Hey there, this month is flying by! I realized it’s been awhile since my last post, things have been busy lately! Last week, Henry turned fifteen months old and so I thought it would a great time to do a little update on what he’s been up to lately! Even though I don’t necessarily miss doing his monthly updates, the nice thing was that they did keep me accountable for writing down all the new things he was doing. But after he reached the big milestone of turning one, I feel like I haven’t been as on top of keeping track of all the funny things he’s doing right now, and there are so many! I know I’m going to blink and he’ll be two, and I’ll regret not writing down more. So I thought that doing periodic check-ins like this might help 🙂
Henry is so much fun these days, I’m really loving this age! He’s becoming so independent and really funny, and he just has the best little personality. Some days he seems like such a big boy, and then other times he still seems so small. He can be very friendly and outgoing, but then sometimes he’ll be more reserved and like to sit back and observe. He’s very curious and wants to know how things work, but he also loves to laugh. He’s full of energy and pretty strong-willed; if he doesn’t like something, he lets you know! He’s still such a cuddler though and very loving, and overall just has a really sweet disposition. I’m so thankful I get to spend my days with him!
Here’s some more detail on what he’s up to at 15 months…
Stats:
At his 15 month well check up last week, Henry weighed 24 lbs 12 oz (80th percentile) and he’s 31.5 inches tall (70th percentile). Although I’m not sure his height was super accurate because he was in a mood and did NOT want to stay still to get measured, ha! (He was also in the 99th percentile for head circumference! #babygenius) He has been holding strong with four teeth for the past few months but he’s finally getting a few more in! He has at least two molars and another tooth coming in on the top (and possibly some more on the bottom) but it’s hard for me to tell because he HATES when I try and look in his mouth. But thankfully the teething hasn’t affected him too much because I didn’t even realize he had teeth coming in until the doctor said something!
Health:
Overall, Henry is a healthy boy and we’re so thankful for that. But cold season has been tough on us and he’s come down with quite a few over the past few months, including getting brochiolitis in January. I have him out around other kids pretty frequently and I know it’s par for the course, but it’s still frustrating. He’s had a pretty gnarly cold the week before last, but thankfully is better now. The week before that, he had a stomach bug which luckily only lasted about 24 hours. But he did really throw up for the first time (well, a few times…blech) and so he was a pretty shaken up by that. I’m looking forward to warmer temps, more time outside, and hopefully less of this swapping germs back and forth with all of his baby friends!
Likes:
The boy is OBSESSED with books! He loves grabbing them off the shelves in his room, and we read morning, noon, and night. He’ll even sit by himself and read and it’s pretty much the cutest thing ever. He loves being chased, he thinks it’s the funniest thing ever. He really likes climbing on furniture, specifically our end table (which he uses to get on the couch) as well as climbing into the rocker in his room and the chairs in our family room. There are a couple fun museums in Portland that we have passes to and he seems to like going to those. He loves the park and he really likes music! He also loves brushing his teeth, as well as watching Cam and I brush our teeth 🙂 He’s also still totally obsessed with anything with wheels! He loves all his toy cars/trucks at home, but anytime we’re out, if there is a wheel of any sort anywhere around, he will find it! This includes the steering wheel on the jungle gym at the playground as well as random peoples’ stroller wheels/bike wheels. He has loved wheels for awhile and I thought it might just be a phase, but it looks like it’s here to stay. He just loves turning them and watching them go round and round!
Dislikes:
Basically, he just really doesn’t like anytime that he wants to do something and I don’t let him do it. So that’s caused some meltdowns, but he usually gets over it relatively quickly. Sometimes, he really hates having his diaper changed, and then other times he’s fine with it. He’s usually OK with going in his car seat, but sometimes, he’ll randomly get really upset about it. He’s also had some mild separation anxiety when he goes into the nursery at church, but that seems to be improving thankfully!
Basically, he just really doesn’t like anytime that he wants to do something and I don’t let him do it. So that’s caused some meltdowns, but he usually gets over it relatively quickly. Sometimes, he really hates having his diaper changed, and then other times he’s fine with it. He’s usually OK with going in his car seat, but sometimes, he’ll randomly get really upset about it. He’s also had some mild separation anxiety when he goes into the nursery at church, but that seems to be improving thankfully!
Wears:
He still fits in to some of his 12-18 month stuff, but is mainly wearing 18-24 month things these days. I’m still loving Old Navy for cute yet budget-friendly clothes, but the Hanna Andersson pajamas are our favs! He’s still in size 4 diapers, but I think we may switch to 5’s soon. I still love the Honest diapers, but have recently been using Huggies as well. Henry was starting to soak through his Honest diapers at night, and so I decided to try the Huggies Overnights. (I know Honest just started making overnight diapers too, but I decided to try the Huggies since they were a little more economical) He’s been doing so great the past year using Honest so I was worried about how his skin would react to a new brand…but it turns out his bum is not quite as sensitive as I thought and he’s been doing just fine with them! I still plan to use Honest during the day, but recently Henry has really not been wanting to get his diaper changed, and so I actually got some of these Little Movers Diaper Pants because they just slip on like underwear, which is much easier to deal with when he doesn’t want to lay down on his changing pad.
