18 months old!

Our son is 1 1/2 years old today! Somehow it feels like a BIG thing, he is for sure no more the little baby we brought home. He looks different, has more teeth to show when he smiles (and his lower canines are coming out now), walks and runs around freely, and has a very strong personality of his own. We even think he had a little growth spur lately, because based on our measurements, he may be now 32 inches tall!

Our little boy... We still have ways to go until his adjustment and attachment to us is complete, but oh my, things have improved! I think we have finally nailed down a routine to put him to sleep for his nap and at night! His nap is not too long, on an average just 1.5 hours (up to 3 hours, but that happens rarely). Depending on the activity level of the day I tried to put him down for a second nap but that hasn't worked lately. He has not been waking up between 1 and 4 am in a while, but the night terrors are back... they are quick and last about a minute, we pick him up, hold him a bit, he calms down and goes back to the crib... Based on what we have read, the night terrors come for being overtired, and with the short naps Diego takes, maybe it is not surprising that he gets them... I have heard of other kids (some bio) that have terrors every night, for 30 minutes or so... At least Diego's are quick things... I don't know, it may sound bad, but maybe our Diego is a night terror kind of kid...

This coming week Diego and I will start going to two classes offered by our city; one is Music for toddlers and the other is for crafts/music/etc and motor skills development. Each is once/week and will give us the chance to get him exposed to new things and socialize a bit with other kiddos. I am really looking forward to them and see how he likes them!

If only our Diego liked to eat, life would be sooooo much easier! Yes, that's our continuous challenge! This week we thought we found a "strategy" for the meal time. Diego loves our dog and somehow Mark gave Diego a treat to give to our dog while he was trying to feed him dinner. When Diego extended his hand, he opened his mouth, so then Mark quickly gave him a bite of food! And by doing that we were able to feed him couple of lunches and dinners... well, it worked until Diego started putting our dog's treats into his mouth!! I freaked out thinking he was going to choke, but he managed to be patient and dissolved them with saliva until he could swallow them! So we are back to the old method of distracting with toys or anything that catches his attention and if things don't work, turn a video of Baby Bumble Bee on... I know, meals with Diego are not specially good for eye contact exercises, but the dude has to eat, so we work on the eye contact at other times... I am also not sure about his chewing... I will raise my concerns to the doctor during our next visit...

Based on the early intervention ladies, because of the 8 weeks Diego was premature, he should be around 16 month old for development. He keeps learning things, but I am not sure if right now things have slowed down because he is still all excited about his mobility... The words he says are dada, dah (for dog), all-done, up, down, atah (for on top), thend (for the end), at (for hat), aya (for agua - water in Spanish) and this week he started saying "hola". However, is not that he says all the words each day or week... Last week he was all focused on up and down, all the time! He says dah consistently, but sometimes even dada disappears for a while... is that normal? He also uses the sign for all done, please, ball, and we are working on help. He has also learn where are his eyes, nose, ears, mouth, tummy, hand, fingers, toes, arms and legs. All of these thanks to the Baby Bumble Bee videos. I guess he is learning things... I am just dreaming on the day he will finally say mama!!!

So, now to end this post, few pics of the last weeks.

(he has started to make this scary face lately... don't know why!)