I feel bad that we haven't posted photos much in the last two months. It's not really that we're not posting them as much as there aren't many. Here's why:
Playing, being quite cute....
... Oh! Is that a camera?
"My turn! My turn!*"
For Daniel's birthday in October, his brother Justin reprinted a bunch of old photos of the two of them when they were kids. Daniel put a bunch of them up on the website to share. It's fun to see all the little-boy genes that they share with Atticus.
It also makes us excited to think about Atticus having a sibling someday. Not anytime too soon, though. Just saying.
My favorite part about this age is the sense of individuality that is evident. Atticus now likes to choose his clothes and is very opinionated as to what we do during the day. He loves to direct other people also. Often when he plays music, you have to play also, and he tells you exactly how to do it (to play the guitar correctly, says Atticus, you have to tap your foot). I love seeing what kind of person he's becoming.
Last weekend we all went down to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to check out their current dinosaur exhibit. It was Atticus' first trip to the museum. The dinosaur exhibit turned out to not be all that exciting to Atticus, with the one exception of a scaled down tyrannosaurus rex skeleton that was in motion, showing how they walked (he kept running back to it; he could have stood there and watched it all afternoon). Atticus was just as excited to go up and down the escalators and run arcoss the glass-walled catwalks that connect the parts of the museum. We should know that kind of thing by now, I suppose.
Atticus loves making up games. Yesterday Atticus played "Two Mittens and a letter". Rules involve wearing a pair of mittens, balancing a letter magnet on one of the mittens, and walking around the house in circles repeating the name of the game. Here he is in the middle of saying "Two mittens and an H, two mittens and an H,..."
Atticus likes to tear up the house, just like any other toddler. To his parents' delight, though, he also likes to clean up. We recently got a new shelving system where Atticus can organize and put away all his toys. He also takes the broom away from you if you are sweeping and has to do it himself.
But he went a little overboard the other day when he tried to mop the front walk while it was raining.
Silly boy.
Daniel added some pretty cool features to the website, so go check them out.
Also, there are videos up on the site too, in case you didn't notice. I hope to get some new ones up there soon too.
Atticus adores music lately. He has a couple of drums, a toy piano/xylophone, and a lot of things that make noise. One of his favorites, though, has always been the guitar. Between Dad's and Uncle Mike's, Atticus has been fascinated by seeing others play this instrument.
Our friend Kerry found his ukulele the other day and very generously gifted it to Atticus. The boy just thinks this new toy is the bee's knees.
He likes to tell everyone about his "guitar". We can't get over how cute he is holding it too. Perfect size! Teehee!
Thanks again to Kerry!
Over the course of 48 hours, in 30 second intervals, I managed to cut Atticus' unwieldy mane this week. Daniel and I both love it long, but the boy refuses to sit for hair brushings and he was starting to get dreadlocks in the back. I know having been born in Boulder, he would have fit right in with that hair, but we weren't about to let that happen. Oh well, at least his hair looks a bit better and the parts that are drastically uneven are hard to see. 
We had a rather chilly weekend, so Friday Atticus spent most of the day in his PJs. He tested out his striped ones that I got at a garage sale last summer. They were so cute, but at the time I couldn't imagine that Atticus would ever be that big, as they looked so huge next to him. I can't believe that he actually fits them now. Sigh.
We spent four days of our Alaska trip at Anchor Point, not too far out of Homer. This was Atticus' first trip to an ocean and he adored it. He goes nuts for anything to do with water, so having water as far as the eye could see was just too exciting for Atticus.
This water was SO cold, but Atticus didn't even care. He ended up sitting in it, clothes and all. We took him out when his teeth started chattering, but he fought it and was really mad that he couldn't stay in. I can't imagine what he'll think when we make it to an ocean you can actually stay in without getting hypotermia.
*really, it was like half and hour
Yes, Alaska is beautiful and has loads to offer for entertainment and adventure this time of year, but I have to say the best part of the trip was hanging with the Alaskan branch of the Podolak family. It had been nearly a year and a half since we saw them, so there was a lot of catching up to do. 
Ya know, the kind of catching up you just can't get over the phone or without sharing a good drink. Anyhow, thanks again to all of you guys. It was awesome to see all of you. And Atticus won't stop asking for Uncle Mike during the day now.
There are 600+ photos to go through from the trip! It's an overwhelming task to go through them all to post here. For now, I'll leave you with one from our camping trip. Here Annie and Mike debate hobbies.
