Sweet Baby Boy

 

I follow a couple of bloggers who are moms, have personal style blogs and  blog about their kids! They do a really good job of incorporating both. Whenever I read them, I feel such pangs of guilt as I tend to lose site of blogging about McKinley! I mean, I did incorporate his original blog into this one so that I could blog about both. I am such a bad mom!! (Head over to Harper's Happenings and Jen Loves Kev if you want to see super moms in action!)

I can't believe I have an 18 month old on my hands, as of tomorrow that is. He is growing so much and I hate it. I love it, but I hate it. I love watching him explore his little world. Whether it be in his play area, in the backyard with Dada or during his bath as he plays with his bath toys, it is amazing, delightful and heart warming. I hate it because he's not a baby anymore. Yes, he will always be my baby, but he's a toddler and I have to face it! 

 

And I know EVERY mom says this, but McKinley is so smart! He has started associating things with its match. Example, he has a Fisher Price clock, one of those "vintage" toys, that my parents got him for Christmas last year. You wind it up, it spins around and moves between the sun and the moon as it makes a rotation from twelve to twelve. One day, he noticed the sun on the clock, pointed to it and then turned to the window and pointed outside. The sun is outside the window! See, smart! Another example, my dad has a blanket in the basement with trout around the border. He noticed the trout, walked over and pointed to one on the blanket, then walked over to a cabinet and pointed to the fish pulls on the drawer. Again, smart!

His vocabulary continues to grow as well. There are words we understand and blabber that we don't. I will never let on that I don't. I always answer back or repeat his words so that he thinks I know what he's saying. He is saying something. Newest words are: coocka (truck); cockel (puzzle), acca (sock) and deta (bicycle). Some we do understand are: Ernie from Sesame Street, Ina from The Barefoot Contessa, Giada from Giada at Home, apple and nana (banana). 

I don't want to rush any phase of his life, especially this one, but I think about what his little voice will sound like when he starts stringing words together. I wonder if he will play sports like his father or be artistic like me? Or will he be a little of both? Right now, he sings all the time. And I mean, all the time. He has several tunes of his own, and performs a rousing version of the intro to Michael Buble's "Sway". He will stop what he's doing and dance to almost any song he hears. He loves Glee, So You Think You Can Dance and Dancing with the Stars. Maybe he will be artistic like his mother. At the same time, he wakes up and calls for his car-car, loves his (or anyone's) lawnmower and can't wait to play in my parents basement with his very large train! Definitely a boy at heart!

Even though he will be 18 months old tomorrow, he will always be my sweet, baby boy.