15 months

So once Wes hit one year, I thought I'd tone these posts down to quarterly. And so here we are at 15 months, and I don't even know where to begin, because he is just so dang cool. Kids accelerate exponentially in their coolness once they hit 1 year.

It's no secret babies are hard. If your newborn makes it to 4 months old in one piece, fed, and unshaken, you've done pretty well as a parent (and this coming from a social worker whose main job is to assess parents' interactions and bonding with babies this age). Newborns are tough!

Toddlers are hard too. Attitude. Talking back. Potty training. Once it starts, all that adorable bliss of babyhood ends.

But 1 year olds! Be still my heart! They are just heaven, wrapped in delight, tied with a giggle.

My parents used to say they wanted to put me in a box and keep me small forever. I must have been 5 or 6 because I remember them saying it. But honestly, the box is only a tempting idea with a 1 year old. Who'd want a perpetual 3 year old? :::shudders:::

And it's not that Wes is a particularly astounding 1 year old. I just think 1 is the height of everyone's cuteness. Carly was perfection at 1. Kalen is at her peak right now. I'm sure my mom liked me best at that cute rolly polly age of adorableness.

So without further ado: my delightful little man.


At his 15 month appointment, his stats were as follows:

Weight: 21lbs 12ozs - 13th percentile
Height: 31 inches - 47th percentile
Head circumference: 18.4 inches - 39th percentile
Diapers: Size 4
Clothes: 12-18 months

- Wes is a curly mess. As previously discussed. I'm still pretty sure we'll cut his hair at 18 months on his way into nursery. And according to my poll, most of you agree.

- Speaking of nursery, church is hard in those months between 12 and 18 months. These little kids are just starting to exercise their autonomy, and DON'T want to be held for 3 hours. They want to "go, go, go" (in Wes' own words). I spend a lot of time and creativity getting to church early to claim a row of chairs in RS to make a chair holding pen. Weeks I am late, I walk the halls. I can't WAIT for nursery.

- Did I mention that we have 1pm church? The. Worst. Assigned. Time. Ever. Wes naps at 1pm daily. For 2-3 hours. I love his nap schedule, aside from Sundays.

- Wes is still a sleeping champ. 12+ hours a night. Heaven.

- Wes signs! He wasn't interested much in Signing Time until just recently. Carly was all interested by about a year, but Wes didn't seem to care until just a month ago. Now he sings the baby signing time song throughout the day, and knows most of the signs in the first video.

- Wes talks! He has 30 words now. (I counted today) Mama, Dada, more, milk, eat, hi, bye, uh oh, uh uh (no...said while shaking his head), no, mine, bounce, wook! (look), light, eye, nose, dog, ish (fish), bird, woof, up, nigh night, please, di deu (thank you), baby, shoe, pop, yay, dance, and go. He'll repeat anything, but he says these words spontaneously and in context.

- His favorite words are Milk and Wook! I am followed around by a chorus of these words all day. My favorite word he says is Please. He is so deliberate in making the 'pl' sound. He sticks his tongue out. He also can't say please without signing it, which is just too cute.

- Wes climbs on everything. Coffee table, chairs, dining table, ottoman, bar stools, toilet. Which means he also falls off of everything.

- With his amazing climbing skills, Wes can also get out of his crib if he is determined enough. He needs something to pile into the corner to stand on, but if he has a blanket or two for height, he can pull himself up onto the changing table. From there, he can fall gracefully to the floor, and play freely until mommy lets him out of his room.

- Wes runs! It's too cute. His little legs pumping so fast that one barely hits the floor before the other is off.

- Wes decided to show off at his 15 month appointment and take off walking backwards for the first time in front of the pediatrician. The doctor was impressed, and I just acted like "yeah, my amazing kid does that all the time."

- Wes loves to jump. He chants "bounce bounce bounce" while trying to get some air. He mostly just pops up really quickly, and either maintains his balance with glee and pride, or falls over. Repeat. All day long.

- Wes is a cuddler. Carly is a really empathic little girl. She can describe other people's emotions and can make assumptions based on her own actions about how other's might feel. It's an amazing characteristic in a toddler! Wes is on his way to share this really cool attribute. He often will stop his playing to walk over an rest his head on my chest or to give me a big hug and pat my back. What sweet children I have!

- Wes is somewhat crazy! It's that 2nd child syndrome where he has to outshine Carly to get the attention. Or maybe it's just that he's a boy. But he will just run in circles while screaming, and loves to shake his head as wildly as possible. When he can get an audience- or even better, someone mimics him- he just ups the energy and pitch until he is falling over in hysterics.

- One of my favorite Wes tricks is "shake it off." If he falls down or bonks his head, and I can tell he's not really hurt, I'll say "shake it off, shake it off." He lights up and starts shaking his whole body. Often he'll chant "dance dance dance."

- Wes now has more teeth than I have accurately counted. Hold on, okay, just counted. He has 10 that are at least poking through. For the longest time he just had the 4. Until about a month ago. While we were in Yellowstone, we noticed that he had the 4, plus 2 molars on top. No sign of the 2 teeth on either side between the front teeth and the molars. We just skipped those, apparently. Now he has one set of missing top ones, and the bottom molars too. So we are still missing 3 sets, but we now have 10.

- Wes loves singing. If I sing "Old McDonald had a farm...." he'll chime in with the 'EIEIO' without fail. If I sign Popcorn, or Wise Man, or ItsyBitsySpider, he'll provide the hand movements. He sings Baby Signing time all day on his own while signing baby.

- Wes loves to imitate faces and to play peek-a-boo (which in our house is more like peek-a-ROAR!) He and Marshall love to get into growling matches. He's pretty fearsome.

- I love watching him try to imitate Carly and do things independently. He loves to try to feed himself with a fork. He loves to try to put on his shoes. He can often be found reading a book.

- Wes is now drinking out of the same sippies as Carly. With Carly we did the whole slow transition off the bottle to a soft spout sippy, and on and on to the cups we use now. This time, we threw out the bottles one day, and just went to the plastic sippies, like it or not. It was the same day we went from formula to rice milk. Just cold turkey. The kid did great! I'm not sure he even noticed!


Wes is such a good natured kid. I love this age, and I love him. I'm not even slightly baby hungry yet, and the idea of a third one is enough to give me nightmares. But I am so glad we felt that anxiousness to have him as quickly as we did. I can't imagine our family without him. I'm sure we have more kids coming our way. Not for a while though. I want to enjoy these two, and don't want to do that hard work of keeping a newborn alive while still in the midst of potty training and teaching manners to these two. But we sure are lucky to have perfection in the little family we have right now!