Dear Henry: Fifteen Months

Now that I'm a mom, I know how much these months actually matter. Before I'd think "why do these ladies need to say their kid's age in months after a year?" So now I'm that mom considering whether I should tell the grocery clerk my kid is 15 months or almost a year and a half.

Dear Henry,

At 15 months, it seems like so much is skyrocketing in your world. Your mobility, dexterity, vocabulary, and growth - heck, you grew TWO INCHES in three months. Your walk is often a run, which is both adorable and scary. One night you slammed straight into the door jam after bath; ouch!

You're getting so strong and are pretty fearless, so you now pull yourself on to the kitchen chairs and sometimes attempt to get on the table. We've taught you that's not okay, but there's no doubt you'll push the limits down the road.

One of my favorite things is the way you take your fork with two hands and really focus to try and get a small piece of food. If you can't do it with your fork, you'll often want mine to get a better spear. I also love how you like to say all the animal noises you can . You've learned now that shaking your head left to right is no, but you don't seem too fond of nodding yes, even though I'm trying to teach you to use that too.

You're still doing great with sign language and it's often a life saver when you're upset. Your go-to signs are: milk, please, all done, more, help, eat, drink, alligator &owl (we have an animal sign book)

I'll be honest that I'm sort of done with nursing. I have been slowly weaning you, but also don't want to totally upset you, so it's a balance. It has been great, very sweet and I feel so lucky that it was a fairly easy thing for us, but 15 months in, I am just feeling a bit tired of it at times.

As you're figuring out what you like in this world, you're also letting us know what you don't like. And you definitely don't like being told no at times. Tantrums are rough. And for a while, you were slapping me in the face, which was less than pleasant, but we started ignoring it and then talked to you later about how mom likes to be touched gently and that seemed to stop that.

LIKES

• Animal books
• Dancing
• Climbing on chairs
• Nursing w/ your baby dolls
• Peek-a-boo
• Carbs
• Eating apples by yourself
• Practicing walking on your tippy toes
• Favorite book: From Head to Toe by Eric Carle

DISLIKES

• Getting face wiped
• Having diaper changed (has become a real struggle again)
• Not getting what you want

FIRSTS

• Being watched by someone other than my mom or good friend Lindsey. Pete and I took our first bike date in quite a while and hit the road for almost 20 miles on Sunday on what turned out to be a gorgeous, 80 degree day. You handled it well for the most part. Only one little breakdown. 
• I'll be adding a few more shifts a week at the running store, so you'll start hanging out with the sitter, which will be good, but hard for both of us at first.

WORDS

• mama/dada
• dog
• ball
• grandma/grandpa
• clock
• jeans
• please
• mmm

GROWTH 

• 26lb 6oz (91st percentile)
• 33.5" tall (99th percentile)
• Teeth: you have 12 total, including the first four molars, which were really rough. Plenty of crankiness and crying on those days and weeks they were coming through.

SLEEP

• You usually wake up once a night and nurse. We are working on getting you weaned off night nursing, but something always comes up that makes it really hard (sickness or teething). Dad can get you back to sleep, but you typically wake up again 15 minutes later crying if you don't nurse.
• Naps now are usually just once a day for ~2 hrs. I dropped your second nap a few weeks ago because you were just playing in your crib most days even when you seemed tired. 

What I think has surprised me most about this age is that as independent and mobile as you are, you are still very clingy somedays. When you wake up early (6:00/6:30 am), I typically have to carry you around for the first 45 minutes while I make my coffee, get some food, water, etc. because you simply do NOT like to be put down. You will cry hard if I put you down to say pour my coffee water or spread PB on toast. Same goes for days that your teeth or who knows what, are bothering you. Ugh. 

We love you little guy. Each age is so fun, but this stage has been a blast. You are always watching and absorbing things around you.

Love you lots, 

mom