Fifteen Months Already?!

Wow! Fifteen months old...Ben's looking more like a little boy than a baby every day. I think he looks about TWO in this picture:

At his 15-month check-up, he weighed 23 pounds (25th %-ile) and was 31inches tall (75%-ile). He also had to get MORE shots, including his flu shot....let's hope this winter is as healthy as last year! Ben's tried a few new foods and was actually a great eater....for about 2 weeks. Now he's back to semi-picky: ham, cheese, yogurt, pasta and fruit are still the mainstays of his diet. Oh, and how could I forget Cheerios?!

Sleeping is going still going pretty well. He started waking at 5:30, 5:15 a.m. for a few days and had me worried (soooooo early!), but I think it was just due to some (MORE) teeth coming in. He has 12 now with more on the way. Check 'em out!My "baby" got his first big boo-boo this month when he lost his balance and hit his lip on the open dishwasher :( There was blood everywhere, and we weren't sure at first if his teeth hadn't come through the bottom lip, but fortunately, that wasn't the case. A cold popsicle and crushed ice dried those tears up pretty fast, but it took about 2 weeks for the four gashes on his lip to heal.

Lately, Ben loves trying on our shoes. He will play forever just putting his feet in them or carrying them around. He's also saying a few more words. Uh-oh is a favorite lately (everything's an Uh-Oh!!), and yellow and flower ("Fla-la"). His most-used word is "Up", which means Up, Out, Down, and In right now, ha ha ha! He's also getting good at pointing at body parts. He can point to four or five, with Bellybutton being a favorite that he's trying to say the word for ("Bay bay")....he's got a cute one, for sure!

It's a SIGN!

For months on end now, we have been teaching Ben sign language. It's supposed to help babies communicate sooner and therefore eliminate frustration on everyone's part. Just here in the past month, he has started to use the signs when prompted. He can "say" More, All Done, Milk, Bath, and Eat. Typically, he will use the signs when he grunts or whines and we remind him to sign.

A few days ago, we had a breakthrough, though!!! We were all eating dinner, except Ben because he had eaten earlier since it was going to be a late one. He was running around playing and going in and out of our room (connected to the master bath where he takes a bath every night). He kept peeping out, so we assumed he was playing Peek-A-Boo, and started playing along with him. He then walked right over to Mark (the main bath-giver) and rubbed his tummy (very close to the sign for BATH), right out of the blue! We were so excited and could NOT believe he was using his signs, unprompted, to ask for a bath!! This was also proof to me that he knows "the routine" at night, and likes sticking to it.

Here he is, all cozy in his Halloween jammies after a bath :)

Special Saturday

A week or so ago, Mark went to a UT game with some friends, so Ben and I spent the whole Saturday just hanging out together ~ Mommy and Me Time! It was a rainy day (sorry Mark - not so good for football!), so we stayed in our pajamas 'til after lunch and cuddled a lot....Mama was in heaven!!

What else did we do? Hmmmmm....Ben managed to pour himself some Cheerios while I was looking away for two seconds!

Lately, Ben's been pretty attached to Mama. Here's what I see all the time, as Ben wants me to pick him up constantly!!!

Favorite toy of the day: a leftover cat toy from when I had my cat China. Ben found it in a basket and carried it around all day!! Hey, who needs "real" toys when you've got cat toys and diapers?!