17 months:

Berkeley 17 months ~ ElephantEats.com

Berkeley is definitely more of a toddler than a baby now. He looks so big and is outgrowing his clothes so quickly- tho all pants that fit in length are too big in the waist for our “scrawny beanpole” as we like to call him :) 

As usual, he overwhelmed us with the cute things he did this month. He’s been trying to say new sounds and is constantly blabbering gibberish in between the actual words he says. He can also blow real kisses now, with the smack sound and everything! He also likes to imitate a fire truck which consists of him making like a little high pitched squeal sound. If you didn’t know that that’s what he was trying to do, you’d have no clue.  

17 month apple ~ ElephantEats.com

eating an apple like a big boy!

He has this book and there’s a page that says “bad dinosaurs” so I always wag my finger and say “no no, dino, no no” which he thinks is absolutely hysterical. And now he wags his finger to refer to it, with or without the book around. Speaking of finding things funny, Berkeley will throw his head back when he laughs which is too cute :)

We started going to a Gymboree class with him on the weekend for ages 16-22 months. He loves running around but he doesn’t really pay attention to the activity they’re focused on, or the other kids. Most of the kids are just doing their own thing tho. He especially loves the basketball hoop there (so we bought him one for home too) and going thru the tunnels. He LOVEs when they do the parachute and bubbles at the end. He loves grabbing the bubbles. And he also loves the creepy Gym-bo the Clown doll they have. 

17 month track suit ~ ElephantEats.com

He’s constantly imitating things we do and I caught him pulling out the kitchen trashcan and putting things (that were NOT garbage ) in it . We gotta watch that boy! Speaking of imitating, I finally got him to wear his little sunglasses. I don’t know if it’s because he knows Nate and I wear them also, or if it’s because he realized that it’s much more comfortable to be in the sun with them, but he no longer tries to pull them off after 30 seconds of wear. 

17 months sunglasses ~ ElephantEats.com

Oh and speaking of watching him… he also figured out that if you tell him he can’t do something, then he should just pull you by your finger into a different room and tell you to sit down (pat the couch) and then go back into the room he was in to finish doing the illicit act. 

Ever since receiving a flyer in the mail, he’s been obsessed with Shen Yun (it’s some acrobatic act). Below is him perusing the brochure for probably the 90th time or so. We like to imitate the poses they do together. I even showed him the trailer for it online – he was mesmerized.

17 months Shen Yun ~ ELephantEats.com

We can definitely see his little brain thinking things through now- we got a new couch and he can’t quite reach up to get on it, so he went into the other room, emptied a toy bin, brought it into the living room, turned it upside down and used it as a stool. Every day this boy continues to impress and surprise (and scare!) me. 

He has preferences now and will point go over to the refrigerator and point to things that he wants. It’s kind of cute that he knows what he wants, though I can see how it will become a battle at times now. 

18 months:

Berkeley 18 months ~ ElephantEats.com

Be prepared to photo overload this month, thanks to a trip we took, plus holidays.

18 months walk with Grandpa ~ ElephantEats.com

Berkeley started saying some new words this month. A favorite is “bubba” which is bubble. It started from seeing the bubbles at Gymboree, which is his favorite part of class. Now he insists we bring bubbles with us when we go to the park too. I also think he said “day” but haven’t heard it much again. He also loves getting stamps on his hand at the end of class (also his music class) and will point to his hand after to tell us or to indicate he wants one.

18 months airport travel ~ ElephantEats.com

our Lillebaby carrier- best way to travel thru the airport with a million bags and a car seat!

We had our first real bloody experience this month when he smacked his lip into the dresser. He was gushing blood but I’m still not sure where exactly it was coming from. I only started to worry a bit when the bleeding didn’t let up. Finally it did tho…I’m really not looking forward to something worse than that, which I know is bound to come.

18 months Georgia Aquarium 1 ~ ElephantEats.com

He’s definitely observing and learning all the time. I’ve never showed him how to open a door but I guess he watches what I do with my keys. The other day he went into my purse, pulled out my keys, and took them to our laundry room door (that doesn’t actually lock but does have a spot where a key would go) and tried to put the key up to the lock. 

18 months Georgia Aquarium 2 ~ ElephantEats.com

at the Georgia Aquarium- We think this should be their new ad campaign pic ;)

18 months Berk and dad ~ ElephantEats.com

Berkeley is developing quite the little sense of humor. He likes to laugh at his own jokes too…i think he got that one from mama ;) While he was eating one time, he kept trying to put his straw in his nose because we stupidly laughed the first time he did it. Then after we told him not to do it he would pretend to put it in his mouth and then with a big grin, slip the straw up and into his nose, like he was faking us out, and then start laughing hysterically!

