Gabriel is 18 Months Old

This picture below kills me.  Kills. me. 

He looks like such a big boy.  

Sometimes he seems so big...

...but then he seems to be still very much a baby.  Which is fine by me.


When the six of us went to see Dr. J for G's 18-mo. well-child appointment last week, he weighed 24 lb. 11 oz.  and he was 31 inches tall (although anyone who has ever seen how they measure babies height can understand why I always take the height measurement with a grain of salt).

Gabriel does have his 2nd year molars on the top (for a total of 8 on top), and two more are trying to come in on the bottom (which will make 8).  Dr. J agreed when I asked wasn't that early for G's 2nd year molars.



Dr. J initially seemed taken aback when I told him that Gabriel isn't walking yet.   But when I put G down and Dr. J got to see him in action, cruising around...he obviously felt better.

But then he gave my oldest four children a "talking to":  (index finger pointing at all of them) "STOP picking him up.  He's not going to like it, but you need to stop carrying him around because he needs to start walking!"  

The "curse" of being the baby in a larger family?

He will take steps between us, and he's getting steadier and steadier all the time as we walk next to him holding only one hand.  It won't be long....

One recent "milestone" that Gabriel achieved:  charging $17 worth of new ringtones to my phone.  I have a "dumb" phone that G has a very easy time "unlocking".  Thankfully he didn't charge any more than that!  (And the very nice and understanding man at our cell phone company reversed the charges for us...he 2-y.o. niece has done the same thing to his phone.) 

Mr. G doesn't get to play with my phone anymore.


Another new milestone for Gabriel:  dropping his morning nap.  He recently started fussing when I'd lay him down at both naps, and at bedtime.  That was weird...he never fusses when I lay him down.  It took me too long a while to figure out that it was just time for us to drop that morning nap.  It's been about 6 days now and it has gone very well.  I thought it would be a harder transition.  The only blip was that he was fussier than normal during the latter part of Friday...and then he slept until almost noon on Saturday (wha?).  But he's been fine other than that.

So now his schedule looks like this:

Anywhere between 5 and 6:30 he will either wake up on his own, or if he doesn't, we'll wake him up for a diaper change and to drink his smoothie (almond milk, banana, coconut oil).

about 9:30 a.m. - wake up time (get dressed, eat breakfast)

about noon - eat lunch with all of us

about 1:30 p.m. - lay down for nap (last 2.5 to 3 hours)

Lay back down for bedtime at about 8 p.m.

While our little guy is still very go-with-the-flow...he has definitely started to form his own opinions and demands...

...and he'll let you know if he is not happy about something.