16 Months

Height: 32.5 inches (74th percentile)
Weight: 25 pounds 4 ounces (53rd percentile)

Toddlers sure are fast! Watching Ryan run makes me giggle every time. This month he has been developing his vocabulary and his climbing skills. It's usually very easy to tell what exactly Ryan wants. When his cup is empty he holds it up for a refill, when he needs a paci he points to his crib, when he eats my secret stash of Thin Mints he gives a big chocolatey grin and offers me one. Since these things are fairly easy for us to figure out Jake and i have just been automatically responding without thinking to ask him to *tell* us what he wants. So this month we have been working on words. He has no problem responding to our words (jump, go get, sit, stand, spin, etc) but he also prefers charades to actually talking. He still responds Yes or No by shaking his head and pointing. We have been pretending like we don't know what he wants until he tries to say it and we've made a little progress. He now says a few words such as "up, water, cookie, candy, ball, down, outside, go, paci, uh-oh" He can also identify (but not say) all the basic body parts.

For some reason i was under the impression that toddlers entertain themselves quite a bit. This couldn't be farther from the truth. Sixteen-month-olds crave constant attention. Either that or i'm raising a sociopath. They also have the attention span of a gnat. Or at least i find this to be true whenever i want him to do something like clean up his toys. Today he dumped out a bucket full of shapesorter toys. I asked him to help me clean them up, so he picked two up and put them in the bucket, gave himself a HUGE round of applause, then turned around and knocked a tower of blocks all across the room. Sometimes he'll start walking into the other room to get something , get distracted along the way and completely forget his original mission...ok so maybe that part is inherited.

I can't remember the last time Peanut let me rock him to sleep. Most nights we just say our prayers, sing some lullabies and rock for a couple of minutes before i put him down and he rolls around his crib talking and singing until he falls asleep. His by-the-clock sleep schedule has changed a lot too. Now he will wake up anywhere from 7am-9:30am and his nap will be a more broad range, starting anywhere from 11:30am to 2pm depending on when he woke up and how grumpy he is. While the flexibility is sometimes helpful, it does make planning things difficult. Little monkey still loves being outside more than anything, so it's convenient that we're having a 70 degree "winter" this year. He won't keep sunglasses on so Jake gave him an old hat that fits perfectly to keep the sun out of his eyes. He has become more affectionate and has such a silly sense of humor. Which means he also knows how to get whatever he wants. Look closely at the first picture...we went outside in the rain that day. We missed a lot of Gymboree last month and the past 2 weeks he has been very clingy and non-participatory in the classes, yet his separation anxiety has diminished in every other setting. What's up with that?

Dr. Ryan Bolton

Giving Mama a shot

Uncle Phillip before his morning coffee

As Uncle Jefferey would say, "How you doin'?"

I see something troubling on that x-ray...

Just kidding!

It's been a long day saving lives but somebody's gotta do it...

Aunt Kristyn is it 'Take Your Nephew to Work' day yet?

Grandmommy are you ready for your B12 shot? This might pinch a little.

I'll just give myself a shot like Papa did, what could go wrong??

Now to practice that winning Doctor smile

15 Months

Height: 32 inches (72nd percentile)
Weight: ~25 pounds (55th percentile)

Little Peanut had a BIG Christmas! He had so much celebrating to do and was spoiled rotten. He has been enjoying all his gifts and certainly has no shortage of things to play with. My house is so over-run with Ryan's toddler things that i'm starting to feel cramped...

Ryan wants to help Mama and Dada do *everything*, especially cooking. Tonight while i was cooking spaghetti he ran in the other room and found his little toy kitchen spoon and brought it back to help me stir the pot. He also "helps" with laundry, dishes and sweeping. And by help i mean he throws all the clean dishes and clothes on the floor. He is generally very happy and pleasant, but toddler temper tantrums are not scarce. When he gets mad or doesn't want to do something he throws his arms down by his side and tenses all his muscles (so you can't pick him up) and squeals. Last night it was because he wasn't done playing in the bathtub and this morning because he'd rather be naked than wear clothes. I'm a little worried he's going to join one of those nudist colonies.

