Leo 18 months pics

Moving out and up!

We spent February getting our house ready to sell. It was a lot of hard work, but it paid off! We got a firm offer on our home in just five days and are now under contract.

We have to move out of our home by March 30, so we started looking for a new home right away. We've found a beautiful 4-bedroom, 3 bathroom home in Murray, a suburb just south of Salt Lake City. It is on a quiet, dead end street just three minutes' walk from a nature reserve with the Jordan river, parks, and trails. We put an offer in yesterday and have our fingers crossed that all goes well.

Leo's 18 mo checkup

Leo's last checkup went very well. He is in the 50th percentile for height, the 50th for head size, and 7th for weight. He's up to 23 lbs. now and back in the healthy range.

Leo's had persistent ear infections/fluid in the ears since December. We are taking him to a specialist on March 18 to determine if he will need to get tubes. Leo's speech is a little bit on the low end of the scale, but it may be related to his ear issues.

Otherwise, Leo is right on target in terms of health and development. He is still a happy, sweet boy most of the time, though he has learned to cross his arms and look sullen when he doesn't get his way.

Leo's latest checkup

Leo had his 15-month appointment last week (even though he's technically 16 months). His latest stats are:

• Weight: 21 lbs (15th percentile and back in the "healthy" range)
• Height: 31.5 inches (50th percentile)
• Head: 18.5 inches (50th percentile)

The doctor is very pleased with his development overall. He's ahead of the curve on fine motor skills, is right on track with language, and is a little slow on gross motor skills like walking. She mentioned that its pretty common for laid-back, relaxed babies like Leo to be a little slow developing gross motor skills, since they are generally content to be where they are and don't feel the need to zip around.

There was a little fluid in Leo's ears that threatened to go full ear infection, so we got some antibiotics just in case. Leo got six shots on this appointment--the four usual vaccinations for 15 months plus his boosters for flu and H1N1. I was concerned about it being a lot of shots at once, but our doctor talked me through the risks, which were very minimal, and in the end we did all six. He recovered quickly from the shots and was a little cranky for a couple of days. We weren't totally sure if it was the ears or the vaccinations, so we gave him the antibiotic just to be safe. He's fully recovered now and doing well.

Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving dinner was at our house this year so Mom and Dad came down from Ogden.
Before dinner, Dad and Mike introduced Leo to "carrier landings". As you'll see in the video, it requires sliding along a table on one's belly. The original version that Dad did in the Air Force was a drunken slip n' slide which involved dress uniform (preferably whites), a table soaked in beer or red wine, and stopping without using your hands before you slid off the table (like on an aircraft carrier--hence the name). Our version was a lot less messy, but still got a lot of laughs from everyone.

Dinner, featuring Dad's amazing smoked turkey, was delicious. Leo ate a bit of everything, and loved the garlic and artichoke dip that was our appetizer. He is constantly surprising me by how many foods--even strongly-flavored dishes--he likes! We got some video of pre- and post-dinner with Leo (see below). Leo decided that gravy could do double duty as a styling product, which explains the state of his hair.

Swinging and Dancing

Here's two new videos.

1) Leo learned how to dance a couple of weeks ago. His signature moves are swaying side to side and sometimes doing "happy feet" (a quick run in place move). He'll dance to any music, but especially loves the songs from the "radio" on his playhouse.
2) "Swing Time" is from our trip to the park this weekend and includes Leo's first time solo on the swings.

Leo's first haircut

Leo was starting to look a bit shaggy (see the "before" pic at top) so it was time to get his first haircut. We went to a place that specializes in kids' haircuts, where he got to sit in a seat shaped like an airplane and watch an Elmo DVD (and the other kids in the salon). He took it in stride--no tears, no fuss--and now he looks even more handsome!

Walking (almost) and talking (nearly)

Leo has developed so much in just the last couple of weeks. Here's a summary of what he's been up to.

• Walking: Leo "walks" very well when he's holding onto a push toy or somone's hands. He's still not sure about pushing away from support and standing/walking on his own.
• Talking: Leo's started to mimic sounds and has a few new words in his repertoire. Just yesterday he said "book" very clearly while pointing to one. I forgot to get my keys out before loading up with baby, bag, etc. and said out loud at the door, "Mommy was dumb and forgot her keys." Leo looked right at me and said, "Dumb, ma ma." :o)
• Eating: Leo's developed some interesting new food "likes" (like chai) and some usual ones (hot dogs).
• Dressing: Leo helps me when I dress him by putting up his hands, feet, etc. He also attempts to brush his hair.

Leo's latest checkup

Leo had his 12-month well child checkup yesterday. He is now

• 30.75 inches long (75th percentile)
  
• 19 lbs 3 oz (5th percentile).
  
• His head is 18.1 inches (25th percentile).
  

The doctor said that Leo's weight has slightly slipped off of the "curve" to maintain for optimal health. However, Mike was a skinny kid and so were both of our Dads, so it may be genetic. We were instructed to keep doing what we are doing: let him eat pretty much everything (except nuts, peanuts, and any seafood until age 2--due to my shellfish allergy) and lots of it.
Other than a little fluid in his ears that we'll need to watch, he is otherwise perfectly normal in health and development. The doctor noted his good-natured acceptance of her examination and he recovered very quickly from his three immunizations with the help of a graham cracker and a snuggle from Mom.

Three new posts today!

I uploaded three posts with pictures today--scroll down to see them all!