18 months Atlanta playground ~ ElephantEats.com

Another favorite thing he does now while he’s eating is he very forcefully points to his tray when he wants something he sees on it. I think it’s really cute but our nanny says he’s being bossy, haha.

18 months Atlanta bath ~ ElephantEats.com

A major thing to happen this month was taking a trip to Atlanta to visit my brother, and go to one of his restaurants, Grindhouse Killer Burgers!. The food is awesome, so definitely visit if you’re in the area. He has several locations with more opening up, and also has a place called Hi-Five Diner which is equally delicious.

18 months Grindhouse ~ ElephantEats.com

Berkeley LOVED his burger and fries and milkshake, but really who wouldn’t. We also planned the trip so that Nate could run in the Atlanta Half marathon. 

18 months half marathon ~ ElephantEats.com

Berkeley did fairly well on the plane. The ride there he whined a bunch and managed to take a short nap. The way home was much better and he fell asleep before takeoff. Unfortunately the lady in front of him coughed and woke him up after about an hour.

18 months plane ride ~ ElephantEats.com

While in Atlanta, he got to go out to eat several times (we never take him out at home), went to the aquarium, loved my brother’s dog Biggie and continued to talk about him long after we were home. He also loves planes even more than he did before.

18 months diner ~ ElephantEats.com

Month 18 also unfortunately brought his first fever and then his first ear infection. I know many babies go through that long before Berk, but it was so heartbreaking to see him screaming and in pain for days. He wouldn’t eat much and then when the ear pain started he kept banging his head on things. He also was trying to tell us what was wrong and just ran through his entire repertoire of sign language that he knows in an attempt to communicate. It was so sad :(

18 months doctor visit ~ ElephantEats.com

After two days of inconsolable crying he was diagnosed and put on meds. I knew something was wrong after the first day of non-stop crying and took him to the doc but she said nothing was wrong. Good thing I listened to my mommy instincts and took him back the next day, where he thankfully saw a different doctor. Sadly, his ear infection interfered with his first Easter egg hunt and trip to the zoo. He didn’t take much enjoyment in either. 

18 months doctor visit ~ ElephantEats.com

We still got out there and did stuff though. This was actually when he just had a fever and we didn’t know yet that it was an ear infection. Poor baby.

18 months Easter 2 ~ ElephantEats.com

18 months Easter 3 ~ ElephantEats.com

Oh and I got him this set of colorform type stickers that have a pad but our nanny stuck them on the window and now he’s OBSESSED. He plays with them for like 30 minutes at a time, just arranging and rearranging:

18 months colorforms ~ ElephantEats.com

Can’t wait to see what the next month brings!

Stats: 25.4 lbs (at his 18 month appt), 33ish inches tall, Size 4 Pampers Swaddlers diapers (Size 5 Huggies Overnite with a booster pad for nighttime). Size 18 month pants (though they’re too big in waist, and 24M to 2T size tops)

Teeth: 8 on top and 8 on bottom! He has his first year molars now.

Likes:

blowing kisses, bubbles, trucks/buses, imitating everyone, laughing, making people laugh, making a fart sound with his mouth, truck stickers on the window, hand stamps in class, planes, dogs,  

Dislikes:

not much besides being told “no”

Schedule (18 months- same as 16 months):

between 5-6 am: wake up. Thankfully he’s been waking up closer to 6 now! I get him out of his crib around 6-6:15.

6:30 am: breakfast- baby oatmeal (made with milk and prune juice), fruit, waffle/pancake, variations of this recipe or this recipe, plus a smoothie (we make double and save for later)

9:30 am: snack (some cheese and fruit, etc)

11:30: lunch (usually some protein, some fat, some veggies/carbs/fruit)

12:30: 1 hr-2+ hr nap. He’s down to one nap and it’s usually a good one! (except on the weekends of course). We do a similar routine to bedtime. Change diaper, quietly play, turn down lights and read some books, then bed. Wake by 3 if he’s still sleeping.

2-3ish (when he wakes): He has the rest of his smoothie for a snack. We’ve found if we give him any more he won’t eat dinner.

5- dinner (sometimes our leftovers, or some veggies and mini homemade meatballs, etc). It’s a littler earlier if he had a bad nap and needs an earlier bedtime.

