15 Months!

Zach is actually turning 18 months in a couple of weeks. I did have the post written on time and took pictures on time. But, I got a new camera and couldn't figure out how to transfer the pictures from my camera to my computer until last night. Hence, this post is 2 1/2 months late :/ I still wanted to publish it since I want to share all the things our little boy has been up to.

Zach is at a really fun age! He is super super active and is always on the go. He is communicating more and it is fun to have little conversations and interactions with him and actually know what he is saying.

Eating
Zach has always been a very good eater and loves food. He is always wanting to eat whatever we are eating. If I am eating something, he will come up, point to it, or make the more sign, I will give him a little taste and he will go back to playing, just go come get some more in two minutes. He loves fruits in particular, and cannot get enough grapes, apples, blueberries or oranges. He also loves broccoli, carrots, squash, zucchini and sweet potatoes. He eats his three meals with a morning and afternoon snack, although sometimes he gets smaller snacks in between. He does go in boughts of being a picky eater and it seems like a real struggle to get him to eat anything, especially protein. However, I think I am learning that those sprees happen when he has a change in environment (traveling), not feeling well or teething. He drinks milk at breakfast and dinner with water throughout the day. He does enjoy his occasional sweet, especially on Sunday mornings at Sunday school :) Recently he also really enjoys dipping his food in sauces. If he is being a little picky and not eating something, I will squirt a little condiment sauce on his tray and let him dip away and eat! He likes to say, "Dip, dip" and take a bite.

Foods that Zach does not like, even though I keep trying them out: potatoes of any kind, peanut butter, eggs.

Sleep 
 I am SO thankful that his sleep is at a point that I have always wanted it to be at. He takes two naps a day. The first at 9:00 am, which usually lasts 1 1/2 hours. The second at 2:00 pm and lasts 1- 1 1/2 hours. He can finally go down all by himself in his crib with either no noise or a slight cry. When he wakes up, recently he has been content staying in his room by himself for longer periods of time just making noise or reading a book in his crib. This makes me such a happy mommy, the fact that I have a little break during the day!

Zach goes to bed at 8:00 pm (sometimes earlier if he missed a nap during the day). After our bedtime routine, he goes straight in his crib and lies down. He sleeps all night, waking for the day anytime between 6:00-6:30 am. It is a little too early for me, but I can't complain with him sleeping through the night. He is just an early riser. Although the last couple of days he has slept until 7:00/7:30 and has, has not cried and has been content reading in his bed for 30ish minutes! Recently he has made some noise at 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning but has put himself back to sleep. I think he has been waking up because he has been doing some serious teething getting those first molars in. It also seems like he might be starting to move into the direction of one nap a day. I am still testing the waters and doing my 'research' (putting him down for two and seeing how long it takes him to fall asleep and how long he actually does sleep) before I start moving in a specific direction.

This past week when he is ready to get out of his crib, I hear 'Mama' over the monitor. It is so nice to hear instead of the screams or whines that used to happen.

**The week before we had is 15 month check up, we traveled out of town, Zach got sick, has an ear infection in both ears and is teething like crazy with all his first molars. Unfortunately his sleep has been very rough for the past 2 weeks, waking up several times a night, sometimes even coming into our bed and refusing some naps. I am hoping and praying that once he recovers from his sickness his sleep will go back to being the glorious state that it was.

Play
Zach is all boy. He is constantly moving and never seems to sit still. He also goes from one toy to the next within minutes. He loves being outside, running around, pointing out birds and airplanes in the sky, picking grass, and playing on the play ground. One of his favorite activities is the water: splash pads, pool, water park. He is fearless and goes charging through the fountains without even thinking. He doesn't mind getting splashed in the face and will even voluntarily stick his head in the fountain to feel/drink the water. After going to a few water parks, his new favorite activity are slides. He loves going down the water slides and has even done several by himself. He knows how to scoot himself using his feet and hands to get in place and slide down. It is amazing to see how much he has developed and grown the past few months. At the playground, I used to have to help him up the stairs to move from area to area. Now I can stand back a little and he can move around the whole playground by himself, climbing stairs, scooting down the bouncy bridge and going down the slide all by himself.

