The day before Christmas Eve

Last year, we spent the days before Christmas packing, piling boxes, saying goodbye to friends, and trying to have Cash's first Christmas around a rosemary bush. This is what we are doing this year:



I'll take this year.

Cash's first visit with Santa

Clearly, he is not impressed.

18 months

Cash turned 18 months old on the 12th. The pictures above are from our trip on Saturday to Fit for Fun, a play center for kids 5 and under run by the Wilmington Parks Department. It's become our new favorite activity on Saturday mornings.

Cash is so active at 18 months! He really never sits still and is always wanting to play, get thrown around, or read one book after the other. He's also actively tantruming most days as well. We think it is probably because he's at that frustrating language time where he has a ton to say and says it...but it mostly makes no sense. He has a few words that are basically code for everything. All food is "cracker", all please and thank you is "dadoo" and mysteriously, everything else is now "bubby". We don't know what "bubby" means at all and it's become his new favorite word in the last few days. Hopefully "bubby" will reveal itself soon.

Cash had his 18 month check up at the doctor last Friday and we go some new stats. The good: Cash has grown an inch and a half since last check up and is now 31.5 inches long which is the 26th percentile for height. Also developmentally (i.e. motor skills, cognition, language, etc) he is right on target. Finally, no shots this time!

And for the bad: Cash didn't gain much (if any!) weight since his last checkup. He weighs in at 21 lbs and a few ounces, give or take, which puts him in the >3rd percentile for weight. Technically, this could be labeled "failure to thrive" if the doctor wanted to be mean and make me cry but we go to nice doctors so they decided not to make me feel any worse than I already did. Cash has never been a big eater but the last few weeks had seen his appetite plummet for no real reason and even his day care teachers were asking me if anything was wrong. He just looks skinny. The doctor was concerned, but not overly so, and said that we can start giving Cash PediaSure at night along with a multivitamin each day to see if that helps his appetite and helps him gain some weight. So far he is enjoying the fact that he gets what is essentially a chocolate milkshake every night before bed. However we had to change his bedtime routine to make sure that he brushes his teeth afterward which is different then the usual rocking to sleep with milk. He's not liking that change so much.

Hopefully we'll have a good report when we go back in for a weight check in three months.

Putting Cash to work

Cash and Mollie go for a ride

Thanksmas 2011

After a week of recovering, I thought it was time to put up the Thanksmas post. We spent a whole week in Houston this year and had a fantastic time. Wednesday night was our annual "Christmas" party with the whole Inman/Young/Melone crew (except for Charlie, Fiona and Lucy who were very missed) where we opened presents and ate Italian food. Cash got to meet some of his cousins for the first time and also found a new and interesting way to drink milk while Mollie held him.

Cash with his cousins Kylie and Nicholas:


Chugging milk after a full evening opening presents:



On Thursday, Aunt Melinda hosted Thanksgiving at her place. Cash sat at the kids' table for the meal. It was a moderate success:


All of Mama Nellie's great grand-children (except for little Lucy) in one place:



Ross and all of his cousins and their families:


We spent the rest of the week hanging out with Mollie, Old Grandad and Uncle Philip before a bit of a rough trip back last Tuesday. Let's just say that flying with a sick and projectile vomiting toddler is not my favorite way to spend the day. However we had a great trip and can't wait until we get to go back and spend more time in Texas.

Watching some NickJr with Mollie:


We love you Mollie and Old Grandad!