Stats @ 16.5 months adjusted (20 months actual)

Dylan is currently 19 pounds and 31 3/4 inches. Technically he hasn't gained anything since our last appointment a couple of months ago, but he's fitting in new clothes because of his height so I'm pretty happy with his progress.

It's challenging to dress Dylan. He can wear 12 or 18 months sleepers. He can wear 6-18 month shirts (18's a little big, but not terrible). But he is just barely growing out of 3 month shorts and some 6 month shorts are just too big! But pants are the hardest. His largest pair of jeans is Children's Place 6-9 months and they kind of stay up. Most days he wears 3-6 month jeans. So basically, he rocks capri pants. (But if this is the worst of our problems, I'll take it!)

Feeding is going great. We're off Prevacid and Dylan loves to eat all kinds of foods. Current favorites: cottage cheese, peas, black bean patties. And he FINALLY learned how to suck from a straw so the world of smoothies is now wide open.

Speech

I've been slightly concerned about Dylan's speech, mostly because of trying to compare Dylan with other babies and stories on the internet, so I want to share what my Ped said to hopefully make some of you feel better. Basically, Dylan occasionally says some single words, but not frequently and most of what he says is "eh." But every word spoken counts even if they never say it again. So even though he's not speaking in complete sentences (slight exaggeration) like some of his peers (mostly female), he's doing just fine.

Dylan really has had a language explosion recently. About a month ago, he answered his first question, "What does a cow say?" and I almost cried. But now, he knows when I'm asking a question which is cool, but every. single. answer. is "Eh." Even to the original, "What does a cow say?" But I guess this is normal. Recently he's been saying something like "dah" for "yes" which is a differentiated answer to a question, so that's good.

I'd say he has about 10-15 words, but let me spell them out so I have them for the future:

daddy
doggy
car
truck
turtle
yes
star
cup(?)
cow
moo
duck
outside
door
train
tree

(notice that mommy, mama, and mom are not on the list...maybe he think I'm daddy too? : /)

He basically does not mimic, although it has happened a couple of times.

And his receptive language is fantastic. He responds nearly 100% to "Can you give hugs?" He is responding to his name much more frequently than before, probably 75% of the time...as long as nothing else super interesting is going on. He will wave bye bye on command occasionally. We can say "Go get your blanket" and he will crawl to it and go to his room if he's sleepy. If you ask about a light, he'll look up at it. So all in all, he seems to understand a lot.

And it is AMAZING how nice it is to be able to communicate with him more (and get responses and communication from him). It changes everything.

Gross Motor

Dylan is still not walking, but I'm not really concerned. He has actually let us start practicing with him a little bit over the last week or so. What has worked best is walking on grass toward a ball that he then "kicks." But he still refuses to do push toys and refuses to practice walking most of the time. So whatever...he'll do it when he wants to. He's extremely coordinated and has great balance, so it'll come.

Personality

Dylan does tantrum a bit, but so far we haven't had any fall to the ground type and usually then don't last more than a minute or two. He responds really well to warnings i.e. "In a minute we are going to go inside." "Ok, it's time to go inside." I know he has no clue what a minute is, but the repetition of inside helps him understand that he has to get out of the drivers seat of the car soon. (Standing in the driver's seat and pushing all of the buttons is his absolute favorite thing to do in the world. We made him his own set of fake keys today because he has to have keys in his hand and he definitely understand where the key is supposed to go in the car. Thanks, Dad.)

But in general, he's just a super fun, happy kid. We get tons of smiles and laughter. He loves to read books and definitely has opinions on which ones he wants to read. Current faves: My Truck is Stuck, Baby Quiet Baby Loud, Llama Llama Nighty Night, and Fuzzy Duckling.

I'm hoping I can get back to a more regular posting schedule since it's ALMOST SUMMER! I'm changing roles at work next year and I've been kind of doing two jobs at once and it's been really crazy.