16 Months

Wow, I didn't post anything in a full month! Just pitiful! I'm working on getting caught up, but my Christmas post is just holding me up. But to keep from getting further behind, I'm going to at least keep up with the Pooh posts!

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Oh how I love this little boy! He cracks me up every single day! He has fully discovered how much fun it is to "ruin" my Winnie the Pooh pics! He sits patiently in front of Pooh just until I get the camera in focus. Then he flings himself back against Pooh, and wiggles off the couch, laughing hysterically the whole time. He's done this past months, but never with the enthusiasm I saw this month. So this month's pic is not uniform with the other pics. It drives this type A personality just short of cuckoo, but gotta take what I can get, right?

Seriously, how cute is this kid??


His official 16 Month Pooh pic




~New this month~

My boy is a secret teether! All month I've been watching his 5th tooth coming in. He was a little fussy at the beginning of the month and I attributed it to the tooth, knowing that based on how the 1st 4 came in, it wouldn't pop through for several weeks. It literally cut through the day he turned 16 months. But that same day I was holding him and he was laughing with his head back and I noticed he had something on the side of his upper left jaw. Color me shocked to discover it was a tooth! A molar to be exact! He skipped right over teeth 6-12!! So he's not only a slow teether, he's an out of order teether. He's also working on a molar on the bottom left. Nothing on the right though. So weird. No idea when it came in either. He doesn't really let you look in his mouth much, so who knows how long it's been there!

He's talking so much more. He's trying to repeat words when you ask him to. He's still not very clear and doesn't repeat the whole word, but I'm excited he's trying. For example if you ask him to say "Bob", he says "Baaaah". Actually most of what he says sounds alike but you can tell he's making an effort. He babbles more and more though. He's very adamant about what he's trying to tell you. Too bad we have no idea what's he's saying!

He's signing more and more too. He picks them up much quicker now too. He really only needs to see them 3 or 4 times and he's got it. You can tell he's proud of it, cuz he'll make sure you notice what he's doing. In particular, he really likes to sign "butterfly" and "dog" now.

To supplement his words and signs, he's developed a complex "grunting" system. It's really hard to explain, but basically he says "hmmmmm" but with about 15 different inflections. There's an inquisitive "hmmmmm", an affirmative "hmmmmm", an assertive "hmmmmm", a no "hmmmmm", an anxious "hmmmmm", etc. While I'd love him to use his words & signs more, I can usually understand most of what he wants. I'm probably the only one that can understand him though. The only time it's not acceptable is when he starts to get cranky and then there's a whiney one. We're working on asking nicely in those situations.

Still loves his video. His "sign" for video used to be one finger up in the air, because he got used to us saying "Okay, just one more." He also got into a bad habit of coming over and pulling your hand off the mouse and insisting on one video anytime you are at the computer. So to avoid this rude behavior, I insist he nicely asks to be picked up. (Reaches up with both arms and then says please) We're still working on being okay with Mom & Dad saying no at times. He seems to think that if he asks nicely enough, he should get anything he wants!

Austin loves to dance now. When I was pregnant with him, I would joke that he was going to be a "River Dancer". Funny enough, this is kind of how he dances! He stomps his feet over and over while and claps and bounces. He loves it when you join along. A video of this will hopefully be coming soon.

His problem solving skills are expanding in leaps and bounds! He loves his puzzles, nesting boxes and shape sorters. And it's amazing to see his improvement from day to day! His hand-eye coordination is getting better too. He has this toy where he has to hit balls through holes with a mallet. Man, does he whack the crap out of them! He can hit with either hand pretty darn accurately now. And of course, we need to cheer every time he does so! The boy does love affirmation! I'm hoping to get some video of his new toys skills but every time I pull out the camera, he gets distracted and just wants to play with it. I need to secretly record him!

Austin learned how to get off our bed and is horribly proud of himself when he does so. He lands on his feet about 1/2 the time. The other 1/2 he just sort of falls off towards his feet. Either way, he expects you to clap for him! He's usually giggling the whole time he's getting off too.

I think he's in the process of dropping to one nap, but I'm not really sure. He'll go several days without being able to settle down for his morning nap, but then just when I think it's completely gone, he'll take a 3 hour morning nap! These kids really need manuals!

His uncle Jemery will be really happy to learn that Austin is learning how to do "fist bumps"!

He loves it when Daddy comes home. He sometimes recognizes the sound of his car but when he hears a key in the door, he drops whatever he's doing and runs yelling toward the front door. What a wonderful way to be greeted after a hard day's work!