18 Months

The holidays are upon us! The holidays are so magical to experience through your eyes. Before you were born I struggled at birthdays and holidays. The holidays brought back so many sad moments and bad memories but now you are changing all that.  I see the joy in your eyes when you see tricker treaters come to the door, when you play with pumpkin goo or finger paint on a pumpkin.  At Thanksgiving I watched you run around with your cousins as I cooked. That is what the holidays are all about "Family".  Now we are focused on the birth of our Lord and savior.  I want Christmas to be a time we reflect on how the Lord was born to save us and give us the ultimate gift of eternal life.  I continue to feel blessed to be able to watch you experience life, learn and grow. 

Size: You are wearing mostly 12-18 month clothes. You have a couple 9 month outfits that run big that still fit. You are still wearing size 3 diapers.

Eating: You continue to nurse but also drink organic whole milk at school. 

Sleep Schedule: You still get up early morning everyday (4:30-5:00am) (I think it just has become a habit). We are working on this...okay lets be honest Mommy is working in this :)  

Likes: You are currently very interested in my Tupperware.  You love to drag it out all over the kitchen.  You like to take the lids on and off.  You continue to love to play or should I say tease Max.  You like to take his toys in hopes he will chase you. Your lovey puppy and bunny are very important right now.  You take them to school and sleep with them.  It is pretty cute to watch you carry them around and take care of them but I always worry we will lose one of them.  To insure we don't lose one, daddy and I bought 2 of each!

Dislikes: Your car seat is a hated place for you ( I think I have been saying that for 18 months now)!  

Events:  You started your 17th Month of life passing out Halloween candy. You enjoyed all the tricker treaters talking to you.  After all the Halloween fun we started focusing on your Daddy's big 30th birthday. On his actually birthday you had a genetic/neuro visit at Riley.  After your appointment we went to Grandma and Grandpa Strobel's and we headed out for a special birthday dinner at one of Daddy's favorite Charbonos! We tricked daddy "he thought that was his party", little did he know a big surprise was in the works.  A week after his birthday mommy surprised daddy with dinner for 22 of his closet friends and a limo ride afterward to take us all around town. Daddy's surprise meant you had a babysitter for the second time.  Jordan our neighbor watched you.  You get a little upset when we leave but Jordan assures me that you calm quickly once we are out of sight. After daddy's birthday we started focusing on Thanksgiving.  This year we hosted the Strobel Thanksgiving at our house.  I was a little stressed but mostly excited.  Thanksgiving morning we went to Huntington and met up with Uncle Dathen to run the Turkey Trot (mommy walked). Thanksgiving went great and you enjoyed getting to spend time with your cousin Ben.  The Saturday after Thanksgiving we celebrated with the Sparks family.  Again, you enjoyed playing with all your cousins. Wow, what a busy month we had and we are getting ready for another busy month with you; our super sweet, fun, cute, smart, corky, lovable 18 month old!

Piper was not feeling 18 month picture ;)