15 months

It's hard to believe our son is 15 months old.  So much has changed in such a short amount of time that it's hard to keep up.  Josh gets a daily report of all the new things Zach has learned or ways he is changing.  It seems he's always doing something fun and exciting!

Gross Motor

• loves to walk backwards and makes a game of it. :) Sometimes he walks backwards in a circle and really lights up with a smile!  
• Zach is not afraid of hills- going up or coming down.  He is certainly not afraid of falling.  He has taken some spills that have ended in short bouts of tears, but has learned from these times. 
• jumping was a big deal last month, but this month not so much.  He likes to bounce and dance, but we haven't been doing much jumping lately.

Fine Motor

• Zach's been skilled at picking up small things for quite awhile.  
• His newest skill is drawing/coloring/scribbling.  We have crayons for the tub, sidewalk chalk for outside and crayons for paper.  He enjoys small chunks of drawing time.
• he continues to love to unscrew bottle caps or to open small boxes..

Communication

• expressive language- we've certainly seen a jump in Zach's sign language and his repeating what we say (word approximations, really)
• signs: milk, eat, water, shoe
• receptive language- woah, this kid is really smart!  He's able to bring items to us if we ask for them (phones, shoes, ball). 
• articulation-  umm, does anyone notice my baby's perfect FRONTAL LISP?!?!  it's hilarious to me and I am only bothered just a teensy bit.  He figured out how to stick out his tongue and make sound.  I guess it's cute.  :)

Personality

• fun, fun, fun! (notice he helps me with chores)
• curious- he loves to explore new environments and new toys.  
• determined- if he wants something, he will work very hard to get it.
• loud- screaming for fun continues :)
• affectionate- we receive multiple hugs a day; he loves to hug friends his size.  he even *swoon* puts his face on my cheek for a 'kiss' <3

Food

• drop in eating this month- sometimes he wants to eat, sometimes he just plays with it and/or throws it on the floor 
• 2 more teeth came in on the top for a total of 6 teeth
• still drinking mommy milk from a bottle about 3 times a day [I'm anti-sippy cup. It's the speech therapist in me.]
• drinks water from a straw cup and loves a smoothie too
• drinks from an open cup when we're around to supervise.  sometimes I do let him take a shot glass with an ounce of water and do it himself.  he loves this. ;)

Sleep

•  we are in a transition stage between 1 and 2 naps.  this can be challenging for both of us.  
• if he misses his 1st nap, then he usually takes an earlier 2nd nap around 11 or 11:30.  he may sleep ~1 hour, which is really not long enough for only one nap a day.
• if he takes a morning nap (9:30-10:30), then he can go till ~ 2 and sleeps till 3:30 or so.  
• STTN like a champ.  usually down by 7:30 and up by 6:30am.  

*****Update ********

Favorite books- Eric Carle, The Very Busy Spider

Good Night Moon

Prayers for Children, Golden Books

this sparkle bee book- he loves it when we say Bzzzz, Bzzzz

flap books

Zachary John, we adore you.  We love you.  We think you hung the moon.  It is a privilege to be your Mommy and Dada and we love everything about who you were made to be.