15 months |

I can’t believe I have a 15 month old. I remember when he was little bitty I’d wonder what it would be like for my little guy to be walking and talking and basically acting like his own little person. It’s awesome, y’all.

This morning, while changing his diaper up in the nursery, we heard some very loud birds chirping. Isaac said “buh!” and did the sign for bird. This afternoon he said “Mimi” for the first time. He’s said “Beh” for Uncle Ben for a couple months now (Uncle B was the first name he learned 🙂 ). He also says “beuh” for book. His other words include baby, “daw” for dog, “baw” for ball, “ha” for hot, Mama, Dada, and of course “woof” and “teetat” (sometimes shortened to “tat”) and “zha” for zebra. He says “dat” for fan – it obviously doesn’t sound like fan, but he says it consistently while pointing at the fans in each room, so I guess we can call that a word also. He’s also started saying “ummm” after each bite of something tasty, and if we tell him to say “yummy” he’ll say “ummmmm-y!”.

His signing has really been amazing lately – he’s starting to use the signs he knows to communicate better. Yesterday, he climbed into my nap and laid down as if to nurse, then did the sign for “sleep” four times just to make sure I understood that he was ready for his nap! I was amazed! Of course, we headed right upstairs for nap time and he took a second nap of the day, which he hasn’t done in a long time. He signed “sleep” again today for naptime and bedtime, so it wasn’t a fluke. He’ll also sign please and thank you pretty regularly, which I love. Gotta start those good manners early :). He’ll sign please when he wants more food, or when he needs help getting up on his slide, so he definitely understands what it means now. At the doctor the other day, he saw an 8 month old baby and very excitedly signed “baby” as fast as he could. His favorite sign to do is “hat”, and he loves pointing out people who are wearing hats when we go out. He’ll also point out every plane in the sky, even if he can only hear it and can’t see it…and even if we’re inside!

He totally refuses to be held or pushed in a stroller these days. I can strap him in the Ergo and he’ll be happy for a while cuddling with Mama, but he really wants to be walking around. I’ll regularly let him wander the toy aisles of Target, while we’re out running errands, and he gets so excited when he sees the balls, that it becomes a two-syllable word – “buh-bawww!”. He’s not afraid of strangers, especially men, and loves to walk up and say hi to anyone. He’s not super smiley with someone new – he has to warm up a bit – but he’s very curious and outgoing all the same.

We took a trip to the children’s museum in Baltimore this past week and had a BLAST! It was so much fun – we only stayed for a couple hours, but he was worn out. He fell asleep nursing while we were there, then took an hour nap on my shoulder (oh, my aching back after that!), right in the middle of all the chaos. We spent most of our time in the toddler area and the learning library, but I think he’ll enjoy some of the other exhibits next time around. We got a family pass, so I think we’ll be going quite often. It’s the perfect activity for 100 degree days, rainy afternoons, or just any ole’ time we need to get out of the house.

Isaac is so physical! He loves to be wrestled, thrown around, tickled, tossed in the air, swung around. He is constantly asking to be chased – looking back at you over his shoulder with a big grin on his face and scrunching up his arms in anticipation. He will rock his little airplane rocker so hard that it spins 180 degrees across the floor. He can throw a ball (or his puzzle pieces, or the remote) across the entire room. He’s such a strong little guy. He’s also started climbing all over things. He can pick up his little stool and carry it over to the couch to climb up, and he figured out how to climb onto the dining room chair and then up onto the table a couple days ago! He has a new slide which he can climb up. He does need help sitting down when he reaches the top, and he mostly loves throwing different objects down the slide like shoes, his books, his teddy bear, etc.

He loves to boogie down now :). Here’s a short video of him dancing. Some days he dances all day long, but I never seem to be able to get it on camera!

Joy of joys, he’s really started to get into his books lately! He’ll climb up onto the couch with a couple favorites and spend 10-15 minutes turning the pages himself, or climb into his block wagon dragging a book in with him. He’s also starting bringing books to us to read to him – he definitely favors Daddy for reading time, though, since Daddy does all the night-time book reading before bed. I guess Mama’s lap is more for nursing than reading right now. He’ll pull 20 books off of his shelf, one at a time, flipping through each one for 30 seconds or so. I love seeing which ones he goes back to again and again!

Oh, and before I forget, here are his stats. At his doctor appointment, he was 25 lbs (he lost a lot of weight while he was sick recently after not eating for a week and a half and is still catching up 😦 ). He grew 2 1/2″ from his 12 month appointment! He’s now 32 inches long and has a head circumference of 47 cm (Maybe? I have the hardest time remembering that one.). He’s still wearing a size 4 diaper (luckily that bottom hasn’t grown any bigger, haha) during the day and a size 5 nighttime diaper (with the gdiaper insert for extra absorbency). He’s slowly growing out of his 18 month sizes, and wearing mostly 24 months these days.

He got his second hair cut week before last, but instead of taking him to my stylist in B-more like last time, I just took him down the street to one of those kids cuts places. BIG MISTAKE. The lady was super nice, everything was kid-sized and set up perfectly for a toddler who doesn’t like to sit still, and he did sit still just perfectly the whole time, but she still couldn’t cut his hair evenly. She talked about how great she was with curly hair, then combed his hair straight up all over his head and cut it dry. UGH. I tried to tell her that I didn’t like what she was doing, but not being a stylist I couldn’t quite articulate what I wanted her to do instead. I didn’t realize how uneven it was until I got him home. Luckily he can pull off a crappy haircut and still look darn cute, but NEVER again. I’d rather pay double and go half as often than have his beautiful hair butchered.

Sleep has been absolute crap lately. Ever since Isaac was sick a couple weeks ago, we’ve had some rough nights. As soon as he felt better, his eye teeth started coming in and they are bulging like crazy right now. Poor guy was up five times last night. He has such a hard time when teeth come in, and they take for freakin’ ever to pop through. He’s been biting us a lot lately, too, which is a pretty good sign that he’s in a lot of pain (as well as being pretty cranky). All I can do is pray that these somehow go faster than the last, even though I’ve heard over and again how rough the eye teeth usually are :(.

Eating has been a bit spotty since Isaac was sick also. His appetite finally came back, but then his teeth started hurting, so he still asks to nurse about ten times a day. Or more. He’s eating at least one solid meal a day, and I literally spend the entire rest of the day trying to sneak bites of food into him. I’ve been making him coconut milk smoothies with fresh strawberries to tempt him into drinking more calories, too. He won’t sit in the high chair for more than a couple minutes, and usually takes more bites of food once he’s down and walking around, so we’re continuing the mobile meals for now. What else can you do, right?

The thing that makes my heart melt the most is when Isaac leans in for a quick kiss. Sometimes they are quick pecks – his mouth is always scrunched up tight, with his little lips poking out. Other times, he’ll pull me in for a long smooch. I can’t tell you how much it makes me tear up each and every time he does it. He definitely hands out the most kisses to his Mama, but Daddy isn’t far behind, and Mimi is also a pretty frequent recipient as well.