Happy 15 Months, Seth!

I know I never did Seth's one year post and I may get to that some day, but today I am catching up to Seth's most recent statistics from his 15 month doctor's appointment.

Seth, you weigh 21 lbs, 3 oz and are 30.5 inches long. This is down 4 ounces from your 1 year appointment, but you are just getting over being sick, and walking everywhere, so I blame it on that. You had a 5 day spout of throwing up and not eating well, but I am happy to report you are over that.

You wear size 12 month pants and can wear either 12 or 18 months for everything else. Your shoes are a size 3 or 4 and haven't really changed much in a while. You are still nursing before bed and when you wake up. You have 9 teeth and your 10th is on the way in. This includes 4 on the top, 3 on the bottom (almost 4) and then 2 upper molars that have just come through.

You eat table food mostly, and recently decided you would like to drink juice out of a straw sippy cup. This partially started when we were giving you pedialite when you were sick so you wouldn't get dehydrated. We have moved you to 5 or 6 ounces of milk (in addition to nursing) so that you will eat more. You love your cherrios and are quite upset if we try to feed you something that is not what the rest of the family is eating.  Since decreasing your milk, you seem to always want to be snacking on something, and that is good and will help you keep growing right.

After you got over being sick, I decided I would officially get you to go to sleep in your own bed. Previously, you got spoiled with falling asleep in my arms and then I would move you to your crib later. Then you woke up in the middle of the night (when you were sick) and since you would cry when I went to put you back down, I gave in. I hate to see you sick and got you in some bad habits (mainly sleeping part of the night in our bed).

I realized I wasn't getting good sleep after you were better (and still thinking you needed to sleep with us after you woke up in the middle of the night) and decided it was time to sleep train you. The first two nights you slept what I think is most of the night standing up next to the rail of the bed. Every time I would go to put you down you would cry and wail. I would leave and you would stand yourself back up, get against the rail and fall asleep there. I was afraid you would either fall down and hurt yourself or fall out of the bed.

The third night I made you lay on your back and stayed with you a while, stroking your head with my hand and comforting you until I was sure that you would not stand up, but would lay down until you fell asleep. And it worked. I have been gradually staying with you less and less and you are essentially going to bed on your own and staying asleep all night. You are such a big boy!

 You have found a lot of places you like to sit that seem to be just the right height including the lowest refrigerator shelf and the bottom stair.  We haven't had to use the baby gate at the bottom of the stairs lately. The novelty of climbing the stairs has worn off and you are becoming quite the listener.

 You copy what we say (or at least the last word of a sentence) and are starting to express yourself more. You can sign more and please and all done and know what they mean. You also say what sounds like "Hi, there" "dada" and "mama" as well as "nana" "uh oh" "all done" "more" and I'm sure some others that I can't remember.

I recently taught you to tickle other people and you love it when we laugh in response. You bring me your shoes to put them on in the mornings and can identify your nose, feet, ears, and eyes. You are a smart little boy! You can stack and unstack your cups and nest them together. You love music and have a sweet little singing voice. In the evening you like to spin in circles with your hands raised "praising Jesus."  You like to point your finger and do all the motions to the Wheels on the Bus and the Itsy Bitsy Spider.

You are growing and learning so fast! It is amazing to me how quickly you learn things. You are such a blessing to us and bring us joy every day. My newest nick name for you is "Sweet Thing" and it fits you perfectly.

I love you little guy!