Saturday, May 9, 2009

15 months=big boy!

Bear is about 15 and a half months at this point, and there have been some amazing achievements on his part this month! Several of my mom friends told me that 15 months was a big turning point as far as development for lots of kids, but it's hard to imagine what your own kid will do. Bear has been doing really great this month with sleeping, eating and all kinds of other things, but the things that stick out the most as far as his development goes are: walking, talking and climbing (yikes!)!!

Walking:
He started walking almost as soon as he turned 15 months. Maybe he was waiting for that magic month?? I don't know, but boy, am I glad! Him walking is such a help to me! Parking lots are more pleasant, playing in our backyard is less stressful and parks are so much more fun now! He started by timidly walking across our living room one day and then he just took off! He improves every day and is already able to walk noticeably faster than he was just a couple of days ago. He still falls quite a bit on uneven terrain (i.e. our backyard), but he's getting good at picking himself up. I was just talking to a friend on Monday about him not being able to get up once he fell and here we are just a few days later and he's doing great now. I'm wondering how long it will be before he discovers running. Not long, I'm thinking!

Talking:
At his 15 month checkup, the doctor asked what he was saying (or trying to say, at least) so far. All I could tell him at that point was "momma", "dada" and "yes". It's only been about 2 weeks since then and he's saying so much more! Max and I decided to keep a list of the words he says, thinking it would be interesting to go back and look at later. Here's the list, which may get longer by the end of the day:

momma
dada
yes
Sadie (one of our dogs, but Bear calls all dogs Sadie!)
bath
cheese
show (when he wants to watch tv)
hey/hi
meow (not sure if animal sounds count as words or not, but he's using it in reference to all cats)

Climbing:
Bear has managed to perform several daring feats in the past couple of weeks. He has also managed to scare his momma quite a bit! A couple examples:

1) I was babysitting an 11.5 month old the other day and she wanted to be held quite a bit for the first hour or so that she was here. Bear took complete advantage of the fact that I was busy with her and stood on top of a little truck in his playroom. Well, the truck happened to be sitting in front of a toy that is about Bear's waist height, so he went ahead and climbed up on top of that. That toy happened to be sitting on top of an old desk that has a tv sitting on top of it...you know what's coming next! He climbed up on top of the desk and started playing with the tv! I'm glad I was in there, because I don't think he has any idea how to get down from somewhere that high.

2) Last night, between bath and bed time, Bear was playing in the kitchen. We have a couple dog crates in the corner of the kitchen and he likes to scoot them all over the floor. We've thought nothing of that for months, but last night, he pushed one up to the kitchen table and proceeded to climb up on top of it so that he could reach the table. He was so proud of himself and he said "HAHAHAHA!!" (imagine Cookie Monster's voice) when he got up there. We think he got up there to get the cat, who was lounging on the table. Anyhow, she ran off as soon as she realized that he could reach her. That poor cat...she's always looking to hide, whether it's from Bear or our dogs. Now that the table is no longer safe, she'll have to find a new hiding place!

I can't wait to see what else this month has in store! We're only about halfway through it and Max and I have just been amazed by our boy. Hopefully, it'll be mostly fun stuff and not so much dangerous climbing. I have a feeling that this is only the beginning, though!

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