15 & 16 months...

Disclaimer...although I started this post well after Ty's 15 month birthday, I never thought it would still be sitting in my drafts into his 16th month too.  This post has been written in its entirety, just waiting on pictures for almost a month now.  Ridiculous.  We did just get back from a week long vacation...I will attempt an excuse here...

Once again, I'm blogging behind.  Ty's 15 month birthday has come and gone, and the best I could do this month was keep a running tally of his new skills on my phone, scared that by the time I sat down to write, I'd forget half of what I planned to say.  Keeping up with an ever-so-busy toddler doesn't allow for much computer time these days.  Sometimes I wish I'd opted for the mac book, so I could write wherever little man chooses to play, but even then I'm pretty sure he wouldn't allow me the uninterrupted time I wanted to write.  So here we are...15 & 16 month update.

We had a well baby visit back on September 11th.  All went well and I feel pretty certain that I'm doing at least something right in this adventure of raising a little boy.  Ty made some pretty good growth strides over the past few months, getting heavier and a little taller, despite becoming mobile during that time.  Ty weighed 22lbs 13oz (51st percentile).  That's quite a jump for us.  Ty has spent most of his life below average in his weight, but his head circumference was always upwards of 75th percentile.  This visit it was 56th percentile, so we have a well-proportioned baby!  Little man is still quite short for his age...29.75 inches (8th percentile).  Although he has lengthened a bit, if you check back to prior months, he was down to the 1st percentile at one point.  For now, his pants just last a little longer than your average kid!  He got two shots at this appointment and didn't shed a tear.  For the first time they poked him in the same leg to isolate any pain since he's walking now.  The nurse was really good at distracting him and made a silly sound right as she stuck him.  He got real serious and looked at her funny.  Before he could respond she stuck him again.  He turned red and stuck his lip out, but when there weren't tears, we started clapping and made a big deal that he was a big boy.  Never cried a bit!  The pediatrician was happy with his walking, actually he was climbing on her stool as she talked to me.  He's eating right on target and reached every developmental milestone for a 15 month old.

Time to brag on my boy...  I'm sure all parents think this, but my kid is SO smart!  Seriously, sometimes I'm amazed at what he figures out how to do.  He is such a copy cat right now.  He wants to be big and do all that big people do.  #1 on his list...wearing shoes.  My poor child was blessed with fat, chunky, extra wide feet.  Finding shoes has been an issue.  Ty hasn't ever needed to wear shoes until now.  He loves trying on our shoes and stumbling around the room.  Everyone and their mother, including my mother insisted on getting his first pair of shoes at Stride Rite.  I'm the biggest penny pincher and when I saw their prices for such tiny shoes I flipped a little.  After trying on shoes everywhere, I gave in.  Mom and I took Ty to get him fitted for the right shoe.  We found some adorable little man shoes and no-show socks.  I was shocked how easily a well-fitted shoe went on his foot.  There was no removing the shoes after that.  He squealed with delight and raced around the store.  It was also the first time he walked in shoes without falling down repeatedly.  Well done, Stride Rite.  CiCi bought Ty his first pair of big boy shoes.  Luckily, I'm on their email list for coupons and there just happens to be an outlet down the street from me.  We will not be shopping for shoes elsewhere for quite a while.

Sometime ago, Ty developed a fake cough.  It was hysterical and we over played it a bit and he doesn't do it very often anymore.  Plus we were a little nervous we were inadvertently creating a hypochondriac.  About a month ago Ty developed a fake sneeze as well.  Turns out that's funnier than the cough.  Sometimes he just does the head motion without noise.  If you sneeze, give it a second and you'll hear a little one following.  Too cute.  He even wipes his nose.

Ty has his walking skills down now, but that's not good enough any more.  He needs to RUN!  Unfortunately his head thinks faster than his feet, so he falls a lot.  Seriously, we have new bruises daily.  Just two days ago he added a new one to his forehead where he fell face first into the sidewalk.  Live and learn.  He's a tough little booger.  We don't make a big deal about it.  If he needs comforting, he gets it, but most of the time he gets up and takes off again.  His knees are almost always scraped up.  I just keep ointment on them at night.  He is also climbing now.  He can't get up on our furniture yet, but his toy shelf and little chair are always great climbing toys.  He's quick too.  I rarely catch him in the act of climbing.  Usually I turn around and he's up high, laughing his little booty off.  He finally took a spill the other day.  Very minor, but it did bruise his collar bone when he landed on a toy.  No, it hasn't scared him from climbing anymore.  ALL boy.

