Little man - 15 months

Your little personality is bursting!

You love to play with your Legos and you now put the pieces together as well as taking them all apart of course.

You are obsessed with your cherrios and you love to walk around the house eating them. You give at least half to Dylan. We start each day with a sippy cup of milk and your cup of cherrios.

You love to be chased and you also love to chase us and play hide n seek.

You run to give me hugs - this melts my heart. And when you lay your head on my shoulder.

You are still waving at everything especially when you first wake up or get out of the car.

You have learned how to use the light switches and you love to turn them on and off.

You love to open and close doors.

You bring us books to read with you. Your favorite books are the Going to Bed book and lately you've loved Where's Spot.

You laugh a lot! You love when we tickle you and blow raspberries on your belly.

You can say mama, dada, your version of Dylan which sounds like deedah and bah for ball. And you babble a LOT! You have full conversations while you are playing.

You like to dance and you bounce when you get excited. You get especially excited when we are doing something for you that you want - like opening a lid, turning on a toy, or getting you a pretzel. You bounce like crazy then! Hilarious.

You like to help load and unload the washer. It's just the right height for you and you are actually really helpful and you hand me each piece of clothing.

You are such a great sleeper! You sleep from 7:30 until 6:30 or 7 and you take two naps during the day for about an hour each.  When you wake up in the morning you like to lay in your crib for a while. Sometimes we come in to get you and you wave hi and then lay back down with your Ellie. You move around so much when you sleep! You flip from one end of your crib to the other. We use a sleep sack so your blanket stays with you.

You have been a great eater too, that is until last week. You started turning down some of your favorite foods - oatmeal, veggie burgers and sweet potatoes among others - and you now throw a LOT of your food on the floor. I know it's a normal phase but it's driving your dad and I a bit crazy!!!! You still love blueberries and most fruit and you love frozen peas!  Your dad says you are definitely my kid with the way you eat your veggies :) 

You are starting to get better at feeding yourself with a spoon.  You can scoop up your yogurt and get some in your mouth without spilling much.

I am so amazed every day to see how big and smart you are getting. You are definitely not a baby and you are starting to figure out how to be a little boy. Your dad and I love you so much and we love watching you grow and change. You bring us so much joy and laughter. Love you chachi!

Fillmore train trip

We went on a field trip with little man's class to the Fillmore train. It was a fun adventure for us and we both had a great time!

In his seat waving to the other trains.

With the conductor.

Train ride selfie :)

It's the little things

Over the past couple of weeks our little man has started to respond when asked where parts of his body are.

"Where are your ears?" He will point to his ears. "Where is your nose?" He wiggles and scrunches up his nose.  And of course our favorite - he sticks out his tongue when asked "where's your tongue?" It's quite adorable. We're working on the toes next!

He has also figured out how to open all five doors on the pop up animal toy. We've been working on the twisting one for a while and he's finally got it!

It's so neat to watch the learning happen. You show him something over and over and then all of the sudden he does it! So cool.

Playing with the dog

I never thought the day would come when Dylan and the little man would play together and like it!! I think that Dylan is his favorite toy right now. It is so funny to watch. Little man throws the tennis ball for Dylan and he runs after it. He also takes out Dylan's leash and brings it to him.

The newest game is little man covers himself up with Dylan's blanket and Dylan nibbles on his legs, arms and hands just like he does with me and his dad. Little man giggles the entire time!!!

They are truly buddies and it's just the sweetest thing.

The fact that little man shares all of his snacks doesn't hurt!

Our first family adventure!

This weekend we went on our first family trip and I'm happy to say it was a success! Little man proved to be a wonderfully adaptable, super easy going travel companion. The drive up to Santa Ynez was long and there was lots of traffic but we stopped for a little break to stretch our legs and get some fresh air and we were all good!

When we got to our hotel little man was so excited to explore his new surroundings and he literally ran all over the room. He also slept like a champ both nights so that was really nice for mommy and daddy.

We started the day on Saturday in Solvang with breakfast at Paula's Pancake house - YUM. 

 

Then we headed up to Santa Ynez for a little wine tasting.

Sunday we started our journey towards home and stopped in Santa Barbara to take little man to the zoo! Ah I love the SB zoo - it is just the right size for kids - and also for husbands who don't like to do a lot of walking.

We stopped in Ventura to drive by the coast - it was a magnificent beautiful So Cal weekend with temperatures in the high 70's and low 80's - and we went to the Ventura Harbor to walk around and get some ice cream!

Such a fun adventure with our little family! Looking forward to the next family outing.

Toddlerhood

Our little man is starting to have quite strong opinions about things that he does and does NOT want to do. He really digs his heels in when he decides that he wants something and boy oh boy is he a persistent little thing. It's like tunnel vision! And he looks at you with that sneaky little "I know I'm not supposed to do this" smile and yet he does it anyway! Ha - this is only the beginning I'm sure.

Mostly he still just makes us laugh. He thinks that everything is funny and man does this kid LOVE to be tickled. Tonight when his dad was drying him off after his bath he did not want to lay still for anything and his feet were kicking like a madman! As soon as Matt started tickling his feet the fits of laughter began and all anger was forgotten.

He also recently discovered that he likes to organize our pots and pans. He spent literally 30 minutes taking them out of the cupboard and stacking and restacking them in just the right way. This kid is very methodical.

Little man... a walking machine!

Hard to believe that just a few weeks ago his only mode of transportation was crawling. Now he attempts to run almost everywhere. It's amazing to see his little body moving around so easily and falling and getting back up without even a moments hesitation. The development is incredible to watch!

We started a new class this week and little man LOVED it! Hilarious to watch him sitting in a chair like a big kid and eating snack at the little tables in his classroom. 

 During music time he watched the other kids go up to the teacher to get the "goodies" ... bells, scarves, instruments... and then when it was "Twinkle Twinkle" time he walked right up and took a star from her and turned back to smirk at me with the "did ya see me mom?" face and came back to sit with me. He went back to put it away when it was time to clean up too! How did that happen?