Peter Maverick {2 years}

Stats

• Size 5 diapers

• 18m-2T clothing. 24m/2T fits best.

• 27.2 pounds (39%) & 33.12 inches (23%)

Notable events

• We stayed in a cabin for a few nights and hiked in Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. This was his first hiking trip where he actually did some hiking, and he loved it! In fact, there were a lot of times when he was in the hiking carrier and begging to get out — “walk! walk!” He did so great with the thrown off schedule and loved being outside so much.

Tricks/Milestones

• He’ll say any word we give him at this point, and is stringing about 3 words together — “mama help please” “sit read story” “sleepsack off please” “look at me”

• He is updating the way he says things he was previously saying only part of, or incorrectly. For instance, “I love you” instead of “love you,” “Holly” instead of “Hoddie,” “banana” instead of “mena.”

• He’ll say the last word or two of a phrase, so we can lead him in prayers now, which is super cute.

• He also does it with our family motto, which we say after our nightly family prayer. It’s so cute to have him join in!

• He has so many teeth! He’s missing his bottom left canine, but it will likely pop through in the next couple weeks. He does not have his second set of molars yet. That brings him to a total of 15 teeth at the moment.

• He loves to test his body’s limits! He is jumping, galloping, and climbing at the playground! We got him a strider bike for his birthday, and although he’s quite timid with it at the moment, I’m sure he’ll be zooming around by the end of the summer.

• He loves to help unload the dishwasher with me every morning. He gets mad if he notices me finishing before he can help out.

• HE FINALLY LAYS DOWN (mostly) WILLINGLY FOR A DIAPER CHANGE (starting around 22.5 months). I love this milestone. Ironically, he started being more okay with diaper changes right after he got an infected penis. So basically, after several diaper changes where he was in pain with every wipe, he finally decided diaper changes were fine. What a weirdo 🤣

Favorite things

• He gives kisses with noise, now! And he almost always kisses one cheek and then the other. He also gives hugs!

• He was OBSESSED with the photo books for a while. He still likes them a lot, but doesn’t feel the need to pull them all out every day anymore, thank goodness. He also loves a board book called “Baby Colors.”

• He’s great at independent play! He likes to play with cars, blocks, and magnetiles. He also loves to snuggle and love on a small baby doll, an American Girl puppy, and a stuffed bear (Scout).

• He loves to help cook. Anytime he sees me or Russ with a knife or a pot, he’s scrambling to climb a chair to watch and help.

• He kind of sings along to his bedtime song 😍

• He also walks around singing “I walk . . . Jesus” sometimes (because the girls have sung a song called “I will walk with Jesus” many times over the last few months), and it’s adorable.

Random tidbits

• He’s so good at putting his shoes where they belong. If only his sisters were that good!

• He tucks one or both arms inside his sleep sack most times when he’s sleeping.

• He recently started sucking/biting his fingers/thumbs, usually his pointer and his thumb at the same time. It seems a similar habit to thumb-sucking, except he doesn’t use it for sleep, just when he’s bored or chill. I do not want this habit since he doesn’t even use it for sleep! So I put on some yucky polish right before lunch one day, which then caused him to throw up the beginnings of his lunch when his fingers got in his mouth 🙈 I haven’t tried again since 😂

• He says “thank you” unprompted and it’s so cute.

• We read a book called “Red Hat, Green Hat” and each page ends with the word, “Oops!” He loves to say every “oops.”

• I can easily take a shower without him trying to get in with me now! He’ll sometimes come in and pull back the shower curtain (usually only the non-spraying side now!) and say hi for a minute, and then he’s back to independent play.

Sleep

Luckily Pete’s hate of his crib was short-lived, and he’s perfectly happy to go to bed at both naptimes and bedtime.

• His schedule looks like:

  • 7:15am wake him

  • 1-3:15pm nap

  • 8pm down (4.75 hours after I wake him from his nap)

• I wake him at 7:15 because if I leave him longer, he takes forever to fall asleep for his nap, or he skips it altogether.

• Usually he falls asleep for his nap within 20 minutes. He has stayed awake through crib90 a couple of times, but only when I’ve let him sleep late in the morning.

• He still takes 30 minutes (sometimes more) to fall asleep after we lay him down. He’s happy and content though, so I’m not worried about it.