In the house he likes playing with his sports activity center. He will place any ball on the tee, hold the bat correctly and hit the ball. He has become quite the little slugger and can make that ball fly. He also likes taking the golf club and hitting little balls around the house. He loves his Cozy Coop Truck that he got for his birthday. His favorite thing to do with it, besides being pushed around, is climbing and standing up in the trunk or climbing and lying flat on the top of the truck. Like I said, all boy and almost gives me several heart attacks a day. I like that he likes to explore and is fearless, so I let him do these things, with close supervision. A recent favorite is climbing and sitting on the coffee table and playing with toys on top of it. Since he is sick, we allow him to do it for now, but pretty soon that will not be an acceptable play area. He likes playing with his little train set on the coffee table and will say, "Choo Choo!" Music has always been a favorite of Zach's. He strums his guitar several times a day, plays the xylophone/piano and will bang the drum like there is no tomorrow. When he hears music, he likes to get one of his instruments and does the cutest little dance. He also likes placing and dropping different objects in containers: shapes in his shape sorter, cars in a water bottle or paper towel tube. He has also rediscovered his stacking rings and enjoys putting them on and taking them off.  

Favorites 
Book: Llama Llama books, 'The Foot Book', Slide Garden
Food: Fruits
Word: Mama
TV Show: Curious George

 

 Notice my hand trying to 'catch' him while I snap a picture ;)

Speech  
The doctor said that he is already advanced in his speech by the number of words he can already say. Although he still can't really orally communicate with us, it is amazing that we are starting to skim the surface and understand his wants/needs. If Zach is stuck, he will say "Stuck." When he is done eating, he will say "Done", take off his bib and try to take the tray off of his high chair. He will do the 'More' sign language signal when he wants more or really wants anything. He does that signal a lot in one day.

List of words he can say:
Mama
Dada
Nana
Pa Pa/ Pa (Grandpa)
Dog
Cat
Bird
Down
Stuck
Cheese
Blue (Blueberry)
Nana (Banana)
Dip
Done
Bubble
Pop
Ball
Baseball
Uh-Oh
Bye-Bye
Choo Choo (Train)
Baby
Beep Beep
Po Po (Police- Thanks Aunt Jen!) 

He makes some inflections and motions for phrases:
-Where is it? Noises with those syllables and inflections and holds hands out to side
-Who's there? Holds hand up to ear like holding a phone

Sign Language: More, Milk. 

Animal Sounds: Cow, Elephant, Lion, Gorilla, Snake, Monkey, Shark (Dun Dun- like think Jaws, again thanks Aunt Jen!) 

Size
Weight:23 lbs. 13 oz. [35th percentile]
Height: 33.5 in. [95th percentile]
Diapers: Size 4. After having a handful of wet pj's in the morning, he has moved up a size.
Shoes: Size 5
Clothes: Bottoms 12-18 months, Tops 12-18 months 

Milestones
9th tooth: 6.24.14 [upper right first molar] He may have had it even earlier but I didn't notice until that day.
10th tooth: 6.29.14 [upper left first molar]
11th tooth: 7.17.14 [lower right first molar]
12th tooth: 8.2.14 [lower left first molar]

- Found out he is going to be a BIG BROTHER! [5.11.14]
- Identify people when asked where they are in a room
- Lower himself backwards from the couch, chair or bed
- Spin
- Give kisses with a cute little smack 
- Bring certain objects when asked [ex: stuffed animal snake, baseball, book, shoes, toy penguin]
- Identify objects/ animals in books when asked where they are [Where is the bird on this page? Point to bird]
- Identify some body parts, mainly on other people. We hadn't really even talked about this/worked on it until recently.
- Spoon feed independently (mainly yogurt- but will do some other things if I don't mind him getting messy)
- When asked where the baby is- he will point to my belly and many times come over, lift up my shirt a tad and give the baby a kiss.