IJG is 16 months old!

11.6.10

IJG is speaking! He says ball, uh oh, bye bye, eye and box (ball and box are both "baa" but he is always identifying one or the other). He just started giving real kisses. If I recite lines from several of his books (from memory) he will go find that book and hand it to me. He can point to eyes, ears, nose, teeth, hair, belly, and bum bum. He is starting to stack things on his own, instead of just knocking them over. It is much easier to brush his teeth now. He holds one brush and I brush his teeth with the other. His dance moves have changed again. First he would just bend his knees, then he started stomping, and now he is back to knee bending again. He has given up biting, but continues to slap and pinch. He also likes to grab onto our clothing and pull, which he thinks is quite funny.

He loves to play with the broom so we bought him a small one. He walks around the driveway "sweeping" with it. He likes his new 'pound-a-peg' toy. He still wants to push EVERYTHING with wheels. He is partial to a few of his books and will request them to be read every day. He can sit for quite a while listening to his favorites and identifying the pictures. We go to a park and playground every morning and he likes to pick up every piece of garbage he finds and hand it to me, climb on the equipment, swing, and chase squirrels. He likes to pretend he is on the phone having a conversation. At first he decided an old remote control we gave him was a phone but now everything is a phone, including but not limited to lego blocks, an elephant, a comb, or a book. As you can see in his monthly picture above, during the photo shoot he took a call on a toothbrush container (given to him so he might stop jumping off the chair).

Right when he turned 15 months we dabbled in potty learning. I have a Baby Bjorn Potty Chair and kept his bottom half naked from time to time for a few days. He could identify (by pointing) what the potty was and where pee pee and poo poo should go, but he couldn't quite follow through. We had some luck with pooping, since there is more warning (I'll spare you the pictures), and no luck with peeing. I gave up after a bit, deciding he wasn't quite ready but will try again soon.

For the entire month IJG has been sleeping to a reasonable hour!!! He now wakes on average around 7 am, and rarely prior to 6:30. He also goes to sleep earlier at 7:30 pm typically. His afternoon nap has been a bit shorter due to this, often just 1.5 hours.

He has been eating all of the meals we eat and likes most of them. This month I got brave and introduced peanut butter, which I had been hesitant about due to potential allergy. He had no problem with it and quite likes it. He is quite skilled with the spoon and often wants no help with eating. We are just starting to work with the fork. If he is given a regular cup to drink from he tries to chug it and spills everything. He does pretty well with thick smoothies though. He no longer eats one finger food at a time. He now shoves as many as he can fit in his fist into his mouth. He will also shove entire bread products into his mouth so we have to cut them into appropriate sizes.

He still enjoys himself at school. He is kept quite busy there with art projects, gym class, music, and the playground. He hesitates a bit now when I leave but is fine by the time I'm out of sight.

He had zero colds this month! I wish I could say he was never sick, but last Saturday he woke up early, nursed, fell back asleep, woke up again and vomited all the milk. He then fell right back to sleep and continued to be very sleepy and lethargic, opening his eyes and closing them again. I got him into a bath, thinking that would wake him up and he fell over in the tub. He then fell asleep in the towel. He wouldn't speak or respond or change his expression and when I held him he was limp on my shoulder like a newborn. He drank quite a bit of water, had almost no appetite and slept a lot that day. The next morning he woke with one large liquidy poop but was back to his usual energy level. It took him about four days to get his appetite back to normal.