15 month stats

15 months old

Time just keeps on flying by.  Our little guy keeps on amazing us with his wit, dexterity and tenacity.  There are some things Eliel does that lead me to believe he has a knowledge beyond his year. (haha)  For instance, he already knows how to push Mommy and Daddy's buttons.  If you tell him not to do something, sometimes he will reach out and pretend to do it again to see if he gets a reaction.  Isn't he too young to do that?  He also has a very good memory and can remember where he left a certain toy (even when Mommy has no idea where it is) or that certain family members have certain toys at their houses. 

I'm smarter than you think!

On the other hand, there are some things we're all waiting for Eliel to do but he's still holding out on us.  One of them is talking.  He can say different letter sounds and once in a while he will say something that sounds like a real word, but he has yet to have his 'first word'.  He says 'Dada' very well and will shout it when he sees Daddy coming home from work.  He can also sort of say 'duck' but it really sounds more like 'dat'.  Other than that, everything else in the entire world goes by 'buh'.  Many people have asked if the fact that he knows sign language is holding him back from talking.  From what I've learned, sign language actually increases talking in kids because it gives them the desire to want to learn the words for the signs they know.  It would be very easy to believe that he doesn't need to talk though because he already signs.  If you're really interested, you can go here to read more about it.  Baby Sign Language or this one Baby Sign Language.  In my opinion, he's just waiting until he can say a whole sentence instead of just one word!

Who do I look like?

At the doctor today, Eliel weighed in at a whopping
20lbs, 8 ounces.  That means he gained almost a pound in three months.  (After a year old, kids starting gaining weight much less rapidly!)  He is at the 16th percentile for weight and the 34th percentile for height at 30 5/8th inches.  His largest percentile is at 55th which is for the circumference of his head.  Sorry buddy, but that comes from Mommy's genes!  The doctor also said that everything about him checks out  healthy and that he's doing great!  (Of course he is! :)  He did receive one shot today, the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) and I postponed the second one that was scheduled for today, the varicella (chicken pox).  I decided to wait on getting both at the same time because the MMR is one vaccine that has a high chance of having a side effect.  Generally, side effects occur 10-14 days after the shot is given.  So, since it is very unlikely that he will come in contact with anyone with chicken pox in the next six weeks, I figured I would give his little body only three diseases to learn to fight off instead of four!

Can you guess what I'm looking at?

As Eliel gets older, we still can't decide who he looks like.  He definitely has Mommy moments but there are a lot of Daddy moments too.   He definitely has Daddy's love of food though!  This kid can't go more than 3 hours without eat something during the day.  He eats three meals and two, sometimes three snacks.  (I bet that's how he keeps his figure!)  He still loves his fruits and green vegetables but some of the new things we have tried and like are nutella, hummus, cream cheese (especially strawberry flavored!), grapes, raspberries and cookie butter (if you don't know what that is, run out to Trader Joe's and get it now.  You will thank me later.) Eliel still does care for meat but will eat it if it's hidden in a casserole or cheesy noodle dish.  He's getting pretty good at using a spoon to get things to his mouth but he needs help getting the food onto the spoon.  I'm thinking of getting him a spork so that he could use the short prongs to poke at his food.  He drinks all on his own from his sippy cups and loves to drink out of a straw.  He hasn't been taught not to backwash yet though so only let him drink from your straw if you're willing to give up what's left in your drink.

'buh'

Eliel loves to play with legos and blocks and can play for about 5-10 minutes on his own. After that, he comes looking for Mommy or Daddy.  If he's playing on his own longer than 15 minutes, it's probably because he's into something he shouldn't be!  He still loves cars and trucks and was recently introduced to Adam's VW bug.  We also spend a lot of time at the front door on garbage days watching the trucks take our garbage.  Eliel continues to love books and has started bringing me some of his favorites to read.  His current favorites are 5 Little Monkeys and 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo. 

I could go on and on about my little guy but I hope I've given you a good update on him this month.  With school being out soon, I know we're going to start having lots of new experiences!  Stay tuned!