• His schedule in waketimes is approximately 5.75 / 4.75. His sleep works out to be about 1.5-2 daytime hours, 10-10.5 nighttime hours, and 12.5 hours total.

Peter Maverick {21 months}

Stats

• Size 5 diapers

• 12-18m clothing is what we have, but it’s all looking small on him — mostly short in the sleeves. Need to get him some 18-24m stuff, but the 24m stuff we DO have seems so big on him 😅 No way to win, I guess!

• 27.0 pounds (68%) & 32.25 inches (12%)

Notable events

• Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas all happened in the last quarter, and they were so fun with him being bigger. He knocked a few doors on Halloween before being banished to the stroller (he was too slow walking 🤣), where he mostly enjoyed sucker after sucker as the girls trick-or-treated. At Christmas, he did great opening presents, and he even wanted to help other people open their presents! His favorite gift was probably the camping chair that was his size — he’s always trying to sit in everyone else’s chair when we’re camping!

Tricks/Milestones

• He started holding our hands sometimes! He didn’t do it for the longest time and it was such a bummer haha.

• Points to all his facial parts when asked, as well as his knees, elbows, and belly button.

• He doesn’t crawl the stairs at all anymore — he’s always doing this sit-scoot thing to get down, and touching the wall as he walks up.

• He is talking up a STORM now! He’ll repeat back pretty much anything we say, although not always correctly, of course. He’s saying well over 50 words at this point. Some of our favorites are “love you” “sorry” and “hold you”

• He folds his arms for prayers.

• He’s always moving his body — trying to jump, spinning in circles, climbing on the doll house that is in his room.

Favorite things

• We’ve been working on showing him what hugs and kisses are since he hasn’t done them in a while, and he’s getting better! We all love to be hugged and kissed by Pete!

• He loves piggy-back rides, and calls them “backpacks” 😂

• The fun of many toys for him is dumping them out from their container all over the floor, and then not actually playing with them 🤪

• He really loves a teddy bear of Holly’s (named Scout), and he gives that teddy bear the best hugs and snuggles!! Luckily Holly is not attached to it because Pete sure is! He also calls it “doggy” which is funny and cute.

• He loves to hit and throw things, which is no fun for anyone else. But if he hits you and you say “OW!” He’ll immediately cuddle you, say “sawee (sorry),” and sort of pat the injured area. Nobody stays mad at him for long!

Random tidbits

• He started hating his car seat. Not during the drive, just whenever we have to load him in. He always flails and screams and cries and it’s a bummer.

• A couple months ago he spent a couple hours with his cousins, one of whom is named “Haddie.” We thought it was so cute that he learned to say her name that night! Untillll . . . he immediately started calling Holly “Haddie” and Ada “Addie.” (And then there’s “Daddy,” so thank goodness he didn’t start calling me “MADdie” 🤣) After a lot of correction, he’s back to saying “Ada,” and now he says something more like “Hoddie” for Holly (he’s never said Holly correctly).

• He was also mixing up who was mama and who was dada for a while there, but that has mostly resolved.

Sleep

Along with his car seat, he has also started to hate his crib in the last few weeks 🙄 If we ask him if he wants to nap or tell him it’s time to nap, he says, “No!” and very often when we lay him down, he starts crying immediately. Luckily the crying only lasts about 2 minutes, and it’s even lessened in frequency in the last few days. I credit consistency for the decrease!

• His schedule looks like:

  • ~7/7:30am awake

  • 7:30am out of crib

  • 1-3/3:30pm nap

  • 7:30/8pm down (4.5 hours after I wake him from his nap)

• Occasionally he wakes before 7, but he’s calm so I still leave him til 7:30. Often I have to wake him AT 7:30 because he’s still sleeping, and if I leave him past 7:30, he won’t sleep for his nap.

• Usually he falls asleep for his nap within 10 minutes. A few times he has stayed awake through crib90, but only when I’ve let him sleep til 7:45 or 8am. He is definitely my LOW NEEDS sleeper! (For reference, both my girls had barely dropped to one nap at this point, and not only has he been on one nap for 7 months, but I already have to wake him in the morning AND after his nap to preserve the schedule . . . wild!)

• He falls asleep in about 30 minutes for bed. Even though I typically recommend a schedule where Baby falls asleep in 10-15 minutes, he has taken ~30 minutes for about 9 months now, so I’m not worried about changing things.

