Luke: 19 Months

When Micah was 19 months old, we also had a days-old newborn.  This blows my mind now, since Luke seems so young to me.  

fortunately, he has a loving family

So Luke is about the size of a pumpkin.  He gained weight from 15 months, so that was good, but he remains on the small side.  Since he eats so well, is active, meets all milestones, doesn't seem to have allergies, we just let him do his thing.  He seems to have a really fast metabolism.  Luke still eats more than Micah does, and he is usually hot (he will NOT sleep under a blanket).

Luke loves to do what the big kids do - Micah, Lili, Will, whoever is there to copy.  He and Micah usually play pretty well together, with a few of the typical bumps along the way.  It seems to be tough to want to share toys, but that's tough for me too.

Luke and I were both happy when he started to be able to eat yogurt.  For a long time, if he had yogurt he'd get a rough diaper rash.  Micah eats yogurt every morning, and Luke felt sad he couldn't as well.  A month or so ago, I tried some of the yo'baby yogurt, and he did OK.  It's a smaller size and regular yogurt instead of Micah's Greek yogurt, so for whatever reason it seems to be working for him.

I love that Luke is an adventurous explorer.  He is very confident in his ability to climb, walk, run, throw, or whatever it strikes him to do.  Luke enjoys physically exploring, wanting to touch, step on things, splash in water.  He still loves puddles, and now that his feet are a little bigger he can actually wear boots to do his splashing.

Luke is also very cheerful and sunshiney.  Pretty much unless he's hungry or tired, Luke is happy.  When he's the only kid in the house, he can play by himself and loves to not have to share toys.  When other kids are around, he wants to play with them.  He's a great hugger and enjoys snuggling.

Luke is still relatively predictable.  He is nursing about 3 times a day - first thing in the morning (in my usually futile attempt to get him to go back to sleep), before nap time, and before bed.  He takes one nap, usually starting between 1 and 2 pm.  I really appreciate their sleeping at the same time, so I can nap, eat snacks I don't want to share, read, or get a few things done.

Most of Luke's favorite foods remain the same as well.  He eats a banana every day, he loves his yogurt, blueberries, chicken, and peas.  Luke is still in an adventurous eating stage - when we have curry or borscht, he'll give it a shot.  Usually he likes it too, but occasionally he runs across a food he doesn't care for.

The biggest area of Luke's development has been language.  He loves to name things, anything, and I love his cute toddler pronunciation ("opopus" = octopus).  He's trying to figure out colors, and yellow is his favorite.  At least half the time he's right.  Luke is pretty good at getting his point across, especially when it involves food.

I'm definitely enjoying this stage. I wish I could freeze them here for a year or two.