18 month stats

Owen finally had his 18 month check-up this morning. His stats:

Ht: 33 inches
Wt: 24 lbs., 3 oz.
Head: 19.5 inches

He's got about 20 words now: bye bye, mama, daddy, go, ball (seems to vary between baseball, basketball, football), in, all done, I did it, up, down, pop, girl, balloon, blue, cracker, spoon, again & star. He does lots of animal sounds and letter sounds too. We ran into Target after our appointment and on our way out Owen noticed the letters on the sign outside and started saying "tuh."


I was a bit surprised that Lewis weighed a little more at his 18 month appointment, but Owen is so much more active that he is certain to burn a lot more calories. He's such a brave eater too. He's even eaten some bananas recently, still in the peel. After Lewis refused to eat so many foods, it has been interesting to see Owen eat oranges and bananas and even try to eat whole apples. He eats pasta and all types of bread. He's not mastering utensils yet or anything, but he eats so much more variety which is amazing.

We had a very promising trip to Vanderbilt recently too. They did an autism eval on Owen right at 18 months. He does not appear to have autism at this point, which is a big relief. He is still showing some delays, but otherwise appears to be social and seems to follow others' pointing (and points a bit on his own, mainly at pictures in books) which is a key indicator. They will see him again at 24 months.

The other fantastic adjustment in Owen's life has been his schedule. He's been waking early, between 6:30 and 7 a.m., but then ends up sleeping for 3-3 1/2 hours for his big nap in the afternoon. Lewis has been skipping a lot of naps, so it has been convenient to have a good chunk of time with just one child. Another highlight to parenting Owen is how super excited he is to go to bed whenever it is time. He loves soft blankies and is always happy to get in his crib and snuggle. It is something we are truly grateful for because it is so easy to put him down.

Owen goes back and forth between happy and angry sometimes, but we love him dearly. He's a very sweet boy.