Bathtime (45 min before bed)

7ish (4-4.5 hrs after waking from second nap): bedtime! I finally get to see him after work now, for the most part. Occasionally he’ll take a really bad nap and have an earlier bedtime, but it’s mainly only on weekends. 

Maybe one day I’ll get caught up on all these baby updates. As of now Berkeley has just entered his 18th month. Whoops! I guess it’s more important to enjoy him in real life than to find time write about it though, right? But here’s a little look back if you’re interested ;)

15 months:

Berkeley 15 months ~ ElephantEats.com

Well, I know I always say this, but Berkeley’s 15th month was a big one! I think we really saw him start to understand and become a little person so much.

15 month raincoat ~ ElephantEats.com

He started to get very animated when “talking,” and was obviously trying very hard to communicate (he was calling everything “bung” which confused us a bit, haha). This led us to believe that a language breakthrough was coming. And indeed it did! First he started saying dada a lot, then bird (he doens’t pronounce the d), nana (banana), boat. He finally started using mama and dada to actually refer to us, instead of just babbling the words for no reason. And most importantly, he finally knows his name! When we ask who he is, he says “Berk.” He’ll also say it when he sees himself (or actually any baby) in a picture or the mirror. 

Christmas 2015 pjs ~ ElephantEats.com

Nate bought him this Eric Carle book and he can immitate all of the animal actions. It’s pretty cute because he’ll do them even when the book isn’t around…like just run down the list and act them all out. It’s very cute :)

15 m stroller ~ ElephantEats.com

Berkeley had his 15 month appointment and while we all guessed that he surely had gained 3 lbs, he actually only gained 1. The doc assured us that this is normal because babies this age are very active and not great eaters…although Berkeley actually eats very well. He also grew 1-2 inches since his 12 month checkup.

15 m park ~ ElephantEats.com

In the past he hasn’t minded the doctor, but this time he cried when she tried to examine him and tried to squirm out of my grasp while I was holding him. I think it was partially due to the long wait time we had- he was just over being there. 

15 m stroller 2 ~ ElephantEats.com

His bottom first molars came in and he basically stopped eating for a couple weeks. This is when I introduced smoothies, which is one of his new fave foods. He doesn’t drink milk so we use the sign language for “milk” to refer to smoothie instead, and he’s constantly saying he wants one. Even once he started eating again, he has remained a little pickier than before and will not eat the roasted veggies I used to make him weekly :( He does, however, love these broccoli cheese patties that I make! I make a huge batch and freeze them and take out as needed weekly. 

xmas zoo ~ ElephantEats.com

This month he went to a petting zoo, where he paricularly liked the chickens.

xmas zoo 2 ~ ElephantEats.com

He also celebrated the first Christmas that he actually participated in, since last year he was too little. He enjoyed all of his presents from Santa! 

He did not, however, enjoy his first Santa photo:

2015 Santa photo ~ ElephantEats.com

So I reproduced a “Santa” photo with dada instead. Better than nothing!:

Santa dada photos ~ ElephantEats.com

He has some new things he does:

  • Pushes his Mickey train all around the house and can navigate really well! He likes to aim for LC’s food and water, haha.
  • Goes to pantry and opens door and pulls out food. He always wants to eat!
  • Kisses all animals, real and fake
  • Pets LC nicely and then kisses her
  • Lots of new words

Longwood Christmas 2015 ~ ElephantEats.com

16 months:

Berkeley 16 months ~ ElephantEats.com

Berkeley learned a lot of new words this month! He’s continuing his trend with “b” words- Berk, bowl, bath, bus…they all sound fairly similar, haha. He also can say cheese, egg and bye, which you probably wouldn’t understand if you didn’t spend a lot of time with him. 

16 month Mickey Train ~ ElephantEats.com

He loves to immitate things we do, and his new favorite is pretending to cook eggs (“deh!”) like mama does, in his play kitchen. It is SO cute. He also fake coughs…and also coughs when we say coffee because it sounds the same to him, even though he knows that coffee is a drink. Because Grandma is mainly the person he sees that drinks coffee (Nate and I don’t), he will now cough when he sees her. Haha, he’s such a little weirdo!

16 montn in basket ~ ElephantEats.com

He loves emptying his basket where we keep his stuffed animals, and climbing inside it.

He’s really into smoothies and will carry them around the house. I started giving them to him because he wouldn’t drink plain milk…and it worked! He went through some picky eating when he was teething but he’s mainly back to normal. This month he got his top canines.

