I had decided to make a list of all the words that Nathan was saying and using spontaneously at 18 months of age.  I’m not talking about the words that he says when he copies what someone says, but words he comes out with by himself.  Naturally, since he still can’t make all the sounds yet, many probably don’t sound like the actual word to the casual observer, but to Nathan they are words and Andrew and I know what he’s saying (helped along sometimes by some Nathan-styled sign language).  For example, he says  something that sounds a bit like “Ne-ne” which I suddenly realised a few weeks ago is Nathan’s way of saying ‘Nathan’ because he points to himself every time he says it!  It doesn’t sound anything like ‘Nathan’ but it’s a word that Andrew and now I recognise….should that word be added to the list?  Most words do sound like what they’re supposed to, but then there are words that sound pretty much identical and it’s only really the context that helps us to distinguish them.  For example, ‘money’ and ‘Mummy’ sound pretty much the same, but it’s obvious that Nathan is saying ‘money’ when he’s holding out a 20 cent piece.  Similarly, the words ‘hockey’ and ‘horsey’ sound the same, but when Nathan is holding his hockey stick or cantering around like a horse it’s obvious which of the two he’s saying.  So, after debating with myself about this, I finally decided to make a list of words that Nathan used of his own accord and are recognisable by Andrew and myself, regardless of how they sound to others.  There are some 130 words on my list, and I’m sure I have forgotten some…even now I can think of one or two I’ve fogotten to include.  We also hear new words every day, so it’s a bit hard to keep up!  Anyway, here it is (you can click on the image to make it bigger).

Word map made using www.wordle.net/

EC is still going well. Nathan is now starting to get the hang of telling me (in particular, and Andrew sometimes) when he needs the toilet, with some time to get there as well.  His bladder is obviously able to hold more now, since he only wees about every hour and a half during the morning and about every hour in the afternoons now.  In fact, Nathan is getting so reliable about holding his wee and/or telling us he needs to wee that I am starting to not watch the clock so closely. When we are at home and he has a bare bum, he is starting to just run to the potty of his own accord and sit on it to wee. Yes, we still have days when he has two or three wee misses, but in general he’s staying dry all day. The training pants that I made him are getting really tight on him, so I’m looking forward to when I’m no longer working and I can have him in undies full time.  The only time he wears them is when Ebony looks after him, so I haven’t been feeling inclined to make any more because I don’t need them!

It is really amazing the amount of development that has occurred since Nathan turned one year old. His speech is coming along in leaps and bounds, his motor skills are improving to the point that he can gently put a block on top of a tower that he’s building with blocks, he’s enjoying drawing and can sit for quite a long time looking through his books by himself! He still loves Mummy or Daddy to draw things for him, to build him towers he can knock down, and to read him loads of books, but he is starting to be a little less dependent on us for all his entertainment.

Nathan had his 18-month vaccination and check up last week.  He’s gone up to the 10th percentile for height (78 cm) and is somewhere between the 75th and 90th percentile for weight (13 kg).  Andrew distracted him with his Iphone as he got his vaccination, and so he didn’t make a sound!  So much better than the extended screaming we experienced at the 12-month vaccinations.

We also took off one of the sides of his cot this month in the hopes that he will like being in his bed if he can get in and out on his own.  I think it’s helped a little, but we are still a long way off him actually going to sleep in it!  Currently I transfer him after he falls asleep in our bed, and more often than not he still ends up in our bed at some stage during the night.  I have stopped breastfeeding him during the night, though, as it wasn’t helping him get back to sleep at all and I was finding it quite irritating to have him sucking for up to an hour almost every night if it didn’t help him sleep.

To finish up, here are a few photos from the last month.

A very sleepy boy eating his dinner.

Yummy soup!

On Daddy’s back (for the first time) in the city

Reading books on his bed

Looking for ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’

Asleep with Arthur-Bear

Stomping with the soldier crabs (open a bigger file of the crabs by clicking)