Recap: Flu, Canceled Trip, 18 Months, Sleeping, Etc.

Lots of things have been going on, but I haven't been keeping up with the blog updates. Our boy is getting so dang big it sometimes catches me off guard. Anyway, here's a recap of the last few weeks...

Spencer and I both got sick at the end of March. After several days of fever and a super runny nose, and a second trip to see Dr. Bayer, we found out Spencer had Type A flu, which is either seasonal or [insert dramatic music] swine. He also had an ear infection. My flu test came back negative, but it took almost 2 weeks for my virus to run its course. Unfortunately, all of this coincided with our big trip to New York to see the Loves. We had to cancel lest we cause a new flu epidemic. We were SO disappointed. We had been really looking forward to taking Spence on his first jet ride, and of course there was lots of fun planned with his cousins.

As many of you know, Spencer's Grannie (aka Geek!) is sick, and once my virus was gone I was finally able to take a few days off to go see her. The boys did so great on their own. In fact, Daddy started a gentle sleep bootcamp and we are excited to report that last night Spencer fell asleep on his own in his crib and slept from 8 PM until 6:30 AM! He fell asleep on his own tonight, and we are praying for similar results. After 18 months of on-demand nursing throughout the night, it was time we made a change and we decided night weaning would be a good place to start. We are not into the whole cry-it-out method, so we've been carefully navigating our way through this process.

We also discovered while I was away that the reason Spencer doesn't usually eat that much solid food must be that he just isn't hungry because he nurses so much. Without me around, he ate like a horse. One day he ate a hotdog ("doggo"), veggie burger patty, tortilla with cheese, 3/4 of an apple, and a bunch of cereal for lunch. I was floored - that's more than he would normally eat over the course of a few days. He even says "try" now and points to what we're eating and wants to sample everything. We also discovered he likes food to be cut into sticks. We were out at dinner last night and he ate a piece of red onion. These changes in sleeping and eating have really given us a new lease on life, even if it's only been a few days!

Spencer turned 18 months old on April 6. His language continues to explode. He knows his ABCs and puts together 2-3 word phrases. One of the most popular right now (unfortunately) is "Elmo. Watch. Down." This means he wants to watch his Elmo video downstairs. When he was sick he started saying "no," and though that might seem like a bad thing, it is seriously the sweetest, most polite little "no" we've ever heard. At his doctor's appointment when he was sick, he weighed almost 30 lbs with his clothes on. We have his 18-month checkup next week so I'll report his stats for those of you keeping up with that. ;)

So that's the update. Aren't these pictures Dave took with his groovy new iPhone app the coolest? You can see more in the April photo album.