16 months Arboretum ~ ElephantEats.com

Berkeley loves animals of all kinds. He has discovered birds outside and will get very excited and point them out. He can actually say Meow now but it’s more like “mow mow.” He loves LC and tries to pet her a lot.

A major change this month is that he has moved to one nap! We emailed the sleep lady again in order to transition him to one nap in the best possible way. We knew it was time because he had been boycotting his afternoon nap for a bout a month. To move to one nap, given his very early wakeup, we gradually moved his new ONE nap from 10:30am to 12:30pm. Each week it got moved 30 min later til it reached 12:30. Luckily, he falls right asleep now (knock on wood). And the best part of this is that he can stay up late enough to see me when i get home from work now!

16 months Arboretum 2 ~ ElephantEats.com

During his 16th month he got to experience his first real snowfall (that he could remember!).

16 month baby snowpants ~ ElephantEats.com

How cute are baby snowpants?!

He wasn’t a huge fan of walking in the snow, mainly because it was almost as tall as him.

2016 Blizzard ~ ElephantEats.com

Despite what it seems in the pictures, he actually did enjoy being pulled around in the sled…

2016 Blizzard 2~ ElephantEats.com

…and eating snow. Yum!

2016 Blizzard 3~ ElephantEats.com

He needed snow boots so went back to the shoe store that he had a MAJOR meltdown at for his first pair of shoes, and this time he did much much better. By the end of the trip, he let the salesman actually touch his foot, haha. 

16 month visit with Grandpa ~ ElephantEats.com

Playing with Grandpa

Unfortunately, temper tantrums have also started this month. He loves to cry and throw himself at the ground or bang his head on the wall (??). Luckily he’s a good boy and these are rare so far. Nate tells me I give in to him too much, but it’s honestly so he doesn’t have a tantrum. I know I need to learn to be a little more stern, I just feel like I wanna know that he understands what I’m saying first!

2016 Blizzard 4~ ElephantEats.com

Oh and lastly, I finally trimmed the hair that was hanging over his ears. He didn’t really want me touching his ears so I didn’t do a great job, but it’s a major improvement. 

Stats: 23 lb 4.5 oz (at his 15 month appt), 32ish inches tall, Size 4 Pampers Swaddlers diapers (moved to Size 5 Huggies Overnite with a booster pad for nighttime)

Teeth: 6 on top and 8 on bottom! He got his top canines (and molars are coming in) 

Likes:

Talking, using sign language to say “outside” and “smoothie,” reading books, doing “rocket” with dada (Nate runs around with him), looking at photos on computer, playing with water, animals, his Grandmas and Grandpas 

Dislikes:

Getting his diaper changed!!!, being told No, Santa Claus (or strange men in general)

Schedule (16 months):

between 5-6 am: wake up. Thankfully he’s been waking up closer to 6 now! I get him out of his crib around 6-6:15.

6:30 am: breakfast- baby oatmeal (made with milk and prune juice), fruit, waffle/pancake, variations of this recipe or this recipe, plus a smoothie (we make double and save for later)

9:30 am: snack (some cheese and fruit, etc)

11:30: lunch (usually some protein, some fat, some veggies/carbs/fruit)

12:30: 1 hr-2+ hr nap. He’s down to one nap and it’s usually a good one! (except on the weekends of course). We do a similar routine to bedtime. Change diaper, quietly play, turn down lights and read some books, then bed. Wake by 3 if he’s still sleeping.

2-3ish (when he wakes): He has the rest of his smoothie for a snack. We’ve found if we give him any more he won’t eat dinner.

5- dinner (sometimes our leftovers, or some veggies and mini homemade meatballs, etc). It’s a littler earlier if he had a bad nap and needs an earlier bedtime.

Bathtime (45 min before bed)

7ish (4-4.5 hrs after waking from second nap): bedtime! I finally get to see him after work now, for the most part. Occasionally he’ll take a really bad nap and have an earlier bedtime, but it’s mainly only on weekends. 

Hello everyone. I’m sorry I’ve been totally MIA (if you’re my blogging buddy, I promise I’ll be to your blog soon to comment!!). Our house has had some delays, and I’ve had to make a billion decisions. We’ve officially booked our move for April 16th although the contractor has told me that he’s barely going to finish by then. UGH.

Anyway, we’ve already started packing, and we’re going to be leaving this apartment with a little more than we came with:

16 weeks pregnant ~ ElephantEats.com 

I wanted to tell you guys SO BADLY. I was waiting til I announced it to my boss, but the secret’s out now…and so is my belly!. Is a belly this big normal for 16 wks?! I’ve only gained 7 lbs so far, so it’s kind of crazy.

