No, I'm sorry, I can't really explain what a tape deck is for.

cool kid

Pinky swearing with Frankie

Each of them making good use of plaid and baby strollers

I don't even know

Seeking out lady bugs

Playing with his cars.  He doesn't know it,
but he's got some hot wheels coming his way at Christmas.

It's gotten colder!

Batman totally came to our pizza night a few weeks ago.
How cool is that?

Little tuckered out guys

Little dude, chilling out in a fire engine cab.
His life is so cool.

City fireman. City fire engine. City kids.

He will drop whatever he's doing and put his hands up to be carried to the train.

Train watching.  It's a neighborhood pastime.

We're always at the train tracks.

Lots of love for the toddlers.

Let us out (or in)!

Toddler jail can only lead to experimentation.

Chilling out, watching Elmo.  Note the super cool boots.
They were brought back from Spain.  Miles has lots of people who love him.

My two favorite dudes.

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I decided to combine all the videos from the last month or so into one 5 minute video.  Let me know if you prefer this method or you like a bunch of different videos!