The Winters' World: Blake is 15 months old!

Our little water-boy turned 15-months-old on the 25th!

Height: 34.5 inches (>100%)

Weight:: 30.15 lbs. (>100%)

Um, he's still big! Now that he's walking, we are hoping he levels off a little :-) We have great arm muscles, that's for sure! He wears a size 6 shoe, size 24 months clothes, and size 5 diapers. Like I've told many, we may have a future linebacker in our house :-)

At this age, B is a great sleeper, usually sleeping 11-12 hours at night, and he is officially down to 1 nap a day rightafter lunch. At school he moved up to the toddler class, so he is actually napping on a napmat. Woah, I wasn't ready for that! Oh, and as a second child who was used to take morning naps in the car, he naps great in the car during long road trips. Phew!

So, as of Monday, he's a distance walker! He took his first steps on June 27th and has gradually built up to 10-15 steps before he topples over, and he's even changing directions now with ease. YAY!!
Oh, and he has just taken up the hobby of wanting to climb on EVERYTHING. Ah!

Here's a video of him walking, but you might want to turn it town, as we were at a LOUD bounce house when I recorded it :-)

Regarding food, his favorites are yogurt, toast, macaroni and cheese, Italian, beans, applesauce and crackers. He eats all veggies and fruits, but his favorites are nectarines, grapes, bananas, peas, avocado and carrots. He even likes melon, unlike some other guys in my house!

Blake successfully weaned at 13 months and has been down to sippies only ever since! He does take a paci for bed and when he is fussy (like right now, due to teething). Speaking of, he has 8 teeth in total (2 top molars) with the bottom two molars on their way (and a couple of laterals). This boy wants to feed himself and is very independent in that regards. So, he eats exclusively with silverware now; even though it's messy, it is fun to watch him :-)

Thanks to no ear infections since the Spring (Praise God!) his language has burgeoned! He has been saying a lot of babbling words, like mama, dada, yaya (for Jameston), uh-oh, bye-bye and some short, one-syllable words like dog, hi, ball, book, vroom (for cars), up, etc. Now, he is even saying some more complex words like doggie, baby, cracker, bubba, knock knock, and his attempts at "open" and "bubbles" are oh so cute! He stills signs for "more" and "all done" when it comes to eating, and he is nodding "yes" a lot when we ask him questions. And he is just starting to learn body parts and knows where his eyes, nose, feet and hands are. My FAVORITE recent development is his saying "quack-quack" when we ask him what sound a duck makes. He also makes a quasi-fish face when we do. Hilarious!

Speaking of books, they are his newest and greatest obsession! No longer are the days of him just wanting to flip the pages. He can sit for a good bit and just look at them, and we actually finish several from cover to cover!

He is a Dr. Seuss fan, as his go-to faves are "Go Dog Go," "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish" and he loves this one about, what else, a duck! And he loves reading with his brother, that's for sure!

At this age, Blake:

Still loves to be outside! He's a boy, ain't he? :-)

Loves playing chase (just say "I'm gonna get you," and he smiles and darts the other way), patty cake, and peek-a-boo!

Cracks up for "This Little Piggy," I guess because he's ticklish on his toes

Has a favorite song: Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, and he wants to do the hand movements!

Favorite toys include tools, cars and balls!

Favorite non-toys: Daddy's glasses and laundry basket!

He, like big brother (and probably because of big brother) is obsessed with markers/crayons and he even stands and "draws" on the chalkboard and "colors" on coloring books for several minutes. Luckily, he puts the lids back on pretty well.

Give a boy a trike, and...

I LOVE this age! So so fun to see his personality and interests really
coming out. Things I want to remember about Blake at 15-months are that
he:

Slaps his knee or stomps his foot when dancing, gives kisses/hugs, rests his head on any blanket or a rug when he's getting sleepy, loves his lovie/lamb blanket, cleans up toys well because of his love for nesting and stacking, and has the chunkiest/Pillsbury dough boy thighs. Ha! Oh, and he likes to tussle with Daddy and Jameston every night (it's their nightly routine). Love!

Just recently we had had to start timeouts because of Blake's desire to do something he's been told not to do...oh the joys of toddler-hood! He's been in time-out maybe three times, and stayed there two of those times.

The boys are the best brothers. They, most of the time, want the other around and get along well. I know there will be times, probably in the not-so-distant-future, where they will disagree, but we are enjoying this stage.

There's nothing like brotherly love witnessed between your own sons!

They are always up to some sort of shenanigans! One word he's learned from JW is "Ouwa." And they like to be around each other even when they don't have to be :-)

This past month, Blake got his first hair cut! He went from this messy mop-top