16 Months

You are 16 months today and it is such a fun age. You are talking nonstop! Most of your words sound like half words and you still have a lot of jargon, but I love to hear you talk. I wanted to keep up with the words you are saying so I made a list below. You love to sing and dance. You love to sing "Wheels on the Bus" and you can do most of the motions. You love to imitate. If I show you a sign or a hand motion you pick it up right away. Your favorite time of day is when I say, "Do you want to go?" You run to the door and say, "go" over and over again. Your favorite books are the Little People flap books and the Emergency Vehicles book. A new sign you have picked up is "more" and I've seen you sign "thank you" once. You have basically transitioned to one nap a day now. For about a month you have been taking a 30 minute morning nap and then a 2 hour afternoon nap. Now, you go down a little earlier and your nap is anywhere from 2 to 3 hours. You are still very sweet. You love to hug and kiss and you will snuggle for about 2 seconds...then you're off!

da- daddy/mommy
moo
du-duck
du-Dora
do-Elmo
door
oo-woof
chu-truck
ease-please
go
mu-more
mi-milk
cucu-cookie/cracker
boo-balloon
bu-bear
hi/hey
ha-hat
ho-hot
shu-shoe
bush
yes
bir-bird
dye-bye
ba-ball
bu-bus
ush-woosh
huhuhu- hop, hop, hop

(These are all I can think of for now. And you still don't say "mama". I hope it will be soon.)

Signing

You continue to use signing as a way to communicate. I think it's so cute! You sign "eat" and "all done" all by yourself to tell us your hungry or done with something. You also sign "please" when you are asked. You can be a little demanding at times and since your vocabulary isn't very big you usually resort to whining or grunting and pointing when you want something. So when this happens we tell you to say "please" so that you will stop whining and this gives you a way to ask for what you want. You have picked up quickly on signs as these are the only ones we have taught you and you use them all. I'm hoping to be better about teaching you new ones. Here is your signing in action:

"Eat"












"All Done"












"Please" (You point to your chest with your finger)

War Eagle

You are finally feeling better. You had a pretty rough week- you had a fever for about three days and you felt pretty miserable. You didn't go to MDO at all this week. I was able to stay home with you on Wednesday and Grammy kept you on Thursday and Friday. You are pretty much back to your old self- laughing and playing again.

You think it's funny when we say, "WAR EAGLE!" and you are attempting to say it. It won't be long!

15 Months

On September 5 you were 15 months old and today was your 15 month well visit (even though you are sick). Last week you started Mother's Day Out at Lakeside Baptist Church and now you have a cold.

So here are your new stats:
Weight: 24 lbs 2 oz
Height: 31.5 inches
(50th percentile for both)

Dr. Byars was very glad to hear that you are doing lots of talking. You have about 15 words now. At your 12 month appointment you weren't clapping, waving bye, pointing or talking. You are now doing all of those things! God answered our prayers and you are right where you are supposed to be. We are so grateful!

What a sweet boy!

Pre-Game Show

Football season has officially begun and we are ready! Daddy was encouraging you to play with your football this morning and you loved every minute of it. You can throw like a pro! Here you are as our little "future tiger":




You are continuing to do new things and you surprise us every day! You can now independently eat with your fork...the spoon is still a little hard for you. You say "gugu" for alligator and "kuku" for cookie or cracker. You are such a little imitator too! If we do something with our hands you immediately copy us...like blowing a kiss or doing motions to a song. You can point to your eyes and belly for sure. Sometimes you get your nose and your mouth right too. You love to brush my hair with your baby brush. You think that is so fun! You still LOVE books! You are always going and picking out a book and you will bring it to Daddy or me and then situate yourself in our lap. It is so cute. This is such a fun age. I'm really loving it! You are 15 months today!

Quick Update

Here are a few new things that you are doing:
-About a month ago you started waving bye-bye. (I meant to post this earlier). Up to that point you would only wave hello but now you will wave to tell someone bye. Yea!

-A new word you have started saying is "du" for "door". You either point to a door that is in one of your books or you point madly at our door and say "du" over and over again to tell us that you want to go outside.

-You have learned a new sign! You now sign "eat". For breakfast, lunch or dinner I will ask you if you are ready to eat and you will do the appropriate sign to tell me "eat".

-AND, just today you started pointing to your eyes. You were in the bathtub tonight and we were being silly and then I randomly said, "Where are Jackson's eyes?" and you pointed directly at your eye. Of course I made you do it over and over. You are so smart!

-We are in the middle of a pretty big transition. You are transitioning from one nap to two. It is somewhat difficult because you don't really need two full naps but just one isn't enough. If you take a morning nap then you only sleep about 30-45 minutes and then you will sleep anywhere from 1 to 2 hours in the afternoon. On the days you have taken only one nap you only sleep about 1 1/2 hours and that is not enough for you. You are so cranky without enough sleep! We'll keep working at it.

All Boy

You are definitely all boy! You love to play with your cars and trucks. You like to climb up and stand on your riding car and you like to ride on it backwards (as shown in picture). You also like to throw all your toys in your dump truck and drive it all over the house. Daddy put you in the dump truck and pushed you around and you loved that too!



You also love to throw and kick your balls, pull and push, open and close and get into whatever you can. You are also getting to be a pretty fast walker. You are getting close to running! Today was such a beautiful day that Daddy and I took you to the park. We hadn't been in awhile since it has been so hot, but this time you were all about exploring. You wanted to climb up and down and in and out and you even enjoyed the slide! You are really growing up.

Art Time

You really enjoyed "art time" this week. This is something I have just started recently. I started out letting you experiment with crayons but you had more fun with the paint. It was much easier for your drawing to show up with paint rather than crayons. Here are pictures of your first time painting:



Summer is unofficially over. Unofficially because it is technically still summer but school is back in session. I am back to work 3 days a week. Grammy is keeping you until your Mother's Day Out starts in September. I think that you will really enjoy going to "school".

Spurts

What a sweet face...


Yesterday you did a lot of new things. It seems to come in spurts...
-You started saying "nanu" for banana.
-You also imitated me saying "bye" a couple of times after getting off the phone.
-You and I were playing in the living room and you took my hand and took me into the sun room and took me to your stroller. You obviously wanted to go for a walk. You just started taking us by the hand to whatever it is you want. I told you that we couldn't go right then and that did not make you happy. You are definitely understanding so much more.
-Last night for dinner you were eating chicken, cheese and blueberries. You were pointing at the table and telling us you wanted more so I would ask you what you wanted more of. When I got to the one that you wanted you would shake your head yes! You did this several times.

Here you are really enjoying your cracker. You always want to eat whatever we are eating and it makes you so happy!

Spaghetti Face (And Hands)

I was catching up on some reading from the book 'What to Expect the Toddler Years' and a discussion about self feeding caught my attention. Here is what the book had to say: "If a toddler with a spoon (or a fork or a plate or a bowl) can be considered armed and dangerous, you're going to have to learn how to live dangerously." So I decided to live dangerously and give you full control of your spoon and a plate of spaghetti. Yes, I could have guessed the outcome and yes, I know spaghetti is messy but who doesn't love a kid covered in spaghetti? You quickly figured out that using your hands was much easier and faster than using the spoon and here is how it turned out:


You have added a couple of new words since my last post about your vocabulary. You now say "mi" for "milk" and "udu" for "all done". But when you say "udu" you also sign it. It's so great! I love that you sign too. I have been signing "more" and "all done" for awhile and I just love that you have picked it up.