Baby H: 15 & 16 Months of Mark

I feel like J and I say this to each other almost on a daily basis but seriously, Mark is so stinking fun right now. He brightens our days, makes us laugh till our stomaches hurt and is getting so, so smart it's shocking sometimes. My favorite parts of the week are the evenings we spend together all on the floor in our family room as Mark runs absolutely wild in just his diaper after dinner and before bed.

He...

[+] is officially down to one nap which I personally love. It has given us so much more flexibility in our days... longer stretches of time in the morning to get things done, do fun things, etc... doesn't keep us stuck at home into the late afternoon if there's something going on in the evening. He did regress to two naps for about a week right around Christmas because he caught quite the cold and just couldn't sleep in longer stretches (and needed extra sleep too) but easily went back to one once he was feeling better.

[+] is exploding with language right now and IT. IS. AWESOME! He finally said "mom" for the first time on December 2nd and I must admit that I cried hearing it. It was seriously the sweetest sound I've ever heard. But really though, his language and communication is taking leaps and bounds lately and I'm so happy about it. His vocab now includes.... dad, mum, ollie, joooo (juice), wahh (water), hep (help), dow (down), up, ball, boo, rae (raisin), ree (read), ba (either banana, bath or book depending on the circumstance), hi & bye, eeee (eat, which he also signs for), pop (popcorn), pees (please) and probably more that I'm forgetting. He also knows animal sounds for dog, sheep and cow and will pick those animals out of books/on signs/etc etc.

[+] got his first haircut on December 12th and instantly went from big baby to little boy! We still kept a lot of the length on top because the bit of wave in his hair is just too cute to get rid of but he now has a straight hairline in the back and even tiny sideburns. He sat so well in the race-car chair and got all wide-eyed when she turned on the clippers but did great through the whole thing. I'm curious to see how quick his locks grow back but the jury's still out.

[+] should hopefully be done teething for a little while now that all the ones that were seemingly stuck have finally come through. He officially has four top teeth, four bottom teeth (hallelujah!) and four molars. He's started grinding said-teeth which I hate but I'll take it over the drooling, crabby teething mess any day.

[+] celebrated his second Christmas and made the holiday season that much more magical. He was actually interested in opening presents this year, his favorite being pulling tissue paper from gift bags, but wasn't quite sure what to think about the gifts inside every time. He willingly pulled all the tiny gifts from his stocking and put down some serious BBQ at Christmas dinner which are both essential Christmas tasks! Ha! I can't wait till next year when he'll hopefully have a better idea of what's going on and we'll get to start incorporating Santa and other traditions with our big boy.

[+] woke up on Christmas morning with what's been his worst cold of his life. Thankfully he hasn't really been sick much since he was born so we've almost been spoiled in a sense. I picked him up out of his crib and instantly heard the wheezing and saw his fountain of a nose and knew something was up. His congestion and cough were definitely the worst parts making it hard for him to sleep and eat and putting him just in a crabby mood overall. As much as I would have liked to do more "fun" things with him while I was on break from school, I was definitely glad I was home with him to snuggle him while he slept and help him feel better.

[+] started his first round of swim lessons right after the new year and is having so much fun at them. We're in a parent-tot, 30 min class every Saturday for the months of January and February at the local rec center and I can't wait to see how he progresses in the water. Being pregnant I'm loving getting in the pool with him and he's always loved the water so it was perfect timing before the summer arrives.

[+] is working on developing his fine motor skills. He has an empty water bottle that is filled with straw pieces for him to shake out and then carefully put back in. It's seeming like we might have a lefty on our hands since he definitely prefers to use his left hand and will even switch from the right to left if he's trying really hard. He's also working on using a spoon and a fork and so far it's slow progress but mostly because of us, not him. He does great when we load something for him (yogurt on the spoon, a piece of hotdog on the fork, etc etc) but we don't venture often into letting him do it all on his own just because we know it will be so so messy. But we have to let him practice I know.

[+] has learned to "jump" and it's absolutely hilarious. He squats really low and then shoots up and shouts. Sometimes he gets up on both his tippie-toes, sometimes he brings one foot entirely off the ground. He also dances when there's a good song on and sometimes will sway back and forth making the silliest "woooop, woooop, woooop" noise.

[+] has already mastered the toddler-tantrum. They're seriously the worst. He's normally so used to getting his way that when he doesn't you better watch out. Whether it's taking a toy (or non-toy) away from him, removing him from somewhere dangerous, making him sit in a highchair, etc etc etc he will literally scream bloody murder and have streaming tears even though nothing is ACTUALLY wrong.

We sure are lucky to call his boy ours!