16 Months

I can't believe my baby boy is 16 months already. This last month flew by particularly fast! Maybe it's because we've just been so busy!

On the talking front we've made a LOT of progress this month. Caden is picking up signs and words everyday! Here is my best attempt to remember them...

Signs: help, eat, sleep, more, milk, water, all done, dog, bird, fish, ball, all done, up, shoe, please, thank you, bath (well, actually he signs clothes but he says bath when he does it... he's confused).
Words: eat (deet), bath (bap or bapbap), baby (beebee), help (bop- we know it's help because he does it with the sign), dog (gog sometimes dog), hello (ah oh), hi (hi), uhoh (uhoh), ears (eyes), nose (nnnna), no (also nnnna, but more of a command- not our favorite word for obvious reasons), ball (baawl- what a southern accent!), water (wawawawa -does this while attempting to sign water), and a few others that we haven't quite deciphered yet but we think might be truck, more, book, and thank you. He tries to copy a lot of what we say, but these are the words he uses without us having to say it first.

Caden started the baby jargoning this month. It's so funny to watch him try and have a conversation in complete gibberish. Here is a video of him talking to me in the tub.



Caden is understanding more of what we say these days, too! For example, we taught him the word and sign for 'sit.' He doesn't sign it to us yet, but when we sign it or say it, he complies (most of the time). We had to teach this one when he learned to climb up on the couch. He loves to climb on stuff so we really have to watch him now!

He has a lot of favorite toys right now. I would have to say his first love would be things that 'go' such as trucks, trains, and cars. Next would be his toy cell phones (we even gave him a real cell phone that we don't use anymore). He will walk around talking into those for a long time. Those are especially useful for long stroller outings as well! He also loves any kind of object that he can take out of or put into a container. He's become quite fond of his books again and loves to read them to himself. Sometimes he will sit still long enough for us to read them to him... it depends on his mood at the time! He still loves blocks, although they don't hold his attention for quite as long these days. He's still obsessed with his gear toy, especially since we put all the gears in a little container. He likes to take them out one by one and put them on the gear toy, watch them spin, and then put them back in the box one by one. Caden's also become a big fan of arts and crafts. He loves to color, but we still have major issues with eating the crayons!

His favorite toys of all though are the things he's not supposed to have that he manages to get his hands on. He loves to turn over the diaper bag or purse and find my keys, wallet, and cell phone. And he knows exactly what to do with each of them. He takes all the cards out of the wallet and then puts them all back in, he takes my keys to the front door and tries to figure out where they go and what they do, and he puts the cell phone to his head and pretends to talk to some one.

Recently I lost my wallet. I was about to call and report it missing when I found it stashed in the storage compartment on Caden's Tonka Truck (...again Grammy, this toy is killing me! It has so many uses!).

Caden is starting to love music. Sometimes he tries to sing in a really high pitched sweet voice. Usually he does this when he is pretending to read a book. He also tries to sing along to the ABC song (with the magnetic fridge letters). He also sings some of the Wheels on the Bus song with his DVD. He goes Bump, Bump, Bump... Beep, Beep, Beep... and Whaa, Whaa, Whaa with the people, horn, and babies on the bus!

Caden is learning how to play like a boy thanks to Daddy. John's been wrestling and rough housing with him. When Caden see's Dad he starts running around like a maniac child that has been trapped in a stroller all day (which is has not, but he acts like it)! He loves to play chase, or to run circles around the house.

As far as discipline goes, he's really testing his limits these days. He wants what he can't have and needs to check in every few hours just to see if it's still off-limits. When we tell him no, he's usually obedient, but we have to catch him and say "that's a no" before he gets to the item. Once his hand is on it, it's hard for him to let go.

Caden still sleeps 11-12 hours at night. We've started having very short 1 hour naps though. Not every day, but several days a week he just won't nap more than an hour. It's not long enough because even out of the crib he cries and cries and cries. It seems putting him in the stroller and walking to the store or just walking to walk are the best ways to calm him down. If he takes a good nap, he wakes up happy and ready to play. I'm sure you all read the post from last week when I decided to let him cry to see if he'd nap longer and he jumped/fell/climbed/etc out of the crib. Not so fun!

I know I say it every time I type one of these, but he is SO MUCH FUN right now. I love being his Mommy more than anything else I do! And speaking of.... he's up from his nap now so it's time for me to go do just that: be his Mommy!