18 months

 

dax is celebrating his 18 month birthday today!  we can hardly believe how quickly this year is flying by knowing that he's getting so close to two years old!

we've gone from walking to quickly running!  this past week daxton was checking out how quickly he could walk from one side of the room to the other.  his pace got a little faster each time he trucked across his path.  then, before too long his little legs were running.  now we're off and will and i just look at each other and say "there he goes", before one of us starts chasing after him.  he's really enjoyed the open space at the beach this week and is running up and down the shoreline.

 

 

we're still battling a food taste tester at meal times these days.  as of late, daxton has started sticking out his tongue to take a taste of whatever it is you're offering to see if he "might" want to eat it.  he's had several rounds with daddy where he left the table hungry because he did not want to eat what we were serving.  hopefully this phase will be short lived so we can move on to trying more new things.  he was brave enough to try out key lime pie this week and decided that it might not be so bad to trust us once in a while.  we have also finally found some sippy cups dax likes, so we're hoping he will be totally off the bottle very soon.  he loves drinking his water from his sippy, and he'll ask you for more when he runs out.

 

 

dax has always been a good helper, but lately he's found a new appreciation for pitching in.  recently we found him in a giant wad of paper towels wiping up the floor.  nothing was there, but he'd seen us doing it before so he thought it was a good thing to do.  he's also been caught putting things back "where they go".  his definition and ours of "where things go" may be somewhat different, but its still a good help either way.  he loves to watch daddy load the dishwasher and has even put clean tupperware into the dishwasher while daddy is loading.  he wants to make sure things get cleaned up.
dax loves to talk to strangers.  he'll smile and grin at anyone he sees.  he loves to get their attention and say "hi" while waving furiously.  he lights up when they finally smile back and say hello.  he'll do this while sitting in a high chair at a restaurant, riding in his wagon through the street, or anywhere he comes into contact with other people.  he thinks all eyes should be on him, and he usually gets lots of attention.

dax is working on his vocabulary.  as of this week he's talked about riding in the "car" since we took a long car trip.  however, the funniest thing he is saying now is a thousand versions of "okay".  he'll give you a long drawn out - "ooooooookkkkkkkaaaaaaaayyyyy", or a short and quick "okay", or a medium length "ohhhkay", and then he'll dice them all up with different inflections and tones of voice.  he'll say okay in just about any context.  you can ask how his nap was, how his lunch was, if he's having a good day, how he's feeling, if he misses daddy, what color his shirt is, and so forth and you'll always get some version of okay.  its pretty funny and we laugh, so he does it quite a bit.  he's also working on showing us where different body parts are.  if you ask him where his nose is he'll point straight away and show you his nose - but if you ask where his ears are he will also show you his nose.  everything ends up back at the nose and he thinks its hilarious.

dax is having a wonderful time celebrating his 1/2 year birthday at the beach.  he's loving spending all of his time with mom and dad, going for long walks, reading story books, playing peeky boo, playing in the sand, watching mickey mouse clubhouse, playing on playgrounds at the park, walking on the board walk, making a mess of his food, and splish splashing in the tub.  we love spending time with him and still get so excited when we hear him wake up every morning.  we miss him while he's sleeping and cannot wait for more fun with him when he wakes up from resting.  he's a joy to be around and is the best little fella we could have ever dreamed of.  we're all glad we've got more time to rest, relax, and reconnect before we have to head home!