17 Months

Our sweet boy is almost 17 months old, in one short month from today he will be a year and a half old and a BIG BROTHER!  He is growing into such a sweet little boy and we are enjoying every last second of being a family of three before we grow into a family four.  What Braxton is up to:

• He is talking more and more and we love every new word that he learns.  His words include mama ( usually only if he is crying), daddy, eat, juice, ball, thank you, night night, ice (which is a whole other story), apple, uh-oh, shoe, sweep, bubble, hi, yay, woah, go-go (this has two meanings- it is his way of saying he wants to go outside or his way of saying he wants to go somewhere in the car--it depends on where we are) and cookie.  I am sure there are a few more that I am forgetting.  
• He has 16 teeth and wears a size five diaper.  
• He is in mainly 24 month clothes and some 2T clothes.  
• This past weekend he has started telling us when he is ready to eat.  He walks up to me and says "eat" and when I ask if he is hungry he goes straight to his chair.  
• The past three days he has also told me when he has a dirty diaper.  I know he is very young and I do not expect him to be ready to potty train for a very long while but this is a new development so I want to document it.  Sweet boy walks up to me and says "shewy" so I ask him if he is "shewy" and for three days in a row he has been.    
• His appetite has decreased, which they say is normal for this age, but every once in a while he will have a couple of days in a row where he eats like a horse.  (He still prefers fruits and vegetables over meat). 
• He probably weighs 27 lbs now--not sure on this one.  Last time we were at the doctor he weighed 26lb 12 oz.  
• He is pretty particular/habitual about some things.  When I get him up in the morning he sits up and says a few things in his own language, then he looks/listens for the dog (he might bark at the dog a couple of times, haha), then he hands me his blanket and says "night night" (that's what he calls his blanket), and will stand up for me to get him out.  When we are getting ready to leave in the mornings he hands me his cup, his snack bowl, and his "night night" then climbs down off the couch and will head to the laundry room.  Once we get in there he will close the door into the kitchen and go to the door into the garage and say go-go.  We then walk out into the garage and he goes and stands by the door of the car and says go-go.  Once I open the door to the car, I put his snack bowl, cup, and "night night" beside the car seat and get him in.  He then leans over and picks each one of these items up one by one and puts them in his lap.  
• He can pout with the best of them and I have to admit it is so very cute.  He ducks his head down, purses his lips out, and looks up with sad eyes.  He usually then walks over to one of us to give us a hug. Along with the pouting goes fake crying, if you would even call it that, haha.  He is pretty good at fake whining or crying but we do not let it fool us!    
• He has successfully slept in his "toddler bed" for a week now.  We converted it into a toddler bed but still have a bed rail on it for post c-section purposes but he has done SO well.  Not a single escape attempt!  
• He still likes bath time but also loves to take a showers.  
• He is ALL boy!  He loves to be outside and would probably be out there at all times if we would let him.  We are usually outside 1-2 hours every evening.  He loves to swing, ride in his police car, run, do anything that daddy is doing, water the grass (or play in the water), climb in the chairs, draw with side walk chalk, occasionally he will just sit in the chair and rest for a minute, and go on stroller rides.  
• He has turned into my little love bug.  He is all about his momma and loving on me.  I know that he does not understand that we are about to have another baby but I think that he senses something because he has been wanting a lot of cuddles and love lately.  Hubby jokes that he does not like him as much as me so I have to explain to him that their outside activities/fun is their "cuddle" time.
• His tantrums have reduced tremendously!!!!  I am not saying that we are completely out of the woods, haha, but now the only time he might get upset is when we have to come inside or stop doing something that we were--like getting out of the bath or riding the four wheeler and it is usually very short lived.  

We LOVE LOVE LOVE watching him grow, learn, and develop but it sure is bittersweet for this momma.  We were truly blessed when the Lord chose us to be his parents and can't wait to see him transition into a big brother.