Daniel's 18 months and Valentine's Day

Daniel is getting so big!  I love seeing how different Lizzie and Daniel are, but how much they love playing together (when Lizzie's not mauling him or he's not biting her).  He did great at the doctor for his shots, screaming bloody murder when it happened, but true to form flirting and waving at the same nurse one minute later when we left.  It's so funny since Lizzie has always been so shy and careful of strangers.  Then we have Daniel who would flirt, smile, and play with anyone who happens by.  I've had many times at grocery stores where the clerk nearly forgot to charge me due to his flirting.  His measurements were all proportionate so no worries.  He's just small like Lizzie, 22 lbs and 29 in.  Not gonna lie, it's nice to have small kids when I'm pregnant.  I can't imagine trying to carry Daniel if he was closer to the 50th percentile.  Daniel is learning like crazy! Each day he picks up either a new word, skill, or understanding.  Some of these are great and make life easier like all the words he can say now.  It makes understanding him so much easier.  Then there are things like climbing that...ugh create lots of problems.  Anywho word wise, let's see he says ball, balloon, a show, more, again, milk, snow, and dog that are pretty clear.  He makes sounds for car, dog, cat, monkey, tiger, lion, bear, and duck.  He does the sign for please by frantically scratching at his chest.  With nodding, shaking his head, and pointing he is crazy good at communicating even when we don't completely understand what he's saying.  He'll carry on conversations for the longest time just expecting that you know everything he's saying.  He continues to dance and insist on music or playing instruments.  His running is way too fast for me being pregnant.  Luckily Lizzie keeps up with him on her bike and can head him off if he gets too far ahead on a walk.  It also helps that he stops at every house to see if they have a dog.  He turns any object into a stool to climb and get wherever he wants.  We loved our tall table and chairs with Lizzie since it took her a while to figure out how to climb up.  We're not so lucky with Daniel.  Turn your back for a second and he's standing on the table or counters finding all candy, food, drinks, markers, yeah anything he can make a mess with.  Add that in to figuring out the fridge's water dispenser and we have a whole new problem.  Luckily our fridge has a lock button on it. :) I've found him climbing up in the bathroom to do his hair with Lizzie's things or to brush his teeth.  He's dead set on learning everything fast.  The nice thing is he's already helping out in the house.  He can do the silverware (doesn't always make it in the right spot but at least in the drawer), bring you almost anything you ask for (aside from a diaper and clothes), and clean up toys or put things away in his room.  He still hates being changed, hence his refusal to bring a diaper and clothes.  He knows what it means, smiles, giggles, and then takes off running.  His throwing was already insanely accurate.  No matter how we try there are always hard objects around he wings at us.  Needless to say we're tired of getting hit in the face.  Now he's figured out how to hit the ball off the tee.   For him it all just comes naturally.  We don't have to teach him how to throw it right or hold the toy bat.  He picks it up and just knows how to do it.  Just watch out, if he wants something he will figure out a way to climb to it or open it.  When it comes to eating he's about the same as Lizzie.  He feeds himself with forks and spoons, which surprised me when he did it even with spaghetti type noodles.  I'm sure I've forgotten several things he's learned or learning, but that's the majority of it.  He does have a tendency to get strep and ear infections, but the doctor hasn't said anything yet about removing tonsils or anything.  We'll just wait and see what happens.  He eats anything and everything and will of course spit it out at you thinking he's hilarious.  Right now we're working on the no spitting, biting (only happened a couple times), or head butting people.  

Valentine's Day was a blast!  As usual we spent it with our little family.  We started with pink heart shaped pancakes for breakfast.  Lizzie spent the entire day making up her own song for Happy Valentine's.  She couldn't get enough of celebrating.  Spence still worked his late night, but we decided to do our family favorite, fondue.  To make it special compared to our typical cheese fondue dinners Spence decided we should do a full course with cheese, meat, and chocolate.  I was definitely not going to turn down chocolate.  Lizzie was so excited just to have cheese fondue.  When we explained about doing chicken and shrimp she thought it was cool, but bring on rice krispies and a snickers chocolate fondue and she was so crazy excited.  Daniel just wanted bread and strawberries.  I don't think he recognized the chocolate at first.  He kept pointing to it and asking me about it until he tried it.  Then he proceeded to make a mess of himself.   I never really got a great picture of how delicious it was.  There should be a camera that takes a picture and still lets you smell or taste.  Mmm that would make Food Network the best channel ever!  The food was oh so yummy and true to form easy to make.  That's what is best about fondue...super easy, super cheap, and super delicious!  After our wonderful dinner we got the kids in bed and spent the night doing a run through of Halo Reach.  Unfortunately I found out the hard way, with a busy day at school, that I need to take it easier.  I spent the night in a lot of pain.  Finally after a 20 min. back massage I could actually breathe without grimacing.  It's funny that even with the pain, fondue and time with my family still made it the best.