16 Months Old

It is Cinco de Mayo and Benjamin is 16 months old! Per the state of Minnesota, he is legally a toddler.

In order to figure out what has been the changes in the last month I went back and read my 15m update. WOW! Is it really only a month since he started nodding and waving?

The last month has brought an explosion of language and climbing. Over the past two weeks it has been a new word every day practically. Some that have stuck in his rotation - bird (buh), cereal (sounds surprisingly like Kitty), rock (ot), water (wawa),  uh oh, bye bye, Dada, and many other I am forgetting. He wants to try lots of new words and I am sure there are many he feels like he is saying that we do not know what he means by them yet. One day at daycare he said "Peekaboo!!" .. all three syllables! That was a one time deal thought.

He continues to love animals and animal noises. And anything we can give a sound or hand motion. The things that he makes sounds or motions for (that I can think of right now) - dog, horse, sheep, goat, cow, pig, rooster, turkey, duck, elephant, monkey, bear, dinosaur, lion (sometimes), moose, fish, truck/car (vroom), tractor/motorcycle/construction (ruh buh buh buh), and new today - FIRE TRUCK (siren sound). We are working on alligator, octopus, and airplane and I am sure he will catch onto these any day (or minute...).

The sleep post a couple of days ago seemed to do the trick. His sleep is improved again. The last two nights he only woke up once (around 1am). This is good/fine. It means he is sleeping 6 hrs chunks. He has been a bit harder at bedtime, but we are working on it. Last night he "uh ohed" himself to bed - he was laying down and had been laying awake awhile, fussing occasionally. His seahorse stopped singing. A few minutes later he started saying "uh oh" (accept w his pacifier in his mouth). He said it about 10-15 times at various volumes, then stopped and was asleep.

The last month has brought more climbing. He can get up on our window seat, and when up there puts his hands on the top of the bottom pain and his feet on the windowsill. He loves when he figures out a piece of furniture is low enough to get on. Yesterday he started climbing on top of his book crate, and if it is positioned right, using that to get on top of the coffee table. He once climbed up on his stool, to the piano bench to the keyboard, etc. He luckily for us has not yet realized he can use that stool for lots of mischief. He does not move it on his own yet!

He still LOVES books and this is one of our main activities. His favorites this month have been a library book called "To Market to Market", as well as our books "fuzzy yellow duckling", "selected poems for the very young" (for the pictures"), Pride and Prejudice counting book, baby bears adventure, and "things that go". When we went to the library this month he had a ball playing with the toy kitchen, little slide, puppets and all the other toys. He also was fascinated by the water fountain and took several very nice drinks w no mess or drama.

We also introduced him to the computer this month. We have started using Google Images to show him his favorite things (moose, elephants, cars, etc). We occasionally show him a video - elephants, firetrucks, airplanes. This (the videos) is kind of a "special treat" though as we still want to limit his screen time. We typically don't watch TV with him still (with him in the room that is) unless it is a live event we do not want to miss, or maybe if he is homesick. We did watch his first movie this month. He was very sick and lethargic and fussy, we rented Wreck It Ralph thinking he might go to sleep to it, and he did. It is the very first time we have put on something on TV with the intention of letting him watch it. (of course he did not get it at all, but its a very funny movie).

Grandma K bought him puddle boots and taught him to splash in puddles. In general, he likes being outside, he likes the playground, he likes running up and down the porch and picking up rocks. We have a specific place we set the rocks he picks up (they all come out of our gravel walkway LOL). He likes to walk on the sidewalk. I am sure as the weather gets nicer we will spend more and more time outside.

He had his 15m doctors appt about a week ago. He is 2'7" and 23 lbs 5 oz. Both of these numbers are in the thirties as far as percentile. His head is huge. LOL.

I think that's it! I might add more later if I think of it...