17 months

Wow!! What fun times we are having!!! My heart melts when Tank reaches up and holds our hands!! We had a fun walk, the three of us where he held each of our hands!! So cute!! He loves to walk everywhere now and my need to carry him for redirection is less and less! He is excellent at "bye, bye!" He knows shoes and gets them out, ready to put on to go bye, bye. He also is in the routine of socks, shoes, coat, hat, gloves, etc. before going outside.

Tank is quite the Daddy's boy!! He LOVES his daddy!!! He wants him all the time!! Chip has taken more on with this new need of Tank's in more bed time nights together, cooking him eggs or whatever else Tank points to in the fridge, mucks (books), gucks (trucks).


We just arrived back from our Christmas trip to IL. His communication has really evolved these past two weeks. We arrived to my parents and he looked around at all the horse pictures on the wall. He pointed to the picture of the horse and said "neigh" for the first time out of no where!!!! It was so amazing!! Other words that have evolved recently are hat, muck (book), milk, snack, no, baba (baby), and what a monkey says!! He is awesome at signing and saying "please" though he has mushed it all together saying more+please=mas!! ha!! Once we arrived home he drinks out of the cup by himself and sits in the booster seat at the table! He keeps us guessing of what exactly he wants for snack and has become more opinionated by saying "no" appropriately.

Tank continues to loves "a bath!" He gets so excited and could bathe twice a day if I let him!! He has been taking more and more showers than baths, but either way, loves the water! Early January Tank sees and hears Daddy go up to the shower. I let him go upstairs, but didn't follow him. Next thing I know he opened the door to the bathroom and went in. Chip had him in the shower already. They came out and I said, "thanks for taking him in the shower." Chip didn't realize Tank had let himself in! He put my shoes on for the first time and walked around the house!! Hilarious!!


He has been sleeping really well. Usually 8 pm-6 am ish. He naps from 11-1 pm. As I am wearing down these last four weeks of pregnancy I try to get him out once a day. That is about all I can do! He gets lots of oohs and auhs at the OB and is very cooperative during my appointments.

Tank Loves his mucks (books)!! He crawls up in anyone's lap for a story, song, puzzle, etc. He can quickly put together 3 puzzles (he calls them books)! Two of the puzzles are farm themes. He doesn't like to put the duck in one of the puzzles! He knows the sound each animal makes!

Aunt Tammy taught him some dance moves over Christmas break!! He loves the Rock'n Santa that has a hip motion while playing Jingle Bell Rock! There is also a turtle that sings and dances that he could not get enough of! Once we got home (early Jan.) Tank is dancing more and more. He loves praise when he spins around!!

Another favorite toy is truck. Anything with wheels is a truck! He has a couple new ones from Santa that have sound and move! He runs after them or tries to push them himself which wears him out!

I am thankful we have Alvin for Tank to learn behavior with animals and he just loves him so much. Alvin gets a tail or ear pull once in a while and Tank is getting better with handling him. He loves throwing Alvin's toy or chasing each other is quite a hoot!!



Concluding 17 months Tank has been saying "bite" for "I want a bite of your food! He is very good at asking for milk and drinking a lot more of it these days. He loves puzzles and can complete them by himself! He has a farm puzzle and refuses to put the duck piece in!!! Every piece is put in correctly and then I hand him the duck and he says "no, no"!!! He loves his train that includes placing blocks onto it. Every day, twice a day he asks to take a bath. Chip and I have to sneak in a shower so he is not bathing twice a day every day!! LOVES, LOVES blackberries. This morning (1/9) he gave me all his blueberries back and wanted
blackberries! We play pat-a-cake and head, shoulders, knees and toes and he enjoys it!

Tank says: oink, ga-ga, socks, shoes, baby, blocks, box, hot

He is really into mimicking me. He takes a wipe and starts cleaning things! He takes a shower with me and now squirts my shampoo/conditioner into his hand and rubs his head. One time he did it outside of the bath and rubbed some on his head. It got in his eyes so we had to get in the shower right away.