Us Wattses are back from our Alaskan adventure now - 39 hours later than expected, but better late than never. Lots and lots of photos to come soon.
Many many thanks to the podolAKs for spoiling us for 10 days (and adding to our waistlines!). I don't know how we'll ever go back to cooking our own dinners and driving ourselves around.
I think one of the funnest aspects of Atticus' age (18 months already!) is getting to see him interacting more with other kids. Granted, there is still a pretty long waiting period for Atticus to warm up to other children (we have to see them at least a half a dozen times first), but he does have a few friends now that he enjoys seeing. He will now actually play with these kids rather than just tollerate them being in his presence and resorting to crying when they come within two feet of him.
It's also interesting to see how these kids play without really having a verbal communication. These guys are still mostly in that stage of speech where they need an interpreter, but they still seem to get their point across to each other. Often times this is one saying something to the other, which is met with a blank stare. Then one or both go into an excited rant with lots of pointing and gesticulating. This is pretty funny to watch, but remembering being in the exact same frustrating situations in foreign countries makes it a tad sad. Only a little. Mostly it's still funny.
Atticus has never been one for hair care. He despises having his hair brushed and barely tolerates having it washed. This makes for some interesting hair days, as we tend to just let nature take its course.
Yesterday Atticus' hair looked just about average for him, meaning the front was slicked down with whatever he put in it at breakfast (I think yesterday it was butter) and the back was a frizzed mess of bedhead. We were walking by a bar down the street and two men were standing outside. These two buff, well dressed men looked like they stepped right out of a magazine ad. They both said hi to Atticus and chuckled as he walked by. I heard one say to the other that this little boy had the same hair style that he'd seen people get at salons.
Cool without even trying. Way to go, Atticus.
Atticus had his 18 month checkup yesterday. He's bigger than we expected. He now weighs in at 21 1/4 lbs and a bit over 32 inches. I didn't think he weighed that much. With his tall slender build, it looks like he's got the Kerttula genes for size.
Why haven't we posted in over a month? We've been working on getting a new camera now for a few weeks. When you have something really great in the wings it's hard to go back to the plain ol' camera that we had before. But now that we've got this new toy in our hands, expect a lot more photos! 
Here is a bit of a sampling from our weekend. If you look at it in pictures, it seems like a busy weekend, but really we've been mostly lying around the house or the yard the whole time.
1. Standing up, saying "Up!"; squatting, saying "Down!"; repeat
2. Corn (pronounced "kg´rln"), preferably frozen. Frozen blueberries are a distant second.
3. Watching videos of babies doing sign language on YouTube
4. Sidewalk chalk. Atticus has recently learned that you can draw on vertical surfaces, not just horizontal, so the screen doors and sides of the house are now fair game.
5. Anything round that can pass as a ball
Last week Atticus and I went to check out the Denver Children's Museum for a second time. The last time we went was in November, so it was a total different place for Atticus and his friends (four babies all born in January 2007) now that they are walking, er, running. The kids all had a blast, even if they didn't really interact all that much. Atticus was often running off, preferring to explore things by himself rather than playing with others (hmm, not like either of his parents at all, right?). 
As usual, he is much more social with adults than other kids. He will mostly only play with kids who are as quiet or quieter than he, which is probably only about 5% of children out there.
It was fun to meet a few new faces and to see our friend Tori (part of the 5%) and her mom. I can't believe they are so big already. See here for their last meeting.
The summer before last, our garden suffered while I was in the first trimester of pregnancy and was too tired to work outside for more than ten minutes at a time. Last year my windows of outdoor time were about the same, as Atticus wouldn't be content playing by himself for very long while I tried to do things in the garden.
This year I think (I hope) will be different. Atticus loves to be outside and has plenty to explore around our yard. He goes nuts for anything to do with water, so I think I can get plenty of gardening time with a kiddie pool set up or maybe even a very slowly dripping hose. Atticus even has a "garden" of his own this year. Ok, really it's just an empty bed for him to dig in, but that alone is a lot of fun for him.
Already we have strawberries growing, as well as tons of stuff sprouting and blossoming. I can't wait to be able to go outside and pick my lunch!
It's about time that we're able to write more than a sentence to go with the photos that we post over on our other site. So, here's a place for all the details! I'm going to try to do a post here whenever I upload photos, so if you see new pics, check here for some more info, and vice versa.
Someday this will be over on danielandannie.com . This just gives Daniel a little less pressure to get that part of the site up and running.
-Annie
