Dear Ben,
Happy 15 months, Ben! This month of pictures might have been the hardest one yet! You are showing me your tongue in one of the pictures below, as this was the only way to distract you from the sticker. :) I took the pictures a week or 2 ago, but I am totally late getting this post written this month. I thought I better get caught up before the new year and before you are a 16 month old!
GENERAL: You were 30 inches at your 15 month check-up. You are getting so big! You weighed around 18#13oz at your 15 month appointment, which is approximately what you were last month. However, this is likely because of your surgery, which slowed down your eating. You were SO tough for your surgery. We know you were in a lot of pain, and it was so hard for us to see you like that. This one was harder than the first surgery, and I am hoping the last one is easy! Your tummy is healing SO nicely! You love to show your tummy to everyone and anyone, including strangers in the waiting room of the doctor's office or strangers at the restaurant. It is so cute! I hope you are always so proud and confident! At your surgery follow-up, they weighed you on a big-boy scale instead of the baby scale. That made me sad! You're growing up too fast!
EATING: I will start by saying that I think we are (finally) making some progress. Your surgeon told me that you are doing exceptionally well, and even referred to you as "perfect," which made me feel much better! (Though I already thought you were perfect!) You still love your fruit, but you are getting better at eating a wider variety of things. The foods you are eating most these days are: blueberries, goldfish crackers, fries, string cheese or mozarella whips (once and a while), chips, bananas, blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries. You really like to feed yourself. I would love you to eat some more protein! We're working on transitioning you from formula to whole milk, which is a slow but steady process. You are getting a little bit better with drinking during the day, but you still wake up 1-2 times a night, and we will give you a bottle. Those are your best bottles, so we're have a hard time getting rid of them! I'm sure they will tell us to do that at the feeding clinic appointment next week. Until then, I'll keep giving you the fluid/calories as long as you'll take it! You will drink from a sippy cup, but usually just sips of water here and there.
SLEEPING: Your sleep has been pretty good. It has varied a bit, but you always get up 1-2 times a night. Again, if we didn't give you the bottle, you would probably learn to sleep through the night, but I (we) really don't mind that bottle! Your napping, on the other hand, leaves little to be desired! You are typically taking 1 nap a day, and it is TOUGH to get you down for that one. You do not want to miss anything! You love your pacificer, which you only get while sleeping, but you will gladly give that up any time if it means you can play. You are so spoiled that you even get held for part of your naps sometimes! Not many kids get snuggled for their naps! You are such a little love bug that it is hard to resist the Benji snuggles.
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| You visited Great-Nana for Christmas. You liked the dolls they have there and you tried to steal their nuks! |
FINE/GROSS MOTOR: You are meeting or exceeding all of your developmental milestones, which is especially impressive since you had/have a special tummy to work with. You are ALWAYS on the go. From climbing the couch, your chair, and the stairs, you can find fun anywhere. You also love stacking things up too, and can make a pretty tall tower. You have a toy with wooden pegs, that you love putting in and out of the holes. You are getting better at feeding yourself with a spoon too, though it is quite messy! You love taking baths and playing with all of your bath toys. You would stay in there forever if we let you! We usually make you get out before you start shivering though! One of your favorite things right now is the Christmas tree. You throw your balls at the tree and try to rip of the lights, but for the most part you just point in awe.
COMMUNICATION/COGNITION: You have really starting talking a lot more this month! You are saying: mama, dada, NO, ball, Ra Ra, Nana, Papa, bye, uh-oh, this (which sounds more like "dis!") We love your little voice! You love music too, and if you want us to sing to you, you will start humming. If we stop too soon, you will start humming again. I can't wait until you can sing songs! You love to "sing" "Itsy, Bitsy, Spider" and "Pat-a-cake." We are starting to teach you your letters with your new alphabet puzzle. So far, your favorite letter is the "o" because you think it looks like a ball. That reminds me, you love balls! Anything that is round-- an ornament, an orange, a cheese ball (which I CANNOT believe I bought, but you like them and I like that they have lots of fats), you affectionately refer to as a ball. We are constantly in amazement of all the things you pick up on a daily basis. You like to copy everything we do! If daddy closes the dishwasher with his foot, you want to close the dishwasher with your foot. If we brush our teeth or hair, you want to do these things as well. The same goes for putting on socks and shoes, cleaning, talking on the phone, etc, etc. :) You also like showing us your nose, hair, teeth, tongue, mouth, eyes, ears, eyes, tummy, piggies, and hands. You have the best laugh ever and think that we are pretty hilarious.
Time to continue with our New Year's Eve celebration! We are having a wild night of board games and relaxing, hoping that you sleep through the night, since you only took a 30 minute cat nap in the car today. I (we) love you SO MUCH, big boy!
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