17 months

You read that right.

17 months

Can you believe it?

Our little B is almost a year and a half. Crazy! 

Heath and I were talking just the other night about B, or Britches, as we sometimes call him. Honestly, B was quite the handful during his first, oh, full year of life with us. Yes. He was fussy, stubborn, rarely slept four hours straight at night, and was puny. We struggled to figure out this little guy for months, and it seems just as he has turned a year old, we've had some calmer waters and smooth sailing. 

I mean, look at him. He's all smiles, giggles, silly faces, and he's quite honestly the cutest little goofy guy around.

God really tested our faith with Baylen. I'm not sure we passed the test every time, but we tried to cling closer to Him with each uphill battle that we had. 

So what's up with Baylen? 

• He is still a very picky eater. He tends to stick with meats and fruit, and yes, potato chips. It's amazing how healthy food conscious I was with Cash, but with Baylen, I'll seriously give him anything he'll eat because he's a bird. Somedays I wonder how he eats enough to survive.
• We are staying away from whole milk and raw milk products for now. If he has whole milk or ice cream, he gets congested and fussy, so we stick with almond milk, and he loves it. It has, go figure, more calcium, vitamin D and iron than whole milk does, but it doesn't have the fat calories...
• which leads us to the next point. B is a little guy. He's breaking the scales at just over 20 lbs which is around the second percentile. He's a long baby though, so maybe we're looking at a basketball player. Ha!
• He loves, loves, loves to read. His favorite right now is Where is Spot? He loves this book because it has flaps, and he loves to make animals sounds. He's also partial to the Usborne series That's Not My ... He'll bring me a book, chanting "book, book, book," I'll sit down and he'll reverse into my lap and we'll read. When I'm done, he'll say, "more, more, more."
• Yes, he's the talker of the family. He says everything! Cash didn't say his first word until he was 18 months old, and at that point it was "meow." Baylen will repeat just about anything you ask him to say, and he's even starting to put two words together. For example, tonight he asked for a "pear." When Heath cut it up, he gave him a small piece, and B shook his head and said, "big pear."
• He's sleeping through the night. Yay! He usually goes down around 8-8:30 and sleeps until 7am. On occasion he'll wake up earlier if he's teething, but for the most part, he's my consistent morning wake up call.
• He loves playing with big brother. Right now they are enjoying the concrete pad outside. B loves being taken for rides on Cash's tricycle or being pushed in his red and yellow car. He hammers nails, loads dirt in the dump truck, shovels gravel into the loader, explores the yard and teases the cat -- just like Cash does. I get so tickled (and feel so blessed) when I sit and watch them together. Whatever Cash does, B will make sure he does it to EXACTLY the same way. Don't get me wrong, they aggravate and tease each other daily, but there are so many sweet moments. 

We're starting to get more comments about who Baylen looks like. A friend told us yesterday that Cash was looking more like Heath and Baylen was my little look-alike. That was a first. He does have my ears, though. See? They tend to stick out a bit from his head, just like mine. :) I still think he favors Heath more. What do you think?

No matter who he looks like, he's definitely forming his own unique special personality, and we are so thankful for each day with this sweet boy.