~119~ Ladies and Gentlemen, We Have a Walker in the House!

It's official. 

My little boy is an independent walker.

He's been showing signs of being close for about 3 weeks now, but just wasn't quite daring enough to take those steps on his own. Previously, he easily cruised the furniture or with a walker, just not completely on his own.  Last Friday, he took 1 or 2 steps, but as of last Monday, he's full.on.walking!

We had Ethan's 15 month appointment on Wednesday. As usual, he's small, but growing normally.

Weight: 19.1 LBs (10%ile)

Height: 28.5 Inches (1%)

Eating Habits: 

Ethan is quite the eater! He loves any and (almost) all food! His favorites are avocado, chicken, bananas, raspberries, and grapes. Honestly though, he loves all fruit and eats it like candy. I'll take it. He's even pretty good about eating vegetables. For the most part, Jake and I try to eat pretty clean and healthy because Ethan eats what we eat (I'm not a short-order cook!). As a result, I think this has helped make Ethan a well-rounded eater; for now at least.  He has also taken to share his food and will often offer us (or the dogs) bites. It's pretty dark cute!

He completely dropped all nursings except first thing in morning, even when he eats a real breakfast. I'm okay with that. I savor our cuddle time in the morning.

Words: 
Mama

Dada or Da.

Yes or Yeah.

I was a bit concerned that his language skills haven't quite taken off yet. Although he "talks" quite frequently, he doesn't have a very large vocabulary-yet.  I talked with our speech-language pathologist at school because yes, I'm that mom, and she reassured me that it's not a concern until he's 2, at which the standard marker is 50 words.  

Favorite Activities: 

Putting pegs into the side of his tool box. He's gotten quite good at this and will line them all up across the side. Occasionally he'll have a hard time getting one in, gets frustrated, and will throw a mini-tantrum, but watching him keep trying and get it makes me a proud mom!

Going for rides in his wagon. He loves it and is all smiles!

Climbing on his big-boy chair and looking out the window. He especially loves to do this when daddy is out mowing and he can watch him. 

Playing with and ripping paper. I don't know why, but he loves to do this. He also occasionally likes to "eat" it and I have to go fishing pieces out of his mouth. 

Splashing in his water table. I got Ethan a water table on sale at Target last month and we've already used it a couple of times. Although he can't really use the toys on it quite yet, he loves splashing in the water and throwing the balls around. 

Drinking out of Glasses. We always have to watch our glasses because Ethan loves to steal them and take drinks of his own. This has resulted in him dousing himself with water a couple of times!

Least Favorite Activities:
Diaper changes.  Mostly it's that he doesn't like having to lay still for that long.

Being told, "no". And boy does he have an attitude when you do. He sure does have a temper when he doesn't get his way. We are working on ignoring and praising good listening and positive behavior.

In other news,
School is officially out and I'm home for the summer. 11 weeks or 77 days to be exact! I'm so excited for spending some extra quality time with my little guy.  I have us signed up for a few different story-times at local libraries, and I'm sure we'll spend some time at the pool.  I was hoping to get him in a Mommy&Me Music Class, but I missed the boat on our local one and anything else was just too expensive. Oh well, there's always next summer!

We also took Ethan to the zoo for the first time last weekend with my parents and best friend, Lauren. He wasn't all that excited about the animals, but he did spend some time watching them. I think he liked the polar bear the best!