15 Months Update

I know I've been absent for a bit here lately, but we've just been really busy. I went away last weekend to a Women's Retreat and left John and Caden to fend for themselves. They both survived.

First off, let me apologize for the length of this for those of you who are casual browsers. This blog is first and foremost a way for me to journal our lives, and secondly a way to keep in touch with family and friends all over the world. So read on if interested, or if not, stop by another day! :)

So Caden is fast approaching 16 months and I've yet to write about all the wonderful and amazing things he is doing since last month. He's just now 15.5 so I'm not too far behind!

Eating

Caden eats anything and everything we do (minus lettuce and things of that nature that you really have to have molars to eat). His favorite food is still grilled cheese and his new favorite snack is raisins, however they don't fill him up so I usually give him a rice cake or something to go with them. He also loves ice cream and milk shakes. He recognizes the Baskin Robins counter at the BX and if I get ice cream and don't get any for him then, well... let's just say everyone in the store will know.

He rarely lets us feed him so we've handed over the spoon and bowl and amazingly he's doing quite well with feeding himself. Last night we gave him corn chowder with a spoon and tonight chili and he ate both really well and thoroughly cleaned his plate. I think in another month the mess that comes with self-feeding will begin to diminish, although I know it will be a long time before it disappears completely.





Sleeping

Caden is still sleeping through the night really well, but no longer from 7-7. Now he sleeps from about 7pm until about 6 or 6:30am. He has also figured out that if he cries we just give up and come get him so now he no longer wakes up sweetly babbling to himself, instead the first noise you hear is a cry/yell. He has us so figured out. So, needless to say we are going to have to fix this problem because every day he seems to wake earlier and earlier. 5:45 is NOT wake up time for a 15 months old! We have a few different options we are going to experiment around with until we get it figured out.

He is still on just one nap a day, and it still varies widely in it's length. He usually goes down between 11:30 and 12:30 (I haven't discovered his "window of opportunity" yet, but we're working on it). He will sleep anywhere between 1.5 and 3.5 hours. Like I said, I haven't found the "window" that will lead to the longer naps every day.... but the good news is that even on less sleep Caden is a very easy going and happy baby.

Playing

Caden loves to play, although he still prefers non-toy play items. What is it about household items that babies love so much? His favorite toys right now are trucks. He loves to drive them around the floor, couches, tables, etc and make 'vroom' type noises. It's adorable. If it's a helicopter or airplane toy he makes it fly while making noises.

He is still obsessed with phones. We have on occasion put the phone up to his ear while one of his grandparents was on the other line and he tries to talk back. He will say "hi" or "hello" (see below for what those words really sound like coming from Caden) and then he will bark commands at them like he's talking about something serious... but not too many syllables... just the occasional "Baa" or "Naa."

He loves blocks...the kind he can stack and knock over and the kind he can piece together (mega blocks). Once I saw him make something (about four blocks put together) and then carry it around the house, holding it above his head making "shhhhh" noises. I'm thinking it was a helicopter or airplane, but I'm not certain. He also loves coloring. He is still learning not to eat the crayons.

He plays like a big kid at the playground, running around with the two and three year olds like he is one of them. He loves the playground so we go pretty much daily. It's good for him. He climbs up stairs (sometimes walking up other times crawling) and down stairs (walking or crawling) and goes down the slide sitting and on his belly (feet first). He's starting to think about hanging on bars and letting his feet dangle, although this skill has a ways to go. His favorite part of the playground though is the other Mom's strollers, the other kid's toys, and the other kid's sippy cups and snacks. He keeps me busy.

Signing

Words Caden Signs: milk, more, eat, water, all done, up, shoe, bird, fish, ball and he copies his signing videos a lot but these are the ones he will do on his own without our prompting or reminding him how to sign it.

Caden is using his signs really well and communicates to us with them instead of melting down. Although when I tell him no more snack (all done) he will sometimes cry but not out of frustration for lack of being able to communicate.

Talking

Caden still isn't talking a whole lot but just this last week he has surprised us with some new words! So, the words he is saying and their pronunciations or stories are:

Hi DaDa! (Sounds exactly like that hi dada) - says this every time he sees John come in from work, or when he sees another man in uniform.


Doggie (Doggie, just like it sounds but the "d" is not very strong) says this when he sees dogs

Hi (hiya) he pronounces this funny because I hold it out when I say it so it sounds like a two syllable word.

