17 Months!

~New word in Brennan's vocabulary: "No." I'm somewhat impressed that it took this long and that "Yes" was in his vocabulary first. Now, "No, no!" and "Oh no!" are regularly heard!
~He frequently repeats words we say. He does a great job! Some recent examples are "Bue" for "blue" and "Bees"/"Bush" for "please". Daddy and Mommy (usually pronounced "Mondy" or "Monny") are heard a lot!
~He can identify his mouth, nose, eyes, ears, belly, belly button, and feet. He also likes to identify these body parts on Mommy, Daddy, and characters in his books.
~Sesame Street characters continue to be a favorite. He enjoys labeling "Elmo", "Cook-Cook" (Cookie Monster), "Osca" (Oscar), "Do Doot" (Big Bird), "Erna" (Ernie), "Dert" (Bert), "Verver" (Grover), and "Addy" (Abby). He occasionally requests to watch "Elmo" on television or the computer, but loses interest after a few minutes.
~In addition to Hop on Pop, he also asks for "Hamma" (Green Eggs and Ham).
~Current animal noises include dog ("woof woof"), elephant (raspberry), duck ("quack quack"), sheep ("baa"), lion ("raa"), snake ("ssss"), monkey ("ee ee"), and cow ("moo"). He can also identify and name fish ("ish"), goose ("goose"), moose ("moose"), cats ("dats").
~Today is Mommy's first day of summer break! I'm looking forward to extra time with Brennan, including play dates with friends and family!
~He loves to dunk or dip his food. He'll ask by stating "Do-dit" and repeatedly dunking his food in the air. Current favorite foods include all fruits, carrots, green peppers, peas, corn, cereal, pizza, chicken nuggets, crackers, yogurt, spaghetti, and cookies.
~Brennan regularly laughs at himself. It's adorable! He's quite the ham!
~He loves all things electronic. He enjoys pushing buttons on the remote ("Mote") while watching the screen change. There is no interest in the remote when the television is off or if the batteries are removed. He also enjoys pushing buttons on the computer keyboard, a forbidden activity since his random keystrokes results in bizarre things on the computer!
~Brennan goes to sleep between 6:30-6:45pm and wakes up between 5:00-6:30am. He takes two naps during the day. He does a fabulous job putting himself to sleep. After putting him in his crib, he'll turn on his music soother, lay down, grab his blankie/blanket, and say, "Night night!" Sometimes he'll also blow kisses. When awake and ready to get out, he continues to throw his blankie and blanket over the side of his crib. During a recent visit at Grandma and Grandpa Mealy's house, it was discovered that it is acceptable for Grandma to return his blanket/blankie and go back to sleep. It is not acceptable for Mommy or Daddy to return his blanket/blankie and not get him out of bed!
~While in the act or just after, Brennan will state "Boop" to let us know that he is soiling his diaper. This could be very helpful for future potty training, especially if we can teach him to tell us before he does the deed! He'll also say "boop" after passing gas.
~If he notices that someone is taking his picture, Brennan is very likely to say "Cheese!" and flash a goofy grin.