SPENCER @ 18 MONTHS

WOW! I can't believe that I have a year & a half old son. I am quite proud of the fact that he is so dang cute...& to top it off he is seriously the best baby ever. Which makes me very nervous at the thought of having another child because people say that they come in opposites.

At Spencer's 18 month check up w/ the Dr everything checked out quite well. I was excited that he only had to have one shot this time. He is in the 95% for height & about the 75% for weight. People think that he's 2 with the way he looks & runs & talks. The Dr asked if he was saying at least 5 -10 words. I told him that he was. He wanted to know about how many words - I had no idea - I told him that there really were too many to count. Then I told him that at his 15 month check-up the Dr asked if Spencer could say 3-5 words (of course he could). Out of curiousity James & I counted how many words Spencer was saying. At that point he was already up to 15-20 words. Back to the 18 month visit, I will never forget the doctor's response to me not being able to count how many words Spencer was saying, he said "Well, we have a child protige on our hands" (he repeated this several times). I told him that we have been teaching him sign language & I feel like that has helped him in this area. The doctor repeated his feelings of our sons intelligence & said that he doesn't see children at that age speaking & understanding so well. I love our doctor (if you want his # I'll hook you up). So for fun we started writing down some of the words our little stud is currently saying (which apparently I should have been doing already) . Silly me, I grabbed a little piece of paper to scribble on - but before I knew it that paper was filled up & I was on to my next one. I counted & he is at about 150 words - & those are the ones that I have remembered to write down.
It's very fun to see his personality come out more & more. He loves to make people laugh & he thinks that he is the funniest thing around. He will just start laughing & laughing. He's got a great fake laugh that he forces out so loud. It's pretty cute.

Some of Spencer's favorite things:

*French Fries - just like his mom, Spencer will turn down any treat for a good french fry
*Pickles - one time while eating at 5 Guy's Spencer wanted more pickles. So we asked a worker if he wouldn't mind getting us more pickles. While we were waiting for them, we told Spencer that the man was coming with more pickles for him. Spencer was very happy to see the man come back with more pickles. That batch of pickles quickly disappeared & Spencer started saying "man, man, man" over & over. I didn't get it at first until James realized that Spencer wanted more pickles from the MAN.
*Dippies - he shows us by a dipping action with his hand while saying "dippy"
*Chips - Doritos or BBQ (no sour cream & onion kind of boy here)
*More Prayers: After we say our nightly prayers with him he always says "more"....so as good parents we say another one only for him to request "more prayers" after about the 3rd or 4th one & praying for doggies & rainbows & trucks... we run out of things to say.
*Following the garbage truck every Tuesday.
*Throwing. Throwing. Throwing anything & everything. James told me the other day that all this throwing had better pay off for us somehow. He has got a very strong & accurate throw. I normally would be so glad about this except for the fact that he will walk right up to you & throw things at any given moment & hit you right between the eyes - just a fair warning if you are male you might want to consider wearing some sort of protection.
*Bikes. We broke down & bought Spencer a little Tricycle the other week. We thought this was an item to give to him for x-mas or his birthday, but seeing how both of those events fall in the winter time & bikes don't really work that time of year!
*DANCING. When he gets excited, happy or has a good bite of ice cream he lifts those little feet up & dances around the room.
*MUSIC. After listening to a song he always yells out "more" at the end of it. He has always responded to music & still loves it.
*BOOKS & TOYS - thank goodness for ksl & garage sales
*Spencer loves TRAINS - however tough & rough he thinks he is - we have got a little toy train that goes around a track. You push the engineer down & the train starts up & does a little "choo - choo type thing & says "all-aboard". Spencer has a love/hate relationship with this. He loves to push the man - but then he'll take off running & watch the train from a great distance.
* BIG TRUCK, DOGS, RAINBOWS, BUBBLES, SWIMMING & SPLASHING, MAKING HIS MOM LAUGH BEFORE IT'S TIME TO SLEEP, CARS, BALLS, BIKES & going downs SLIDES especially when they are in water!!!
What a great kid!!!