Hell0 (eh oh) says this in to the phone or anything he is pretending is a phone

UhOh (ah ohhh) he always holds out the "oh" part and says this when something is dropped

Ears (pronounces eyes). Yes, we know 100% without a doubt he is trying to say ears because we have not taught him the body part "eyes" yet. If you think about it, his pronunciation makes sense... "r" is a hard sound to make. We try and correct it and Caden really thinks he is saying 'ears' so our conversations sound like this: ears, eyes, ears, eyes, ears, eyes.... for now we will just have to accept 'eyes' as the word for ears! :)

N0 (Nnnnna) He says this like he is barking a command, it's very sharp, precise, and dramatic, and he usually says it after we've told him 'no' to something.

Nose (Nnnnna) Not to be confused with "no" because this one is not in a command tone and he does it while pointing to his nose (or sticking his finger up it). He also likes to touch our noses and say it.

Baby (beebee)- He says this when he sees either a picture of himself or himself in a mirror...

Beep, Beep, Beep (pronouced as it should be)- the wheels on the bus song (see below)


He has several different things he calls me including MaMa, MaMe (mommy), and MeMe. He doesn't call out for me much but when he gets fussy he'll reach for me or claw at my pants trying to get me to pick him up saying one variation of MaMa.

He is copy words we say like crazy the last few days. He's only 15 months so it's hardly discernible but none the less we can tell what he's saying. Words he's tried to copy (that I can remember) include cracker, eat, Caden, and belly (beebee).

Although the following don't count as talking, they are part of language development which falls under the talking category. There are several things that Caden understands. For example when we say "no" to something or tell him "Danger!" because he's about to get hurt he will stop. "Stop" is a word we are working on but he's not quite there yet! It's one we NEED to get down though b/c he's getting fast!

Pointing to his ears

When we ask him where his ears, nose, and head are he will point to them (or pat his head). He's learning his belly, but today pointed to his neck instead... oops! :) He's a little sponge right now just soaking everything up! If he sees a big kid do something at the playground, he will try it. This can be somewhat dangerous at times so I really have to watch him closely when he (for example) tries to jump off the 5 foot high ledge on the play equipment because he say an older kid do it. Fun times! He's still giving kisses, head butts, fives, and dancing when we ask him to.

I've also noticed that when I give simple commands like "go get the ball" or "press the button" Caden will respond appropriately. And he knows that shoes mean we go bye bye so he loves when he's told to "come put your shoes on!" And if we say we are going bye bye he will walk to the door and try and open it until we get there. Fortunately our doors are heavy but he has the concept of how to open it down. Another favorite part of his "bye bye" routine is he also loves to press the button at the elevator.

Discovering

This age is so amazing! Caden is really starting to recognize and remember items and their function/purpose. I don't even know how he knows but he will pick things up and use them or try and use them in the proper way. For example, if he gets my cell phone, he flips it open, puts it up to his ear and walks around saying hell0. If he gets my hair brush he bangs it on his head trying to brush his hair. If he finds a bowl and spoon he will pretend to eat. Everyday he does something that amazes me. Although none of it is all that amazing, I'm his Mama so it's all amazing to me! :) Today, for example, he found some ear plugs (the ones we tried to put in his ear for the air show a few weeks ago... that lasted less than 2 minutes)... well, he walked around holding them to his ears! It's something like that everyday. He doesn't have a little baby brain that doesn't remember things anymore....

One of his favorite things to do right now is to put lids on things and take them back off. He will spend LARGE amounts of time with this activity.

He's discovered he can use his Ride-On-Tonka-Truck to climb up on things like the coffee table. He's not climbing on the couch yet, but it's coming. We use the couch to hide things like the phone and remote control... that little secret will be coming to an end soon. Tonight he climbed up on the rocking ottoman in his nursery and sat there making it rock side to side for several minutes. I couldn't find the camera at the time or else I'd have video or pictures to share of that!

He has a new dance move... he doesn't just bounce up and down anymore, he will sway side to side and sometimes rock his head side to side (kind of like nodding).

He knows two of the sounds on the wheels on the bus song (thanks to his favorite video). He will go Beep, Beep, Beep and Waa, Waa, Waa with the horns and babies on the bus. The other day he was fussing and walking around saying "beep, beep." I wondered if he was wanting his video, so I put it on and he sang along with his favorite song!

His other favorite song is "If You're Happy and You Know It." He still claps his hands enthusiastically with the song, but he's also learned now to stomp his feet... not a real stomp, but he lifts his leg up and puts it back down. It's adorable!

He still is loving balls. Still throwing them exceptionally well. He's been tossing balls around since he was just sitting up and throwing them overhand since maybe 9 or 10 months?? Daddy's been working with him on catching balls and he's actually manged to catch a few. One day he caught three in a row so Daddy was very excited that we might have a future athlete on our hands!

And one last note, this month has brought a few new teeth! All that's left are eye teeth and molars, which I hear are all the hardest ones! Fun!

Well, that was insanely long, but also long over due! I can't wait to see all the exciting things that the next month will bring!