17 months

Well, Owen is 17 months and of course, he's doing lots of new tricks. He is growing and growing and is finally fitting into 24 month pants (he's in 2T shirts but his legs weren't long enough for 24 mo pants for such a long time). Currently, he's fighting a little sinus bug and so we are not sleeping much at all but hopefully that won't last long and we'll be back to "normal" soon (mommy hopes very very soon...).
New tricks include:

• expressive vocabulary of 50-60 words used to spontaneously inform, request, or identify
• using a few familiar two word phrases and attempting to put two words together himself (he's so cute - he says the words slow and with a little delay between them as if he's really thinking hard about how/what to say)
• following two-step related commands (ex: go pick up your doggy and put it in the stroller)
• anwering yes/no questions about familiar events or objects
• talking on the phone - he actually will respond and really enjoys listening to the person on the phone
• identifies color of object on request with 50-75% accuracy - yellow is his favorite color and he will usually shout out "YEYO!" as soon as he sees a yellow object
• feeds a stuffed animal and makes the smacking sound and will try to feed the cat (the real one...)
• kicks a ball forward
• throws a ball (and most other things)
• completes a 5-piece shape sorter with little or no help
• identifies a stop sign
• gives kisses and then says, "again" sometimes for another kiss (it's so cute!)
• gives hugs and pats while he hugs you
• says, "hold you" with his arms up - this is one of my favorite things

Well, that's all I can think of for now. He amazes us with the things that he understands and says every day.

As for baby #2, I went to the doctor last week and all seems to be going well - the heartrate was 154 beats per minute and I've been feeling him/her moving around just about every day. We'll be doing an ultrasound at my next appointment - March 4 - and will hopefully find out if we'll need pink or blue to take our little bundle home from the hospital.

Hope you are all staying warm as we seem to be having another bit of very cold winter. I'm going to try to post some more pictures soon but need to go do other stuff right now.

Happy Valentines day and, for the southerners, Happy Mardi Gras!