Bryce turned 18 months on Jan. 1. As the pediatrician said at his well check, Bryce is “Mr. Slow and Steady.” Despite his gross motor delays, he continues to progress at his own pace. He’s also in the very top percentiles in size, which means he has significantly more bulk than other kids his age, and it takes a lot of work and coordination to move around!

At 35.5 inches tall, Bryce is in the top 99.76 percentile in height. His weight is in the 97th percentile and he has a proportionally sized head. I’d like to see the .24th percentile of 18-month-olds that are somehow even taller than he is. Bryce has always been a long baby. All the nurses in the hospital commented how long he was when he was born.

Bryce walks more than 50 percent of the time now and is even learning how to steer himself a bit while he walks.

Despite not talking in many words, Bryce communicates pretty clearly. He says “up,” “uh oh,” and “shoe” and has repeated words like “sit,” “zebra” and a few others.

He also loves to do “Cheers!”, which he does with a very distinct verbalization and then crashes his cup, toy, whatever he’s holding, against yours. Beware if you have a full glass, though! I ended up with a lapful of wine when we “cheered” at Christmas dinner.

Bryce will also point at what he wants or if he needs help with something, he’ll even bring it over and hand it to you.

He’s very laid back most of the time. He got two shots at his appointment and didn’t even cry with the first one. The second one he yowled a little bit but calmed down within a minute.

Bryce looks up to Landon and wants to do everything he does and follow him everywhere. Sometimes Landon loves and encourages it; other times he wants his space. Typical brothers!