17-month Update

Seventeen months and 1 day ago, Rowan arrived. I could never have imagined the interesting person he has turned into these past months. We've had some challenges along the way, but what an adventure it has been!

Enough of the sentimental stuff, here's the update on Rowan's vital stats.

• Height: 32"
• Weight: 23 lbs.
• His hair is filling in and he's had two haircuts with Jeremy's clippers. His hair is light blond and doesn't show up in photos very well.
• Mobility: He loves to run as much as he can. He'll also experiment with walking backwards, either with or without his shopping cart or truck. He still loves to climb. He's been practicing the stairs at day care on the really cool indoor play area they call "The Piazza". He's also been trying out the tricycle (sans pedals) at school and has only fallen once that I know about. I've shown him how to march and he does an okay job with it. Most of the time he looks like a Sumo wrestler entering the ring.
• Communication: Wow! His vocabulary expands weekly. New words he's added to his lexicon include: door, chair (churr), cracker, more (with sign language), hello (el-LOW) and pee pee (while pointing to his diaper). His pronunciation of other words has improved, too. His memory is amazing. He said "brocka" (broccoli) a while ago but we haven't had it for a couple of weeks. Early last week, I put some on his highchair tray and he picked it up and said "brocka" without any prompting. He also understands a lot of what you say. He seems to get the concepts of under, up, and down. He's also getting better at singing. He can hum a bit of "Frere Jacques" (We sing, "Where is Rowan?" or "Where is Daddy?"); he knows the "E-I-E-I-O" part for "Old MacDonald"; he likes "Boom Boom Pow" by the Black Eyed Peas and will sing "Boom, Boom"; and he can do the hand motions for "Itsy Bitsy Spider".
• Miscellaneous: For the past two weeks Rowan has been really clingy. I don't know if it is late-onset stranger anxiety, or what. We met the Carrolls and the Yangs for play dates over the weekend and he freaked out both times when the Mommies said hello to him. So crazy - especially since the Yangs were his second family until the end of March. He really didn't like the backpack man at REI. But, the salesman was very understanding. Jeremy says he hates this phase.
  Rowan likes to pretend that all kinds of things are telephones. He'll talk to his play TV remote, his socks, a book, his banana. I asked him yesterday if he was talking to G-Ma and he threw down his remote and started pointing at the laptop. He knows that we talk to G-Ma on Skype. What a smarty pants.

I've taken some more photos but haven't uploaded them yet. I'll try to get to it tonight.