Alexander at 17 months

I missed writing about Alexander at 16 months, which is a shame because that's right when he learned how to walk! Oh, well. He's 17 months old now, which means we're just one month away from entering nursery (not that I think he'll go without a fight).


At 17 months Alexander:

• has 12 teeth
• has had one broken arm
• eats pretty much everything (loves tomatoes, doesn't love meat very much)
• gets his own snacks from the pantry (even when Mommy says not to)
• loves to help put away the dishes
• loves to put on and take off socks and shoes (though he can only do the off part by himself)
• loves going outside
• loves colouring and painting and playing with playdough (and loves showing me his work-in-progress so I can give him my approval)
• is proficient (but still scary) on the stairs
• loves animals, especially dogs
• likes to build block towers
• loves to play with tools
• likes to dance
• loves story time at the library (but not so much with me for some reason)
• loves throwing away dirty diapers (and anything you tell him is "yucky")
• loves knocking on doors
• will up and walk out of sacrament meeting if he feels like it
• knows which books are scriptures and which books aren't and insists on holding his own set of scriptures during family scripture study
• is often the most reverent child during prayer (but not always)
• loves being swaddled for sleeping...still
• will use the potty when I remember to take him
• loves eating snow
• thinks my plate is 10x more interesting than his own plate
• likes to wear headphones (just for the sake of wearing them)
• likes to play the piano/organ
• loves to climb and slide (and the idea of swinging is growing on him, too, but that involves neither climbing or sliding so is still kind of lame)
• mimics Zoë and Benjamin all the time (which does not bode well for me because those two are a handful)
• strongly dislikes being separated from Mommy
• loves giving hugs 
• loves when his siblings come home from school
• loves being in charge of light switches and the garage door opener
• is interested in the sky (in airplanes, clouds, the moon)
• answers to: Alexander, Alex, Ander, Baby, Baby And(er), Buddah, Buhbuhs, Xander, Guh-gix, and, newly, Xandy (Zoë just started calling him that the other day and I think it has potential as a nickname, which we've clearly not settled on yet)
• says a lot of first sounds for words, which he thinks is communicating but which really isn't because there are a finite number of phonemes in the English language and, really, an infinite number of words.
• says "fff" for phone or fish, says "da" for dog or Daddy or door (don't even get me started on "buh" which could mean anything (spoon, Grandpa, Benjamin, book, baby, prayer, bowl, bye, ball...and any number of things that either do or do not contain a /b/ ("popcorn" is buh-bo))). He also says "men" (for amen), "wa-wa" (for water), and "ch" (for cheese). He really doesn't talk all that much...but his speech is coming along.
• most commonly says, "Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom!"
• will raise his hand and yell, "ME!" if everyone else is doing it
• enjoys playing with his toy farm and will gleefully tell you that cows say moo. He also growls. Those are the only two animal sounds that really matter (don't let anyone tell you otherwise) so those are the two sounds you'll get if you ask Alexander what a particular animal says.
• is getting very good at identifying and pointing to pictures in books
• also enjoys identifying body parts (his favourite thing to look for is that "other" ear; he'll force you to turn your head from one side to the other and it's hilarious)
• knows to find Momma's eyes under her glasses (because finger smudges makes Momma grumpy)
• will "sign" for "milk" and for "more" and for "all done"
• has yet to really ever sleep through the night (my brain is definitely fried; it's fine that he's crying right now and it's his third time getting up since 9:00 because my body officially thinks waking up every couple of hours is 100% normal)
• thinks walking downhill is hilariously tricky
• would like to learn how to ride a bike (or scooter)
• has had his first haircut
• loves to brush his own hair (or your hair)
• loves to brush his teeth
• will offer a kiss if you (a) are the right person and (b) ask him to say, "I love you!"
• sings "do-do-do-do" along with Baby Shark
• likes chasing and hiding games
• likes "Round and Round the Garden" and "Johnny, Whoops!"
• likes high fives, fist bumps (and power points, which is just poking index fingers together)
• likes to wrap baby dolls in blankets (or have me wrap them for him) so he an cuddle them
• likes to have his nose "booped" and will come in for a "boop" if you hesitate
• is suddenly terrified of the vacuum 

He's really an adorable, usually-pleasant baby (we just wish he would figure out how to sleep for consecutive hours).