18 Months!

Our little man is 18 months old!

~Gavin enjoys making animal noises.  Noises include lion ("Arrr!"), bear ("Arrr" or "Grr", which sounds more like he has a hairball in his throat), kangaroo ("Ai-ya!"), and elephant.
~He likes to identify body parts, including his own, on Mommy/Daddy's face, and on some of his stuffed animals.  He can identify nose, eyes, mouth, ears and belly button.
~Gavin is a great eater!  He eats quite a bit and enjoys feeding himself.
~He shakes his head for "no"
~He continues to be our little "lover."  He loves to snuggle, hug, and blow/give kisses.  At times, he's tried to use his charm to his advantage.  At home, he started whining because he couldn't reach an object on the couch.  Mommy, who was sitting next to the couch told him "That's not the way to get what you want!"  He immediately came to Mommy and gave her kisses.  Also, he sitter told a story about when the kids were putting away toys, but Gavin was trying to get them out again.  When she reminded him that they were putting the toys away, he went in for a few kisses!
~Gavin has also been known to give himself kisses in the mirror.  He consistently kisses a mirror on the page of one of his books.  He also recently gave a kiss to pictures of animals in another book.
~He has a new, extra cute smile which involves scrunching his nose while flashing a huge grin.
~Gavin's receptive language continues to flourish.  He understands many things that we say or ask him to do.  He says a few words consistently, including Mama, Dada, thank you ("take-um"), you're welcome ("el-come"), this and that.  He babbles quite a bit.  When asking for items, he'll get our attention and point to the item.  When we label the item he wants, he'll sign "please" and say "ahhh" with a huge grin.
~Some of his more recent "jobs":
~~~Trying to empty the dishwasher by removing dishes and handing them to Mommy/Daddy (This "job" is much more desired when the dishes are actually clean)
~~~Removing his shirt after we take his arms out of his sleeves
~~~Wiping his nose with a tissue
~~~~Picking up toys--including removing them from incorrect bins and taking them to the correct toy bin.
~~~Buckling himself into his highchair
~~~Acting as our delivery man.  He'll take things to people when we ask, or will take them without prompting such as bringing Brennan his drink cup.
~Gavin had his 18 month appointment and is happy and healthy!  The doctor was impressed with his temperament and happy demeanor.  We discussed Gavin's expressive language.  Based on our description of his language skills and the doctor's observations of Gavin's wide range of babbling and desire for objects to be labeled, he's not concerned and said that his language skills are typical of 18 month olds.  He explained that most children hit their "language explosion" between 18-30 months, so we're just entering this range.  We confessed that we were comparing Gavin's language to Brennan's at this age--an unfair comparison since Brennan was extremely verbal.  We'll continue to carry on as usual--reading, playing, labeling, talking, etc.--and we'll discuss his expressive language skills again at his 2 year appointment.  Gavin received 4 vaccines at his appointment--ouch!  He settled down quickly with some snuggles and even blew several kisses to the nurse before she left the exam room.

Current Stats:
Length: 32" (~27th percentile)
Weight: 22lbs (~25th percentile)
Head circumference: 50th percentile

He's our little peanut!