15 month checkup!

We just got back from Eli's 15 month checkup! I was a little worried when we got there, because he was in FULL crankster mood since he hadn't taken a nap in the morning. (We went to a minor league baseball game last night with our work friends and didn't get home til 11pm! Poor little guy slept til 8:50 this morning!!! At the game, he had great fun running up and down and up and down and up and down the steps.... trying to run into the ladies room....trying to get into the service elevator and dancing for everyone). But he ended up only throwing a fit for the assistant (the one who makes him take off his diaper and...gasp...lie down on the scale..the horror!) and turned into a little dancing maniac for Dr. Grant. He's now 31 1/4 inches tall, placing him in the 52nd percentile for height, and 21 lbs, keeping him in the 8th percentile. The doc said she was really worried last time about his weight cause he plummeted from the 50th percentile to the 8th... but now that he stayed at the 8th again, she's fine with it. I told her again that both Mike and I were skinny little kids, so again, she's not worried. Becky has renamed Eli "Slim Jim." :) I don't think he looks particularly skinny except for the fact that 9 month old shorts are still falling off him. He's wearing 12-18 month shirts, but 6-9 month pants. :) It's going to be tough for us in the winter, I think, because the size pants that fit him are going to be too short. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, though. :)

The doc also said he's very social and friendly for 15 months. (That was after Eli brought her his book and tried to crawl up in his lap!). :) I could have told her that... this is still the kid that wants everyone to look at him and has no fear of strangers. He wants to make friends wherever he goes. :)

Yesterday, he started HUGGING me when I asked him for a hug. I know this one is going to be short lived, but boy is it fun while it lasts!!!

Yesterday he also ate with a fork for the first time. I couldn't get him to eat his tofu at all (I coat it in bread crumbs .... which he loooves), but then I made a great show out of stabbing it with his fork and he was allll about it then. I was so excited.... but then he started taking his tofu off the fork and throwing it. Lovely. I also got hit in the head with more peas than I cared to count. But he ate at least five of them, so I considered it a victory. Anyone have any veggie tips? We seem to be on a veggie strike these days. I used to hide them in his yogurt, but now he's only eating 1/2 of his yogurt. On our meat strike days, it seems to work if I wrap it up in rice (lol... is he telling me he wants sushi?).

We're heading to Ocean City from Sunday to Sunday and I'm suuuuper excited. We'll get to do everything we didn't have time for last time, I hope. :)

15 months old!!!

Today, my little guy is 15 months old. 15 months! I was just looking back at pictures of when Eli was just learning to crawl and it boggles my mind to think that there was a time when he couldn't get around like he does now. This kid is EVERYWHERE. Two days ago, he learned how to climb the pole for his basketball hoop. That's right. Climb it. He can now get up and down from the sofa with ease and using chairs as barriers doesn't work anymore. Because he's gotten taller, he can now reach a lot of things we put on counters and the kitchen table.... and when he can't get to something he really wants, he's learned that he can bring a book or box over and climb up on it to make him taller. He learned yesterday how to take all of the clothes out of his hamper, take the hamper apart, and then drag it out of the room. His great joy today involved trying to get things to land in the kitty litter boxes. So as you can see, we're pretty busy around here.

He's really starting to get his point across and make his needs known. When he wants me to read a book, he'll bring it over to me and push me away from whatever I'm doing until I sit down and read it to him. When he wants something opened, he brings it to me. When I say "time for a diaper change," he knows instantly that that is when he's supposed to throw the biggest fit of all time. He wakes up in the morning saying "baba" cause he wants his bottle. Throughout the day, he's constantly saying (er...screaming...) "otter" to let me know he wants his water. When he puts something he's not supposed to have in his mouth, he comes over to me with the biggest grin you've ever seen. Today, when he was getting restless inside, he started yelling "outside! outside!!!! (sounds like aught-sigh). He can say Hi and Bye on cue and knows that he's super cute when he adds a wave.

he's really taken a liking to his stuffed animals. When I was at my mom's house, I found my old tickle me elmo (that my friends had given me for my 16th or 17th birthday!) and he LOVES it. He didn't really know much about the sesame street gang until then... now he LOVES elmo ("ana"). He has one elmo book and will sit with it for a good 5 minutes... constantly saying "ana" on each page. Tonight, when he was getting ready for bed, I told him in an Elmo voice "Hi Eli!" (wide eyes). "Can I have a kiss?" and he GAVE HIM A KISS! Same thing with the hug. The cutest thing. Ever.

In an effort to remember his cute little words, I'm going to try and remember all of the words he can now say.... (P.S. I am NOT writing this to freak out those of you who have kids who aren't saying much. They're NOT supposed to yet... this kid is just freakin verbal.... it's going to be rough when he's 2!).

Clearly: Hi, Bye, Up, down, duck, moo, baa, mama, dada, daddy, neigh, lolo, lola, tita, apple, no

Words that I can understand: Ana (elmo), otter (water), atsite (outside), baba (bottle), owain (airplane), bapde (tractor, truck), bapdu (bathtub), ite (light), da da dee (teddy bear), nana (grandma), appaju (applesauce), sa (sock), shhh (shoe), shar (shark), naaa (more), iye (riley), deder (dexter), ba (box)...and much to my dismay.... mama (banana).

Yesterday was our 3rd wedding anniversary and since mike had the day off, we took eli to the bronx zoo. I've lived here for 8 years and FINALLY made it to the zoo! Eli was SUPER excited to see the animals this time. His vision is really good - he was able to spot them all - even the snow leopard who was hiding. It was so much more fun bringing him knowing that he could actually see what we were there to see. What I thought was hysterical was when we got to the sections with the deer, he kept yelling NEIGH... NEIGH. lol... yup, I guess deer pretty much look like horses to him. I tried to correct him for a while but then gave up - I'm sure the people around me thought I was a nut, saying - yes, yes - neigh! lol.

His favorite books this week are the don't let the monkeys jump on the bed book (which I read about 15 times today), Elmo's 12 days of christmas, moo baa la la la and his star wars books. When you read him the star wars book with the spacecrafts, he makes all kinds of arm motions when you're making the sound effects.

OH. One big (frustrating) thing is that he now very clearly can tell us when he does NOT want something. He says "nonononoono" and waves his right hand back and forth. As in... "Eli, do you want green beans?" "nononononono." I have to trick him into eating certain things.... he won't even TRY them if he doesn't like the look of them. sigh. And so it begins. Food battles with toddlers.

He has his 15 month checkup next week... more updates to follow!