Stockton at 18 Months

Stockton is growing like a weed! He's not stocky any more, he is tall and skinny! We took him for his 18 month check up and he weighs 23 lbs (13 percentile) and is 32.28 inches long (47 percentile!!!!!!!!) He nearly doubled his percentile in height from 12 months! I can't believe it!

He is so much fun and keeps us laughing all the time.

He loves to pretend to talk on the phone. The other day he was having a conversation with Elmo, Bob the Builder, and Goliath (from Liken the Scriptures.) These are his favorite characters from shows he likes to watch.


We have this owl that sits out on our deck to scare away pigeons. Stockton likes him, so I brought him inside one day. I look over and this is what I found. It's so typical of Stockton. He loves to share his food with mommy, daddy, and now the owl. (We'll mention the owl in the video below.)


Stockton loves to read books. He would read them all day long. He loves to point out the objects in the books and make noises like the object/animal. His favorite book is an Elmo book that he picked out by himself. He also likes to pick books out at the library. Last time he picked out a car book and about 3 animal books.

Stockton's favorite foods include macaroni and cheese, ham, fruit snacks, broccoli, grapes, chips, cookies, and crackers.

Stockton's favorite things to do is play with cars/trucks, read books, color, watch shows, "help"mommy fold laundry, go on bike rides in the bike trailer, play with Uncle Jordan, and look at Anna (his cousin) on the computer.

Some of the words he says most often are cai (car), a-pe (airplane), hele-caw-caw (helecopter), bu-bye, hi, mama, dada, moi (more), Anna (his cousin), Bock (Brock, his other cousin), Elmo, Bob, Ay-ay-ath (Goliath), wa wa (water), bub-bos (bubbles), nigh-nigh, all done, all gone, and lately... pa-ke (pumpkin.)

He loves to say animals sounds and point out parts on his body, which you will see in the video below. It is kinda long, but super cute. It pretty much sums up Stockton at this age.

18 Month Interview from Rachel Haider on Vimeo.

Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread

There no better way to celebrate the over abundance of zucchini like Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread!

Prep time: 15 min.

Cook time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

3 cups shredded zucchini (2 to 3 medium)

1 2/3 cups sugar

2/3 cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla

4 large eggs

3 cups all-purpose or whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ cup coarsely chopped nuts (optional)

¾ cup chocolate chips (definately NOT optional! I like to use semi-sweet)

Directions: Move oven rack to low position so that tops of pans will be in center of oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottoms only of 2 loaf pans, 8 ½ x 4 ½ x 2 ½ inches, 1 loaf pan 9 x 5 x3 inches, or 5 mini loaf pans with shortening.

Mix zucchini, sugar, oil vanilla and eggs in large bowl. Stir in remaining ingredients. Dived batter evenly between pans.

Bake 8 inch loaves 50-60 min., 9 –inch loaf 1 hour 10 min. - 1 hour 20 min., mini-loaf pans 40-50 min., or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 min. in pans on wire rack.

Loosen sides of loaves from pans; remove from pans and place top side up on wire rack. Cool completely about 2 hours before slicing. Wrap tightly and store at room temperature up to 4 days, or refrigerate up to 10 days.

Options:

Cranberry Bread: Omit zucchini, cinnamon, cloves, and chocolate chips. Stir in ½ cup milk and 2 teaspoons grated orange peel with the oil. Stir 3 cups fresh or frozen (thawed and drained) cranberries into batter. Bake 1 hour to 1 hour 10 min.

Pumpkin Bread: Substitute 1 can (15 ounces) pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix) for the zucchini.

Uncle J

Brady's brother, Jordan, has been recovering from ankle surgery. So sometimes he needs some cheering up. Every few days he calls and asks if Stockton can play. Stockton is more than willing to play with his Uncle J. Usually these play dates consist of:


Stockton body slamming Jordan, over and over and over!


Stockton pinned him down!


Playing on the iPhone.


Talking a walk on Jordan... please be careful with the ankle Stocky!


Coloring.


When Stockton isn't body slamming Jordan, he likes to get down and look into his eyes, or snuggle up to him.

These two are best buds. It's so cute!

Another Logan Trip

We made another trip up to Logan over conference weekend. The first reason we went was to visit Poppa and Teenser. Teenser fell and broke her hip, so we went to go visit her to hopefully cheer her up. She did perk up a bit when Stockton she saw Stockton. (For those of you who don't know, Brady's Grandma suffers from Alzheimer's and has been in a care facility for almost a year. She can't really carry on a conversation very well, because she's very confused. This makes her sad most of the time. But, kids really make her happy.)


Stockton and Poppa out on the porch swing.


This was the second reason why we went. The USU vs. BYU game! We had awesome seats that Brady's friend Zac got us again. Of course for me it was a miserable game because BYU lost. But, these two cheered their hearts out for the Aggies. And it was still a fun time.


Teenser loves cats, so she has several cat decorations around the house. I didn't realize just how many there were until Stockton recognized every single one and meowed when he saw them. He was pretty much meowing the whole time we were there. Here he is petting the rock cat that looks like their real cat, Shadow.

We stayed for the morning session of Conference. Stockton was running all over the place and wouldn't let us listen very well. So we took him in the other room and listened on the radio and tried to get some of his wiggles out.