17 Months Old

Banks, you are 17 months old!

You are transitioning into a "big boy" right before my eyes!

You have such a sweet personality and are usually very willing and "compliant" about  most things.   You really do love pleasing me and daddy. Now with that said you have temper tantrums...full blown.  These mostly occur when I don't move fast enough on what you want or if you don't get what you want.  Seeing as I am not in the business of creating a monster, I will not start moving faster and jumping to your requests any time soon ;)  I either leave you alone and ignore (if I clearly see you are merely seeking my attention) or you go to time out.  Both are pretty effective.  You are starting to know that when I use the words "time out" its time to straighten up. 

You love books still and we read millions a day.  Your favorite books right now are Little Blue Truck, Brown Bear Brown Bear, Goodnight Gorilla, Diggers (book about dump trucks and diggers), Noah's Ark, and this animal book that Wilson got you for Christmas that makes all kinds of animal sounds (Thanks W!). 

You LOVE it when Daddy walks in the door each day.  You give him HUGE hugs and then you guys get busy playing! 

You started Little Gym this month and you are the star of the class (at least your mommy thinks so!).  You really love going!  You can walk on a beam one foot in front of the other, do a forward roll with assistance, hang from the bar without assistance, and swing on the rings.  You are super independent in class and you prefer to go explore without me.  You have not shy with the other children at all and love to interact with them.  The only trouble we have is sitting still during "circle time," but we are working on it :)

You have days where you eat A TON and I wonder how am I going to feed you as a teenager.  Then the next day you may not eat that much at all.  Breakfast is your hungriest meal.  You almost always eat a bowl of oatmeal and lots of fruit.  This week you have been eating an apple bran muffin as well.  You definitely have a sweet tooth!

You're still doing great with one nap.  You sleep anywhere from 1.5-2.5 hours beginning at 1:00.  I prayed it would help you sleep in, but most days you are still an early riser (about 6:30 most days). 

You have a good bit of words and will use them for what you want.  You are initiating "please" (or I should say "a-pa" which is your please) a lot more spontaneously. 

You LOVE being outside and its hard to get you to come back in a lot of times.  You mostly just love to run around the yard, picking up sticks and rocks.  I can't wait for the weather to warm up so we can be outside more often. 

You are a joy big boy! We love you so much and enjoy each moment I spend with you.  I am SO thankful to get to stay home with you most of the week, we have SO much fun together.  I love you to the moon and back!