This doctor's visit we received disciplinary tips on our checklist as well.  Apparently I'm not the only one raising a head-strong toddler!  Pretty simple though, and most I've already been doing.  Praise good behavior, do not overreact, ignore negative behavior.  Discipline at this age is more/less about teaching right from wrong, to teach and protect, not to punish just yet.  Cooter has a hard time grasping all of this.  He thinks Ty is getting big enough for punishment.  Honestly, when he has a tantrum (yes, we already have tantrums), what hurts him worse is to remove him from the situation and ignore the behavior.  Eventually he either quits and goes on to something else, or he calms down enough to come sit with me and we take a chill break.  While I'm on the subject...some days my jaw drops at the tantrums he is already pitching.  Many times if something doesn't go his way, he lets out a MAD scream, furrowed brow and all.  Sometimes he gets so mad he cries and holds his breath.  I'm not going to let him hurt himself, but I try my best to pay very little attention to him when he acts like that.  I know he's young and doesn't understand why he can't have something, why he can't be outside alone, etc. but he's learning.  Oh the patience that goes into parenting...and we've only just begun!

Ty has added lots of new skills to his repertoire.  He LOVES to read and brings me books all day long. We have three books that are part of his bedtime routine.  He's even been known to fall asleep during story time.  His current favorites are The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See?, and Goodnight Gorilla (favorites based on the books he brings me most often).  We've been reading lots of books with the alphabet, numbers, colors, shapes and animals.  Ty learned his first animal sound...he can moo like a cow!  He loves his Little People too.  He received the farm and airplane for his birthday and plays with them daily.  Our neighbors brought over the zoo and castle to give him recently and now our living room is a Little People village!  He can also sort shapes with help.  If you point to where a shape goes, he can manipulate it enough to get it in the correct spot.  He claps for joy with each successful drop into the bucket.  He doesn't recognize any shapes yet, but I feel like what he can do is awesome!  Ty has the Fisher Price Laugh and Learn puppy that he got for Christmas last year.  Its still a favorite toy almost a year later.  Puppy sings songs, counts, claps, blows kisses...Ty knows the songs now and does the motions for each of them.  He has just started dancing to the songs within the last month.  His favorite songs are If You're Happy and You Know It and Pat A Cake.  He also loves to blow kisses with the puppy.  We've added a few new signs to Ty's sign language this month.  He regularly uses please, thank you, more and milk, and just learned refrigerator.  We are working on shoes and socks.  Why did we teach him refrigerator?  My kid is obsessed with food.  Ty will go into the pantry and pick out food for himself and Laila.  Its legit too.  He knows which box contains milk bones for Laila.  He knows which box is his Apple Cinnamon Cherrios and his granola cereal.  I cannot do anything in the kitchen without him believing its time to eat again.  Cooking dinner tests my patience so much.  Ty is 100% completely done with baby food.  That's great when we're out to eat or going out of town...he'll eat off of my plate.  The downside happens at home while I'm cooking.  He doesn't understand that even though I have food out, its not ready to eat immediately.  If he sees food, he truly believes he is starving.  Most dinners are cooked with a whining, crying baby holding on my legs.  This too shall pass...

Ty has his first favorite song.  Its from the TV show Bubble Guppies.  Ty honestly could care less about TV, but the songs on that show will get him every time.  He doesn't really watch, he just stops to get his groove on to the music.  He likes the color song the best.  In fact, I've saved it on YouTube so when we're at restaurants or places that seem to be taking longer than Ty's patience and/or attention span last, he can listen a time or two.  Whatever works...

Last, but definitely not least on the list of happenings in the past month...Ty stayed overnight with CiCi for the first time!  I was afraid that by not leaving him for more than a few hours it was actually debilitating for both of us.  It wasn't for lack of trying either.  We have had the busiest summer and start to fall.  We are rarely home on the weekends and when we are, the last thing Ty needs is to be shipped off again.  I finally bit the bullet and within a 24hr period I had plans made.  Cooter had to work near my parents' house  one Friday so he dropped us off to play for the day.  When he was done working he picked me up, we left Ty, and had ourselves a wonderful date night.  We just went to dinner and a movie.  I didn't realize how wonderful dinner would be when (1) I didn't have to order something just because Ty will be able to eat off my plate, and (2) I didn't have to tend to someone constantly.  Peacefully wonderful...and I had two glasses of wine!  We enjoyed the quiet time at the movies too.  The last movie we went out to see was 5 days before I had Ty.  We talked about going out for ice cream or maybe a beer after the movie, but we ended up home in bed early, just because.  The downside to overnight plans...to drop Ty off and pick him up requires 4 hours of driving...an hour to my parents, hour home, and back to get him.  To take Ty to his parents would be 6 hours of back and forth.  Not exactly what we want to do for a relaxing couple's night.

We just got back from our Disney cruise, which deserves its own blog altogether.  I will say that it was amazing.  Disney vacation will definitely be in our future.  Pictures to come from the cruise, but for now, just this post...or I fear it will never be done.

Off to bed...