Fayed at 18 Months

Fayed is officially 1 and a half years old! I have to say I love this age...Fayed is learning to do so many things now and he imitates what we say and do. I think we're over the "rough patch" we had last month; Fayed is so sweet. He loves to go to sleep and to take his naps (most of the time); when he's tired he'll point to the bedroom and say "Nah!" Tantrums are becoming rare now, I'm so glad for that. Fayed is becoming a little more outgoing with new people - he waves and says "Bye bye!" and at the stores when we're asking someone for help and we say "thank you" he also says it automatically. He'll give kisses and hugs to almost anyone who asks. He's finally eating more, but he prefers "real food" over toddler snack food - he especially loves our curries no matter how spicy they are. Fayed has some new interests: stickers, temporary tattoos, and most of all, his Mustang! We splurged on a powerwheels Mustang because he just loves sitting in real cars and we can't get him out of them, so we thought he'd really love having his own, and even though he's a little too young to drive it (but he is pretty good for his age!), he's really enjoying playing with it.

The Minnesota Zoo

On Mother's Day this year, Shafeen and I took Fayed to the Minnesota zoo. He'd been to a zoo before, last summer, when he was only around 6 months old. Needless to say, he had a much better time this year at almost 18 months! He'd been in love with the ducks in our back yard for weeks now, and I knew he'd love seeing more animals in person. We saw fish, birds, lizards, snakes, leopards, bears, flamingos, camels, and many more...but Fayed's favorite animal at the zoo that he couldn't get enough of - ducks! He also had quite a time with the wolverine - it walked back and forth, staring him straight in the eyes and would jump up at the glass right in front of his face. Fayed did great, he skipped his nap time and never even got crabby. I can't wait to go back to this zoo and the other one many more times this summer!

Fayed at 17 Months

Fayed's 17th month is already coming to an end! He's continuing to grow and change and become a little boy more and more every day. He's about 33" tall, and still skinny. This month has been a little more challenging; Fayed is not quite as "helpful" as he was a couple months ago, and he's started hitting, throwing things, and having more tantrums than before. We're working on it. When Fayed knows he did something bad and we're mad at him, he goes and gives us a big kiss right away, so that makes it hard to follow through with disciplining him! He refuses to sit in his high chair most of the time, so that makes it even harder to get food into him, so we have had to be creative with that. He is getting better in the carseat, though! One day his cousin Arissa came over, and he enjoyed sitting and rocking in the infant car seat with his grandma, so now every time we get into the car, he can't wait to get into his own car seat and even helps with the buckles (which is a welcome change from having to wrestle him screaming and crying into it every time!). His hair has finally grown back to a good length, and he is such a cutie! The weather warmed up for a week or so but it's gotten cold again, so we're still waiting to get outside regularly. When we do go outside, Fayed enjoys playing with his toy trucks, drawing with chalk, and pushing around the shovel or rake. In the house, his favorite toys are his toy phone, balls, a pop-up Disney character toy, and a few favorite books he likes me to read over and over; he'd still rather play with Mama or Baba than toys any day though!