• His schedule in waketimes is approximately 5.5 / 4.5. His sleep works out to be about 2-2.5 daytime hours, 10.5-11 nighttime hours, and 13 hours total.

Peter Maverick {18 months}

Stats

• Size 4 diapers

• 12-18 month clothing

• 24.4 pounds (55%) & 32.0 inches (36%)

Notable events

• We had two cabin trips over the last 3 months, and this kid seriously lives his best life outside. He LOVES just walking around and exploring. And when we’re home, if anyone goes outside without him, he usually cries because he wants to go outside, too. My little nature baby!

• About a month ago we went to a memorial service for Russ’s grandma, and it was right at nap time. Although I did attempt a nap in a nearby room for 15 minutes, I ultimately gave up because he was still crying. This resulted in Pete’s first ever no-nap day. He was actually totally fine the whole day — a little wired in the early afternoon and very tired in the late afternoon, but not cranky until the next day. He fell right to sleep that night! 🤣

• We tried taking family pictures in Lake Tahoe earlier this summer, and he was just cryyyying so we gave up. We tried again a couple weeks ago and luckily he wasn’t crying the whole time, but he definitely didn’t want to smile! We got a few tiny smiles but that was IT! 🤣

Tricks/Milestones

• He reliably gives high fives and pounds it.

• Points to his nose, ears, and cheeks when asked.

• Trying single stairs standing up (but prefers to hold a hand to do so).

• Running 🏃🏼‍♂️

• No longer immediately knocks over towers, for which the girls are grateful! He even started putting blocks together.

• He’s getting more adventurous about climbing. He climbs onto chairs and the couch, and he also climbed these huge things at a park the other day.

• He’s been using spoons, forks, plates, and bowls more lately. Still not GREAT at it, but not horrible.

• Signs please, food, water, more, and all done, though not always. He almost never actually signs “all done,” and instead just starts throwing his food 🙄

• Says car, woah, go, ma (which means more/want), nana (banana), no, la la (from Moo, Baa, La La La), please, all done (though he doesn’t USE this one much 🤣), night night, dog, and possibly others. His total is around 20 words.

Favorite things

• I did not read much to this kid for the first 16 months of his life #thirdchild. So he didn’t like books as early on as his sisters did, but now he is OBSESSED. He is constantly bringing me books to read, especially if I sit down on the floor anywhere upstairs, or in the chair in his room. He takes that as an invitation to bring me a book and plop himself in my lap. His favorite is Moo, Baa, La La La which he calls La La. If I recite a book to him while I change his diaper, he is much more relaxed since he can focus on my words.

• He has started singing, LOUDLY. Anytime I turn music on in the car, he just screams along basically 🤣

• He still loves to play with balls, but mostly just NEW balls. He’s not super interested in the 91 balls we have at home, but if we go on a walk or to the park and he spots a new one, he’ll point it out and say “ball!” The funniest time was when I was wearing these big pearl earrings I have, and he noticed for the first time, said “ball,” and tried to get them off my ears 🤣

• He loves making friends — waves and says hi to everyone we pass on walks (though usually too early for them to hear/realize), and to every animal!

• He loves dogs. He often chases after them.

• He loves airplanes! Every time he hears one, he points to the sky and looks for it. So stinking cute. We went to an air show the other day and he was in heaven with all the airplanes to look at!

• I let him roam pretty freely at the park (I have loved watching his independence and abilities SOAR over the last two months), and occasionally he’ll come over to me for a quick little hug/snuggle before going back out to play. I love it so much 😍

Random tidbits

• One thing that’s different about having a boy? He’s already had at least 4 haircuts in his life. He looks so handsome after a fresh cut!

• If he’s around when I exercise, he tries to copy the movements and it’s so funny and cute.

• Whenever he finds Barbie shoes, he puts them on his tiny fingers. This kid 🤣

• For the most part, he is still the sweetest, easiest baby. The only hard thing is that he loves to throw balls, and now he’s started throwing EVERYTHING like it is a ball! He also bangs things against walls for the loud noise. So, we’re trying to figure out how to help him be less destructive 😅

• I think Daddy is his favorite! Which Russ loves and I’m fine with. He’s still sweet with me when Russ isn’t around, but he’ll head straight for Rus if he’s an option!

Sleep

For a little while he would cry for a minute or two (and occasionally for 15 solid minutes) every time we’d lay him down, but we stayed consistent and luckily that stopped! .

