18 Months

18 months-wow! Just think-I started this whole blogging thing when I was pregnant with Emmitt...Parker was just 18 months old then. I have a love/hate relationship with 18 months. I love the independence of an 18 month old, but hate the demanding do it myself actions (not words) of an 18 month old. Just last night I gave in to him putting his brothers way too big crocs on all by himself because he would squeal like a stuck pig if I even moved a fraction of an inch towards helping him. It took him a good 5 minutes to get them on, but the concentration on his face was worth the wait.

Emmitt still isn't "talking" real words. At least when anybody is around. We are fairly certain that he can talk, he just chooses not to. He was at Auntie Tammy's last week and clear as a bell, pointed out her window and said Park! But when you ask him to say Parker? He replies with Bro-oh!

Even little things like-cup or light or please or even help me...nothing. He will repeat a sign back at you immediately and then use it, but just doesn't want to talk. We really don't mind-once he does start talking-we'll want him to be quiet, so no hurry bud! But when the whining sets in and he is screaming for something he wants and refuses to use his words (or signs for that matter) to ask for what it is-that is making us all c r a z y!

I am really trying to decide between the above and below pictures-which 18 month old shot do I hang on the wall? I have baby pics of all of us hanging in one part of my house. Bear and I are closer to around a year old and Parker is 18 months old in his. So...what you do for one, you do for the other right? It is one picture that I never change out of the frame, so I gotta really love it....

Last Friday-I kept the kids home from daycare and we went to the beach. It was 60 degrees and super windy. They were dressed accordingly and I couldn't let those Easter hats go unused! Parker actually wore his hat again the next day out on the golf course with me and Auntie Tammy. The boys had fun throwing rocks and sticks into the water. Then we were frozen and decided to head to the Wharf, as promised, for ice cream! We attempted to sit outside but everything was swarming with hornets, so I popped the trunk of the SUV and let them drip with their ice cream there.

Someday, I believe that Emmitt will get used to the camera and actually start smiling (even a little) for a picture...but for now? He's just not that into it.

The boys can play so well together-sometimes. I have officially thrown all of the toys down the basements stairs and given them free reign of the whole space...in return I got a living room back! Yippee!! It is not uncommon to come home after work and start making dinner and the boys just go downstairs to play until I call them to come up. Gone are the days of setting one of them in the exersaucer in the kitchen and feeding them endless amounts of Gerber Puffs while I scramble to make dinner for two. We are officially making dinner for four. Most meals are still too much for us, but someday I know they will eat the whole pan of lasagna and a gallon of milk in one meal. Other times they absolutely cannot stand each other. Parker is at a very imaginative age and has things like, puppy houses and bear caves set up all around the house-Emmitt just likes to come "wreck" them all. You will hear Parker repeatedly tell others here comes the wrecker. Parker has recently taught Emmitt how to give an Eskimo Kiss-all you have to do is ask him for one and he comes at you with his head shaking.

They actually do love each other-they are both leaning in here for a very sticky kiss.