15 Months Old

Nathan,

You are 15 months old. You continue to amaze us with how quickly you grow and change. The biggest development we have noticed this month is your comprehension and understanding. You seem to understand almost everything we tell you and you follow  commands all the time. The other day I handed you a kleenex and told you to put it in the trash. You grabbed it and took it straight to the other room and put it in the trash. I didn't even know you knew what a trash can was! You help pick up your toys and put them in the basket when I tell you to. You understand when we tell you take something to Mommy or Daddy. And Daddy gives you food sometimes and tells you to feed it to Rhapsody and you always understand and follow through. You are also very observant and have figured out how many things work. A friend was over the other day and left her shoes in the living room. You saw them, picked them up and carried them off to my closet. You also found a clean diaper on the floor and picked it up and put it in the trash can in your room. You know how all of your toys work and which buttons to push to make them go. When we play in your room, you'll go from toy to toy pushing buttons. I have to be careful what I tell you sometimes because of your understanding. If I tell you that Grammy is coming over, you'll run to the front door and stand there until she comes.

 As much as you comprehend, you are still not super verbal. Your new words this month are fish, cookie and hot. Hot is your favorite word. You say it all the time. Every time we put you in your car seat you say hot- which it usually is, and a lot of time when you are eating you will say hot (whether your food is hot or not).

 

 You love to be on the go. You go stir crazy if we don't leave the house for a day. You'll grab my purse or keys and walk to the door and whine if you want to go somewhere. We try and leave the house at least once a day. 

You give hugs and kisses all the time. Such a sweet boy. 

When you want something or want to go somewhere, you come find us, grab our finger and lead us to where you want to go. Sometimes I've been carrying you and you'll point somewhere and if you think I don't understand you, you will get down and grab my finger and lead me to it. You'll hand us things sometimes that you need help with, and if we don't immediately take them, you will grab our hand and physically put the object in our hand to make sure we understand what you want.

Your favorite toys are your dump truck, popcorn popper, shape sorter, cell phone, and books. You show preferences in which books you like. Your favorites right now are The Fire Engine Book, The Big Red Barn, Goodnight Moon, I Love you Through and Through, The Little Red Hen, and What a Noisy Zoo. You'll sort through your stack of books to find just the right one. You love to flip the pages and make us read very quickly sometimes :).

The water hose is your favorite outside toy. You help me water the flowers and carry the hose all around the yard. I've even caught you taking a drink out of it several times. You are getting much braver in the swimming pool as the summer has gone on.

We went to the doctor this week for your 15 month well check. You weigh 24 lbs, 2 oz and are 30.25 inches long. You are wearing 12-18 month clothes and we are in the process of transitioning you to a size 5 diaper.


You're still a pretty good eater and eat a variety of things. You sure are messy though. Most of the time you will take bites of food chew them up and then spit them back out. We're ready for you to outgrow that. And if you have a mouthful of food and see something else you'd rather have, you'll reach up and take the food out of your mouth, so you can put more in.

For the most part, you are only taking one nap per day, and I try and stretch it so that you go down after lunch around 12:30. Some days it's tough to keep you up through your morning nap time, but it is pretty much a guarantee now that if I put you down in the morning, you won't go back down again in the afternoon (which makes for a very long evening). You are sleeping for about 2 hours for your nap and are consistently sleeping 10-11 hours at night. You go down so easy. I'll rock you for a few minutes and then ask you if you are ready to get in bed. You'll point to your crib, and I'll put you in it and you fall asleep pretty quickly afterward. The other night I asked you if you wanted to go to bed and you reached up and gave me a kiss before you pointed to your crib (You sure have a way of turning me into a pile of mush sometimes). You still get your paci in your crib and in the car. And you are good about putting them in your crib if you find one lying around (and I tell you to put it away).

You have such a helpful personality, and I can already tell that you are developing a servant's heart I'm praying that we can continue to instill and strengthen that part of your little personality. You want to help us all the time. You want to help sweep and the other day even brought me the dust pan while I was sweeping the kitchen. I'll give you a swiffer while I'm dusting and you will dust too. You help me put your toys away, and even help by putting my shoes in the laundry basket. I try and make a point to always encourage your helpfulness and find little ways to let you "help" me even if right now that's extra work for me. You are just the sweetest little boy and we are so proud of the person you are becoming.