15 Months Old

Benjamin is 15 Months Old today!

The last month flew by.

The biggest developments for Benjamin this month are gestural. Is that even a word? He has learned gestures. He nods and shakes his head (mostly) appropriately. He waves consistently when we tell him to say "Bye!". He gives kisses - this is the most adorable development ever. He did at one point give those open mouth things some people call kisses... and I called using your face to teeth. LOL. But now - nice lips puckered little smacks of kisses. So cute!

The ability for him to answer yes/no questions by shake of his head is a huge leap forward in our ability to communicate with him. We can ask him what he wants now! I love the look on his face when we figure it out. While he does understand yes and no, he does not necessarily understand every question we pose. I think he just guesses in those cases, or its based on his mood! This morning he farted when I was putting his coat on and I asked if he pooped. I do not think he understood, because he said yes, but when I looked, nothing. Oh well, he will catch on! Even prior to being able to ask yes/no questions (which really just picked up in the last 10 days or so), we had started giving him choices. I would put out two t-shirts each morning and ask which he wanted, for example. Its a really cool change in the whole dynamic. I am sure soon he will start saying no when he shouldn't. LOL.

Benjamin continues to love books. We read to him a lot and he is getting better about sitting through books (just a little). He does not usually damage books, but did tear apart another part of one of his "moving parts' book - he was absolutely convinced he needed to see what was inside the cover, so he tore it in two. But mostly he is good about just looking at them. He loves pointing out animals in books, pictures, and real life. He has eyes like a hawk for it! If there is the tiniest dog in the very back of an illustration, he sees it (and start panting). If there is a duck decoration on the top of a shelf across the room, he will see it (and start quacking)! His duck quack is by far his most impressive animal noise. It is like Donald Duck rather than any sort of phonetic equivalent to "quack." Because of this, I made sure to include a duck in his Easter Basket (pictured below).

This month he has also had an increased interest in coloring. He loves to color. The books where he can color with water work especially well, though we also have crayons for him. He is bringing home beautiful paintings from daycare with more colors and mixture than previously (yeah I look at them like only a parent could!!)

We have figured out in the last month that phrases like "don't ___" or "stop ___ " or "no ____" do not work for this age. You say 'don't eat the crayon" and he hears "crayon which he knows, and "eat" which he knows, and puts the crayon in his mouth. We have been focusing on saying what we do want him to do instead. "COLOR w the crayon" and showing it to him again and again.

Benjamin likes going outside. We have taken him out with us on the dog walk a few times now that the weather has been nicer (I say as a snow storm is due any minute), and he just runs down the sidewalk, and then stops to stare at something or look for the source of a noise (birds for example). He likes to splash in mud puddles and recently acquired puddle boots, though they might be too big. We have not had a chance to test them out.

Some other memories made in the last month and not recorded - We took him to a horse expo at a local mall my sis was presenting at. He spent most of the time standing between the two displays - a real live miniature horse, and a real life full grown horse, and making neighing noises (ah-hahahah). At the beginning he would stay 4-5 feet away from the enclosures, but by the end he was trying to climb through the miniature horses fence!

He has re-adjusted to swim lessons and is enjoying them again. He still does not like putting his ears under water, but he loves climbing in and out of the pool, splashing, and blowing bubbles!

 He is wearing size 4 shoes, 18m clothing. He will have a doctors appt with official stats in a couple weeks, but we were slow to schedule.  I took 15m pictures tonight at my parents, but its on my Dad's camera, and not available for immediate upload. 

That is all I can think of. Unfortunately, he is celebrating his 15m birthday with his first illness in quite some time. He is feverish and has a runny nose and cough. I hope he feels better tomorrow!!