Anyway, this baby is a large part of why I haven’t blogged recently. The first trimester I was majorly nauseous and exhausted all the time. I didn’t think you would want to see my “recipes” that I made on a nightly basis (plain pasta).

I’ve finally made it into the second trimester, and I’m feeling so much better. Baby is officially the size of an avocado :)

Now if I just didn’t have the house stuff stressing me out, I might find some time to cook something for you. Soon we’ll be packing up our kitchen so I hope I can find some time between now and then to cook up something tasty. But if I don’t, I promise that I will do lots of cooking in our new kitchen! 

Speaking of the new kitchen, the island has a little issue so we will be island-less for a week or two after moving in :( Not the most convenient thing but at least it will be corrected in the end. 

Here’s a pic of the kitchen partially assembled…but this is with the incorrect, too-big island:

KitchenProgress ~ ElephantEats.com

And now since I’m sure you can’t wait to see, here are some more progess pics of the rest of the house. It’s actually even more done now but I haven’t been out there with a camera lately.

Entryway:

FrontDoortoKitchenBefore

FrontDoortoKitchenProgress

Stair Progress 2 ~ ElephantEats.com

Living Room:

LivingRoomBefore

 

LivingRoomDuring

LivingRoom_Progress2 ~ ElephantEats.com

There is going to be a wood mantle surround and cabinets around the fireplace. They’re in the process of being built. The living room is smaller now because there’s a front hall closet and built-in desk/bookcase on the living room side.  

View from fireplace towards front door:

LivingRoom2Before

LivingRoom2Progress

LivingRoomBookcase_Progress2

and here’s the bookcase/desk being built, plus some trim on the windows/doors:

LivingRoomBookcase_Progress3

Looking towards living room windows from what will now be the hallway:

LivingRoomfromDiningBefore

LivingRoomfromDiningProgress

Living Room Windows Progress2 ~ ElephantEats.com

view from living room windows towards the new hallway to the kitchen/dining rooms:

HallwayProgress

Kitchen:

KitchenBefore

KitchenProgress

Now the “kitchen” is officially a dining room and the window in the back is actually the kitchen:

Dining towards Kitchen Progress2 ~ ElephanteEats.com

Den:

DenBefore

DenProgress

 

What was the den is now the back of the kitchen and the new mudroom/laundry room (through that doorway).

Kitchen to Mudroom Progress2 ~ ElephantEats.com

 Ok, let’s go upstairs.

I don’t think I ever showed a before pic of this, but there used to be a closed door leading up to the attic…and now it’s a nice bright, open stairwell!

Stairs to Attic Progress2 ~ ElephantEats.com

Master Bedroom:

BottomLeftBedroomBefore

BottomLeftBedroomProgress

 

Master Bdrm Progress2 ~ ElephantEats.com

There are still windows on the other wall, they’re just cut off in this pic.

View from new Master bedroom “through” the new walk-in closet to the master bathroom:

MasterSuiteProgress

 MastertoBathroom_Progress2 ~ ELephantEats.com

And here’s a pic from the bathroom back thru the closet hallway into the bedroom:

MasterBathtoBdrm ~ ElephantEats.com

And the rest of these pics don’t have good “before”s unfortunately, so I’ll just give you a new tour:

Nursery (!!!):

Nursery Progress2 ~ ElephantEats.com

Hall Bath:

HallBath Progress2 ~ ElephantEats.com

Bedroom 2:

Bedroom2 Progress2 ~ ElephantEats.com

View towards the closet, which is next to the door to the room:

Bedroom2Closet Progress2 ~ ElephantEats.com

On landing to 3rd floor looking at 3rd floor bedroom door:

3rdFloorLanding ~ ElephantEats.com

3rd Floor Bedroom:

3rdFloorBdrmWindows Progress2 ~ ELephantEats.com

3rd floor bedroom, view from windows to other side of room:3rdFloorBdrm_Progress2 ~ ElephantEats.com

 

3rd Floor Bath:3rdFloorBath_Progress ~ ElephantEats.com

and same view with tiling started:

 

3rdFloorBdrm_Progress2 ~ ElephantEats.com

Hope you enjoyed the updated tour. The next pics will prob be after we move in!!! Prob the next time I post a recipe too…unless I can find one stored somewhere that I haven’t posted…