15 months

Fall is here already and our toddler is now a big 15 month old! Our little man is slowly but surely gaining confidence in his walking skills and walks from one large object (couch, person, etc) to another large object all the time. When we walk together he prefers now to just hold on to one of our fingers. So, he can definitely walk, but loves the security of having us nearby.

Ethan is also quite the babbler these days! At current count he can say 9 words: dog (da), duck (also da), mama (very seldom but when he says it I just melt!), dada/daddy (by far his favorite word), grandpa (da-da), grandma (na-na), nap (bamp), cracker, (something with a "ck" sound), and blankie. He can sign "more" and "all done" and wave "hi" and "bye." He has tried out a variety of other words as well - donkey, water, hi, and papa but those aren't too consistent yet. He can also tell us what a sheep, horse and lion all sound like (something that still never gets old!). Oh and he can "sneeze" too.

And of course he continues to keep on growing! When we took him to the pediatrician in Minnesota he weighed in at 31 pounds. Whoa. No wonder most of his clothes are either 2T or 24 month in size! So far he has 4 top teeth and 4 bottom teeth but he is definitely in the process of teething at least one (if not more) molars.

Our days are very active. He loves to cruise all over the house and our stairs have become a particular favorite. He giggles a lot, and loves to read his books out loud. He is a little scientist - testing out all sorts of new discoveries in our house and worms his way into the tiniest little spaces behind chairs and in our closets. We go for a long walk almost every day and try to get to the park where his favorite thing to do is still SWING! He likes to walk with us hand in hand, leading the way to check out whatever has currently peaked his curiosity.

He is starting to test his boundaries a little bit now and definitely makes his opinion known (i.e. a lot of "resistance" when leaving the park).

He is growing up. We sure love our boy!