Owen is fifteen months old!

    
   It's hard to believe, but Owen is fifteen months old now. We had a doctor's appointment Monday and the pediatrician was very impressed with Owen's development. He said Owen still needed two naps a day (Thanks, doc. You wanna come try to put him down for an afternoon nap?) and to just keep plugging away when it comes to getting him to eat new foods. He was impressed with the number of words that Owen can say and was really happy that Owen loves being read to. He said that reading to your baby is one of the best things to do for your child to help them developmentally. 
     At the appointment Owen weighted 23 pounds exactly and was measured at 31 inches long. He also got three shots.


Eating:
     Owen is mainly weaned off baby food. I do sometimes slip him a pouch of a veggie/fruit mix if he hasn't been eating many vegetables. For breakfast he normally eats scrambled eggs with turkey sausage or oatmeal with fruit or toast and yogurt. For lunch, he generally eats a sandwich, either ham and cheese or peanut butter with fruit. And for dinner he will eat what we eat for the most part. Getting him to try new things is still a pain because his first reaction to a new food is to spit it out. Our go-to method for getting him to eat a good dinner is to read him a book while we shovel food in because the book distracts him enough that he doesn't think about what he's eating. Obviously we don't want to have to entertain him while he's eating for the rest of his life, but sometimes when we feel there is nothing else to do and we don't want to put him to bed hungry, we'll resort to it. He drinks whole milk with every meal and has water anytime in between. We don't really give him juice or anything else. 


Sleeping:
     Owen is still a champ at sleeping through the night 99.9 percent of the time. He did wake up in the night for several nights this week, but that was because he is getting in a new molar. His naps are a different story. I can't decide whether to move him to one nap a day or to still try two naps a day. He will typically take a good morning nap, but when I try to put him down in the afternoon, he rarely naps at all. If I wait and have him take just one nap a day after lunch, he sometimes will nap for two hours though usually he naps for just as long as he does for his morning naps. Either way, he's still pretty grouchy and tired by about five o'clock to 7:30 when we put him down for the night. Any suggestions? Oh, and as a defense mechanism for his afternoon naps, he will frequently poop and cry until we come get him and change his diaper and then he acts all energetic and happy and won't nap. 


Other Things I Want To Remember:
     Owen wears size 12 months and size 12-18 months clothing. Size 18 months is a little too big for him still. He wears a size 4 shoe and size 3 diapers. 
     Owen has 10.5 teeth now: four in front on top and bottom, two top molars, and a bottom molar that is about halfway through.
     Owen loves being read to. He spends most of the day bringing me books to read to him. He loves The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Pat the Bunny, Fox in Socks, and most books with flaps or other things to manipulate. When he isn't wanting to be read to, Owen likes playing with his shapes sorter and his toy where you put the different shaped rings on the post. He understands now that the different sizes are important and can organize them to fit where they belong. He also loves knocking down stacks of boxes and blocks. 
     Owen loves playing outside and will typically lean against the front door wailing until I take him out on the front porch. The recent heat has been a real bummer. Owen doesn't hate grass anymore and will even walk outside barefoot. He likes playing on his slide and with his water table. The water table has two little plastic people with it and he loves to carry them around wherever he goes. He calls them "boy" and "girl." He enjoys walking around the yard and pointing out flowers and other things. He loves to throw balls through the slats in the front porch and make me retrieve them. 
     Owen is big on the sign language now and can sign: more, please, all done, and milk.
     He has several words that he can say: Mama, Dada, cookie, girl, boy, book, ball, and boo.       He loves to duck behind things and pop up and say boo. Or he will run into our dining room and then peak around the wall and say boo. This generally means he wants one of us to chase him down the hallway into his room. He babbles a lot now and it's really cute to try to guess what he's trying to say. He'll come rushing into the room just talking up a storm like, "Mom, I just saw the coolest thing in my room and I want you to come here right now and look at it!"
     He still high fives, blows kisses, gives kisses, and waves. He is a very quick learner.
     He loves music and will bounce up and down or rock side to side when its playing either on a CD or one of his toys that make music or even during a commercial. Country music tends to get him moving a little more than other genres right now. 
     Owen has lots of little tricks he can do that get him applause and attention. If you are not quick enough in your reaction, he will start clapping as if he's saying, "Okay, now's the part where you clap for me." When we ask him what a cow says, he'll say "Moo." He also can do what a sheep says, but he has refused to do so in the past few days. Based on one of his books, if you ask him what  a penguin does, he will waddle around and when the fish swishes and swims, he will move side to side.  
      Owen is very good with people. He loves church nursery and in the four or five times we've visited churches in the past weeks, he has done really great and not cried once. I think he mainly just wants to play with all the new toys and could care less if we were around. But it's really a blessing that he can be left with them so that we can concentrate on the sermon and in Sunday School. I've always been afraid since we live far from family that Owen would cling to us and have a lot of separation anxiety, but we haven't had to deal with that so far and I'm really happy about it. Also, even though he doesn't get to see his grandparents as much as some kids do, he definitely knows who they are and goes to them willingly even if he hasn't seen them for a long time. 
      Owen is growing and changing by the day. He is learning so much now and we are so grateful to have such a funny and sweet boy.