18 months and the Iowa State Fair!

On Thursday our sweet boy turned 18 months old! YIKES! Friday we had his 18 month well-check, and yes, he is looking quite well. The doctor was just SO impressed with Jeremiah's speech and everything that he knows (as she was talking, Jeremiah would repeat her words, and she would stop and marvel at how clear his speech is and how much he says!) She also said that Jeremiah speaks better than her own 2.5 year old! (Am I bragging? Probably. It's my blog, I can!). Another funny thing was that during our visit, Jeremiah would copy the doctor when she would laugh! She has kind of a loud laugh, so if she started laughing, then Jeremiah would pipe up with a "HA HA HA HA!" fake laugh. What a character! So-- the stats. He weighs 29 lbs 1 oz and is in the 85th percentile for weight (try carrying him around a store for while-- he's quite a lug!), and he is 35 inches tall and still in the 100th percentile for height (as the nurse said, "Holy cow! He's almost 3 feet tall!"). Yep, we still have a tall boy on our hands. Let me just say that we have to continually push things back and out of reach that are on the table, and he can reach up onto the counter, too (and up on the stove, which makes me SO nervous!). And with his talking-- he is officially a repeater. He will repeat whatever the last word of your sentence is, so you better make it a good one! We are slowly learning this. Just this morning Adam was yelling at Molly to stop barking and called her a "Dumb-a**." Well what do you know? Our little parrot started jumping on the couch saying "Dumb-a**! Dumb-a**!" Oops. We really are so proud of our little guy, and he continues to bring us so much joy. :) As far as his ears go, the doctor said that between 18 months and 2 years is when kids can somewhat grow out of the ear infection problem-- the tubes in their ears grow to be not so flat so they drain better.... or something like that. So we are going to see how the fall goes, and HOPEFULLY he will just grow out of ear infections. And if not, then probably after his next 1 or 2, we will be referred to an ENT for tubes. So we'll see how things go!

Today we took some time in the afternoon to enjoy the Iowa State Fair with Boppa and Meema Wissink (and no, we did not partake of this year's featured food item: fried butter on a stick). Thankfully the weather this year was MUCH more tolerable than last year! Here are the highlights:

First stop was "Little Hands on the Farm" where J got to wear an apron, plant seeds, harvest plastic veggies, gather an egg, milk a cow, drive a tractor, pet a fake sheep, sell his produce at the farmer's market, and then buy a treat with his dollar. Unfortunately J loved this whole process a little TOO much-- he threw a fit EVERY time we had to leave one of the stations!

Planting seeds.


Admiring his produce.




Interestingly enough, this cow actually produced water.


Jeremiah bought a "bocle" (popsicle) with is hard-earned dollar. He enjoyed it a lot! He's saying, "YUMMY!" in this picture. :)


Then we were ready to see some of the animals!



Jeremiah and his headless friend celebrating pork, the other white meat.


We of course needed to make a stop for some yummy Honey Lemonade! Jeremiah approved.


Then we were ready to see more animals.
The world's largest bull...


... and the world's smallest bull. Cute lil fella!


The state bird of Iowa.

Just kidding!

Then it was time to check out all the tractors!





We made a stop at the Cattleman's Beef Quarters for dinner, where Jeremiah enjoyed a PB & J.


Our last stop was to see the fire trucks and police cars!


J was a little freaked out by the talking Dalmatian (honestly, so was I).


It was a great afternoon! And now Adam and I are sitting here watching the fair highlights on TV. Adam thinks it will be fun next year to enter J into the "Mutton Busting" competition in the "Under 5 years old" category. Oh, you don't know what "Mutton Busting" is? It's when they place a young kid on top of a sheep and let the sheep run around a pen and see how long the kid can hang on. Yes, it's like bull riding for children. We may have just had our last visit to the Iowa State Fair. Ever.