Eats:
Ever since Henry turned a year, eating has been a little bit more of a struggle. He used to happily try whatever we’d set in front of him, but the past couple months he’s been much more picky. Although I have to keep reminding myself not to label him as a “picky eater” already, because after all he is only 15 months old! A lot of what we’re going through is just normal toddler behavior where he’s trying to exert his independence and test boundaries, so I don’t want to start calling him a picky eater and have it become a self-fulfilling prophecy situation. But these days, he does pretty much refuse to eat anything that resembles meat or vegetables, so I’ve had to be creative about how to work those in to his diet. I’m hoping to do a separate post with some of our favorite recipes, but basically we’ve been doing a lot of quesadillas, smoothies, and various healthy things baked in a mini muffin tin. It’s frustrating because often I’ll make him something one day that he’ll completely devour and then the next day, he won’t touch it. Pretty much the only things he consistently loves are fruit, sweet potato, pancakes, oatmeal, yogurt, cheese, and anything made of carbs aka Cheerios, crackers, bread, etc. I’ll admit, I get a little frazzled when he won’t seem to eat anything and keeps throwing all his food on the floor, but then he’ll have days where he’ll eat really well. According to our pediatrician, that’s all normal for this age and so I try not to stress about it too much, especially since he’s staying right on his growth curve. We did completely stop nursing last month, and he loves drinking whole cow’s milk out of his straw cup! I’m thankful that weaning was an easy transition for us both 🙂
Sleep:
As frustrating as eating can be some days, I really can’t complain because Henry is still an awesome sleeper! He usually goes to bed around 8-8:30pm and wakes up between 8-8:30am. His bedtime is a little later than some other kids his age, but since we usually don’t have anywhere to be before 9:30 in the morning, putting him down later and having him wake up later definitely works better for us and he seems fine with it! We don’t do any super complex bedtime routine either; he gets a bath (usually only every other day though because otherwise I think his skin gets too dry. Plus, giving him a bath just adds one extra thing to do in the evening and that’s way too annoying to do every day), we brush his teeth, go up to his room, change diaper/put on pjs/sleep sack, and read a couple short books. Then he goes in his crib, we turn on his humidifier and his sound machine, and we don’t hear from him until the next morning. He is down to one nap and since we usually have activities in the morning, most days he goes down around 1pm. He’ll pretty consistently take around a two hour nap, but occasionally he’ll go closer to three hours, which is really nice. He is almost always in his crib with his sleep sack on for his nap, because car naps are no bueno and I haven’t had much luck transferring him to his crib from the car. (He will still nap in his stroller though if we’re out and about traveling!)
Favorite Things:
I did a post last month about our favorite things from the past few months, and we’re still loving everything I mentioned, as well as things from my past favorites posts. As for other toys, some of his current favorites are this car track, these magnets, this 4-wheeler, these types of balls, and this little iPad thing. And then he has lots of favorite books but I think I might do a separate post on those 🙂
Things I Want to Remember:
-He’s becoming really vocal, makes tons of different sounds, and loves to mimic us. As far as words, his favorite (by far) is NO. He says it constantly. It’s his response to every question, even when he wants something…ha! He also says Mama (and mom too, which is funny) all the time, along with Dada. He says Lola sometimes, and tries to say other things like banana and ball.
–We’re working on learning body parts and animal sounds, and while he’s not quite there yet, I think it won’t be too long before he has those figured out.
-He loves to grab a book, bring it over to us, and get in our lap to read, which I hope he always wants to do! He’s obsessed with lift the flap books and one of his favorites is “Where’s Spot?” You lift the different flaps to see if Spot is behind different things and instead, there’s a different animal there with a word bubble that says ‘no.’ When we read it and say things like “Is Spot behind the door?” and Henry loves to lift the flap and say “Noooooo!” It’s pretty cute 🙂
-Although he’s always been really cuddly, he was never one to really give kisses/hugs until recently. He’ll give his stuffed animals kisses and he gives me kisses when I ask for them, which is the best 🙂
-He loves to point at things and people and he’s really dramatic about it sometimes. He puts his whole body into it and looks like he’s trying to cast a spell or something…ha.
-He really likes to share with adults and hand objects to them. When we were at the Children’s Museum this weekend, he kept picking up random things and would go up to all different parents and hand them things. (And luckily people are always pretty nice about it and act like they’re excited…ha)
-He loves taking a napkin and putting it over his face so we’ll ask “Where’s Henry?” And sometimes he makes us wait a long time before he’ll pull down the napkin with a big grin on his face.
-He loves shaking his head from side to side and laughing, especially if we start to do it too.
-He likes when I sing songs with motions like Wheels on the Bus or Pat-a-cake.
-If we tell him not to do something and he doesn’t listen and we say it more sternly, he’ll usually start crying. Sometimes I think he does genuinely feel bad and gets sad if he thinks we’re unhappy with him, and then other times, I’m pretty sure he’s just fake crying because he’s fine literally two seconds later.
