18 Months of Ace and Thanksgiving

Ace is a year and half old this week and just celebrated his 2nd Thanksgiving. Here is all things Ace at 18 months old:

Milestones

At a year and half, Ace is really coming in to his own. He loves reading, singing songs, and doing puzzles. The newest development this month has been him starting to count. You can prompt him by asking, “How many (?) are there?” and he can usually count up to 5. With a little help he can count to 10. Ace can also sing the alphabet song along with a few other tunes in his little raspy voice.

Kevin gave him his first haircut at the beginning of November. I distracted him by letting him “call Elmo” (it’s an app) on my phone and he did just fine. Ace’s hair seems to be getting a bit darker and he is looking more and more like a boy instead of a baby, but he still has the chubbiest cheeks. Totally kissable.

The very glimmer of the possibility of potty training Ace is coming in to view. I know that it is probably not physiologically possible right now but he is starting to make connections about when he is going. The nice thing about him going to daycare is that for the absurd amount of money we pay, they take over a lot of the potty training responsibility. I am sure we will have our hands full too, but it is nice to know that we will have some potty training “experts” helping us.

Behavior

The toddler tantrums that just began happening when I wrote Ace’s last update have been steadily increasing. Ace’s newest trick is becoming a limp noodle when he is in the throes of a tantrum. My solution is to just let him be a crying noodle on the floor, try to ignore the negative behaviors and reward him (give him attention) for positive behaviors when he pulls himself off the floor. I am probably over-rationalizing my reactions to his behavior, but I used to specialize in teaching students with emotional and behavioral disabilities. It is hard to disconnect my professional opinions from just simple parenting.

Either way, typical toddler behavior is definitely tough to deal with. Both Kevin and I are trying to find the right balance of not giving in and giving in when it comes to Ace’s constant wants. I worry about turning him in to the “gimme monster” that throws a tantrum every time something is taken away or not given to him. I also don’t want him to only be hearing “no” all day. Tough indeed.

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving thanks to brother and sister-in-law who hosted it. We got tons of family time in and Ace got to play a lot with his cousins.

Ace ate his first full Thanksgiving dinner. He was a big fan of everything – especially the turkey, Aunt Karen’s potatoes, and Grandma’s southwest stuffing. Yum.

The best part about going to my brother and sister-in-law’s for Thanksgiving is that they live in the mountains. Although we live close to the mountains in Denver – Denver is definitely not THE mountains.

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa, we got to go skiing on Friday without the kids. We had a great time. The best part of the Western Slope, the part of Colorado I am originally from, is that the ski slopes are close by and the is zero traffic like there is going to and from the slopes in Denver. We lucked out with beautiful weather.