On 18-month-olds & language acquisition

I read an article that I think really explains the path our guy is taking with language acquisition. It states some more cautious and reserved 18-month-olds tend to wait until they understand a great deal of what they hear before actually speaking.

As long as they are pointing to things they want, to pictures in books, if they seem to understand what you're saying, use gestures and facial expressions to communicate, and grunt (yep, grunting is a sign of language development--must be part of our cave man heritage, lol), your kid should be on track.

Reading books, talking about what you see, encouraging pointing, labeling, sounded out words, etc., are all things parents can do to help develop language. Comparing to others can act as a flag to check in on research out there, but usually there is nothing wrong. The key is, with almost all milestones, that development is happening. That's what I've been learning lately.

If you feel there could be a major problem, talk with a pediatrician who may refer you to to a language development specialist, which would be covered under most insurance companies.

Here's a link to the article on Baby Center referenced above.

Car Seats - Turn from rear- to front-facing way later than you think

A rear-facing car seat causes the passenger seat to have to be moved up really close to the windshield.  It's one of the main reasons we haven't gone on any major road trips with the baby yet. And ever since everyone we know got a front-facing carseat for their young baby, we have been researching getting a new one ourselves to reclaim that room.

But in talking to local experts, we learned that it is safest for babies to stay in a rear-facing infant carseat as long as possible, until they are 18-24 months old. So as nice as it would be to be able to have more room, our baby will stay in his rear-facing carseat until he grows out of it -- (And at 18 months, he is just starting to).