Aaron, 18 months

At eighteen months, Aaron's language skills are pretty astounding. I went to the doctor's office and he asked how many words he knows. I said he probably knows at least fifty, though on a daily basis he doesn't use all of them. He can put 2-3 words together like, "more cheese please", "thank you", and "I want more".

The pediatrician was pretty impressed, saying that ten words would be an adequate amount! He then reminded me that the smart ones also tend to be the most stubborn. Yes, I can vouch for that!

It's really fun watching Aiyana and Aaron's relationship develop. He loves to play with her, whether it's using the furniture to build a castle, or pretending to be puppies or dinosaurs and chase each other around. On the flip side, they are also fighting more, with Aaron becoming more aggressive with pinching and scratching. Aiya often instigates with teasing, but this little boy can hold his own and fights back with worse consequences!

This kid loves his white puppy! I bought it for him for his one year birthday because when he met the Shipley's little white dog, Daisy, he adored her! He is now officially very attached to this snuggly doll of his, so much in fact that I went ahead and bought a second one just in case. One day, he actually found both at the same time and I was afraid there was going to be a "Back to the Future" time warp or something along those lines once he realized there were two! Fortunately, it didn't 'cause any problems and we're able to hide one of them for emergencies! We learned with Aiya that it's a very bad idea to only have one copy of their comfort obsession.