-If he doesn’t want to do something, he totally goes limp noodle on me and will collapse to the floor if I try to stand him back up. Super fun when we’re out in public.
-Sometimes he and Lola will really play together and it’s pretty cute. He’s figuring out how to throw her toy for her (although most of the time he just takes it from her when she brings it back to him and then I throw it) and I think they’ll have even more fun this summer as he gets bigger.
-He eats a banana pretty much every morning without fail and he still gets super excited about it.
-If he spots my phone, the baby monitor, or the remote, he tries to grab them and run off with them and he’s totally fascinated by these three things.
-If he’s doing something that he knows he’s not supposed to be doing (like running in the bathroom to play by the toilet – so gross) and I go after him and say “What are you doing?” he erupts into a fit of laughter and thinks it’s hilarious.
-Even though we usually save TV for after he goes to bed because we try not to let him have too much screen time, sometimes we’ll have the TV on during the weekends and he’ll lay on the couch with Cam and I and just veg out and watch a show with us and I kind of love that.
-He’s always so happy (and usually jumping up and down in his sleep sack) after he wakes up in the morning or from his nap when Cam or I go to get him out of his crib. Lately he’s been doing this thing where as soon as I come in his room, he’ll flop back down and pretend he’s asleep. And then when I say “Oh I guess Henry is still sleeping!” then he’ll pop back up with a big grin.
-He’s becoming really vocal, makes tons of different sounds, and loves to mimic us. As far as words, his favorite (by far) is NO. He says it constantly. It’s his response to every question, even when he wants something…ha! He also says Mama (and mom too, which is funny) all the time, along with Dada. He says Lola sometimes, and tries to say other things like banana and ball.
–We’re working on learning body parts and animal sounds, and while he’s not quite there yet, I think it won’t be too long before he has those figured out.
-He loves to grab a book, bring it over to us, and get in our lap to read, which I hope he always wants to do! He’s obsessed with lift the flap books and one of his favorites is “Where’s Spot?” You lift the different flaps to see if Spot is behind different things and instead, there’s a different animal there with a word bubble that says ‘no.’ When we read it and say things like “Is Spot behind the door?” and Henry loves to lift the flap and say “Noooooo!” It’s pretty cute 🙂
-Although he’s always been really cuddly, he was never one to really give kisses/hugs until recently. He’ll give his stuffed animals kisses and he gives me kisses when I ask for them, which is the best 🙂
-He loves to point at things and people and he’s really dramatic about it sometimes. He puts his whole body into it and looks like he’s trying to cast a spell or something…ha.
-He really likes to share with adults and hand objects to them. When we were at the Children’s Museum this weekend, he kept picking up random things and would go up to all different parents and hand them things. (And luckily people are always pretty nice about it and act like they’re excited…ha)
-He loves taking a napkin and putting it over his face so we’ll ask “Where’s Henry?” And sometimes he makes us wait a long time before he’ll pull down the napkin with a big grin on his face.
-He loves shaking his head from side to side and laughing, especially if we start to do it too.
-He likes when I sing songs with motions like Wheels on the Bus or Pat-a-cake.
-If we tell him not to do something and he doesn’t listen and we say it more sternly, he’ll usually start crying. Sometimes I think he does genuinely feel bad and gets sad if he thinks we’re unhappy with him, and then other times, I’m pretty sure he’s just fake crying because he’s fine literally two seconds later.
-If he doesn’t want to do something, he totally goes limp noodle on me and will collapse to the floor if I try to stand him back up. Super fun when we’re out in public.
-Sometimes he and Lola will really play together and it’s pretty cute. He’s figuring out how to throw her toy for her (although most of the time he just takes it from her when she brings it back to him and then I throw it) and I think they’ll have even more fun this summer as he gets bigger.
-He eats a banana pretty much every morning without fail and he still gets super excited about it.
-If he spots my phone, the baby monitor, or the remote, he tries to grab them and run off with them and he’s totally fascinated by these three things.
-If he’s doing something that he knows he’s not supposed to be doing (like running in the bathroom to play by the toilet – so gross) and I go after him and say “What are you doing?” he erupts into a fit of laughter and thinks it’s hilarious.
-Even though we usually save TV for after he goes to bed because we try not to let him have too much screen time, sometimes we’ll have the TV on during the weekends and he’ll lay on the couch with Cam and I and just veg out and watch a show with us and I kind of love that.
-He’s always so happy (and usually jumping up and down in his sleep sack) after he wakes up in the morning or from his nap when Cam or I go to get him out of his crib. Lately he’s been doing this thing where as soon as I come in his room, he’ll flop back down and pretend he’s asleep. And then when I say “Oh I guess Henry is still sleeping!” then he’ll pop back up with a big grin.
I could go on and on listing things but basically he’s just the best. While this age definitely has it’s challenges, namely that he has a lot of big emotions and opinions but a very limited vocabulary with which to express himself, overall, it’s just so cool to watch him turn into his own little person! I’m looking forward to the next few months (and hopefully enjoying warmer, less rainy weather!) with him!