15 months.

Nathaniel is 15 months old today! When he turned one, I felt like the past year had flown by, but now....really, I mean, didn't he just turn one yesterday?! When they say babies grow up fast, they're not lying!

Nate has learned to walk! About two weeks ago, he just stood up and went. And, after a few days of careful and delierate stepping, he decided that his crawling days were a thing of the past! He walks everywhere, and he's fast! (I thought he could crawl fast, but this is a totally new game!) He's on the verge of running, and thinks that it's hilarious when Daddy chases him. I'm so proud of my big boy!

Nathaniel's favorite toys right now are balls! He loves balls of all kinds, colors and sizes!! Every day, he brings me a "baa!" (or five to hold while he collects the rest). He especially likes the little plastic balls from his ball popper because they're the perfect size for his little hands, and the textured sensory balls that he received for his birthday. As a side note, one of his favorite foods is clementines, which he also refers to as "baa"s.

Some of his other favorite toys are his Buzz Lightyear rider, his pop-up toy, his ring-stacker, blocks, and, of course, books! He still loves to sit down and look at all of his "boo"s by himself. He also loves to bring books to us to be read aloud. His Nana taught him that the tiger in his Noah's Ark book growls, so now he growls at several different animals in various books! His favorite books right now are "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" and "Ten Little Puppies".

To say that Nate likes animals is an understatement! He LOVES animals! Our dog, Grover, is his best friend, and I'll often find them wrestling in the living room! Grover is wonderful (and so gentle!) with Nathaniel. Sometimes, Grover runs laps through the house, with Nate chasing after him laughing as hard as he can--so funny! Nate also loves our cats (or, as he calls them "keekee!"s), although they do not share his enthusiasm. They sometimes will tolerate a quick pat from Nate, but he tends to be too noisy for their tastes. Nathaniel also loves to find pictures of animals in books, and he very much enjoyed our trip to the zoo last month!

I've started doing some simple activities with Nate throughout the day, and he's enjoyed all of them. We've finger-painted, colored, played with play dough, played in leaves, done stickers, water play, and made a sensory bowl of dried beans. Although he has a typical 1-year-old's attention span, he has participated in everything very well. (Not even one attempt to eat the play dough!)

Nathaniel can say several words, and he understands practically everything that we say! He says "baa" (ball), "boo" (book), keekee (kitty), momma, baba (dada). His favorite noise is the "B" sound, and he uses "buh" for several different things (sock, cup, binky, etc). When he gets very excited (like when Daddy comes home from work), he screams and claps! When he gets mad, he screams and throws himself backwards. Nate follows directions ("come here", "time to eat", "all done?", "may I have that?", "no", "look", etc.), and often surprises me with what he understands.

As far as foods go, Nate likes almost everything that he's tried. The only thing that he does not like is scrambled eggs. Some of his favorite foods are crackers, cheerios, grapes, peas, apples, yogurt, spaghetti, pizza, fig bars and clementines. He can feed himself with his hands, and we're working on using a spoon. (I'll admit to not letting him try it as often as I should because it's just easier to feed him!) He has not taken to whole milk yet, although I really have not been offering it often. He is still nursing three times/day (before nap, before bed, and early morning), and I haven't decided when we're going to work on weaning yet.

Nate has 12 teeth now, and is still teething. He has two molars, and two more that are coming. He's a trooper, but he does get fussy when he's tired and his mouth hurts. I usually do not medicate, but we use Hyland's teething tablets when he needs something. Occasionally, I will give him Tylenol to help him sleep. My poor little guy has been teething for so long--I cannot wait for him to be finished!

Nate still uses his binky, but is only allowed to have it for bedtime and naptime. He always cheerfully hands is over when he wakes up, and I'm planning to start "binky weaning" soon. I kept planning to take it away "cold turkey" when he was done teething because he does seem to get some relief from chewing on it when his mouth hurts--but it seems that teething is never-ending! We will be starting to lose the binky soon, and I don't anticipate it being too much of a problem. But, as always, toddlers are not predictable, so we shall see...

Nathaniel is a happy and silly little boy. He is very friendly, and grins at strangers everywhere we go! He even has a very fake and cheesey smile that he does when people smile at him, and he enjoys the laughter that he gets every time he does it! He is sweet and loves cuddling almost as much as we love cuddling him! He'll often stop for a quick hug while he's playing, but isn't interested in anything lasting more than 2 seconds unless he's sleepy. Nathaniel amazes us every day with the things that he is learning and the skills that he possesses. He is an incredible little boy who has his mommy and daddy utterly head over heels for him!