Monkey has also discovered the joy of climbing. Yesterday he was out of my sight for less than a minute and i realized it was suddenly too quiet...he had climbed in a chair and then onto the table and was sitting in the middle of the table giggling and dumping half a salt shaker all over the place. That was yesterday. This morning we again discovered him on the table but this time he was dancing on it. I've heard several accounts of toddlers this age being picky eaters or refusing food, but we have absolutely had no problems with that yet. Ryan will eat just about anything and everything and eats every 2 hours when he's awake. For example: yesterday he had a pre-breakfast of 2 cups of milk, a whole banana and cheerios. Then for brunch he had a handful of blueberries, 5 strawberries, 2 mini-waffles with peanut butter, and a cheese omelet. He ate ALL of that in a span of about 3 hours. He's either going through a growth spurt or it's because of all the calories he burns running and climbing all the time...he doesn't seem to be gaining any more weight.

We have missed 4 weeks of Gymboree classes due to all the holidays and i feel bad that Ryan doesn't get much time around other kids. He's moving up to the 16-22 month old class next week so i hope he likes the older kids. He does seem to prefer hanging with the older crowd. He follows Lucas around like a puppy dog and tries to do whatever Lucas does. Yesterday we met Ally and Lucas for lunch and Lucas showed Ryan how to pick his nose, which of course he does all the time now. Thanks Lucas! :) We then went to the playground and Ryan tried to climb up and go down the same things as Lucas. Monkey see, monkey do? Ryan is also babbling like crazy and saying all kinds of "words" and phrases that sound like he's talking to you (rather than just baby babble) but it's all gibberish. He still has his core words: Mama, Dada, outside, bye-bye and now repeats several things such as "Bad baby" when he's done something wrong, "uh-oh" "Kroger" "a ride" "go go go" "cookie" and "macy" (which we think might be him trying to say Monkey?) He also performs for animal crackers now. As in "Throw the diaper in the trashcan and you can have a cookie" It works like a charm. :)

14 Months

Height: 31.5 inches (70th percentile)
Weight: 24.3 pounds (52nd percentile)

Toddlers are soooooo much fun. And a lot of work. Exhausting, playful, whiny, silly, defiant, loving...these are all words i would use to describe Ryan on any given day. His absolute favorite thing has to be "outside". I must have heard that word at least a hundred times today. So out we went. Peanut went shrieking (NOT streaking, but he would have loved that too) down the driveway and jumped in a pile of leaves, he was so excited! He walked to Jenn's house all by himself, with only a slight detour here and there to play with Christmas decorations. We also took him on a ride in his car and he pointed out birds and bats and cars and dogs. Interestingly enough he totally ignores all the Christmas lights, apparently birds and bats are much more interesting.

Toddlers are also messy, and this story is not for the faint of heart. The other night i had just put Ryan in the bath when....he pooped in the tub. I called for Jake to come clean it up while i wrangled a wet, naked Monkey. Jake got the tub drained and cleaned and i started filling it back up, but in the meantime Jake had tried to flush the paper towels down the toilet...and it overflowed. So while Ryan was on his second bath Jake cleaned up and disinfected the whole bathroom. That's when Ryan pooped in the tub AGAIN. I quickly pulled him out and set him on the bathmat and started draining the tub, and when i turned around he had pooped in the FLOOR! I finally got the tub cleaned out, and the third bath lasted about 5 minutes and i slapped a diaper on that butt before his feet even touched the floor. You would think this is the absolute worst poop story i could have, but it definitely is not. :P

Ryan's vocabulary is beginning to grow, and mostly by mimicking so be careful what you say. The first mimic word we heard was "Kroger", but we only heard it for one day. He now mimics "Yay!" while throwing his hands up in the air, "Uh-oh" (and we hear that one a LOT), and several others but i can't think of them right now. He has made two 'sentences': "Dada outside" and "Mama bye-bye". He says "mama bye-bye" when i leave for work and he watches out the window as i drive out of sight. Well yesterday the UPS truck visited our house and he watched it drive away. After it was completely out of sight he said "Mama bye-bye!" Peanut also loves to play chase and peek-a-boo. Running down the hall shrieking with laughter is now a common occurrence :)

The best part of having a 14 month old is that his minion training is coming along nicely. He responds to requests (Give me a kiss, pick up the book, bonk Dada on the head) and is about halfway between destructive and helpful. I think he has a touch of OCD like his Mama because he has to make sure all doors are closed, but that really comes in helpful when i need the fridge door closed since i forget to do it myself. He will stack blocks to build a tower but a second later knock it down and leave blocks scattered across the floor. He's learning to throw and kick a ball, can walk backwards, and is showing a preference of using his left hand to color (although the books say final hand preference will not appear until after the age of 2). The little monkey can climb all over the place and i'm pretty sure he's part superhero because he has some crazy superhuman strength. At the very least he could beat me at arm wrestling.