17 months old
This has been the month of change & transitions. It's like Logan is on the edge of new developments that he's about to start showing off any day now. The anticipation is exciting!

He has definitely transitioned to one nap a day now. He'll only take two if he wakes up too early (which is anytime before 7:00 or 8:00 am) or if he plays really hard & wears himself out. But typically, by that time the day's almost over & we're ready for dinner, bath & bedtime. His nap time is still unpredictable, varying between 11:00am & 1:00pm. It's close enough for me though, where I can plan the day accordingly (typically).

He has now become the pickiest of all eaters & is a strict vegetarian. This is where I really have to do my protein homework, because the boy won't even touch beans either. He'll eat cheese & drink milk (he really loves milk), but forget about eggs, beans or meat of any kind. It's really hard because dairy will cause his eczema to flare up if he has it on a pretty regular basis. I can't switch him to soy, because that was another food that caused him some problems when he was little (& I haven't tried again as he's grown older). So, no eggs, meat, beans, soy & occasional dairy. With all of my nutritional education, I'm stumped. I guess I could try goat products & see what happens. Then my next step is to study more on vegan diets (which I don't have a whole lot of experience with, only a little).

On the meal-time note, he still has yet to get the hang of using utensils.

His sign language is coming along, even if I'm being impatient & wish it was happening faster. He knows "eat", "more", "all done", "bye-bye", "bath" & as of today, "drink", "milk" (sometimes) & "help". He can point to pretty much all of his body parts (with a little help) & can do the same on me (or Bill). He can understand requests, like "go get (whatever item)", the only issue is if he wants to. This boy is amazingly stubborn, it drives me nuts. It also make me sympathize with my family in having to deal with me because I'm the person who happened to pass this lovely trait down. But, I also have a much better understanding on how to deal with it in Logan (if I remember at the time rather than get frustrated & freak out). One super cute thing he does is answer questions with a "yeah". If you ask him anything (do you want this, can we do that), he will answer "yeah". It's oh, so cute.

We started coloring this month & he absolutely loves it. He especially loves picking out the crayon color (because I'll only let him have one at a time). I think we'll start working on puzzles & see what happens there, as he hates it when I try to show him how to play with his other toys. I think play-doh might be fun too.

His activity is just as crazy as it's always been; jumping on the couch, climbing up & down & running all over the place. I think he might be growing because he's tripping a lot more lately. He learned how to walk on his knees (I don't know where he got this from), but he thinks it's pretty funny. He's also working on going down the stairs by himself, although he's very cautious about it & really wants to hold my hand. He's started to go down the slide at the park by himself & that is super fun.

His temper tantrums have been horrendous & he screams, screams, screams all day long. He's very good about time-out (after he screams at the top of his lungs for a minute), but he doesn't stop screaming. It's so embarrassing when he does this at playgroup (or in public in general). Our neighbors must think we live in a very loud house between Logan screaming, me yelling about the fireplace doors while I'm working across the way & then the two of us together. I'm halfway expecting a knock at the door any day now.

Logan is becoming the social butterfly in playgroup. He's great about sharing toys & has his favorite friends that he likes to run around with. I'm trying to decide on how to teach him manners since he's not very vocal. The other kids can apologize with "sorry" if they've done something to another kid. I've thought about making Logan give hugs, but he's not too keen on people getting in his personal space. Other than this, his social skills are awesome.

I think we're almost ready to get rid of his binky all together. He knows it's only for bed/nap time & automatically hands it over when I get him out of his crib. He still needs it to get to sleep right now, but I'm trying to figure out if this is something we even want to deal with at this time, or should I wait until he can communicate better. Really, I'm in no rush.

I really feel like next month is going to be completely different (it always is anyway). I think he's just going to grow into a little boy overnight. I just need to take more pictures & video so we don't miss it all.