• His schedule looks like:

  • ~7am awake

  • 7:30am out of crib

  • 12:45-3pm nap

  • 7:30pm down

  • 8pm asleep

• Occasionally he wakes before 7, but he’s usually calm so I still leave him til 7:30. Occasionally he sleeps until 7:30, but I wake him at 7:30 if he’s still sleeping.

• Previously, I was starting his nap more flexibly, based on his morning wake. I’ve moved to a more solidified 12:45/1pm start time. He basically always falls asleep within 5-10 minutes.

• I often have to wake him from his nap at 3pm. Although I generally allow for naps up to 3 hours at his age, I’ve already started cutting back on his nap to help him fall asleep more quickly at night. Even with waking him at 3, he generally takes about 30 minutes to fall asleep. I could shorten his nap further or push his bedtime later to get him falling asleep quicker, but I don’t want to do either of those things just yet because it still works fine.

• His schedule in waketimes is approximately 6 / 4.5. His sleep works out to be about 2 daytime hours, 11 nighttime hours, and 13 hours total.

Peter Maverick {15 months}

Stats

• Size 4 diapers

• 9-18 month clothing

• 23.0 pounds (54%) & 31.0 inches (42%)

Notable events

• We left him (and our girls) with Grandma and Grandpa for 5 days so Russ and I could have a getaway trip! He did fine there, but it definitely triggered a bit of separation anxiety. Nothing major though.

• We went on an extended family trip to Lake Tahoe and his cousins fawned all over him. He did well despite any schedule changes, and reminded me that kids (at least some of them!) really can go with the flow if the occasion calls for it.

• We’ve been going to the creek after dinner a lot lately, and we let him explore pretty freely. It’s SO fun to see him test his limits, be a little risky, but ultimately keep himself safe. He plays right at the water’s edge and loves throwing rocks in there.

Tricks/Milestones

• He’ll turn off lights now (with someone holding him high enough to do so).

• At 13 months exactly, he started crawling DOWN stairs.

• He has 7 teeth (4 on top, 3 on bottom).

• Started taking steps on our Tahoe trip, and now, two weeks later, he’s practically a full-time walker!

• Points his finger.

• Says “buh bye,” “ba[ll],” “uh oh,” “hi,” “hello,” and “Ada.” Previously he was saying “mama” and “dada,” so his total is somewhere around 8-10 words.

Favorite things

• He started giving big, slobbery kisses 😍

• He lays his head down on pillows, balloons, kind of whatever, and he just like cozies up to it and it’s so cute!

• He snuggles during his sleep song 😍

Random tidbits

• He has entered his “rag doll resistance” phase.

• I’ve been experimenting with putting things back down at low levels (things like decor and garbage cans). Some things are going well, most are not 🤣

Sleep

He dropped to one nap right around 14 months. Which is CRAZY, since both my girls took two naps until at least 18 months! But it was definitely a needed change for him, given all the annoying hoops I was having to jump through to maintain two naps.

• His schedule looks like:

  • 6:30/7am awake

  • 7:30am out of crib

  • 12:30-2:45/3pm nap

  • 7:30pm down

  • 8pm asleep

• What I’m shooting for is 7:30am/12:30pm/7:30pm, but I might not be able to get it. He WAS sleeping in previously, but now he usually wakes before 7am, and it’s really difficult to get him down for a nap before 12:30pm most of the time. But kids are resilient and he does okay whether I put him down at noon, 1:30pm, or anything in between. (He even did pretty well the day he only got a 20-min nap at 4pm on our Tahoe trip 😅)

• I leave him in bed until 7:30 in the morning despite the fact that he wakes up earlier, and I put him to bed at 7:30 in the evening despite the fact that it takes him 25-30 minutes to fall asleep, because he’s content on both sides and it’s helpful for me 🤷🏼‍♀️

• He does great for his nap. Falls asleep quickly and easily. He usually sleeps 2+ hours. He doesn’t typically sleep as much as 2.5 hours, but occasionally he does [My general recommendations are to allow for up to 3 hours for a single nap until age 2.]

• His schedule in waketimes is approximately 5.5 / 4.5. His sleep works out to be about 2.5 daytime hours, 11 nighttime hours, and 13.5 hours total. This is the same amount (maybe 15 minutes less) that he got on two naps at 12 months, but the different configuration (one nap) is just so much better 🙌🏻🙌🏻