Sweet taste of summer

I am saddened to report this is the end of July post, as it means back to the grind in just a few short weeks. Yesterday, Parker and I sat outside and relaxed, drinking my morning coffee. Parker sat across my lap and would talk, then put his head down and give me a big hug, then sit up and talk, and then lay down and hug ... and this went on for 15 minutes! I savored every moment, while knowing that it likely won't happen again. He is growing so fast and changing so much that I am sad to see time continuing to tick by.

Parker's 18 month doctor visit went well. He is 32 inches tall (grown two inches in the last three months) and weighs 23 pounds 8 ounces. He has gained very little weight over the months - he was 20 pounds at 6 months and almost 22 pounds at one year. He has finally caught up with his percentiles and he is perfectly rounded in the 35-40th percentiles for both height and weight (he was down in the 10th percentile for height at times).

It's amazing watching the language development as he speaks with full and clear words-as though this is how he has always spoke! I poured water into his sippy cup and he started to put the lid on it, then stopped and said "ice", asking for ice cubes too. He watched me washing the dishes and got so excited and started shouting "bubbles" as the water got sudsy. He is doing a great job with the "b" sound on many of his new words, but continues to use the "d" for some of the previously learned words (like "doom" for boom) or skips it all together, like "ai-ee" for bye. He was standing on the deck and very excitedly said "ba-ba". I asked him if he meant "baa-baa like a sheep" and he walked over, grabbed my hand and pulled me to the railing, where we watched a bunny hopping across the yard!

Shopping cart was a little big!

And then he found a place to "cook"...

... and then never left this spot!

He has demonstrated a working memory over these past few weeks. When we tried to use the oven, he started crying because he remembered how scared he was earlier. The smoke detector had gone off when we used the oven earlier. We were sorry to see him again scared, but impressed that he remembered and tied it all in together! He has been very skittish of loud noises lately, and will run to one of us when a loud car/motorcycle/truck comes barreling down the road. But he loves tractors! As we are driving, he will even shout out "tractor!" when a construction truck or tractor drives past.

Jeremy had Monster's Inc. on tv and Parker would watch for just a few minutes at a time (just as most cartoons). Toward the end, the little girl is very giggly and playing with the monster and Parker stopped to watch for a good 5-10 minutes. Then the monster has to say good bye and goes into the closet and closes the door behind him (a very sad part of the movie!). The little girl goes to check and sees that the monster is gone ... and Parker started crying! Apparently he is watching more than we thought!

Oh and these photos are from a trip to the Kohl's Children's Museum with the cousins (and Nana, too!).